Remembering “Electric Blue” by Icehouse: A time of transition

I had set my mind to do it. It was the summer of 1988 and I was working at Gergeley’s Greenhouse two miles south and two miles west of Coaldale on the Jail Road. I had just come home from my first year of university a week or two earlier, and I had seen this video of a song I then heard on the radio. It was really good. So I resolved to pop into Lethbridge and buy it after work.

When I got to the Woolco Mall, which was on the eastern edge of the city, I realized I wasn’t sure if there was any place I could buy it. Then I popped into Coles Books, looked at some stuff, and had second thoughts.

I never did buy that tape by Icehouse that had “Electric Blue”, that song I liked so much.

Recently something came across my social media that “Electric Blue” debuted on this day in 1988 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. This day being Feb. 13.

The funny thing is, when I think of that song, I am taken back to a time of transitions for me.

First year
First year of university was a life-altering experience. Not only did I begin my post-secondary education, but I met new people and experienced so many new and different things. Then, in an instant it was over.

Just as Chris Vining and I had arrived in Edmonton in his orange Pinto, we were now leaving Edmonton in that same orange Pinto. My Mom and sister had come a couple days earlier and picked up the bulk of our stuff and took it home. We stuck around a couple more days so we could get every last drop out of our time in Edmonton.

Now, we were on the road home. It was funny because we kept talking about people in the present tense. For instance Chris suggested I ask this one girl out. All I kept thinking was the year was over. We may very well never see these people again. History showed that in some cases, we never did see them again.

Friday night lights
As we got close to home, we started talking about the future. We both realized it was Friday night. During our last year and a half of high school that meant one thing – basketball at the Lethbridge YMCA.

It was teen night and, for a dollar, we could have full access to everything the “Y” had to offer. We usually just settled in to play basketball.

We both joked that we were actually still teens, not that it mattered because the regular rate was something like $3.

So, after Chris dropped me off at the farm and he dropped his stuff at his Mom’s in town, I hopped in my parents’ Oldsmobile Omega and picked him up.

Immediately something was different at the “Y”. None of the guys, even the staff, we’d see around were there. Some of the staff were students too and, looking back, weren’t that much older than us really. They probably moved on to other jobs. The guys playing ball were hit and miss anyway, showing up on and off. They too probably found something else to occupy their time.

In their place were some kids, but not many, and even fewer to play pick-up with. We ended up playing two-on-two with a couple guys still in junior high. One had a ball with “Bullock” written on it. His name was Curtis. I asked if he was related to Benjy Bullock, who had been a phenom at LCI when we were in Grade 12. Curtis was his younger brother.

Beyond that, it wasn’t that much fun. Where just a year earlier we would close the place down, on this Friday night we didn’t turn out the lights. We left an hour after we came.

We never went back to the “Y” again and won’t – it was torn down a few years ago.

Friends for life?
We also tried to pick up where we left off with some of our high school friends. There were these two brothers we used to cruise down Mayor Magrath with, and we re-connected with them. There were a couple other guys I knew that we connected with as well.

However, the summer was altered forever when Chris went up north to work and, much to his dismay, live with his dad.

Initially, I still hung out with those brothers, and a couple other guys, but it just wasn’t the same. Everyone really was going their own way. Besides that, they were all staying in Southern Alberta and going to school in Lethbridge, either to the college or the university. I was headed back to Edmonton.

About halfway through the summer, I stopped calling those guys, and they never called me. I became much more of a home body, just going to work at the greenhouse until the season ended, then hanging around the farm.

I was just biding my time until it was time to go back to university when life would really start again.

I recall one day clearly at the greenhouse. It was actually part of their farmstead, so they had a bunch of graineries and buildings out back too. We were actually cleaning and organizing a bunch of wooden graineries. I was walking between buildings and I thought to myself, “I can’t wait to get back to Edmonton – and I am never coming back here.”

And I never went back to the farm to live again.

The song
There was always music playing in the greenhouse while we worked, and I heard “Electric Blue” a bunch on an old radio.

“Electric Blue” was actually co-written by Iva Davies of Icehouse and John Oates of Hall and Oates fame. It was released on Aug. 31, 1987, and was the second single from their “Man of Colours” album. The first was “Crazy’, which I had also heard and liked. That was also probably part of the reason I wanted to buy the tape initially.

Anyway, “Electric Blue” went all he way to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It also was number one in Australia, and reached number 10 in Canada.

Parting thoughts
I distinctly recall, at one time or another, walking around the greenhouse that summer of 1988 singing “Electric Blue”.

Even now as I write this, I am taken back to that summer which truly was a transition. Everything I left behind, metaphorically, was gone. Now, everything was waiting for me in a new place.

Remembering “Human Touch” by Rick Springfield

Some strange sounds come out of the Claresholm Arena in the town I live in. Today was a very good example. It is Family Day, a day created by our provincial government intended for Albertans to spend time with their families. I went down to the rink to take some pictures of parents skating with their children.

At first, when I entered the arena and passed through the foyer, I didn’t hear it.

However, once I got on one of the players’ bench to set up in my usual perch for these sorts of things, the sound was unmistakable.

My boss’s daughter and her boyfriend were there too, and I looked at her.

“This song is 40 years old,” I exclaimed.

She nodded. She knew that too.

I was surprised to hear it because it wasn’t an iconic song, much less one I ever heard at the rink.

But there it was, “Human Touch” by Rick Springfield, playing over the arena sound system.

The in-between song
When I first heard it, I kind of laughed. It really wasn’t that long ago that I blogged about Rick Springfield’s last big hit “Love Somebody”.

I had referenced how I had listened to a lot of Rick Springfield before that, because he had been a staple of the junior high dance. Beyond his signature song “Jessie’s Girl”, he had “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “I’ve Done Everything for You”, and “Love is All Right Tonight”.

It made me think, where does “Human Touch” fit in, because I do remember that song from my junior high days. In particular, I remember my neighbour Mike talking about it.

So, I had to look it up.

Rick Springfield broke out with his “Working Class Dog” album in 1981. It was the one with “Jessie’s Girl”, “Love is All Right Tonight”, and “I’ve Done Everything for You”. His next album “Success Hasn’t Spoiled me Yet” came out in 1982 and produced another big hit in “Don’t Talk to Strangers”.

I also knew “Love Somebody” came out in 1984 on the soundtrack album for “Hard to Hold”.

So where did “The Human Touch” fit in?

Well, Rick Springfield was even more prolific than I remembered. It came out in 1983 off his album entitled “Living in Oz”.

It came out between “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “Love Somebody”.

It was the in-between song.

The song
“Human Touch” peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, not as successful as the other songs. Interestingly, it also peaked at number 23, making it his most successful song in the United Kingdom. In fact, “Human Touch” was his only top 40 song in the United Kingdom. None of those others cracked the top 40.

It just shows you every country has its own unique taste.

Parting thoughts
I listened to “Human Touch” again when I got back to my office, and it does have a catchy riff. It has actually been an ear worm much of the day as I have been working writing news stories.

It made me think of a couple things. One thing is that, looking at the lyrics, Rick Springfield uses some interesting word choices. They are more complicated than repeating the same phrases over and over. He does that too, but his verses are really interesting to listen to. I first noticed that when I watched “Hard to Hold”. My spouse has a tough time hearing the TV sometimes, so we always have on the closed caption. Reading his song lyrics while they played gave me a new perspective.

The other thing is that I never give enough credit to my neighbour Mike for the influence he had on me when it came to music. That was really the case in 1982 and 1983 before I really got into music in 1984.

“Human Touch” came out in June of 1983 when we would have been in the summer between Grade 8 and Grade 9.

Today, I could actually hear him singing the chorus of “Human Touch” in my mind’s eye as well.

I am still curious as to how that particular song ended up on the sound system at the Claresholm Arena, when the vast majority of children and their parents weren’t even born when it came out.

Maybe Rick Springfield has a little more staying power than I thought.

Or maybe it’s just a random playlist from Spotify.

Remembering the 1984 Taber basketball tournament

It was a moment I will never forget, and one of the highlights of my basketball career.

Forty years ago today, on my 14th birthday, the St. Joseph’s School Jaguars won the consolation final of a tournament in Taber.

