Friday Night Music--All Eighties Edition

The eighties were a crazy time. Think about it, you had the decade begin with a recession and end with a free Eastern Europe. We started with the worst president ever and ended up with the veep of one of the best. We had the workout craze start and the disco craze end. Greed was good and "just say no" was a saying that we all laughed at.

The 80's will always be remembered for another reason, however: the birth of MTV and the ascendancy of the music video. From the Buggles to Men at Work, we watched. It didn't matter how bad the groups were, we sat transfixed.

So, here's some songs that remain, for the most part, listenable from that hazy decade that ended nearly twenty years ago.

Let;s start with a band that had huge hits for a few years and did it with straight-forward rock and roll. Here's REO Speedwagon in support of their Hi Infidelity album with Ridin' the Storm Out:



Metallica broke on the scene with Kill 'Em All and then segued into the epic Ride the Lightning. With all the poser bands out there looking and dressing like women such as Warrant and Bon Jovi, it was astounding to hear Metallica's as-kicking, in your face brand of metal. Here's Fade to Black:



Next we have U2 with the song that grabbed me. From 1980 we have I Will Follow off of the Boy album. It was a year later that they blew up with War that featured the awesome Seconds about nuclear war (remember those days?) with the dated line "USSR, GDR, London, New York, Peking, we are puppets on a string". So, in succession, I Will Follow and Seconds live from what I believe was the best live perfomance ever filmed:





REM was a huge influence on the decade as well. Here's their national TV debut on Letterman in 1983.

Any other songs you can think of that are still listenable?