On January 3, 1983 Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii began what seemed to be a fairly routine eruption. It wasn't anything that caught the attention of the world's media like Mount Saint Helen's or Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. There were no spectacular explosions or wide spread devastation from thick ash falls. There was virtually no ash at all. What there was was lava. At first in the form of a fountain or geyser and then, as the years passed (yes, that's YEARS) the lava took on what vulcanologist call an "effusive" character where it simply oozes out of various vents and flows downhill. While it occasionally still produces geyser-like outbursts its been basically oozing lava continuously now for 28 years expanding the landmass of the Big Island by 2 square kilometers in the process.

The entire Korean War lasted a little over 3 years. The most well-known tv show to use it as a subject, M*A*S*H, lasted 11. Nobody seemed to care though and it's likely that if the creators of the show had decided to bring it back for a 12th season it would have remained a ratings monster. But they didn't. Instead what we got was the mother of all finales. A 2 1/2 hour tv movie entitely "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", (the title itself seeming to exhibit a certain degree uncertainty if viewed through the Shakespearean prism: "(thou) doth protest too much, methinks").

The show was directed by Alan Alda and, like much of the series itself, was heavy on the melodrama and light on the comedy. A 30 second advertisement broadcast during the show cost $450,000 (nearly a million in 2011 dollars) and the show wound up being the most watched television broadcast in American history drawing a reported 121 million viewers (even surpassing the "Who Shot JR?" episode of "Dallas").

I have to admit up front that much of Journey's music I can live without just fine but the clarity, range, subtlety and power of Steve Perry's vocal on this track caught my ear the first time I heard it and has never really let me go. On "Faithfully" Perry gives the kind of performance that separates an artist from the pack and turns what could have been just another song about how hard it is to be rich and famous into a bonafide classic that pretty much set the standard for all power ballads right to this day.

Though Talking Heads came out of the 70s punk scene in New York they were anything but slash and burn Sex Pistols types. From the beginning there was something different about them. Unlike a lot of punk-rock types David Byrne looked like he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag and probably spent his Sunday's at the library. For some reason though the contradictory image worked to Talking Heads advantage as a lot of people who appreciated punks desire to wipe the slate clean but couldn't embrace its "any day's a good day to overdose" ethos found refuge in the band's somewhat nerdy public image and experimental musicality.

By the time of the release of 1983's "Speaking in Tongues" Talking Heads had become firmly established as America's favorite alternative band. If you were in college at the time owning several Talking Heads albums was practically required. Still, they lacked that breakthrough hit that would deliver them the mountaintop. That situation finally changed with the release of the single "Burning Down the House". The song, buttressed by an appropriately quirky video in heavy rotation on MTV, reached the top 10 in both the US and Canada. The song evolved from a studio jam which, when it reached a satisfactory point, was given over to Byrne to write lyrics for. He employed the tactic of finding phrasal rhythms that matched the song's structure and then finding words that fit the phrasing. The result is a song that is hard to pin down. What exactly is it about? There is no 'subject' really. It's about music, kind of like the way that dreaming is about life.

Update: RIP Moses Malone. A true basketball legend. 

He came right out of high school to become one of the most dominant big men in NBA history. A rebounding machine he once grabbed 37 boards in a single game and holds the league record for offensive rebounds in a career. In 1981 he averaged 31 points and nearly 15 rebounds a game, led the Houston Rockets to the NBA finals and was declared the league MVP for the second time. Following the 1982 season the Rockets traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers and Moses Malone finally found a place where all the pieces came together.

Teamed with the legendary Dr J and all-stars Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Tony and Bobby Jones the Sixers tore through the regular season like a blender through mango winding up with 65 wins and Malone won his third MVP award. He predicted the Sixers would go "four, four, four" in the playoffs (meaning they'd sweep each of the series they'd play in) and win it all. He wasn't far off as the team lost only one game in the second round to go "four, five, four". It was one of the most dominating seasons in NBA history and none of it would have been possible without Moses, who would go on to play another 12 years in the league and ultimately be named one of the NBA's 50 greatest players.

As much as he was a part of the daily sports discourse during the 80's Malone pretty effective disappeared after retiring. So what's he doing these days?