It was a weekend to remember that started horribly and got a whole lot better.

The season
Hockey was the sport boys played in Coaldale back in the 1980s. They played basketball as well, but whenever there was a conflict between the two, hockey always won.

That left a small school such as ours with two choices. The basketball team could have hockey players who would show up all week for practices and games, but abandon the team in an instant on weekends when we had tournaments and the playoffs. Or, hockey players were just not welcome on the team if they could not commit to playing every game.

In Grade 9, our coach decided he had had enough of not knowing how many players he would have from week to week and weekend to weekend.

The result was that, on most nights, we had six players. That meant one sub for the entire team every game. If we got in foul trouble or had back-to-back games, as we had in tournaments, we had our challenges.

At the end of my Grade 8 season, our team lost Garry Spiess, our best player, to graduation. He was second in the league in scoring, but we had one of the best Grade 8 players in Joseph Ivacak, who finished 10th in league scoring.

Until he moved to Edmonton.

We still had three Grade 9 players, but Joseph would have taken us to another level.

Instead, we had not won a league game going into this tournament in Taber.

It was a tournament St. Joe’s played in every year, and we had never had a lot of success.

Friday night darkness
Our first game was against Milk River. When we got to the gym, they just looked intimidating by the way they practised. It was with military precision.

We just did some lay-ups then shot around.

Shawn Kingston always took the opening tip for us, and usually won it. On this day, he was up against their best player, this huge mountain of a boy, with an afro, named Dewey. Not only did Dewey win the tip, but they had a play designed off it where he tipped it to their guard Ray Saga who triggered three passes and a lay up.

We didn’t know what hit us.

They were relentless, and just kept on scoring. Beyond Dewey and Ray Saga, they had another monster named Shawn Balog who also filled the net.

The game was over by halftime.

Milk River did kind of call off the dogs and put in their subs for much of the second half. They kept on scoring, partly because they kept running, and partly because we had six guys. It was brutal.

I do recall hitting double figures with 10 points, but they were hard points.

After the game, we were just shell shocked. We went back to this classroom we were changing in, and our coach just reamed us out.

“You guys played the shits,” he growled. That was the only time all season he ever said anything like that. In fact, it was the only time he even yelled at us.

I rode back to Coaldale with my friend Mike Hartman and we agreed on one thing.

It couldn’t get any worse.

Home team Saturday morning
Our loss put us on the consolation side of the tournament, and set up a date with the host team – W.R. Myers of Taber.

We heard their captain was another beast who could shoot with both hands. That seemed like a big deal.

We were loose warming up. I think that was because we really had nothing to lose. We couldn’t have had a worse game then the night before.

When Shawn lined up for the tip against their vaunted captain it was really cool. Their captain, and I really wish I would have got his name, sported this bleached red head band. He made a point of shaking Shawn’s hand and wished him and the rest of us good luck.

I felt bad that Shawn won the tip and we went down and scored. I was on the base line, got a pass, and took a a shot I practised all the time in shoot arounds before class started. However, I never got a chance to use in the offence we ran. It went in.

The next time down the court, Shawn collided with their captain, and he went down. Instead of running off, he stuck out his hand to help up Shawn while the play was still going on down the court. That act of class has always stuck with me.

After I hit my third base line jump shot, our whole bench – so our coach, one sub, and assistant coach Mr. Roth – stood up and cheered.

In one of my less than finest moments I ran past them all yelling at our coach, “I told you I could make that shot. I told you.”

He just smiled.

As the game progressed we found ourselves hanging around and eventually got the lead. I remember being able to get a bunch of offensive rebounds and putting them in. That base line jumper kept falling for me too.

We also had these two Grade 7 guards that our coach used to trap the opposing team in their own end. He called it the rabbit trap. (I just got that after 40 years). They forced some turnovers, but the bigger effect was Taber could not set up.

We ended up winning by two or three baskets. When the final whistle blew I remember spiking the ball like we scored a touchdown in the Grey Cup.

I was stunned when I saw the score sheet. I had netted 18 points to lead all scorers. I just couldn’t believe that.

When we lined up to shake hands, there was that Taber captain again. He too a minute when he shook each of our hands to tell us we played well and wished us luck in the consolation final.

I couldn’t believe that either.

We were going to the consolation final.

“You’ll have no problem”
Our game wasn’t for a few hours, so we actually all went to Dairy Queen in Taber. While we were sitting in our booth, I overheard this conversation.

It was two parents of players on teams in the same tournament.

“Who are you playing next?”

“I have never heard of them. St. Joseph’s?”

“Oh, you’ll have no problem with them.”

I just shook my head and said nothing. That was my first experience of that. People making crass comments without even thinking they may be around to overhear them.

I didn’t share that with anyone. I just put it in the back of my mind for later reference.

One for the ages
Warm up was looser than ever. We had already won a game, something we had not done in the regular season, and only once all year. That was against Redcliff in a tournament in Stirling a few weeks earlier. Anything after that win against Taber was a bonus.

We were playing Vauxhall and again they had a tall, talented centre. This guy had rosy cheeks, frizzy brown hair and just had this kindness about him.

Shawn beat him on the opening tip and again we were off. This time, we really did control the boards. Shawn pulled down a lot on defence and I got a bunch I put back for scores on offence.

We went back and forth with them, but incredibly every time they put together any sort of run, we responded.

Our biggest challenge was that we had six guys. I had played the entire game against Taber, and it was looking like that would happen with Vauxhall too.

I was getting tired, but everyone else was too.

At one point, I remember one of our guys got fouled, and had two shots. When we lined up in the blocks, I actually sat down. A minute later the same thing happened, and I sat down again.

It was enough of a rest to get me through.

Once more, there were no buzzer beaters or miracle comebacks.

We won that game by two or three baskets.

Again, at the final whistle I spiked the ball. This time I grabbed it and spiked it again.

We all hugged each other, jumping up and down, and thrusting our fists in the air.

We had won the consolation side.

I gathered up everyone and we went to shake hands. Vauxhall was all class too, and I will always remember that.

We had to wait until the final was done, where Milk River mauled some team to win the championship.

Then, they called for the captain of the St. Joseph’s Jaguars to accept the consolation trophy.

I was in my street clothes, but went up there and accepted the trophy.

It was the first one I had ever held.

My parents had come to Taber with my brother and his wife who were visiting. They were taking me to Buffalo Bill’s for my birthday. It was a pizza place with a games room in Lethbridge.

All I could think was – what a great birthday present.

Parting thoughts
Afterwards, my coach said something to me that was quite profound. I had observed that we seemed to do well playing teams outside our league. We won that game in Stirling then two in Taber. He said that was the point of tournaments – you don’t realize how tough our league actually is.

That tournament also echoed in my life for years.

When I was in Grade 8, my Mom, sister and I took a bus tour to Disneyland. There weren’t many boys my age on that bus. There was one, Ulf Larson, who I befriended and we spent a lot of time together. We also talked about basketball, and how we both played – me in Coaldale, and him in Milk River.

Ulf was one of the subs that Milk River team put in when they blew us out. I was actually guarding him, but he had no memory of me.

When I started Grade 11, I went to my first English 20 class and there was this new kid in class. We got assigned to some group work and he was in my group. He had rosy cheeks and frizzy brown hair. He said his name was Brad and he moved to Coaldale from Vauxhall. It took me a minute, but I remembered him. He remembered me too. A year later we, and all our classmates, would cross the stage together as graduates of Kate Andrews High School. Brad even gave the toast to parents at our graduation banquet. This, after Brad's dad gave this amazing and emotional toast to the grads.

The weirdest thing happened about 15 years ago. I had been playing basketball Tuesday nights at the LDS Church for years. One night, this huge guy named Dalton Rowland showed up asking if he could play. He was very nice, and gracious, and he fit right in.

Afterwards one of the guys asked him where he was from. Dalton said he was from Milk River.

I turned and said that, “Back in junior high we played Milk River in a tournament and they smoked us. They had two big guys – Shawn Balog”.

“Balog,” Dalton nodded.

“And this guy named Dewey who was just a beast.”

“I’m Dewey,” he said.

“Oh,” I stuttered. “You’ve grown up.”

We both laughed.

Dewey became a close friend until he moved away a few years ago.

