Blue Moon Rock Evolution – 1986
It seems like just not too long ago I was introducing my birth year of 1966 twenty years prior on this thread, but it was only 10 months ago here. Time flies indeed!
1986 marked the end of my teenage years and was my first full year away from home and family, mostly at university as both a freshman and sophomore to split the year. My musical tastes were changing and were firmly rooted in college radio, which was a big departure from the Philly traditional rock radio I had mostly grown up on the first part of this iconic decade of music. Bands and the music I would hear was very much new and varied. I was living in a dormitory with other students from all over the east coast of the US, but mostly from that home state. While there were a lot of commonalities rooted in music, I didn’t know as many others I would meet at that time, being an out-of-state student at Virginia Tech. My double cassette dubbing recording player in my dorm room made my trading songs and albums with others pretty popular and a very common occurrence. It was easy multitasking busywork at night while also doing homework, and often getting a listen to the music for a new friend. Music was wide open for me this year, and the breath of alternative artists and their output both this year and prior years I had missed was in full catch-up mode.
But first, the memorable events during the year included the following:
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster: On January 28, all seven crew members were killed when the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds after launch. I still remember where I was in watching the sad event and aftermath in my dorm room on that day. A very sobering day on an event prior that most took for granted was going to go off without a hitch. The fact so many schools in the US were watching with TVs in the room as schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe was part of the crew made it even more memorable and pronounced.
- Chernobyl nuclear disaster: On April 26, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, releasing radioactive material across Europe and rendering the nearby city of Pripyat uninhabitable. The 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl was very well done and a powerful view at that side of the events that many prior knew little about given the secrecy of it all in the USSR.
- Iran-Contra affair: Congressional hearings began investigating a secret arms-for-hostages deal between the U.S. and Iran, and the diversion of funds to Nicaraguan rebels. At the time, I was sure this would bring down many in the Reagan administration, including the president. However, like many things, there seems to be little consequence for executive actions, especially if either amnesia is a line of defense or the Justice Department has recently been gutted to the point of ineffectiveness as it is these days.
- Ferdinand Marcos resigned: The president/dictator of the Philippines was forced to resign under pressure from a popular uprising. Marcos was deposed in 1986 by the People Power Revolution and was succeeded as president by Corazon Aquino, known now as the “Mother of Democracy”.
- Hands Across America: A public service event where millions of people formed a human chain across the United States to raise money for hunger relief.
- UK focused: The UK and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel, which they hope to open by the early-1990s, UK unemployment hit a high of 14.4%, and …
- "Big Bang" and deregulation of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on October 27, which transformed the financial market. Key changes included abolishing fixed commissions, allowing firms to act as both brokers and dealers, opening the exchange to foreign ownership, and replacing face-to-face trading with an electronic, screen-based system. These reforms significantly increased competition and volume, establishing London as a major global financial center.
In sports, this year was most remembered world-wide for the World Cup in Mexico City where Argentina won by defeating West Germany 3-2. Diego Maradona was the biggest star of the event, and his "Hand of God" goal is well remembered to this date.
In tennis, Chris Evert won her 18th and final career grand slam that year defeating her archrival Martina Navratilova in the French Open. However, the other half of the year belonged to Martina, who won at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Greg Lemond of the US became the first American to win the Tour de France.
Liverpool won the First Division of the Football League Championship with a 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on May 3. The title-winning goal was scored by player-manager Kenny Dalglish. This was Liverpool's 16th league title and the first of a historic league and FA Cup double for the club in the 1985-86 season. Manchester City would finish 15th in the First Division of the League with a 11-12-19 record. Chelsea were the first winners of the Football League's new Full Members' Cup, beating Manchester City 5–4 in the final at Wembley, although City clawed the deficit to a single goal in the last five minutes after being 5–1 down.
In the US, the Chicago Bears with their suffocating “46 defense” dominated the New England Patriots for their first and only Super Bowl win. NFL and media stars Jim McMahon, Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, and initial 380 lb. rookie lineman William "The Refrigerator" Perry. The players and team were also well known for their rap song and video of "The Super Bowl Shuffle”, released as the regular season was completing and they had playoff games still to win to get to the big game.
The New York Mets won the World Series in a dramatic comeback fashion after going down 3 games to 2 to the Boston Red Sox. The series is best remembered for its Game 6, which saw the Mets rally from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the 10th inning, despite having two outs and no one on base. The Red Sox, having that 3–2 series lead, were twice one strike away from securing the championship, but failed to close out the inning as the Mets won off an error by Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. Due to the Mets claiming the series in Game 7, the Game 6 collapse entered baseball lore as part of the Curse of the Bambino superstition used to explain the Red Sox's championship drought for 67 years and counting after that year.