Well, unlike a lot of sports stars who squander the riches that come their way and wind up hard luck stories on the news, Malone lives happily and quite comfortably these days just outside of Houston Texas. "What am I doing? I'm doing nothing, just relaxing and enjoying life. I did 21 years of hard labor in the NBA, invested my money right, so I'm set. I earned the right to relax and enjoy, you know?" He isn't without his opinion of current NBA players either "I bet if I came out (of retirement) I could still be one of the top five centers in the league ain't that something? There are just so few centers left!" Amen.

Left: Moses Malone and Dr J hold the 1983 NBA championship trophy. Right: Moses today.

"A Christmas Story" (1983) seemed to come out of nowhere to become an instant holiday classic. Its story of the nerdy kid with the (gently) overbearing dad and doting mother set in postwar middle America rang a bell with an entire generation of baby boomers. Its starred Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon (of Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and a nerdy blonde kid named Peter Billingsly as "Ralphie". He was perfect for the role showing remarkable range while retaining a sense of childish wonder at the events going on around him. Though he had been acting in commercials for years he was basically an unknown. After A Christmas Story went on to gather such a huge following it only seemed natural that Ralphie would be someone with a bright future in Hollywood. Instead though he seemed to kind of fade away. While he still showed up in the occasional TV show episode he never really had that big adult hit that would have cemented his place in Hollywood. Or so it seemed.

So what became of Ralphie?

Well when his acting career didn't take off Billingsley moved behind the camera (once he grew up of course). He's become a successful TV producer receiving an Emmy nomination for the 2001 IFC channel film "Dinner for Five" and he even served as a executive producer of "Iron Man" which was directed by his friend Jon Favreau. Most recently he directed the hit comedy movie "Couples Retreat".

Peter Billingsley as "Ralphie" (left) in "A Christmas Story" and in a recent photo

Sally Ride aboard the Shuttle Challenger

On June 18, 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she blasted off from Cape Canaveral on board the Space Shuttle Challenger. She was 32 at the time, which also made her the youngest American ever to go into space.

Born in Encino California in 1951 she became a nationally ranked tennis player before shifting her focus to physics, a field in which she earned a PhD. Her astronaut career began inauspiciously when she answered an ad NASA had placed in the newspaper looking for people to join the space program. Chosen out of 8,000 applicants she joined NASA in 1978. In addition to her 1983 flight she returned to space in 1984 and was in training for a third space flight when the Challenger disaster brought the Shuttle program to a halt in 1986. She served on the Presidential commission that investigated that accident and later also served on the commission that investigated the breakup of the Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

She is currently head of Sally Ride Science a company that creates science programs and publications for teenagers in order to promote their interest in science.

He was already a huge star. He'd been front-man for the Jackson 5 for well over a decade, his 1979 solo album "Off the Wall" had sold 8 million copies and he enjoyed worldwide popularity. How could it get any better? How could he get any bigger?

Well, if you were watching TV on May 16,1983 the answer came in the the form of the Motown 25th Anniversary show. At the end of a Jackson 5 reunion set the rest of the family exited the stage and Michael launched into Billie Jean which, at the time, was the #1 song in America. The crowd came to its feet and Michael delivered a performance for the ages. Sure he was lip-synching but who cared? His charisma was undeniable and those dance moves were insane! During the bridge he debuted the "Moonwalk" and the crowd shrieked with delight. It would go on to become his signature move, the album Billie Jean came from (that would be "Thriller" if you've been hiding under a rock for the past 3 decades) would go on to become the best-selling album of all time and he would go on to become the undisputed biggest star in the world, based in no small part on his performance that night.

History in the making: Michael performs Billie Jean on Motown 25.

Launched by NASA on March 2, 1972 Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt beyond Mars and then the first to visit Jupiter. After its encounter with the gas giant Pioneer crossed the orbit of Saturn in 1976 and several years later that of Uranus.

Then, on June 13, 1983 Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the solar system. No data has been received from the spacecraft since 2003 but its still there moving steadily outward toward the constellation Taurus where it is expected to arrive in about 2,000,000 years.

The little spaceship that could (left) and its slightly naughty informational plaque ("We're here. We're naked. Let's talk.")

He hadn't had a hit for several years and, after the frantic pace that he'd released records during the 70s, a lot of people were wondering if he hadn't just burnt out completely. Elton himself was wondering what he had to do to generate some chart action and decided to go back to basics. He reunited his orginal band and began writing with Bernie Taupin again. The result was the 1983 album "Too Low For Zero". The first single "I'm Still Standing" was a proclamation to the world that it was too early to write him off, and indeed the albums's second single "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" returned Elton John to the top of the charts and brought him into the brave new world of the music business via a hit video on MTV.