One last, odd coincidence.

Dewey and I were at a basketball tournament at the high school, talking to one of the teaching assistants.

Milk River came up, and she said she had a cousin who played basketball there.

“Who’s that?” Dewey asked.

“Ray Saga”.

It is a small world.

And it all started 40 years ago today

Beach Boys: One last hurrah in the ‘80s

Tom Cruise and his buddy Brian Brown were working side by side mixing drinks and entertaining patrons. They were having a blast tossing around bottles and shakers, and it was all set to the sounds of the song “Kokomo”.

Although they are incredibly prolific and seemed to be around forever, that is my first real memory of the Beach Boys.

Yesterday, I read that Brian Wilson, the leader of the band, has been diagnosed with dementia and his family is petitioning for conservatorship.

It reminded me of when the Beach Boys covered a song by another classic band, recorded an unlikely duet, and the summer of 1988 when they were back in vogue.

That’s when I really learned more about their history, music, and so much more.

The years before
The Beach Boys were turning out hit records for 20 years before the dawn of the 1980s. Their first top 20 song was “Surfin’ Safari” in 1962 which peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1963, “Surfin’ U.S.A.” hit number three; “Surfer Girl” hit number seven; “Little Deuce Coupe” hit number 15; “Be True to Your School” hit number six; and “In My Room” hit number 23.

The hits just kept coming. In 1964, “Fun Fun Fun” hit number five; and “I Get Around” went all the way to number one, their first chart topping single. In 1965, “Help Me Rhonda”, became the Beach Boys’ second number one single; “California Girls” peaked at number three; and “Barbara Ann”, went all the way to number two. In 1966, “Sloop John B", went all the way to number three; “Wouldn’t it be Nice” peaked at number eight; and “Good Vibrations” became the Beach Boys’ third chart topping single.

The Beach Boys had a lot of other songs in the 1960s, but these are the ones I recall hearing when I was growing up. They kept on performing in the 1970s and 1980s, but had nowhere the success of their first decade of hits.

As I got into music, the only Beach Boys songs I heard were the classics on the radio.

Until one day, I saw something different on TV.

Covering a classic
It was 1986, and I was watching “Entertainment Tonight”. I had stepped away from the TV for a minute, probably to go to the bathroom, when I heard “California Dreamin’,” a classic song by he Mamas and the Papas that I just loved. However, it sounded slightly different.

When I settled back on the couch I discovered why. The Mamas and the Papas weren’t singing “California Dreamin’”.

No, the Beach Boys were.

They had recorded a cover version of the classic. It sounded really good too, for a cover. The video also included John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, and Roger McGuinn, three members of the Mamas and the Papas.

Unlike the original song, which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 for the Mamas and the Papas in 1966, the Beach Boys’ version got as high as number 57, but did peak at number eight on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1986.

The Beach Boys would have greater chart success the next year with another interesting collaboration.

The Boys
The Beach Boys teamed up with another “Boys Band” – The Fat Boys – in 1987 to record “Wipeout”. The Surfaris first recorded and performed “Wipeout” in 1963, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

The version by the Fat Boys featuring the Beach Boys was released in July of 1987 and peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 almost 25 years later. “Wipeout” came out in the summer after I graduated high school, when I was focusing on getting ready for university. Then it hit the top 20 when I started university and wasn’t listening to much music.

That’s why I didn’t hear it as much as the Beach Boys’ earlier stuff.

The Beach Boys steady improvement on the charts from 1986 to 1987 peaked in 1988, with a soundtrack song.

In the movies
I returned home from university in the summer of 1988, just in time to see a new theatre complex was opening in Lethbridge, at the brand new Park Place Mall. It opened up the world to more movie-watching possibilities, and I took full advantage going to see movies with my friends Chris Vining, Mat and Bill.

One of the movies I went to see with Bill in late July or early August was “Cocktail”. It starred Tom Cruise opposite Australian actor Brian Brown and Elisabeth Shue, best known at the time as the love interest for “The Karate Kid”. Cruise and Brown played professional bartenders while Shue was Cruise’s love interest.

The Beach Boys recorded a song for the movie soundtrack called “Kokomo” that had come out in the middle of July. Among the people who wrote the song was John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. “Kokomo” had a tropical, beach kind of feel to it, and the song fit the movie perfectly.

“Kokomo” went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The song was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

Wikipedia reveals “Kokomo” was the Beach Boys’ first original top-20 single in 20 years and their first number-one hit in 22 years.

Tragedy
The Beach Boys were made up of the Wilson brothers – Brian, Dennis, and Carl, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine.

Dennis was the drummer and only true surfer in the group. In later years he struggled with alcohol and drugs and his relationships were strained.

On Dec. 28, 1983, Dennis Wilson drowned to death.

Pretty much everything I know about the Beach Boys came from a 1990 TV movie called “Summer Dreams: The Story of The Beach Boys”. The movie actually started with the drowning of Dennis Wilson then went back and told the story of the band. Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood played Dennis Wilson, and he was excellent.

I have also heard the death of Dennis Wilson referred to as part of the “drummer curse” – along with Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, and John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, who also died in their prime.

Family affair
There is another interesting connection between the Beach Boys and the Mamas and the Papas. John and Michelle Phillips’ daughter Chynna Phillips and Carnie and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Brian Wilson, formed the band Wilson-Phillips in 1989.

Wilson Phillips would go on to have five songs hit the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Hold On”, “Release Me”, and “You’re in Love” all reached number one, while ”Impulsive” peaked at number four, and “The Dream is Still Alive” peaked at number 12.

Parting thoughts
The Beach Boys were always a ‘60s band to me, spoken in the same breath as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones of that period. They had a huge string of successful songs from that period, then were never able to match that level.

However, for a three-year period in the 1980s they were back.

Not only had they released a solid cover of a classic song, and teamed up with a unique group to record another surfing song but, improbably, they had a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 more than 20 years after their last one.

The 1980s gave he Beach Boys one last hurrah, and I was glad I was there to hear it.

Rod Stewart: Raspy and romantic

Singer Rod Stewart in the '80s.

Source: https://twinpeters0.tripod.com/RSFC_Timeline/1986.html

(May be subject to copyright)

For all the songs Rod Stewart has recorded, and all the hits he has had, my outstanding memory of his music in the ‘80s is an image of Robert Redford eating ice cream with no pants on and dancing.

The song is “Love Touch” from 1986, one of the songs on the soundtrack for the movie “Legal Eagles”.

Back then, I had been into music for less than two years, and Rod Stewart still seemed to be a singer from the 1970s.

Yesterday I heard he was selling his entire music collection, and it reminded me just how much Rod Stewart had recorded in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and beyond.

The years before
Long before I really got into music, I knew about Rod Stewart. He just always seemed to be there with his raspy voice and long blonde hair with a curl.

Through the ‘70s, he had a ton of songs. From 1971 I remember hearing “Maggie May”, which went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart; “Reason to Believe”; “(I Know) I’m Losing You”, which peaked at number 24; and “You Wear it Well”, which peaked at number 13.

There was “This Old Heart of Mine” in 1975 that peaked at number 83; and “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna be All Right) in 1976 which was Stewart’s second number one song on the Billboard Hot 100.

From 1977 there was “The First Cut is the Deepest”, which went to number 21; and “You’re in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)”, which peaked at number four.

From the next year, 1978, there was “Hot Legs”, which peaked at number 28; and “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”, which was Stewart’s third number one single on the Billboard Hot 100.

There was so much more, but these were the songs I remember.

Rod Stewart may not have continued that level of success into the 1980s, but he still churned out a lot of great songs.

The dawn of the decade
Stewart picked up right where he left off in 1980 with “Passion”, which went all the way to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

The next year, 1981, he hit number five on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Young Turks”. In 1983, “Baby Jane” peaked at number 14.

In 1984, he released “Infatuation”, which went all the way to number six on the Billboard hot 100, and “Some Guys Have All the Luck”, which peaked at number 10. Then, in 1985 he released “People Get Ready”, which went all the way to number 48.

Summer of 1986
In June of 1986, I was listening to the radio and heard a new song from Rod Stewart on the radio. In my mind, he seemed to be a singer from the ‘70s. I had only been really deep into music just under two years, so I didn’t have an extensive background in his music. I actually thought this was kind of a comeback song.

