You know, when we talk about Old School all the time, we think of anything on
the Black hand side, right? Well, that may be the case, but sometimes you have
to give a nod to the grooves that didn’t have to be melanin-infused.
When I starting putting together this Old School Wednesday, my thought was to
put together something I was going to call The 80s British Invasion. The more I started listening
and picking, spinning, and reflecting, I started to realize that hey, back
then there may have been a melanin influence everywhere we walked, but
we can’t fake it – we know we heard these tunes, and as much as some of us hate
to admit it- we vibed to ’em on the regular. We listened to these and never told anyone how cool these songs were. The only time we dared speak of these tunes were when our friends were around
and they proclaimed them to be cool. The fact that they were even played by
our radio stations were a definite plus.
There were other ones also, back when we were in high school and college, that
we heard and we nodded to, because we loved ’em. We couldn’t deny it. These tunes were performed by,
as I remember them being referred to back then, people who were ‘short on melanin
but heavy on groove’. Nod your heads, ladies and gentlemen:
Old
School Wednesday: Euro Groovin’ Volume I: On the Light Hand Side.
There’s only one song on this radio.blog where all the members were Black. I’ll
let you figure out which one.
01 – "Situation" by Yaz. The precursor to Alison Moyet and
Erasure.
02 – "Take On Me" by a-ha. Norway in the house.
03 – "One Thing Leads to Another" by The Fixx.
04 – "The Reflex" by Duran Duran. You know, a playlist with
nothing but Duran Duran would be very cool. Any takers?
05 – "It’s My Life" by Talk Talk. They were all over the place
with their music, but this one was played prominently when I was in high school. Just ask No Doubt/Gwen Stefani.
06 – "Owner of A Lonely Heart" by Yes, produced by Trevor Horn,
who also produced:
07 – "Close (to the Edit)" by The Art Of Noise.
08 – "Perfect Way" by Scritti Politti.
09 – "Be Near Me" by ABC. What’s your reputation? Ecstacy.
10 – "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama, one of the plentiful Stock
Aiken Waterman tracks that was so prevalent in the 80s. They also produced:
11 – "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. I believe they
called him the blue-eyed soulster.
12 – "Hanging on A String (Contemplating)" by Loose Ends.
13 – "Digging Your Scene" by Blow Monkeys. The background vocals
alone were infectious.
14 – "Things Will Only Get Better" by Howard Jones
15 – "Call Me" by Go West. One of my favorite duos.
Groove on. You know you want to.
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