Personally this song (which features Stevie Wonder on harmonica) is one of my all time favorite Elton John songs.

The fourth single released from Cindi Lauper's monster hit album "She's So Unusual", All Through the Night is, in my opinion, the best song Cindi has ever done. I don't care about whatever chart position it may have achieved or whether it sold a million copies as a single. I just love this song.

The New York Yacht Club had held the America's Cup for 132 years. Nobody else in the world seemed capable or (maybe more accurately) interested in mounting a viable challenge. So every few years the NYYC would trot out this captain or that helming this boat or that and, yawn, they'd win the Cup, again.

That all changed in 1983 however. Alan Bond arrived in New York towing behind him a boat called Australia II which sported a winged keel that got the blue blood knickers at the NYYC in a right twist. They attempted to first have the boat disqualified because of the keel and when they were unsuccessful with that they tried to claim that the boat hadn't been built in Australia as the "Deed of Gift" required. That tack too was unsuccessful and the race was on.

Australia II proved to be everything the hypesters had claimed as it sailed (so to speak) through the challenger series without breaking a sweat. This set up a finals showdown with Dennis Conner in Liberty. No slouch himself Conner managed to go up 3-1 on the Aussie boat before they (the Aussies) got a few problems straightened out and came back to win the final 3 races and take the Cup 4-3, in the process bringing to an end the longest winning streak in sports history. The specter of someone besides NYYC taking the cup had created an unprecedented swell of popular interest in the races. In other words Dennis Conner had taken a pie in the face in front of the whole world and he was not about to forget it.

But none of that would change the fact that for one day in 1983 the Aussies ruled the sailing world.

There were music videos before "Beat It" and music videos after Beat It and they are not the same thing. And for that you can credit Michael Jackson entirely. He had the song, he had the idea for a certain kind of video and, after CBS records declined to finance it, he had to put up the money himself; all $150,000 dollars of it, an unheard of amount of money for a music video in 1983. He hired Bob Giraldi to direct it, Michael Peters to choreograph it and shot it on the mean streets of Los Angeles using actual members of the Bloods and Crips as extras.

Peters choreography reached back to stage productions of earlier times to create an ensemble that alternately moved in sync with Jackson and swirled around him. It's a formula that Jackson repeated for "Thriller" (again choreographed by Peters) and many subsequent videos and has become the dominant template for most any large budget music video of today. If you don't believe that watch Beat It and then take a good look at Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video, "Circus" by Britney Spears or "Run the World" by Beyonce to cite just a few of Beat It's descendants.

Let's not forget that there is also a kick-*#s song at work here. Beat It was one of those rare fusions of different musical genres that actually worked, and worked spectacularly, owing in large part to Eddie Van Halen's now legendary contribution on guitar (which he did for free). The song won MJ two of his eight Grammy Awards in 1984, was one of the driving forces behind the otherworldly success of the album "Thriller" and went platinum as a single as well.

Michael Jackson - Beat It




Michael Jackson homepage

The humble but lovable Swatch watch (the name was taken from the marketing concept: the Second Watch, like the second car) was first introduced in Switzerland in 1983. Originally concepted as a way to produce a standard watch using plastic (and therefore driving down the cost and reclaim some market share from the Japanese) the development process was taken over by a marketing consultant named Franz Sprecher whose big idea was to create a complete brand around these plastic watches and to market them as a fun fashion accessory.

His idea was a hit. Millions and millions of Swatches were sold. Young people began wearing them two and even three at at time like bangles. Some girls wore them in their hair.

The Swatch Group (the company that makes the Swatch) could see the writing on the wall however and realized that the fad surrounding their product would fizzle out one day so right from the start they looked at ways to diversify their product line and moved into the aquistion market with a vengence.

Today The Swatch Group owns Tiffany and Co, Longines, Calvin Klein, Pierre Balmain and many other luxury brands and are themselves one of the most recongnizable brands in the world. They also continue to manufacture the product that got them off the ground: the humble Swatch watch.

Classic Swatch Watches of the 80s. Gimme two!

Madonna's been popular as long as I've been alive. That's pretty incredible. Most sources credit her with being the most successful solo act in the history of music. Not bad for a middle class girl from Michigan.