Popular movies included the classics
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Crocodile Dundee, Platoon, and
Top Gun, which all were major box-office successes.
The NBC Thursday half hour comedy lineup was still tops with
The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and
Cheers being an unstoppable juggernaut at the top of the ratings. New debut show
LA Law at 10pm ET made NBC Thursdays a must-watch ratings bonanza. Add on the new debut of Andy Griffith’s
Matlock (Kathy Bates’ reboot is even better!) to go along with the already popular
The Golden Girls on Saturdays, and NBC had captured the older demographic as well.
Notable products introduced or released that year included the American Girl doll line, and the Atari 7800 game console.
Memorable music for me in 1986 included the following songs, albums, and themes of the year.
The kid I was when I first left home was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
Jackson Browne’s
Lives in the Balance was released early that year in February. Its album cover contained a visual of the long 4 year renovation around the Statue of Liberty to address both structural damage and corrosion. The renovations around Lady Liberty were completed later in 1986 for its centennial celebration on July 4.
Browne’s release included more than a few songs critical of the Reagan administration, including this opening track, which was a favourite of mine. This would be Browne’s first overtly political album, with tracks like this questioning America’s cultural imperialism. There were some critics for Browne’s taking this topic on, but he also had some appreciation as well in his ability to link the personal to the political. Many noted Browne wasn’t just writing about the headlines, but he was trying to tell the stories of the people they affect. It was a song about self-reflection in the US with the album cover as a symbol of the needed renovation perhaps beyond just the landmarks. This song in general just summed up the album and the way I was feeling at the time.
The song was also notable in that Clarence Clemons contributed the memorable sax portion. Browne had guested vocals on Clemons’ 1985 hit “You’re a Friend of Mine”, so hearing these two artists together again was a nice touch.
I was made for America
It's in my blood and in my bones
By the dawn's early light / by all I know is right —
We're gonna reap what we have sown.
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“For America” – Jackson Browne
We'll get higher and higher, leave it all behind
When David Lee Roth left Van Halen in 1985, most fans thought the band could be very well finished. Some here may argue that maybe they should have been, but I never was one those who did. I’d always enjoyed and appreciated Sammy Hagar as a solo artist, and when I first heard some of the new material, it was clear to me that the band was going to be different and even more mature than the prior antics of the “David Lee Roth show”, which is what the band had become to me (and others) after the
1984 release.
Van Halen had lots of difficulty finding a replacement for Roth, but in July of 1985, Eddie was referred to former Montrose and current solo singer/artist Sammy Hagar by his auto mechanic. Sammy and Eddie hit it off, and the new singer and band immediately began work on new songs which were completed and recorded in Eddie’s new 5150 home studio, named after a California law enforcement term for a mentally disturbed person. Many called the new incarnation of the band "Van Hagar" (derisively or affectionately). The nickname was so ubiquitous that, as Hagar points out in his book, Warner Bros. asked them to consider renaming the band as such, but the Van Halen brothers refused.
Despite the controversy of replacing Roth, the album was both the band's and Hagar’s first to top the Billboard 200, and was certified double platinum by May, soon after its March release. There were four singles from the album, and once Roth’s solo album was released later in the summer, both were debated and compared against each other given their branches from the original band from the six prior albums together. From this nomination, it’s pretty clear where I stood on that “dividing line”. Roth may have considered himself “Just a Gigolo” from his prior year EP, but he and his video output at that time had become narcissistically buffoonish to me.
The song I’m nominating was Sammy’s all-time favourite from his time in the band, and was both termed a "celebration of teen freedom" and lauded Eddie’s stinging guitar and Hagar's larynx on this track. The synths to open it up are also quite distinctive. Mick Jones, the guitarist from Foreigner, was a producer on this album and noted he was able to push Sammy to new heights – literally. Jones had Hagar singing so high on this track that he was hyperventilating to the point of nearly passing out. This song was also very notable for its iconic video which featured the US Navy's Blue Angels performing a variety of aerial stunts with the A-4 Skyhawk. This was the track and song from the album I most enjoyed hearing, and told me that the band I had formerly enjoyed was back and had even progressed from its prior incarnation.