The song was called “Love Touch”, and it was from the movie “Legal Eagles”, which remains one of my favourites. Robert Redford plays an assistant district attorney who falls in with a dynamic defence lawyer played by Debra Winger. She is defending an artist accused of murder, played by Daryl Hannah.

When I went to see “Legal Eagles” in the theatre, I kept waiting to hear “Love Touch”. It played at the end of the movie over a montage of scenes including Redford eating ice cream with no pants on. Interestingly, “Love Touch” was not on the “Legal Eagles” soundtrack, but was on his next album called “Every Beat of My Heart”. It was another one of those songs from soundtracks to be released then appear on the next album for their artist. “Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie from the movie “White Nights”, and “Modern Woman” by Billy Joel from the movie “Ruthless People” are two other examples to go with “Love Touch”.

“Love Touch” was a great song, going all the way to number six on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Rest of the decade
He closed out the decade with more memorable songs.

In 1988, he released “Lost in You”, which went all the way to number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Forever Young”, which also peaked at number 12.

Stewart closed out the decade with “This Old Heart of Mine”, which peaked at number 10; and “Downtown Train”, which peaked at number three.

The years after
Rod Stewart kept on producing good songs. In 1991 he had “The Rhythm of my Heart”, which went to number five; “The Motown Song”, which peaked at number 10; and “Broken Arrow”, which went to number 20.

That year he also recorded a duet with Canadian band Glass Tiger called “My Town”, which peaked at number eight in Canada but did not chart in the States.

In 1993, he released “Have I Told You Lately,” which peaked at number five; “Reason to Believe”, which peaked at number 19; and his fourth number one hit “All for Love", which he recorded with Canadian Bryan Adams and Sting.

In 1995, “Leave Virginia Alone” went to number 52; and in 1998, “Ooh La La” went to number 39.

Rod Stewart just keeps on recording and performing to this day.

Parting thoughts
He was such a part of the backdrop of the 1970s. What I did not realize until I looked at his discography was how many of his songs came out in the 1980s. Some came out just before “Love Touch” which was my first exposure to a new Rod Stewart song on the radio.

It just shows how much a part of the soundtrack of growing up Rod Stewart was.

And, there is just something about a Rod Stewart song. That raspy voice can produce some amazingly romantic songs. I recall seeing the video for “Tonight’s the Night” on an obscure video show one late Saturday night on CBC. It had Swedish actress Britt Ekland in it, who was Stewart’s girlfriend at the time.

You could just see the love and tenderness in his eyes, and hear it in his voice.

He truly was raspy and romantic.

Mark Eaton: Shot-blocking legend

Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz was a dominant shot blocker in the '80s.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/29/us/mark-eaton-utah-jazz-dead

(May be subject to copyright)

If he was patrolling the key, you entered at your own peril. Tall with gangly long arms and a wispy beard, Mark Eaton was a shot blocking machine in the NBA in the 1980s.

Recentlty, Victor Wembanyama recorded a triple double with shot blocks, and TSN showed a list of all the players who performed the same feat.

It is so rare because, in addition to the difficulty in blocking 10 shots in a game, it is putting that together with double digits in points, assists or rebounds in two of these categories in the same game.

Sitting at the top of the list, signifying the first player to ever do it, was Mark Eaton way back in 1983.

It is just part of the fascinating story of one of my favourite basketball players of all time.

Discovered
It really is like a story out of a movie. Mark Eaton, who grew up in Southern California, was extremely tall in high school, uncoordinated, scrawny and did not get much playing time.

Consequently, he left basketball behind when he finished high school. Instead he went to the Arizona Automotive Institute in Glendale and trained to be a mechanic. He returned to Orange County, and was fixing cars in Anaheim when something happened that changed Eaton’s life.

Tom Lubin was a chemistry professor at Cypress College in Cypress, California, and an assistant coach on the school’s basketball team. Interestingly, Lubin had earlier discovered Swen Nater, who never played high school basketball, but went on to a long career in the pros. Lubin discovered Eaton repairing cars in Anaheim. He encouraged Eaton, who eventually enrolled in Cypress College, to try out for the basketball team in 1978.

Eaton, who was seven feet, four inches tall, made the team. After his freshman year, he was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in the 1979 NBA Draft, in the fifth round. He was eligible for the draft because he had been out of high school for four years. Instead, he chose to return to Cypress College where he was part of Cypress College’s state championship team in the 1979-1980 season. He had turned into a serviceable junior college player, averaging 14.3 points per game over his two seasons at Cypress College.

He transferred to UCLA in 1980, but did not see much floor time in his two seasons with the Bruins. In total, he played just over 53 minutes in his two seasons in college.

Wikipedia reveals Eaton was discouraged. However, at a summer pick-up game, superstar centre Wilt Chamberlain encouraged Eaton to guard the basket, get rebounds and pass the ball to smaller, quicker guards.

It was a turning point in Eaton’s career.

Eaton received little attention after the 1981-1982 season because he had played so little with the Bruins. He attended two tryout camps he had to pay for, and got two lukewarm offers to play overseas.

Then, the last place Utah Jazz selected Eaton in the fourth round of the 1982 NBA Draft. They saw in him a long-term project, but were prepared to invest the time to develop him into a dominant defender.

The Jazz would not be disappointed.

Rookie season
Eaton’s rookie season was the 1982-1983 campaign. The Jazz, lacking cash, traded their starting centre part way through the season and Eaton was pressed into action. He made an impact that first season, starting 32 games and recording 275 blocked shots, a club record at the time, in only 19 minutes of action a game. He averaged 3.4 blocks per game, which was third in the NBA.

The Jazz would finish with a record of 30 wins and 52 losses. It would be the last losing season Utah would have in Eaton’s 11 years with the Jazz.

Getting better
Before the 1983-1984 season, Eaton went through a lot of off-season training where he learned how to be a basketball player. That year he played in 82 games, pulling down 595 rebounds and blocking 351 shots to broke his own franchise record. He also led the NBA with 4.28 shot blocks per game.

The Jazz finished with a 45-37 record, good enough for first place in the Midwest Division, second in the Western Conference, and their first trip to the playoffs in franchise history. They defeated the Denver Nuggets 3-2 in the first round before losing to the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semi-finals in six games.

Best in the business
The 1984-1985 season was a breakout, record-setting years for Mark Eaton. He recorded 456 shot blocks, breaking the NBA record of 393 set in the 1973-1974 season by Elmore Smith. Eaton averaged 5.56 blocks per game, another NBA single-season record, and averaged 11.3 rebounds per game.

He was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team.

The Jazz finished fourth in the Midwest Division and sixth in the Western Conference. They went to the playoffs again, defeating Houston in the first round before losing to Denver in five games in the conference semi-finals.

Settling in
The1985-1986 season was the only one in a five-year span where Eaton did not lead the league in shot blocks per game. Still, he had 4.6 blocks per game and averaged 8.4 rebounds per game. He was also named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the second year in a row. He had settled in as one of the best defenders in the league.

The Jazz finished fourth in he Midwest Division once again and fifth overall in the West Conference with a record of 42-40. They met Dallas in the first round of the playoffs and lost the best-of-five series in four games.

The year before Utah had drafted guard John Stockton and this year drafted Karl Malone. Together the two of them, plus Eaton and some others, would turn the Jazz into one of the best in the west.

League leader again
Eaton led the NBA in shot blocks per game again in the 1986-1987 season with 4.1, which was actually less than the year before when he did not lead the league. He was also named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team for the first time.

The Jazz finished second in the Midwest Division and fourth in the Western Conference with a record of 44-38. They faced Golden State where they went the distance with the Warriors before losing in five games.

Eaton again led the NBA in shot blocks per game in the 1987-1988 season with 3.7, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team for the second straight season.

Utah finished third in the Midwest Division and fifth in the Western Conference with a 47-35 record. They defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 3-1 in the first round, before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in the conference semi-finals in seven games.

Back on top
Mark Eaton was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the 1988-1989 season for the second time in his career. He recorded 3.8 shot blocks per game, but did not lead the league. Interestingly, his average was higher than the year before when he did lead the league. He was also named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team for the third time and was NBA All-Star for the only time in his career.