Madonna exploded on the scene in the early 80s and to tell the truth if I have to pick the songs of hers that are my personal favorites I go all the way back to those early singles. "Lucky Star" is probably my most favorite of all her songs. It's great dance music and in the video she looks so young but still brimming with confidence. You can see that, even early on, she knew she was going places. And her fashion sense, OMG! She looks like what I imagine Marilyn Monroe would look like if she got caught in a wind tunnel and then mugged by a group of aerobic class rejects :)

But I love me some Madonna. And I love me some "Lucky Star", so here it is.

For a couple of years in the mid 80s he was frontman for one of the most successful pop groups in the world: The Thompson Twins. Videos for their hits "Sister of Mercy", "King for a Day" and especially 1983's "Hold Me Now" were MTV staples. Yeah, Tom Bailey had it all: good looks, hit records and millions of adoring fans. He also had a nervous breakdown when the band were at the height of their career which forced them to cancel a UK tour. Bailey thankfully recovered but the band's reputation never seemed to regain it's legs. They broke up in 1993.


These days Bailey lives in England (or France depending on who you believe) and is the leader of dub band International Observer which has released 4 albums to mixed reviews.  He also collaborates with visual artist José Francisco Salgado in the quasi-scientific audiovisual ensemble, The Bailey-Salgado Project or BSP.

Development of the CD has it's roots way back in the 1950s when scientists began developing laserdisc technology of which the CD is a spinoff (no pun intended). A boatload of technical considerations had to be addressed and problems overcome before it could be made into something marketable to a mass audience but by 1981 Sony and Philips Electronics were finally ready to launch what they envisioned as the successor the the vinyl recording. It became that alright and a whole lot more.

March 2, 1983 is often seen as the "Big Bang" of the digital music revolution because on that day CBS Records released 16 titles on CD in the US, an event timed to coincide with the release of the first CD players in the US market.

Gradually throughout the mid and late 80s CDs began to nudge aside LPs on record store shelves. 1985 saw the first million selling music CD, Dire Straits Brothers In Arms. The same year David Bowie released his entire catalog on CD, (the first popular music artist to do so). Also in 1985 Sony and Philips released the first CD-ROMs which would blossom into the digital storage device of choice for the next 2 decades.

The transition from vinyl to CD is one of the major popular culture developments of the 1980s as it signaled an unmistakable break with the past matched only perhaps by the leap from radio to television that occurred in the years after World War II. By the end of the decade CDs were everywhere and if you were still listening to music on vinyl or cassette tape you just didn't get it. A decade that began with living rooms crammed with stacks of scratched and warped vinyl records moldering away in cardboard sleeves ended with neat little CD racks full of digital music. The turntable became a museum item and the amplifier, such a mainstay of 1970s audiophile culture, just faded into memory.

Okay Paris has chimed in with two outstanding pop songs so I feel the need to post one of my own just to show her she's not the nazz when it comes to 80s pop.

My selection is a little ditty from one David Jones: aka David Bowie. You might remember him from such 70s gems as "Stay" and "Changes". Well he made it to the 80s intact and gives us this cautionary tale about embracing the illusion that is consumer culture. At least I think that's what the video is about. The song itself is considerably less didactic. It strikes a down home funky groove from the get go and ends with a brief but stirring guitar solo by none other than Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bowie tried to get SRV to appear in the video but he had moved on to other things and wasn't interested, so Bowie acts as if it's him playing. Nice try Mr. Jones. I'll give him a mulligan on that though. I think he's earned it.

Most great bands seem to have a shelf life of about 10 years before they start repeating themselves and/or otherwise lose interest. The Stones made it about about 20 before they began their decline into a full-fledged multinational corporation. This was their last gasp and what a last gasp. A full 3 years before U2s 'Bullet The Blue Sky' it dared to go where no one wanted to go (South America - Land of the right-wing death squads as Bono would later discover) and managed to offend plenty of sensitive types in the process. It's a churnin', burnin' mess of a groove and the first real movie-style music video; predating 'Thriller' by a couple of years. Directed by Julien Temple.

Link to the full video: Rolling Stones - Undercover of the night 1983

No 21st century fakers composing 'songs' out of tape loops, autotune and stolen hooks here. Just 3 top-flight musicians and a hell of a front man. Van Halen. Feel the power!