And in the end
On dreams we will depend
'Cause that's what love is made of
“Dreams” – Van Halen
It was long ago, it seems like yesterday
One of the lasting memories from my college years was FM station Rock 105.1 and the uniqueness of college radio and the various and alternative artists I was introduced to and initially heard there in “the New River Valley’s
Only Rock”. This band would be one and very pronounced during my sophomore year that fall. I can still recall hearing New Jersey alternative rockers The Smithereens played on that station on their first single from their debut album,
Especially for You.
The bass line that starts this song is so iconic and just a staple of what this song was conveying in its sadness. Pat DiNizio, the band’s lead singer and songwriter of this track, described the song origin as, "I was walking home from my job as soundman at NYC's legendary Folk City nightclub through the freezing rain at about four in the morning when the bass line came to me, the chords and melody came later built around the bass part." Lyrically, the song is about a girl DiNizio knew in high school who took her own life. The blistering guitar that ends this is also very distinctive, and something I was just pulled in by. There would be other great tracks from The Smithereens initial release such as B-side "Behind the Wall of Sleep", but this was the song I initially remember from them.
I want to love, but it comes out wrong
I want to live, but I don't belong
I close my eyes and I see blood and roses
“Blood and Roses” – The Smithereens
You see what we've got, you know what's it's not, that turns you upside-down
Benjamin Orr who was bassist, co-lead vocalist, and co-founder of the band The Cars released his first solo album that year after the band had split up the year prior to pursue solo projects. When I look back at The Cars catalogue, Orr was the lead singer on some of the best songs the band put out including "Just What I Needed", "Let's Go", "Moving in Stereo/All Mixed Up", and "Drive". His smooth, warm baritone voice was quite unmistakable on this song, which became Orr’s only top 40 hit as a solo artist.
I remember this song from the fall of that year as it was released in October. Being in a still-new relationship for about a year, this song brings back quite the memories of the shared enjoyment of this song and artist. Benjamin Orr passed away at the age of 53 in 2000 of pancreatic cancer, but his cumulative outstanding vocals heard in this and many songs from The Cars are still fondly remembered today.
And all that matters
Is turned around
Over and over again
We're at full circle
It comes down to now again
Stay the night
Let a little love show
“Stay The Night” – Benjamin Orr
Don't runaway, midnight hideaway, don't you fade away 'til the morning light
As initially heard from the “
Could Have Been A Contender” Playlist thread earlier this year, this next band in April released their debut album
Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, the title of which was taken from lyrics in the Rolling Stones song "Shattered." This album was produced by T Bone Burnett and a few songs that introduced me to this went on heavy Rock 105 rotation. By the time summer break came around back at home, this might have been the second most listened to album of mine that year. The album itself had catchy and unique songs, with an alternative, roots, and heartland rock sound that was mostly unlike most groups at the time.
BoDeans later went on to record other hit records, and after their second album they were vocal guests on two tracks of Robbie Robertson's self-titled album smash, and then would open for U2 on their Joshua Tree tour. This song and album would start it all for me as a big fan of their music.
I see you from my window
In the shadows of the night
You're standing on Love Street
On the beat, of better things
She might fade away, she might fade away
"Fadeaway" – BoDeans
Buy the sky and sell the sky and tell the sky and tell the sky
By this year, R.E.M. released their fourth studio album
Life’s Rich Pageant that would take the band into new sounds unlike their most recent release the year prior. The band changed recording locations in moving from London from their prior album to John Mellencamp’s Belmont, Indiana recording studio where he had just recorded
Scarecrow the year prior. This release took the band from a more obscure and dense sound of their earlier albums to a more accessible, hard rock-influenced quality. Later in the year, it was hard not to hear multiple tracks played from this release on Rock 105 as it took this more college radio band into a more accessible FM formats later in the decade, but this release would start them on that path towards the later sound they’d formulate here. As bassist Mike Mills would say about this album, they wanted a "really hard-driving record, but we also like to throw in a lot of things: pianos and organs and accordions and banjos and what-not". This release certainly accomplished that.
My song choice from this was the first single from the album and one of the band's early compositions about environmentalism, discussing acid rain and themes of oppression. What I liked the most about this was the impressive back and forth harmonizing vocals between Michael Stipe and Mike Mills here, with Mills’ sound being the highlights of the song for me.
Well, I would keep it above
But then it wouldn't be sky anymore
So if I send it to you, you've got to promise to keep it home
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“Fall On Me” - R.E.M.