Utah finished first in the Midwest Division and second in the Western Conference with a record of 51-31, but were swept in the first round of the playoffs by Golden State.

The years after
Mark Eaton played his entire 11-year career with the Utah Jazz, playing his last basketball in the 1992-1993 season. He missed the entire 1993-1994 season due to a back injury, and retired in September of 1994. He finished his career holding the NBA record for career blocked shots per game average with 3.5, a record that still stands.

Sadly, he died after a bicycle accident in May of 2021.

He was 64 years old.

Parting thoughts
For so much of the 1980s, I didn’t see a lot of basketball because it was the one sport not carried on peasant vision. I had to rely on my relatives with cable TV in Calgary, Lethbridge and Brooks, and later friends in Coaldale. It was my best friend, Chris Vining, who first told me about Mark Eaton and how great a defender he was.

In fact, he told me Eaton blocked players so cleanly, the Jazz designed plays off his shot blocks.

Finally, I did get to see Mark Eaton, and I was not disappointed. He was dominating in the key, and personified the phrase, “Protecting the rim”. Watching him block shots was a thing of beauty.

It was only later that I discovered his life story, and the way he made it to the NBA.

He was a mechanic, looking under the hood of a car, when totally by accident a basketball coach discovered him. It is incredible.

Someone should make a movie of his life.

Mark Messier: The consummate leader

Mark Messier with Team Canada in the 1987 Canada Cup.

Source: https://customthrowbackjerseys.com

(May be subject to copyright)

There are so many vivid yet contradictory images. One minute he lays an elbow on a Calgary Flame so vicious, it not only bloodies his nose but breaks it. The next, he is checking one of the best players in the world into the ice to help his country win the Canada Cup. The next he obliterates a different Calgary Flame to the point he is so wobbly he gets up, falls down, gets up and struggles to the bench.

His fans will swear by him but his opponents will swear at him. Many hated him but loved having him on their team.

Over time, he evolved into the very definition of leadership. He was the ultimate captain.

Such is the complex career of Mark Messier.

I saw him doing commentary a few days ago, and I went through all those emotions again, from disliking him, to respecting him and, ultimately, to liking him.

In the beginning
Mark Messier began his professional career with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association for a short stint in the 1978-1979 season. After some time with the St. Albert Saints of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, he finished the 1978-1979 season playing 47 games with the Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA.

The WHA merged with the NHL after the season. The players of the teams not joining the NHL either went to the teams who owned their rights or, if they were young enough, into the NHL Entry Draft.

Messier was 18, so he went into the draft, and was taken by the Edmonton Oilers in the third round, 48th overall.

The rest would be history.

NHL debut
Messier’s first season in the NHL, 1979-1980, was also Edmonton’s first year in the NHL. He played in 75 games with the Oilers, scoring 12 goals and adding 21 assists for 33 points, and taking 120 minutes in penalties. The Oilers finished fourth in the Smythe Division and 16th overall. That year the top 16 teams made the playoffs in a format where number one play number 16, two played 15 and so on. The Oilers drew Philadelphia and were swept in three straight by the Flyers. Messier had one goal and two assists for three points in the playoffs.

Interestingly, a good chunk of hockey fans in Alberta were Oiler fans. I recall watching Edmonton on “Hockey Night in Canada” and cheering for them.

I also recall one game they were talking about Messier and how, after he had a good game, they talked to his dad who was so proud, exclaiming, “That’s my boy!”

All of that would change the next year when the Atlanta Flames moved north and became the Calgary Flames.

A blood feud was born.

Playoff upset
Messier and the Oilers got better in the 1980-1981 season. He played in 72 games, scoring 23 goals and 40 assists for 63 points, as well as 102 minutes in penalties. The Oilers finished fourth in the Smythe Division again, and 14th overall. They drew Montreal, who finished third overall, in the first round of the playoffs. The Oilers shocked the hockey world, sweeping the Canadiens in three straight. This was just two years after Montreal had won the last of four straight Stanley Cups. The Oilers moved on to play New York. The Islanders beat the Oilers in six games, on their way to their second of four straight Stanley Cups. Messier had two goals and five assists in nine playoff games.

The Oilers were on the rise and so was their budding young star.

Breakout
The 1981-1982 season would be a breakout year for Mark Messier, but disappointing for the Oilers. They would finish first in the Smythe Division. They drew the fourth place Los Angeles Kings, who staged a miraculous comeback to oust the Oilers in five games. It was the last first-round exit for the Oilers until the end of the decade.

Messier had a breakout season, scoring 50 goals for the only time in his career, and adding 38 assists for 88 points, to go with 119 penalty minutes. He was named to the NHL First All-Star Team and played in the all-star game. He also had one goal and two assists for three points in five playoff games.

One step closer
The Edmonton Oilers took another step closer to the Stanley Cup in the 1982-1983 season. They finished first in the Smythe Division and defeated Winnipeg, Calgary and Chicago to get to the Stanley Cup final where they were swept by the defending champion New York Islanders. Messier finished the playoffs with 15 goals and six assists for 21 points in 15 playoff games.

Messier cracked the 100-point mark for the first time in his career, recording 48 goals and 58 assists for 106 points in 77 games, and racked up 72 minutes in penalties. He was named to the NHL First All-Star Team for the second straight year and played in his second straight all-star game.

Over the hump
The 1983-1984 season would be an historic one for the Edmonton Oilers and the National Hockey League. The Oilers finished first in the Smythe Division again and drew the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the playoffs. After sweeping the Jets, they outlasted Calgary who came back from a 3-1 series deficit before falling in seven games. The Oilers then swept Minnesota in the conference final in four straight games. Awaiting Edmonton were the New York Islanders on their “Drive for Five” Stanley Cups. The Oilers would put a stop to that, beating the Islanders in five. Edmonton made history by winning their first Stanley Cup, and being the first team from the NHL-WHA merger to win the Stanley Cup. Messier won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the outstanding player in the playoffs where he had eight goals and 18 assists for 26 points in 19 games.

Messier had another stellar season, scoring 37 goals and 64 assists for 101 points, to go with 165 penalty minutes, a career high. He was named to the NHL Second All-Star Team for the first and only time in his career and played in his third straight all-star game.

Repeat champions
The Oilers would repeat as Stanley Cup champions during the 1984-1985 playoffs. They again finished first in the Smythe Division, then swept Los Angeles in the first round of the playoffs, swept Winnipeg in the second round and beat Chicago in six games in the conference final. They then beat Philadelphia in five games for their second straight Stanley Cup. Messier finished the playoffs with 12 goals and 13 assists for 25 points in 18 games.

Messier finished the season with 23 goals and 31 assists for 54 points and 57 penalty minutes in just 55 games. I am pretty sure he was injured for parts of that season.

Shocked
Everything was going as planned in the 1985-1986 season – until it wasn’t. The Oilers finished first in the Smythe Division yet again, and swept Vancouver in the first round of the playoffs. They met a determined Calgary Flames team in the second round, and were ousted from the playoffs by their arch-nemesis in an entertaining seven-game series. Messier finished his team’s abbreviated playoff run with four goals and six assists for 10 points in 10 games.

Messier missed another 17 games that season, but still scored 35 goals and 49 assists for 84 points, and 70 penalty minutes. He also played in his fourth all-star game.

Redemption
The Oilers were not to be denied in the 1986-1987 season, and won their third Stanley Cup in four years. After finishing first in the Smythe Division, they beat Los Angeles in five games in the first round of the playoffs. Winnipeg did the Oilers a favour and eliminated Calgary in six games. Edmonton then swept Winnipeg, beat Detroit in the conference final in five games, and outlasted the Flyers in seven games to win their third Stanley Cup. Messier finished the playoffs with 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points in 21 games.

Messier had his third 100-plus point season with 107 points on 37 goals and 70 assists in 71 games, and spent 73 minutes in the penalty box.

