Sunday, June 04, 2006

Who Wants to Go Back to 1980 For a Spell?


I checked out the digital cable's 80s radio station on t.v. this afternoon while I washed my windows. Isn't it funny how a song will stop you in your tracks and transport you back? And not just generally to the year you heard it, but sometimes so specifically that you remember exactly what you were doing at that very moment it was playing? So, if I were to star in a movie based on my life, which I will, clearly, then I really already have most of the soundtrack for the early years. Welcome to the soundtrack of Two Can Anne.

The year is 1980. And the music sets the scene, I'm seeing these in a montage a la Beaches:




  1. Magic, Olivia Newton-John
    I'm in the back of a speed boat, skipping across the lake at sunset for a hot summer night at the roller rink with my cousins. No doubt someone is has a mullet*, someone is wearing short shorts**, someone is wearing tube socks***.
  2. Night Moves, Bob Seger
    I'm riding around in my Aunt Doris and Uncle Joe's customized van with groovy air-brushed designs on the side and back wheel cover. Can't remember what type animal. Maybe a wolf. A soaring eagle?
  3. Boulevard, Jackson Browne
    I'm reading The Shining on the front porch of the cabin at the lake. It's broad daylight, the music is blasting, my cousins are playing frisbee, and I'm still scared shitless.
  4. Chuck E.'s in Love, Rickie Lee Jones I'm in the kitchen watching my aunt Betsy pop a zit on my uncle Mike's shoulder. I think I remember her really throwing her body into it and saying it was a "good one."

*me

**me

***me

13 comments:

Unknown said...

The Last one Chuck E's in Love did it for me,the transporting thing...whereas the first one..ugh! I can say I never listened to one of her songs.

sorry.

anne altman said...

then you've never been to xanadu. have you.

Peter Matthes said...

For me it would have to be "Funkytown", by Lipps Inc.

I remember that song was playing on the radio when, by accident, I found the stash of my dad's new 29-year-old girlfriend.

It was a jellybean jar of Kona Gold. That was the start of a very long relationship, and the beginning of the end for my dad's.

Good times.

Lauren K said...

Uh... you wash your windows? Wow.

newbluebaby said...

It's about time you washed them thar windows. Now I can see in.

@alyssa ettinger said...

1980... i was a freshman/sophomore in high school. aside from every todd rundgren album ever recorded. "call me" (blondie) has huge memories; that's when i dyed my hair pink, something that didn't go over very well in suburban new jersey. gary numan's "cars", pop muzik, "don't do me like that" (tom petty), and the boomtown rats "i don't like mondays."

and i've always loved anything rickie lee jones.


(and peter, i'm pretty sure funkytown was in the 70s)

anne altman said...

i loved Funkytown!
doo doo doo doo doooo
doo doo doo doo dooooooooooo

won't you take me to

@alyssa ettinger said...

this is making me feel really old. like, a whole lot older than all of you.

anne altman said...

i'm 26 in my head.

that's all that counts.

@alyssa ettinger said...

just wait till you need bifocals

Fargrave said...

1979-1980 - 11 years old or so, reading The Forever Formula on the screen porch overlooking Keuka Lake:

http://www.keukalakeassoc.org/

Your lake descriptions sent me back...

Fargrave said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
anne altman said...

keuka lake : my stop between stops on my way from utica to olean



i'm sure i got 2 speeding tickets one time on one trip