Diamond days cut and dry, but beauty in the hurricane's eye
Another artist I was introduced to via college radio in 1986 was the newly formed band from the year prior by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash (vocals, guitar and saxophone), David J (bass guitar and vocals) and Kevin Haskins (drums and synthesizers). Despite Bauhaus's status as a gothic rock act, Love and Rockets moved towards a slightly brighter and more pop-influenced sound, as demonstrated by their first minor hit, a cover of the Temptations Motown classic "Ball of Confusion", which reached #18 on the Canadian charts in January of this year. And while I heard that song on Rock 105, it really was the tracks off of their 2nd album
Express where I first really got into them. That album is credited for the fusion of underground rock with pop stylings, which was seen as an early example of alternative rock music, a genre that reached mainstream popularity in the early 1990s. At the time, "All in My Mind" was the big hit off of this album on college radio, but with recent repeated listens, I have really gravitated towards this track with its fast paced and stellar guitar riffs to really give it and the band its identity from that album. The hard driving bass throughout is something to really hear, especially at the end as the express train of this song just rolls down the tracks.
Beauty beauty beauty beautiful
Beauty beauty beauty beautiful
“Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man)” - Love And Rockets
Everything sounds like “Welcome home, come home”, come on home
‘Til Tuesday was one of those 80’s bands where lead singer Aimee Mann has well outshone with her solo output that one almost forgets about where her career began here. Her band’s 2nd album
Welcome Home is a line from this popular song that really has stood the test of time for me. This song has a nice country guitar twang to it that along with Mann’s wide-ranging vocals, really gives it its musical pulse. The soft subject about nostalgic love lost for a fleeting moment of intense connection and the bittersweet realization that the moment is temporary is pretty poignant. The song meaning from the title centers on nostalgia, yearning, and the feeling of being on the verge of something significant that slips away. It was hard not to reflect on this as the early stages of a relationship started from the prior year was still in question.
We thought just for an instant
We could see the future
We thought for once we knew
What really was important
“Coming Up Close” – ‘Til Tuesday
When the music plays, I hear the sound I had to follow, once upon a time
The Moody Blues had transitioned from a progressive rock band in the late ‘60s through the ‘70s to a synth-pop band in the ‘80s. They were a group I had enjoyed and followed prior, and one my girlfriend knew of, but with this year’s album
The Other Side of Life, this had music and nostalgia that we both enjoyed. From its April release as the freshman year was ending and a summer separation states away from each other awaited, this one song spoke to both of us as a “what will this be?” moment.
Moody Blues singer and guitarist Justin Hayward was inspired to write this song after reminiscing about his first love. Of the song's lyrics, he stated, "For me, wanting to know about the first girl you ever fell in love with, really fell in love with and broke her heart, you always want to know, I wonder what happened. I wonder where they are. Hop in to that time machine." According to Hayward, the song set off a "personal journey" to delve into his past, which he characterized as "fantastic, amazing, and disturbing."
When released as a single, this song became the band's second biggest US hit, reaching number nine on the American charts. It would be a song and album my girlfriend and I would listen to fondly both apart and, in the brief times that we could be, together in the summer of ’86 wondering where things would be going.
I wonder where you are
I wonder if you think about me
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams
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“Your Wildest Dreams” – The Moody Blues
There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost, but you'll never see the end of the road while you're travelling with me
No matter how much I have adjusted things in preparing for this playlist, this song was always going to be the closer of the opening 10 songs of the playlist.
This was the fourth single from Australian-New Zealand rock band Crowded House, recorded for their self-titled debut studio album that year, released in August right before the start my sophomore year.
It is a very well-known song, and became the band's biggest international hit, reaching No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It reached No. 1 in Canada and in Neil Finn's native New Zealand, while in Australia, it peaked at No. 8.
The meaning of the song title is an encouragement to have hope and perseverance and not give up on one's dreams despite challenges. It is a message of resilience and unity, suggesting that even when things look dark or difficult, it's important to keep moving forward. The phrase is often interpreted as a reminder to fight depression, hold onto a relationship, or not let outside pressures ruin something important. As much as we enjoyed this song at the time, my then-girlfriend of 1 year and now wife of 34 years didn’t realize how much this would actually mean to us over the next 5 years. It’s a song we’ll often request to be played during the dance portion of a wedding reception. This one in particular holds a deep and personal meaning for us both.
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
You know, they won't win
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“Don’t Dream It’s Over” – Crowded House
So that’s it for me to kick off 1986. Yes, I realize there are a few key songs, artists, and albums I have not included, but I wanted to leave those to more than few who have hinted in wanting to choose those, so my omission is my direct gift back to you.
As important as 1985 was to start me on the path of where I am today, further reflection on this following year has put it right up there as a pivotal one as well. These songs have well captured that time for me with the person I’ve known and been in a relationship for 40 years now.