Four of a kind
Edmonton repeated as Stanley Cup champions in the 1987-1988 season. They took first in the Smythe Division and defeated Winnipeg in five games in the first round of the playoffs. They faced Calgary in the second round, for the first time since their humiliating defeat in 1986. Edmonton was a team possessed sweeping the Flames, then beating Detroit in five games in the conference final then sweeping my beloved Boston Bruins in five games to win their fourth Stanley Cup in five years. I say swept in five because a power outage occurred during one game and, with the teams tied, they replayed the game. Messier had his best ever playoff, scoring 11 goals and 23 assists for 34 points in 19 playoff games.

He had his best point total to date in the regular season too, scoring 37 goals and adding 74 assists for 111 points in 70 games, to go with 103 penalty minutes. He also played in his fifth all-star game.

Titanic shift
The NHL saw a titanic shift before the 1988-1989 season as Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player on Earth, was traded by the Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.

Interestingly, in the news conference announcing the trade, Gretzky started to cry and said, “I told Mess I wouldn’t do this.” Obviously he was referring to his dear friend Mark Messier.

The trade made the Kings an instant contender, and left the hockey world wondering how would the Oilers respond in the post-Gretzky world?

A lot of attention was focused on Jimmy Carson, who was the biggest name coming to Edmonton, and he did respond with a 100-point season.

However, the mantle of leadership really fell to Mark Messier. Up to that point, to a lot of watchers including myself, he had been a physical player who could intimidate his opponents while scoring goals.

From then on, he became a leader, arguably one of the best in history.

Showdown
The Gretzky trade paid dividends immediately in the 1988-1989 season. The Kings finished second in the Smythe Division behind the first-place and eventual Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames, while the defending champion Oilers fell to third place. That set up a first-round playoff showdown between the Oilers and the Kings. The series went the distance before the Kings triumphed in Game 7. The Kings went on to lose to Calgary, while the Oilers were done for the season, and wondering if they were done for good as a Stanley Cup contender. Messier had one goal and 11 assists for 12 points in those seven playoff games.

In the regular season, Messier scored 33 goals and 61 assists for 94 points, along with 130 penalty minutes in 72 games. He also played in his sixth all-star game.

Return to glory
The 1989-1990 season would be another one to remember as the Oilers, against the odds, returned to glory. They finished second in the Smythe Division behind the defending champion Flames and faced Winnipeg in the first round. It was an epic series, as the Oilers came back from down 3-1 to win the series in seven games.

Meanwhile, the Kings did the trick for the second straight season of eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champions from the playoffs. The Kings left everything on the ice to beat the Flames, because the Oilers swept them in four games, then beat Chicago in six games in the conference final to advance to their sixth Stanley Cup final in eight years.\

They faced my beloved Boston Bruins in a rematch of the 1988 Stanley Cup final. I believe the entire series was swayed in the Oilers favour right in Game 1 when Petr Klima scored in the third overtime period for the win. It just seemed to take the wind out of Boston’s sails as they went down in five games to the Oilers. Edmonton had won their fifth Stanley Cup in seven years.

Messier finished the playoffs with nine goals and 22 assists for 31 points in 22 games.

That season he won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player, was named to the NHL First All-Star Team at centre and played in his seventh all-star game. His previous all-star selections were at left wing. He finished the season with 45 goals and 84 assists for 129 points, a career high, and added 79 penalty minutes in 79 games.

Team Canada
Mark Messier was a member of three Canada Cup championship teams in 1984, 1987, and 1991. It is the 1987 Canada Cup, I believe the best international tournament ever, where Messier was really impressive.

The team had formed and been training. Although Canada was the defending champion, everyone still feared the Soviets, their high-flying style and explosive offence. Messier did not initially go to camp.

I was at university in res in September of 1987 when I saw the front page of the "Edmonton Journal" announcing Messier had joined Team Canada. It was like a lightning bolt. He did not fear the Russians. Conversely, I think they feared him, and for good reason. He was tough, played on the edge, and flirted with the line of what was dirty and what wasn’t.

Ultimately, he would check the Soviets’ best line, and forward Vladimir Krutov in particular, helping Canada win the championship 2-1 in a tight three-game championship series.

On the edge
As I said, Messier flirted with the line of what was dirty and what was not. His nickname was “The Moose” because he bulled people over and dominated them physically. What I didn’t like were some of his cheap shots. He hit Perry Berezan of the Calgary Flames in the face with an elbow so hard he broke his nose and splattered blood everywhere. A few years later he hit Calgary defenceman Ric Nattress so hard he tried to skate to the bench, fell down, got up and collapsed on the ice. He was out.

It gave rise to jokes like one of my favourites. That same year in res in 1987-1988, we were watching “Clan of the Cave Bear”. The characters were all grunting to each other, not forming real words.

That’s when my floormate Mak Paranjape said “Mark Messier would be great in this movie.”

The years after
Mark Messier wouldn’t win any more Stanley Cups in Edmonton, and was traded to the New York Rangers part way through the 1991-1992 season.

That is where he really gained his reputation as a leader. He led the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup in 54 years in the 1993-1994 season. He famously guaranteed a win against the New Jersey Devils in a crucial semi-final and backed it up by scoring the tying and winning goals. He went on to win his second Hart Memorial Trophy with the Rangers in 1992. He was named to the NHL First All-Star Team at centre in 1992, and played in the NHL all-star game in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2004. He also played with Vancouver then returned to the Rangers, where he retired at the end of the 2003-2004 season.

His career statistics were 694 goals and 1,193 assists for 1,887 points in 1,756 games.

In 2017 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and that same year was named one of he 100 Greatest NHL Players in history.

Mark Messier was elected to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2007.

Parting thoughts
At the outset of his career, I really liked Mark Messier. He played with Wayne Gretzky, and was a great scorer. However, over time, he just seemed to get cockier and dirtier, and that just turned me off.

That view changed slightly with his effort playing for his country in the Canada Cup. I still remember his huge smile as he hoists the Canada Cup trophy with the newspaper headline “We Won” over the photo.

Then he was back to his old ways, especially when the Oilers tangled with the Calgary Flames.

My opinion changed for good after the Gretzky trade. Messier was older, more mature and had grown into a leader. He cemented that reputation when he led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup.

In 2006, the NHL created the Mark Messier Leadership Award to go to the player who leads by example on the ice, motivates his teammates, and is dedicated to community activities and charitable causes.

That sums up where he ended up in his career.

He was the consummate leader.

Billy Idol: Angry charm

The cover of a re-issue of Billy Idol's debut album "Billy Idol"..

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Idol_%28album%29

(May be subject to copyright)

He always seemed so angry. It was like he was growling into the microphone, and the corner of his lip just seemed to curl up when he sang.

Yet all of that was just part of the charm of Billy Idol.

He appeared in one of the many Super Bowl commercials that aired this past Sunday, and it took me back to rebel yelling, being a lover, wondering where the face without eyes was, and trying to hear what mony mony really meant.

Billy Idol had an interesting sound that made him a unique part of the sound track of the ‘80s.

Idol worship
I am not really sure where I first heard Billy Idol. It was likely in junior high, before I really got into music, while some of my classmates did. Some musical knowledge did seep into my head from listening to my classmates, going to junior high dances, and beginning to watch music shows. “Video Hits” was on CBC Channel 9 on the peasant vision dial after school a couple days a week, and “Solid Gold” was on Saturday nights on Channel 7 on the peasant vision dial.

Idol's first studio album came out in 1982, the self-titled “Billy Idol”. It had two songs that would become part of the classic Billy Idol catalogue.

“Hot in the City” was his first charting single, going all the way to number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. “White Wedding” followed suit, peaking at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1983, he released his first EP, or Extended Play, called “Don’t Stop”. The first single was “Dancing with Myself”. It is another classic part of the Billy Idol lexicon, but it never charted.

“Rebel Yell” was his next album and second studio album, released in 1984. The title track was the first single released, peaking at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The next single “Eyes without a Face” became Billy Idol’s first American top 10 hit, going all the way to number four.

“Flesh for Fantasy” was the third single off “Rebel Yell” and it peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100.

This was all music I heard a lot as I got into music. Looking at how poorly most of these songs charted, I am surprised I heard them as often as I did, whether at dances, on the radio, or when classmates played them. Maybe Billy Idol was just more popular where I was, then in the States.

Nevertheless, there was a lot of buzz when he was set to release his next album, and it too got a lot of hype and air play. This is where I come in.

