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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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The 80s sucked. Discuss.
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Zariadris
Zariadris
286 posts

Edited Feb 22, 2020, 15:27
Re: The 80s sucked. Discuss.
Feb 22, 2020, 14:42
I hear you. Truth be told, for ages my mantra was: the '80s sucked'. All the canned beats and soulless commercialism obscured the really vital stuff that was going on. By the late 80's I was - like so many - looking back to the 60s and 70s as lost Halcyon days, when men were men, and rock was rock.

These days, of course, I'm nostalgic and constantly rediscovering all the scenes I was into - and not into - in the 80s. Above all, being a Leftie, I miss the protest culture in that age of Reagan and Thatcher. I miss picking up the NME and reading writers like Stephen Wells tearing reactionary bands a new a-hole (will never forget his scathing indictment of Bowie's Tin Machine covering Working Class Hero. Can only imagine what he'd have made of Green Day's desecration.) Remember Billy Bragg, New Model Army, The The? Real protest and social commentary. In fact, more than the 70s, the 80s really taught me - as Julian often reminds us - of rock and roll's sacred duty to give a voice to the powerless. I still get chills remembering the movement against Apartheid and for Mandela - no matter what you might think of Little Steven or Simple Minds - or on a more underground tip, Robert Calvert's brilliant and totally unsung Freq, which championed the labour movement and the strikers under Thatcher.

Anyway, just another perspective.

Thanks for the fun and thought-provoking thread.
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Re: The 80s sucked. Discuss. (Fitter Stoke)
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