Viceman Cometh Posted March 4, 2009 Report Share Posted March 4, 2009 The 80s were generally a mild time for lyrical content within popular music. The decade may have given rise to the PMRC, but we are talking about an era when an innocuous phrase like "sugar walls" could set the republic reeling. In short, most lyricists were still using code and veiled references to get across their baser subject matter. So much so, that songs I've listened to for 25 years or more are just starting to reveal their truer nature.Take, for example, "867-5309/Jenny," one of the most popular one-hit wonders of the decade. These lyrics appear in the second verse:I tried to call you beforebut I lost my nerveI tried my imaginationbut I was disturbedFor years, I thought the part about being "disturbed" referred to the narrator's mindset. That he was either too obsessed to concentrate, or suffering from an actual mental ailment that prevented him from thinking clearly. Recently, I revised my thinking. Here's what it actually means:I tried to pleasure myself, but someone walked in on me:radio::radio::radio:And don't even get me started on this little nugget from another one-hit wonder, "Mickey":So come on and give it to me any way you canAny way you want to do itI'll take it like a manIt doesn't take much imagination to see what she's offering up here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger390X Posted March 5, 2009 Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 Yes I remember the lyrical contraversy during that era. Much of it slipped by the sensors and many radio stations would not play a lot of music that was being made in the eighties that had ovious vulgarity etc.I lived in the Golden Horseshoe (Toronto-Hamilton-Niagara) and we had a wonderful radio station called CFNY. It started in a small house in Brampton Ontario and I could barely pick it up in my car radio thirty miles out. They played all kinds of new music and had the mindset of "if you don't like it ... don't listen!Well People tuned in and the station became a phenominon. They moved to new studios and got a bigger power output and a wider audience base. They had the coolest Djs and my favourite was the "Live Earl Jive, and Bevery Hills" in the evenings. They played such good music and stuff you NEVER heard on the commercial stations of the day. They also NEVER BEEPED out profanity. I thought this was so modern and free thinking. You would hear a song on this station a year before you ever heard it on any other commercial station. Music of the eighties also had great lyrical content instead of just the "ooh baby...ooh" that every other pop song has.CFNY was a forward thinking station and a "one of a kind" actually as there was no other like it. Everyone else was playing Van Halen and Bon Jovie etc but This station played rare and intelligent music. I can think of a few songs that had some very riske' content that actually aired without provication that the standard stations would not touch. I remember CFNY got so popular in the late eighties that all of a sudden you would hear some of the playlist on other stations however................with radio edits. (meaning the swearing or bad word(s) would be bleeped out) I found this preposterous as it takes away from artistic content.This goes all the way back to the Rolling Stones and the Ed Sullivan Show where he said you have to change "Blew my load" to "blew my nose" Of course... two completely different meanings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viceman Cometh Posted March 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2009 I thought Sullivan wanted "Let's spend the night together" changed to "spend some time together".At any rate, great story about the small radio station. I fell in love with radio in the early 80s and spent a decade working in it as an adult. But by then deregulation had ruined the business. I've been out of it for five years now.I've been wanting to listen to the streaming audio of Kim Mitchell's afternoon drive show out of Toronto, but I don't have speakers with my computer at work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadrian Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 i think tommy shaw's "girls with guns" (crockett and tubbs drive to the "glades" in said ep.) really fits this thread:Stand tall, don't think smallDon't get your back against the wallShoot straight, I can't waitAim for the heart and fire away (No!)I've come aroundI understand todayAnd she's the target nowI'm gonna have my wayawesome! :)if you've never given it a second thought, please don't think me perverse, but this one seemed pretty obvious to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger390X Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 I've been wanting to listen to the streaming audio of Kim Mitchell's afternoon drive show out of Toronto' date=' but I don't have speakers with my computer at work![/quote']Wow ... an American that knows about our brother Kim?!?!? I'm impressed!I listen every day as I am lucky enough to live in Toronto presently. I have been into Kims music since Highschool ... and I hate to admit when that was!We actually used to speak "Max Webster Talk" in highschool which was merely quotes from lyrics in "High Class in Borrowed Shoes" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viceman Cometh Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 Well, I still have a lot to learn about him, but thanks. My awareness of course didn't even begin until Go for Soda. Years later, my local Mega electronics store had some of his CDs in the racks, so I started with Akimbo Alogo, then moved on to a few others. His stuff from that era is an interesting mix of guitar rock and keyboard/synth technology. I've heard his 2007 album is very good, though done without Pye Dubois writing the lyrics.Another Canadian band (now defunct) that I absolutely love is The Pursuit of Happiness. I've heard Moe Berg is a club DJ in Toronto now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger390X Posted March 10, 2009 Report Share Posted March 10, 2009 Wow...POH made a great song called "I'm an Adult Now"Great pop song for the eighties!There is a lot of breat Canadian music around but sadly we hosers are the only ones hearing it. Rarely do you ever hear Canadian music on the American stations other than Rush or Triumph or maybe the Guess Who. I live at a border town and there are about five American stations all within earshot (tunable on the radio) and they hardly ever play Canadian content.thank goodness for the CRTC making Canadina stations play Canadian artists.Now the internet has opened up a whole new audinece, beit worldwide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadrian Posted March 13, 2009 Report Share Posted March 13, 2009 anyone remember this one from the The Police?:When I feel lonely hereDon't waste my time with tearsI run 'Deep Throat' againIt ran for years and yearsDon't like the food I eatThe cans are running outSame food for years and yearsI hate the food I eatWhen the world is running downYou make the best of what's still aroundWhen the world is running downYou make the best of what's still around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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