Getting whiplash
It was 1986, and Billy Idol’s new album was called “Whiplash Smile”, his third studio album. I had heard about it on LA-107 FM and 1090 CHEC.

Then I heard the first single. “To Be a Lover” was released in the first month of Grade 12, September of 1986. It was a brooding song with a slow build up, and it was on the radio a lot. “To Be a Lover” went all the way to number six on the Billboard Hot 100.

The second single off “Whiplash Smile” was “Don’t Need a Gun”. I had never heard of this song before, but it came out in February of 1987 when I was busy with a lot of other things. It did chart, going all the way to number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Interestingly, the third single off “Whiplash Smile” was “Sweet Sixteen”, which was released in April of 1987, but I distinctly remember this single, and I was just as busy. It obviously got more attention, because it peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Whiplash Smile” peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 album chart, the same peak his previous album “Rebel Yell” reached.

That song
The next Billy Idol single would kind of sneak up on me. By the time I heard it, the song was pretty big.

It was called “Mony Mony” and originally released in 1981. A live version was released in September of 1987, right when I was starting university.

I first heard the song at dances in Lister Hall, the student residence complex I lived at when I went to the University of Alberta. I did not realize “Mony Mony” was that new until I just read it on Wikipedia.

The first time I did hear it booming in the Lister Hall cafeteria, it was a weird experience. As the song played, a good chunk of the people dancing were yelling their own lyrics – “Hey mother f----er, get laid, get f---ed” That happened at every dance every time that song played.

Interestingly, there was also a ”clean” version people sang to cover up the “dirty” version. It went “Hey everybody, go to church, read a book.”

It was all pretty innocent fun, or so I thought.

In the Spring of 1988, my second semester of my first year, I was student teaching at St. Timothy’s Elementary School in Edmonton. I went to the school one afternoon a week for two months to observe a teacher in action. One day, I was in the staff room during a break, and two teachers were talking. Keep in mind this is in the Catholic school system.

“Did you hear what happened at that junior high dance?” one asked.

“Ya,” the other responded. “They were dancing to that song.”

“Yes,” the first confirmed.

“They started singing those lyrics and shut the whole thing down.”

The song was “Mony Mony.”

It is a great song, and a lot of people thought so, because it went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Billy Idol’s biggest hit ever.

The years after
“Mony Mony” was the last song I really heard from Billy Idol, as I got so busy with university life. He would keep on writing, recording and performing to this day. He had another hit single, “Cradle of Love”, peak at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988, but I never heard it.

Parting thoughts
Billy Idol had this punk sound, and look, and that lip that seemed to turn up when he sang, which made him look even angrier.

When his music was angry, like “Mony Mony” or “Rebel Yell”, it was great to dance to. When it was soulful like “Eyes Without a Face”, it could be great to slow dance to.

Whatever it was, Billy Idol’s music was a unique part of the soundtrack of the ‘80s.

The Kennedys: A subject of fascination

John F. Kennedy has always been a subject of fascination.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-F-Kennedy

(May be subject to copyright)

I remember the day. I woke up with some butterflies in my stomach, but didn’t need to throw up or anything like that. My mouth was a bit dry too, and I really had to go to the bathroom a lot.

It was my first semester of Grade 7, and I had to give my first real speech to my class. It wasn’t my whole class, just my debate option class.

The teacher was Mr. Terry Roth, and he arrived at our school, from Bow Island, at the start of that year. Before we got into actual debate, he wanted to get us comfortable public speaking, which is something I will be eternally grateful for.

We were allowed to choose our own topic to make a speech on, and I chose John F. Kennedy. He in particular, but the Kennedys as a whole, were a source of fascination for me back then.

They came to mind again a couple days ago when my spouse introduced me to a show she said I would really like called, “11/22/63”.

November 22, 1963 was the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Inspiration
I am not sure how I got interested in John F. Kennedy. I think it was a cartoon I saw when I was a kid, one of those one or two minute profiles of famous people. I recall hearing how Kennedy was a war hero. His ship had been hit, the crew was abandoning ship and he swam in burning oil on top of the water to help some of his men.

If that wasn’t my first experience with John Kennedy, it definitely made the biggest impression on me.

I remember talking to my Mom about John Kennedy. That’s where I first heard the phenomenon that everyone remembered where they were, and what they were doing, when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. She was baking in the kitchen. She often didn’t listen to the radio in the afternoon, but on that day she had the urge to turn on the radio – and that’s when she heard the news.

She was the one who told me Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin, and that he in turn was killed a week later by Jack Ruby.

Mom was also the one who told me about Bobby Kennedy. How he was taking over for his brother, running for president and how he too was assassinated in 1968. She said she really liked Bobby.

I found all of that very interesting, so when it came time to choose a topic for that speech, I chose John Kennedy.

Debate class
The debate option turned about to be quite memorable for me. I had taken an instant liking to Mr. Roth, and he would go on to be one of the teachers who encouraged my creative writing. At that point though, he was brand new to our school.

I recall doing a number of different things in debate class, before we actually debated. Looking back, they all seemed designed to get us comfortable speaking in front of a group.

The first exercise I remember was a “Celebrity Roast”, like the ones Dean Martin did on TV at that time. A celebrity would be chosen as the guest of honour and roasted – that is all the other guests would poke fun at the guest of honour. In our debate class, our classmate Doug volunteered to be roasted. I ended up as the emcee, so I introduced everyone. A lot of the class did not come prepared so, as I emceed, I would comment on that. When I got my mark from Mr. Roth, he commented that he liked that, but thought I could have used the opportunity to poke my own fun at Doug. It would not be the last really good constructive criticism I got from Mr. Roth.

We also did a celebrity interview. To address some of the nerves we may have had doing it in front of the class, we took turns recording our interviews on tape in the library, and later played them for the class. I was John Lennon of the Beatles, interviewed by my friend Dave Hetesy. I tried to do my best Liverpool accent, basing it on a interviews I had heard on Stampede Wrestling of “The Dynamite Kid” who was also from Liverpool. My accent made my classmate Meriel Kingston cringe. She was from England. One of the other interviews was Clint Crombez playing wrestling champion Bob Backlund, interviewed by Mike Kozbial, who was a huge wrestling fan.

Mr. Roth also talked about the choral festival, which had categories in addition to singing. There was reciting poetry and reading. He demonstrated reading, where you actually read a passage from a book, but with as much feeling as inflection as the passage warranted. He read a passage for us, and it was amazing. It sounded like a radio play. He told us, when you compete in the festival, you practise so much, you know the passage by heart and aren’t even reading it – you’re living it and performing it.

Ultimately, we did do a debate and I recall the topic well – should England have declared war on Argentina over the Falkland Islands? We faced Meriel who was very passionate because she was defending her native England. What I recall most was focusing on how England had sunk an Argentinian ship called the General Belgrano, which made them not completely blameless or the victim. We still lost.

The first activity we did which again was designed to make us more comfortable public speaking was that speech.

So, I set to finding out more about John F. Kennedy.

Doing my research
It was the first time I really delved into the life of John Kennedy, and one of the first personalities I ever researched.

The first place I went, as I always did to start any history project, was the Encyclopedia. I was greeted by Kennedy’s presidential portrait, and quickly learned he was the youngest man elected president. He was also the first Roman Catholic, which seemed like a big deal in the States. It wasn’t a big deal to me, because I went to Catholic school and was surrounded by the faith.

I also learned he had been in the United States Navy, and was a war hero. Kennedy was also injured in rescuing his men, and spent months in the hospital. He wrote two book, “Profiles in Courage”, which won him a Pulitzer Prize, and “PT-109” about his experiences during the war.

Eventually he stood for office, was elected to the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate; secured the Democratic Party nomination for president then, in 1960, defeated Republican Richard Nixon to become the 35th President of the United States, at the age of 43.

One of the more interesting facts I learned was that Joseph Kennedy, John and Bobby’s father, had always aspired to having his son become President of the United States.

The speech
The day came, and I overcame my nerves to give that speech. I was really impressed with myself for being able to overcome my initial nerves. I went through Kennedy’s life as I had researched. I ended the speech with a quote I found from Joseph Kennedy Sr. saying if Joseph Jr. died then it would be John and if died, Robert would do it. That was exactly what came to pass.

