New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7MhDU9xSWM1LPQGPFkAEJC?si=fe45f90ec6dd4665

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09CrTp6wGH0

I was assembling a radio playlist and thought to include this Simple Minds song...

And then I pulled it up and played it. And I was reminded of how it was hazy. Like the fog blanketing a river in Scotland. There was something out there, something intriguing, something that demanded my attention, but I couldn't quite see it clearly.

And then came that change... It starts around 1:02. When you expect the track to amp up, go for victory, it drops down, becomes subtle, focuses on the heart as opposed to the genitalia. It's magic.

I bought the album because of "Promised You a Miracle," which you heard on the radio dial way up at 106.7, KROQ, now rebranded the Roq of the '80's, even though it had previously been the last free format station on the Los Angeles rock radio dial.

This was something new, this was Top 40 of the new wave. That's right, the playlist was short, and repetitive, but only new songs were played, mostly from the U.K., which had leapfrogged a U.S. decimated by the death of disco and classic rock simultaneously. There were synthesizers, new sounds, and ultimately two tracks that traditional AOR wouldn't play that won the hearts and minds of Los Angeles, in the process eclipsing what had been and replacing it with something brand new, i.e. "Tainted Love" and then "Don't You Want Me."

It started in Los Angeles. Sure, CBGB was the sound of the late seventies, a New York thing, with the two breakout acts, Blondie and the Talking Heads, and a plethora of others, like Television, and the west coast coughed up the Knack and a bunch of new wave popsters, but then the slate was wiped clean by this new U.K. sound.

And once the doors were blasted open...all kinds of things broke through, like Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough," talk about infectious.

Something was happening here. Actually, it was happening in England, but on the west coast a radio station in Pasadena carried the flag and started a movement that ultimately spread to MTV, where one after another English act broke through and dominated, and the KROQ talent ended up programming the music television outlet and appearing in front of the camera too.

But there was a moment...

This was after the return of ska at the end of the seventies. Definitely an L.A. thing. Big, to the point where there were ska acts in Orange County... Were there any on the east coast? I never heard of any.

But with KROQ's new programming there was an injection of excitement, adrenaline into the entire music ecosystem. You had to go to the store to comb the new releases, and you were addicted to the radio...people talked about these records, which oftentimes featured humor, this was a twist on the irreverence of the sixties.

And if you liked a single, you bought the album, which is how I ended up with Simple Minds' American first.

Which came on gold vinyl. If you bought it early enough, that was one of the perks. But not as well-publicized as this perk was that this colored vinyl didn't sound quite as good as the usual black product. It was a bit thinner...so all you could do was CRANK IT UP!

That was a legacy of the seventies, turning up the music loud. By the nineties music reproduction was relegated to the all-in-one not much better than a boombox device. Which was cheap and better than the crap of yore, but not too good. The stereo chains declared bankruptcy or went upscale, but...

Before that... You'd come home and break the shrinkwrap on your new album and just wait for a track to break out. That's what you're looking for, that's what gets you to play an album again, that one cut that grabs you the first time through, and for me it was the title track of "New Gold Dream (81/82/83/84)," which opened the second side. You see it was exotic and hypnotic. You were transported from everyday life into the ether...

Very different from today. We knew the acts wanted to make money, but they weren't constantly dunning us for it. They were about testing limits more than commerce. And the marketplace was open for it, especially in the optimistic eighties of the U.S.A.

Now it wasn't long before Simple Minds had a hit. From "The Breakfast Club." Keith Forsey's "Don't You (Forget About Me)," which the band performed on the "Breakfast Club" soundtrack. Bringing the band reluctantly to the forefront. It had done what the label had wanted, but despite its success, the band was uneasy about this breakthrough, after all they didn't write it and it didn't fully represent the band's ethos and sound.

There was MTV success thereafter. But always eclipsed by that one big hit.

But if you dug a bit deeper...there was "Alive and Kicking," but even more..."Waterfront," "Sanctify Yourself" and the majestic "Let There Be Love."

But it all started with that one 1982 album, the band's sixth, but its first in America.

There was a darkness. Because if you picked up a U.K. act from the era, underneath it you found Thatcherism and struggle and...

"81-82-83-84"...

What exactly were they singing about?

Before Prince and "1999," the big anticipated year was 1984, George Orwell's line of demarcation. What were we heading for...

But one thing was for sure, these new U.K. acts had their eyes open, they were not wearing blinders, they had opinions on everything and they let them fly.

Along with these new sounds.

This was beyond the syndrum, beyond the one note synthesizers of the seventies. This was a miasma of electronica, yet underpinned by humanity, this was not music that could be made all by your lonesome in your bedroom...

So I hear that change earlier today and there was only one thing to do...

CRANK IT UP!

And when I did, there was this rumbling bass... Not quite a herd of elephants, but close...

This was a band. Not an act compromised by someone else's vision, not concocted by committee, made for commerce, Simple Minds and their brethren wanted to have an impact...AND THEY DID!


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