Now, On to 1983!!!

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For some reason we had a German thing going in the early 80s “new wave” music scene. There was “Der Kommissar” by Falco (who was Austrian), covered by After the Fire. Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom (Coming Home)” had, as its B-side, the song in German. And then there was Nena, who had the hit with “99 Luftballons.” MTV would play both the German version and the English rendition, “99 Red Balloons.” All of that was 40 years ago now!! And, sit down kiddies, there was a time when (a) not every cable system had MTV (prompting the “I want my MTV” call that Sting sang at the beginning of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”) and (b) MTV actually played music videos!!!! I’m pretty sure some of you real young people think those of us who claim that are just senile old people. Anyway, I’ve been celebrating getting older since April (when I actually got older) by looking back at songs from 60 and 50 years ago. Now it’s time to go back “just” 40 years. As you’ll see, the music was still wide open, with everything from pop to hardcore country to new wave to plain ol’ rock and roll. It was a great time for “new wave,” though, and that’ll take up quite a bit of the month’s song list. Among the things that are now 40 years old that will NOT make an appearance: Stevie Ray Vaughan’s debut Texas Flood and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. My, how time flies. As I’ve said throughout the countdowns, the purpose is more to show the “staying power” and longevity of great music than it is to make you feel old. When the month turns to June I’ll kick the “way back machine” over to 1983. Meanwhile, here’s that great Nena song (the German version) that came from 1983.