As a journalist, I still employ that technique of finishing some of my stories with a strong quote.

After I was done speaking, my class had an opportunity to ask questions. Only Mr. Roth asked a question, wondering if I had come across the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. I hadn’t. When I got my mark, Mr. Roth said I should have mentioned them.

It’s funny, because now I know both of those events very well, especially the Cuban Missile Crisis. There was a great movie about it called “Thirteen Days“ just a few years ago with Canadian Bruce Greenwood playing John F. Kennedy.

That wasn’t the first time I learned more about the Kennedys from pop culture

Movies and song
During the ‘80s I saw parts or all of a few movies that filled in more of the Kennedy story. One was “Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy”, a TV movie that came out in 1977, but I saw on Channel 7 in reruns a few years later. Peter Strauss plays the oldest Kennedy, who was earmarked by his father to be President of the United States, but who died in action in the Second World War. I only saw a few minutes of this movie, just in time to see him on his way to his death.

Another movie was “Blood Feud”, a two-part TV movie that came out in 1983, telling the story of the battle between Bobby Kennedy, played by Cotter Smith, and Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, played by Robert Blake. Again, I only saw part of this, but I did learn more about Bobby’s time as attorney general.

Bobby’s death even appeared in the 1987 Blue Rodeo song “Outskirts”. There are lines in the song that g “And there’s a picture we’ve all seen/It was taken in the lobby of the L.A. Ambassador Hotel/It’s the silhouette of a man in another’s arms/So turn off your TVs, and let that train go home/’Cause everyone warned you that California?Wasn’t goin’ to be the end/California wasn’t gonna be the end.”

It was only a year or two ago I realized they were talking about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy.

I just read on www.songfacts.com the song is Greg Keelor’s interpretations of the death of David A. Kennedy, and the anguish he went through growing up in the public eye, as the fourth child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. David A. Kennedy died of a heroin overdose on April 25, 1984 at a hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.

Yet another sad death in the Kennedy family.

Parting thoughts
When I was growing up in the ‘80s, the Kennedys were still considered by many as the closest America had to a royal family. They were put on a pedestal.

Over time, history has chipped away at that legacy, most notably John F. Kennedy and his various personal flaws.

Yet, in so many ways, that has made me like him more, because as cliché as it sounds, no one is perfect. He was still a war hero, and I believe he tried to do the right thing. Plus, no one deserves the fate he did.

The other thing that has changed over time is how much I admire Bobby Kennedy. As I have learned more about him, I have discovered not only was he a man of courage, integrity and deep faith, he was the conscience of John Kennedy. So many people have speculated how great a President of the United States he would have made.

I am one of them.

So, the Kennedys continue to be a subject of fascination for me, and I was again reminded of that when my spouse so astutely invited me to watch “11/22/63” with her.

Remembering the 1960s

It started when I was watching “Mad Men” then I was reminded today when I saw the first episode of “11/22/63”, a TV miniseries adapted from a novel by Stephen King.

Both are set in the 1960s. These two shows remind me of how fascinated I was with the 1960s when I was growing up in the 1980s.

There are a lot of different reasons for that too.

A matter of perspective
When I was growing up, the 1960s were not that long ago, just 20 years back. By comparison, I love the ‘80s and they are 40 years ago, twice as long as the ‘60s were when I was growing up. Interestingly, I look at 20 years ago, which makes it the 2000s, and that really does not seem so long.

Brother and sister act
I come from a large and relatively old family. My parents were born in 1930 and 1933, which actually puts them in the same generation as my spouse’s grandparents. It also means I have siblings who are much older than I am. My brother was born in 1959 and my sister in 1961, making them 10 and nine years older than me respectively.

They both actually grew up in the 1960s.

It meant they saw shows such as “Star Trek”, “The Man from U*N*C*L*E”, “Gunsmoke”, “Bonanza” and others that I only heard about.

They also read comic books from the ‘60s such as “Superman”, “Superboy”, “Supergirl”, “The Legion of Super Heroes”, “Batman”, and “The Flash”, and books such as “Doc Savage”, “The Bobsey Twins”, “Encyclopedia Brown”, and novelizations of “Star Trek”, “Star Trek: The Animated Series”, “The Man from U*N*C*L*E” and more.

When they left for college in Calgary in 1977 and 1978, they left much of this behind, and I read it all.

Pop culture
Being 20 years back, there was a lot of residue from the ‘60s still lying around. In addition to the above mentioned books and comics, there was more.

If you turn the TV on now, there are reruns on a lot of channels, such as episodes of “Friends” and “Frasier”, which are 20 years old now or older. TV channels have an insatiable hunger for content, so old episodes of good TV shows are a good fit.

It was exactly the same in the 1980s. Even in the three-channel universe, there were a lot of day and evening hours to fill, and original content wasn’t enough, especially in that period from mid-afternoon until the news hour.

That meant CTV Channel 13, CFAC Channel 7, and to a lesser extent CBC Channel 9 would air reruns of shows from the 1960s. I routinely came home from school and watched “The Flintstones” on Channel 13, or “Bewitched”, “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Gilligan’s Island”, and “Hogan’s Heroes” on Channel 7. CBC aired old shows on weekends where I saw reruns of “Star Trek”, “Bonanza”, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies”, “Batman” and more.

Seeing these gave me a real sense of the time. I loved the clothes and the cars and the style.

I have only watched one episode of “11/22/63”, but I saw the entire series of “Mad Men”, and it seemed to capture the mood and times of the 1960s.

Living history
I also loved the history of the 1960s, especially Canadian politics and Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson. They were archrivals, battling in three elections in the 1960s, in addition to one more in 1958.

My parents were big Diefenbaker supporters and, because I was interested, told me all about his career and time as prime minister and beyond.

Their knowledge of history stretched beyond the Canadian borders though.

My Mom always remembered where she was the day United States President John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963. She was baking in the kitchen. She often didn’t listen to the radio in the afternoon, but on that day she had the urge to turn on the radio – and that’s when she heard the news.

Five years later, Robert F. Kennedy was shot, and Mom told me about that too. We speculated if there was a vendetta against the Kennedys, or if the family had extreme bad luck. Maybe, when you become famous, you make a lot of enemies and discover a lot of people don’t like you.

As I got older, and into science and science fiction, my Mom told me about seeing the moon landing in 1969. She would have been a couple months pregnant with me at the time too.

Sporting news
It was the late 1970s when I got into sports, beginning to watch hockey, football and baseball on TV, hear about them on the radio, and read about them.

The first book on football I ever read was in Grade 3. It was called “Ten Super Sundays” by Rick Smith, published by Scholastic Books in 1976. It went through how the Super Bowl came to be in the mid-1960s, and had the first 10 Super Bowls. I also read “Great Moments in Pro Football”, compiled in 1969 by Zander Hollander. Both were courtesy of the St. Joseph’s School library.

My brother had also left behind a brown grocery bag full of issues of “The Hockey News”. Many of them ware already from the 1970s, but some dated back to the ‘60s, because they talked about the Original Six teams, and the 1967 expansion to 12 teams. Plus, the ‘60s were only 10 years earlier so there were a lot of references to players and games from then.

Parting thoughts
I guess I have always been interested in the past. In the 1980s, I was fascinated by the 1960s. Now, in the 2020s I am fascinated by the 1980s.

The ‘60s just seemed like an interesting time. I re-discovered that back in 1999 when NBC aired a miniseries called “The Sixties”. It took a typical American family through the decade, from the hope of the Kennedy years through the disillusionment of the Vietnam War, and so much more.

That is just what happened in the States. There was so much going on in Canada, and I also covered that, back in 1989. I took a Canadian history course at the University of Alberta on Canada from 1945 to the present. It was taught by David Mills who also covered pop culture and entertainment as part of the history of Canada, beyond politics and government.

I was reminded again, how interesting that period was when I started watching “11/22/63”.

There is a little irony in all of this for me. I was entered in school a year early, in 1975. That was the last year of children born in the 1960s, so virtually every classmate with two exceptions, was born in 1969. I missed being born in the ‘60s by just over two months. Yet, all through school everyone thought I was born in the 1960s.

Maybe my interest in the ‘60s is a case of decade envy.

After all, I missed it by that much.