Sunday, September 13, 2009

Reminiscing the Pretty in Pink Era

Just watched Pretty in Pink, the excellent John Hughes movie, and it made me want to revisit that era. I wish I'd seen that movie at the time, as I would have completely related to the teenage angst, the class struggle aspects, and especially the sitting alone and listening to the Smiths and feeling miserable parts. We're talking about 1985-1986, that is the end of the new wave, cold wave, post-punk era. Most of those kind of bands (except the Cure and U2, of course) had reached their expiry date by then, but some of them were lucky enough to have one good last gasp in them, and that's what I'm going to share with you now! There's some nice videos on YouTube that I hadn't seen at the time.

Let's start with the Psychedelic Furs then. Even though Pretty in Pink the movie was released in 1986, the eponymous single dates all the way back to 1981, so it would be cheating to post it here today, and besides, you, i.e., the knowledgeable EasyTV fan and musicologist, already know that song all too well! Instead, let's check out their very good single from 1984, Heaven, from their Mirror Moves album:



Another band that by 1985 had been around for a long time, with various line-up changes, is Ultravox. Here's their single from around that time, with a video guaranteed to give you a chill:



(the above single in from 1984, I think. There will be many more shows about the year 1984, as it was a pretty pivotal year for me, personally and musically speaking)

For whatever reason, critics usually don't like Killing Joke. But here's a single from 1985 that really turned me on to the whole scene (yep, I was too young to know that stuff before then!): (embedding the original video was disabled, so here's a live version instead)



Alright, that's it for today! Whether you loved or hated the show, please leave your comments, or at least take the little vote that I've added at the bottom of each post! 'later!

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