1984: Women can rock too... Part 1 - Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar - We Belong

Can chicks be heavy metal? Pat Benatar was a unique performer. It sounded like she would do well on Broadway and on a rock stage. She didn't quite look metal. I couldn't put my finger on it. She just looked too pure and not "dingy" enough to rock that hard. Can rock be classy? Pat rocked it, and made it work.

Although this post sits around 1984 in my storyline, she had hits way before this that weren't noted. Benatar claimed multiple Grammy awards including "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" of 1982. Although many of her songs were epic, she had some dark songs as well. "Hell is For Children" is a song that you wouldn't have guessed is performed by Pat Benatar. While Hit Me With Your Best Shot is probably her most popular, I'm not making that the most notable here. This is MY story. I never heard Hell Is For Children on the radio, but I came to find out the song was about child abuse in America. It all makes sense now.

Pat Benatar had some killer songs, and aside from when it was popular, her music would show up again in highschool. My friend Jenny St.A(censored) was a huge fan of Pat Benatar during highschool ('94-'98). I really came to appreciate it then. It was also rare for teen girls in the 90's to like things from the 80's, so she got bonus credit for that. Jenny was in choir and a talented singer. Her and her friend Dana used to come over and practice their songs through my brothers' big mic/PA system and play my brother's keyboard that I managed to borrow for a bunch of years. Fun times.

When I was living in Milwaukee in 2005 I was in a band that played a medly of her best tunes. The band name was called StereoType. The lead guitarist was married to the female vocalist. I sang all of the male songs and she sang all of the female led songs. It worked out really cool, and we played local bars and such. Of course, these stories are years detached from the album's release... but again I'm too young to have a legitimate story here.




The story comes full circle. I am currently a HUGE fan of VH1's PopUp Video... They give all sorts of facts about the band, song, and video production... and some wise cracks. Here's Shadows of the Night... one of Benatar's biggest songs... the video has a WWII Rosie the Riveter theme.

Prince - Purple Rain

Movie soundtracks in the 80's all together were just so good. I would say my brother Mike was THE biggest Prince fan. (Although when you're only 5, you don't know that many people.) I distinctly remember his Purple Rain poster hanging up in his room. I saw this movie on VHS when I was a kid, but I had no understanding of it at all. As an initiation ritual... to "Purify your body in the waters of Lake Minnetonka" was just a hilarious practical joke.

MORE PRANKS
Another antagonizing joke my brothers took from the movie was to drive away a little bit when someone riding along is trying to open the car door to get in. Prince did this to a girl with his motorcycle, and it was pretty funny. Unrelated to Prince, my brothers would beep the horn if you walked across the front of the car. I've gotten people with that joke, and it startles the living crap out of people. :)

IS PRINCE WEIRD?
Prince seemed like a weirdo, but he fit right in with other rockers like Kiss, Nugent, or Van Halen where they all put on some sort of "act." It's hard to explain unless you lived through it. The 80's seemed to be very accepting of musical artists that were "unique." In contrast, the 90's that followed were more about fitting specific mold. Prince was the embodiment of purple from then on. Guys and purple? Prince made it work. This was WAY before all the Prince drama. This was back when Prince was THE MAN. Women wanted to be with him and in effect guys wanted to BE him.

MOTORCYCLES
Despite Prince's superstar persona, there was only one thing about him that could have been cooler. Growing up, I noticed Prince drove a Kawasaki motorcycle. I grew up in a Harley family, and it seemed wrong that a big rock star would be on anything BUT a Harley. Kawasaki had this commercial with a theme song "Kawasaki - Let the good times roll" and my brothers (in Weird Al fashion) effectively changed the words to "Kawasaki makes the junkyards grow."

