the realisation that i am old struck me again in HMV. no i didn’t catch a look at myself flipping idly through cd racks and realised that the suspected chin hair was a reality, it was a series of things.
from 1995-2001 i bought every NOW cd, a compilation of the year’s best hits. i also bought grammy’s best hits 1995-2001. for the most part, loved them. a couple of the songs i could have done without, but i knew the words i could understand the words and they weren’t all about killing each other.
so today i hip-hopped my way through hmv, and admitted i couldn’t understand what was being said/sung over the in store speakers. i justified it by thinking that was because the room was so big and the sound gets distorted, the buzz of other people talking, the bing of the cash register…oh i was good.
and then i walked over to NOW 2005. flipped it over and scanned it idly, getting ready to smile as i read the titles of some cool tunes.
i didn’t recognise one.
i am sad but serious. not a one.
that’s because you are old, whispered some unfriendly part of my brain.
i fought the ugly whisper by putting on the headphones, thinking that i might not have known the titles, but i sure as sam heck knew the songs and would be familiar with them as soon as i heard the first tunes.
i gave up after the first six.
disgruntled, i put down the headphones and wandered around. comforted myself as i looked at the bestseller list and saw moby’s name. HA! i even had that cd. how cool am i. not wanting to answer that question, i continued my meandering.
then i saw something, in the corner, that made my heart race. it was, and i quote, "pop music". i was thrilled and homed in on it. there were three "pop" cd options to listen to…and i picked up the first one and started grinning. 80’s and 90’s music…there should have been a big sign…WELCOME HOME TESS.
whitney houston (or whip-me beat me as we ever so cleverly dubbed her) "you give good love", reo speedwagon, "i can’t fight this feeling", steely dan, "i really want to see you tonight" and "lady" (okay, they are 70’s but i really liked them)…it was memory lane as i stood there, soaking in the memories of suntan lotion, laughing at the mall, getting ready to go out to a restaurant with friends, their brothers and several male contenders…i only played a few favourties, and then decided i had to be democratic and at least SEE what the other cd’s had to offer. reluctantly i checked it out…i ignored the air supply and berlin, and focused on duran duran, john parr’s "man in motion" (from st elmo’s fire), rem "losing my religion", aerosmith, rick springfield, billy joel wanted to tell me he loved me "just the way you are", but we settled for "uptown girl", i tried not to moonwalk during "thriller", the recently dethroned miss america, vanessa williams got tasty revenge for "the sweetest days" and had to bite my fist so i didn’t cry while mike and the mechanics sang, "the living years".
20 years ago we listened to the music and really thought it was applicable to our lives. when i was 13 a friend of mine dedicated the song (remember when you could still do that?), "physical" to her boyfriend because she wanted him to kiss her at the theatre that night. i didn’t necessarily like all the songs i heard today, but that’s not what it was about. they evoked nostalgia.
i saw a gaggle of girls singing and bustin moves to music they knew and hoped they understood that the songs they download and are part of their lives will be part of their lives forever.
i am so glad i was a child of the 1980’s and a twenty somthing in the 1990’s. dressed in my respectable (fuschia) jumper, pink patterned chiffon skirt and sensible shoes (okay they were from nine west) i could admit i was a totally different generation from these teens. and i was glad of it. i am probably two generations removed from them. no worries
eighties music is often criticised by the "experts", but there are too many memories in the 80’s and 90’s stuff to make me able to see clearly what was so wrong with it. it was terrific. we liked it…can that be so wrong?
my eighties, my memories, my music. my goodness.
Reader interactions
11 Replies to “walk this waayyyy!”
Tess
Do you find yourself watching that VH-1 show “That was the 80’s” every time you flip by it???
OK. I admit it. I do!
As a teen of the 90s, my favorite station on the radio is the 90s station (satellite radio divides by decades). The nostalgia puts me in a good mood every time. 🙂
And I love the VH1 show, “I love the 90s!” 🙂
Ooh, I’m right there with you, groovin’ to most of those songs, and Phil Collins and Elton John… I’ve been delighted recently that somebody-or-other has done a cover of “Walking on Sunshine”, which I remember by Katrina and the Waves. Makes me smile and feel good every time I hear it in the grocery store.
But alas, I haven’t listened to pop songs on the radio since the 80’s, so most of the 90’s and 2000’s go right over my head. Now I mostly listen to jazz, classical, folk and celtic, and 1,000,000 kids’ songs of course!
Enjoy your “retro” fun. By the way, our kids love the Beatles, and it’s fun to have all 5 of us sing along together in the van.
Oh my goodness. You really are getting old.
Sorry.
But things tend to get better the more you understand.
Tess, just this morning my husband emailed me the words to ‘right said fred’ “I’m too sexy”. Fortunately, in Fiji, there is a great radio station that plays the hits of the “60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s…and today”
they say that whole ‘schpeel’ quite regularly, I’d trip over my tongue with that much to say! However, they do throw in a lot of Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray and Dolly Parton. I usually switch to the younger station and listen to eminem when I hear “Islands in the stream”!
You do totally love the 80’s, I might come out of the 80’s closet if you were willing to support me whilst all my hip hopping friends shun me….after all, I’m too sexy for this song.
Tess, just this morning my husband emailed me the words to ‘right said fred’ “I’m too sexy”. Fortunately, in Fiji, there is a great radio station that plays the hits of the “60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s…and today”
they say that whole ‘schpeel’ quite regularly, I’d trip over my tongue with that much to say! However, they do throw in a lot of Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray and Dolly Parton. I usually switch to the younger station and listen to eminem when I hear “Islands in the stream”!
You do totally love the 80’s, I might come out of the 80’s closet if you were willing to support me whilst all my hip hopping friends shun me….after all, I’m too sexy for this song 😉
so the radio station at the laudry mat is the greatest soft rock hits of the 80’s…im in heaven…rick HATES it, but I can sing along to every song and people think that i am a song guru…mainly b/c mostly college kids from the art school across the street use that lundry mat…and they are like 12 years old… there is a station up here called Mike 93.5…and they play EVERYTHING w/ no DJ…its a great station…kind of like the laundrymat…
Oh and HMV…they play it loud b/c they think it sounds better that way…I always got a headache on the esclator on the way up to the store…at least the one in central…xo lyns
Hi Tess and Charles (you lucky man)
I LOVE your blogs… I’ve just rediscovered them.
You both write so wonderfully. It really makes me feel like I’m back in HK and also makes me miss you and the Union Church gang so much. Lezah, the kids and I have been back in Australia for nearly three years now.. and we STILL miss it. Having said that, we’re very settled in our home town of Brisbane and I can feel the roots digging deep (sigh). I look forward to seeing you again hopefully one day soon – either in HK OR on a Caldwell family vacation to Oztralia ?!?!
Do let us know if you plan to come down this way. We’d love to see you again.
God Bless,
Ty *+Lezah, Vaughan and Olivia x
“my eighties, my memories, my music. my goodness.”
YES!!! Feargal Sharkey isfrever burnt into my brain, if not retina. Actually retina as well. And Falco! And and and – am getting giddy. I love watching “That was the 80’s” as well!
But actually, I pity the kids who don’t have the chance to experience the 80’s music, I thought it was brilliant. I cannot understand half the lyrics these days myself but have the added bonus of blaming it on my being a foreigner. 😉
chess.
it stands by itself. it’s the reason i am a nobody.
Dies ist ein großer Ort. Ich möchte hier noch einmal.