Tag: The 1980s

Friday Night Rock-Out: “How Soon is Now?”

I recently found myself in the so-called “green room” of a TV studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, waiting to be interviewed about a book-reading I was doing that week. The interview was to air live on a local current events show, and another guest waiting for his spot was a musician for a band called The Molly Ringwalds. He was friendly and very smart, and we began to chat (I did so to relieve my nervousness; he was just being nice). 

In the course of conversation, he explained that The Molly Ringwalds (as I should have guessed, but didn’t) is an 1980s tribute band that covers all kinds of hits from that by-gone era, which I also love. I asked him if they did any songs by The Smiths, and he said they did.

“Which one?” I asked.

“‘How Soon is Now?’ What else?”

What else, indeed. “How Soon is Now?” is not only The Smiths’ greatest song, it’s one of the greatest rock songs ever. It’s also one of the most complicated. From its famous guitar overture, warbling and full of dark menace, to its anguished lyrics by the brilliant Morrisey, “How Soon is Now?” is both a dance song and a dirge. It’s also a cry of rebellion against conformity, prejudice, and alienation.

Since it first hit the clubs in 1985, the song has been taken up as an anthem by the LGBTQ community, and rightly so. But I think it resonates equally well with any introvert, outcast, or general freak who just, well…needs to be loved.  

At least, it did for me. Still does.

Rock on…

Friday Night Rock-Out

In some ways, Missing Persons was the ultimate west coast 80s band. With their heavy synth sound and propulsive drum beats, they were a band that could make you think and make you dance. Plus, I simply loved Dale Bozzio. Not just your average bottle-blonde space-age sex-kitten with a plexiglass bustier, Bozzio could really sing. And her baby-doll, hiccuping style was tempered with just enough knowing irony to make you realize how cool she was. In fact, she presaged another super-smart front-girl from a decade later, Shirley Manson of Garbage.

My favorite Missing Persons song is “Destination Unknown”. Ah, how true.

Enjoy!

Friday Day Night Rock-Out

When I was in college in the 80s, there was only one dance club in town that didn’t play the usual top 40 pop music. It was a little joint called My Friend’s Place, and it wasn’t actually in town, but rather out in the county between Gainesville and Hawthorn. We called it MFP, and every Friday and Saturday night around 10:00 we would make the long drive down Hawthorn Road to where alone sodium lamp marked the entrance. MFP was really just an old warehouse that some enterprising folks had converted into a club, and the dance floor wasn’t much bigger than a squash court. But my friends and I whiled away countless hours doing our best Alt-Rock dance moves, (weight on the heels, shoulders tilted back, smug expression on the face, arms doing the wavy thing down by the waist, etc.; ahhhh, it was great). The Smiths, The Cure, The Violent Femmes, ABC, XTC, Killing Joke, The English Beat and even a little U2 were blended into the mix by the unseen DJ.

It was an important era in my life, and the most iconic song from it was Lips Like Sugar by Echo and the Bunnymen. The Bunnymen were so cool, so slick, so melodic, and so dark that they weren’t just a Great Alt-Rock Band. They were a Great Alt-Rock Band’s Great Alt-Rock Band. I think that Lips like Sugar, along with The Smith’s How Soon is Now, are the two greatest songs of the genre.

Anyway, Happy Friday, and rock on…