GUITARS & BASKETBALL
Prince is probably one of the most underrated guitarists of all time. The guy shreds. And according to Charlie Murphy (Eddie Murphy's brother) he's pretty good as basketball too. : )

In the mid-2000's, Eddie Murphy's brother was an actor/comedian on the Comedy Central's Chappelle Show. There was a really funny skit series they did called Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories... or something like that. Charlie Murphy would tell all these crazy stories about being in Eddie Murphy's entourage, and the friends / situations he got into. They were hilarious... almost too crazy to be true. But when you consider the people in these stories, they're probably not embellished at all. One of the funniest ones was his story about Prince.

1984: The Cars!

The Cars - Heartbeat City

THE BAND

Where do I start with the Cars? Where they progressive?rock?punk?pop? They sort of looked like the Ramone's got facial transplants... but their songs crossed conventional boundaries. They had a hook that gets stuck in your head. When people say the 80's sucked, you can play them virtually ANY song from the Cars and tell them that they are full of bloody rubbish.

THE ALBUM

Almost every song on Heartbeat City was a hit. Hello Again was the opening track. Track 3, (uh-oh it's) Magic, was probably one of their biggest hits. Do want a ballad? Look no further than Drive. The lyrics "who's gonna drive ya home tonight?" just sticks in your head. Why Can't I have you isn't the best song on the album, but the music video is a total 80's music film cliche. So what did the Cars look like playing live? Does Miami Vice or Don Johnson mean anything to you? Haha... check out this live footage of Heartbeat City.

VIDEOS

The Cars videos were awesome! Where would VH1 be without videos by the Cars!? Their videos are the epitome of "classic." Very entertaining. What's really sad is that we'll probably never see new videos like this again.

RADIO

The takes me back to pop radio. 101.1 WIXX was the pop station in the greater Green Bay area. Remember when pop radio played rock? They played the Cars! The Cars could not only be found on the radio, but also up north!

Buzz's Bar played The Cars on the JukeBox. Usually a staple of country and older stuff; I first noticed Buzz's was playing newer stuff too when I heard the Cars. Buzz's bar was our main hang-out up north. It had glass bottles of Coke! The pinball machine cost only a dime and it was some sort of bowling pinpall game. The foosball table only cost a quarter. My brother Mike was, is, and always will be the Foosball king. Think I'm kidding? Challenge him!

Fast Forward to September 25th,1996: Lori Sprangers' 17 birthday Party.

The closest person that lived to me (that was my age) was Lori Sprangers. In Darboy terms, that means across the cornfield. Although we didn't officially meet until high school, we became part of the same click. Where we didn't see each other that much was with her involvement in band, and my involvement in football. One thing I remember about being friends with Lori was that her locker was a in specific hallway of the school that was only for band kids. Although "band" had their own click, I stopped by her locker to chat, but it was usually met with some weird looks from band kids. HA. Although she was gifted violinist & choir singer, I believe Lori served as band leader senior year.

For Lori's 17th birthday, she was having a party. They had just re-zoned all the cornfields for houses. I think duplexes were starting to go in. So when my street used to be 45mph, they lowered it to 35 and then 25mph! This made me furious, but I was constantly aware of this little water pump house that a police car was usually perched taking radar.

On this particular occasion, I noticed the cop car on the way to Lori's party. The cop started to follow me. I knew I wasn't speeding, so I wasn't nervous. Once I parked my car on the side of the road, the cop parked behind me and put his lights on! I couldn't believe it. I rolled down my window and asked "why did you pull me over?" He said "stay in the car." He proceed to walk up to the house and knock on the door. I think maybe he thought he was busting a high school beer party. Little did he know everyone in my particular group were pretty much squares until after graduation. Lori's parents answered the door. Sent him packing. I asked "can I get out of my car now?" He responded "no, park your car on the driveway or on the lawn, all these cars on the side of the road are unsafe." Whatever.

Lori's parents had a bunch of vinyl. Going through them, we saw a few Cars albums. I vividly remember jamming out to some Cars at Lori's birthday party and telling everyone about how the cop followed me to the house for no reason whatsoever.