One of the first questions my H asked me when we met (in the mid-80s) was if I could pick one song to have on a desert island, what would it be. I said Maggie May (1971 Rod Stewart). I wouldn’t pick that now, I’d have to think about it for awhile (S is a musician, so probably something he plays), but I passed the test then, I guess.
Also got a lot of compliments for our wedding song, Time in a Bottle, which I am sure was way overdone in the 70’s but by the late 80’s people had sort of forgotten about it and everyone our age was happy not to have a late 80’s song to listen to during first dance!
“but the anthem for architecture students from Talking Heads 77 has to be Don’t Worry About the Govenment! (“My building has every convenience/ It’s going to make life easy for me / I will relax along with my loved ones/ Loved ones, loved ones/ Visit the building …”)”
@Mathmom! So now you’ve gone and done it. I am totally geeky about coming up with themed playlists / lyrics. So when you say “anthem for architecture students” - in addition to the aforementioned Talking Heads and Burning Down the House, may I present …
Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society
(couldn’t find a link, but key lyrics:
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity.
God save little shops, china cups, and virginity.
We are the Skyscraper Condemnation Affiliates.
God save Tudor houses, antique tables, and billiards)
Honorable mentions could go to
Madness’ Our House (“our house, in the middle of our street”)
Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever (Strawberry Fields is the name of a Salvation Army orphanage that backed up to John Lennon’s childhood home, Mendips)
Beatles’ Penny Lane (the shelter in the middle of the roundabout is the bus shelter where Paul & George took the bus to their high school, which was situation next to John’s college)
And of course, I would be remiss for not name-checking More Songs about Buildings and Food, the Talking Heads album
Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Well, I’ve been afraid of changing
'Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time made you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older too
–Landslide
–Written by Stevie Nicks
–While contemplating some life changes she was going through at the time.
–Did she want to go back to school and continue with the band?
–And continue with the relationship she was in at the time.
Don’t forget the great women singers in the late 70’s. Carly Simon, Carole King, Carla Bonoff, Linda Rondstadt, and some of the country western women…Crystal Gayle for example.
I am going to Vienna and Prague in a few weeks and need to think about playlist ideas. So far, I’ve got Ringo Starr’s Goodnight Vienna, Billy Joel’s Vienna and Leonard Cohen’s Take This Waltz. Any suggestions are welcome.
Prague is going to be a challenge. I might just use George Ezra’s Budapest and claim it fits under Eastern Europe
@Pizzagirl: “Vienna Calling” by Falco. “Vienna” by Ultravox. “Vienna” by the Fray. “Dear Vienna” by Owl City. “Springtime in Vienna” by the Tragically Hip.
Will try to come up with some Mitteleuropa suggestions.
Speaking of playlists, and totally staying away from partisan politics, has anyone listened to the “day” and “night” summer playlists that Obama released to the public? Based solely on personal style and not commenting on policy, I’m going to miss that man.
We lived in Germany when Falco was hot. The Amadeus video is too much! Nena’s 99 Luftballon’s was a big hit too. And Da Da Da by Trio - I love its (official) video too. ( you might recognize the tune from VW ads.) You could go classical and listen to the Blue Danube. Or the Viennese Boys Choir.
garland(post 53) partly explained for me what I meant, to help answer post 45. Not to say mainstream, big commercial sales music means it is good, or that it isn’t. But- if anyone thinks of Talking heads songs like Burning Down House, And she Was, or Wild Wild Life, those were the 80’s and were their biggest sellers. Here again, not that big sellers mean any more quality than small sellers, except that big sellers are much more well known. Some people had never heard of Talking Heads until their '83 album. I understand completely that a person could like “Warning Sign” better than “Burning down the House” and that’s ok, apparently doschicos does; but I’d bet a whole lot more people know the latter more than the former. And that, is what I meant by “associating” them with the 80’s.
In another example, “Photograph” is the earliest song most (not all!) people think of when they think of Def Leppard, yet it was off their third album. That doesn’t demonstrate their first 2 weren’t good, but not being big sellers indicate they weren’t as well-known. Similarly, many people first know of Prince from his album 1999. That doesn’t mean that album was his first, or his first good one. But those that knew him before that were likely a smaller number. The “Controversy” album was the first one I remember, having a couple of dance clubhits from it. I would likely not have ever heard “Let’s Work” back then, unless I had been in dance bars then.
That’s why my opinion expressed 2 points- first- that I “associate” some groups doschicos named with 80’s because that’s when I, along with many others, first heard of the bands mentioned. And second, the decade of the 80’s does not include song span from '74 to '84.
p.s.- in re post 71, I loved his “Der Kommissar”, though After the Fire is the version most in the U.S. know…
I’ve got one more song for the architecture playlist (although really it’s the city planning playlist, I guess). It’s a brilliant little folksong by The Weakerthans, late of Winnipeg, Manitoba, “One Great City!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLlsjEP7L-k
