I hope the years have been kind to Ms. Carlisle aka "Dottie Danger". She and Susanna Hoffs sure where cuties back in the day....

Happy memories of me and my better half. I didn't really start listening to pop music until the 80s. It was classical and jazz for me til then. I caught up on all the 70s bands in the 80s...and the Beatles, too. Better late than never, I guess.

The Heads at the Greek in Berkeley = a peak experience, concert-wise.

I saw the Talking Heads at least twice. The first time was in college about 1978-79, and I was third row center, one of the best seats I've ever had at a concert. David Byrne was making his faces right at us, and it was a bit hard to keep from laughing at times.

Several years later I saw them in Philly, with an extremely pregnant Tina Weymouth on bass.

I liked Belinda Carlisle better when she was a little chunky, before she went all PETA and everything.

I have noted here before that I watch The Last Waltz about once a week here in Mauritius. I brought two other movies with me. Stop Making Sense and Fleetwood Mac's The Dance.

I can hear groans over the Fleetwood Mac choice, but it's the one with the USC band at the end, doing Tusk. Back when Belinda was cute and chunky, I was living in Orange County. I also had season tickets for USC football.

My teenage kids love Stop Making Sense. You can hear it blasting from my daughter's car when she pulls into the driveway. My wife gives me the stink eye everytime.

@Mike - Isle Maurice? What an island! Did you know that Polish chanteuse Basia's backup singers are from Quatre Bornes? How well I remember Vacoas.

But! No one wants to point out how stunning the Wilson sisters are? Even today though Ann has put on weight, she's a gorgeous big woman. And Nancy! Those eyes, that guitar playing. What a babe. And a lot of great songs.

I graduated HS in 1980, graduated college 1985 and was a single professional in Hotlanta until 1996. Good times, good music, fun cultural background coming out of the dreary Nixon/Ford/Carter years. Very first vote ever was for Reagen...no brainer.

@Phil, I was there 1982-1991. I agree; a great place and time.

Texarkana High School, Class of '83. I was the school punk rock kid. I hated Reagan and loved the Dead Kennedys. I doubt I could sit through more than a few minutes of any Dead Kennedys album today...

Huey Lewis and the News... country club girls with bows in their hair... Izod Lacoste... Schaefer beer... debate... Square Pegs... ah, the '80s.

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...."

Let me fix that for you.

Here's to the new boss,
Same as the old boss.

If I want to press the point that there seem to be certain truisms concerning human nature, I dial up the wayback machine to Aesop's Fables, Brothers Grimm, or Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights. I avoid professional "philosophers", famous for being famous, ESPECIALLY French ones. See? I'm not Chauvinist AT ALL!

Class of '87.

Thing I miss most about the 80's is the original ideas for all of the remakes these dumb assholes are making today.

Come up with your own fucking ideas. The Equalizer was an old English guy, not Denzel Washington working at home depot.

The 80's, I barely survived them.
Went in as a single 25 yo with a chip on his shoulder and a lifetime of pavement under my feet. Came out the other end a 35 yo married business owner with a kid and carpet burns and that ever permanent chip. And thousands of guitars, guns and gurlz. Now, it's all just a gray blur....until I pause and focus....

Class of 67 small town MS, saw Jimmy at Tuscaloosa. That 80's music was bubble gum music compared to 60-70's.

Bitchin'!

I think the eighties sucked. Of course the greatest decade of 'em all was the sixties.
We wouldn't be into iPhones and Windows 8 and Big Brother if it wasn't for the sixties. We'd still be doing punch cards and DOS.
I confess Jack Daniels Black got me through. From what I hear of the eighties I'm glad I was in blackouts.

I hail from Aerosmith and J. Geils country. I believe Byrne got his start at RISD. We lived (or tried to) live the Toxic Twins lifestyle. Punk was amusing, provided you didn't get too close. I saw something called G.G. Allin come out of the North country, and that was about enough of that. Moved over to the blue side of the street in the late seventies, Fabulous T-Birds, Roomful and that whole Austin/Boston thing. Wretched excess. It's a wonder I yam still here. Now? It's the sound of the birds at the feeder, and the occasional twang of guitar at church. "No more, no more..."

@Will — " When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

a bit of I Corinthians 13.