80s Leftovers Newsletter Back Issue #9

80's Leftovers
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Welcome to the monthly newsletter about the eighties.

Brought to you by: "InThe80s's" http://www.inthe80s.com/

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July 2000, Issue #9
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 0. Introduction
 1. Upcoming Eighties Events
 2. What's New at ChuckyG's?
 3. Favorite Misheard Lyrics This Month
 4. Favorite Top Ten List
 5. Review Of The Month
 6. Trivia Quiz
 7. Rant of the Month

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 0. Introduction
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I welcome any comments you may have at: chuck@worcestermass.com.

This newsletter comes out once a month, or however often I get a
chance to put one together.

Instructions for removal in case you no longer want the newsletter:
http://www.inthe80s.com/newsletter.shtml

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 1. Upcoming Eighties Events
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So, who's touring this summer?

First off, the multitude of metal bands...

Cinderella, Dokken, Poison and Slaughter, all really cool 80s metal
bands, will also be touring together this summer "Power to the
People" is the title of that tour. (Wouldn't "Monsters of Metal"
sound cooler?)

Ozzfest is also continuing this summer with 80s metal god Ozzy
Osbourne and a slew of metal bands, including Slayer.

Iron Maiden and Queensryche are touring as well.

Anthrax, Megadeath and Motley Crue are touring together this summer

Now for the rock and new wave:

The Psychedelic Furs have reformed, and will be joined by the Go-Go's,
and The B-52's on tour this summer.

Duran Duran will be touring this summer in support of their latest
album, Pop Trash.

The Pretenders and Neil Young are touring together.

Yes and Kansas are out touring together this summer, as are Chicago
and the Little River Band. These are probably more of interest to 70s
music buffs, though Chicago and Yes were still quite popular in the
80s.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are touring in support of their latest
album, Californication (my favorite album by them to date)

Other groups touring that are worth mentioning are Def Leppard, Rick
Springfield, Culture Club (not touring together though).

To see who is coming to your town this summer, check pollstar.com for
dates and venues.

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 2. What's New at ChuckyG's?
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Not much going on this summer on the site really... Summers are
always slow.

Created new software for the 80s Gallery:
http://www.inthe80s.com/gallery.shtml
You can now upload your pictures through your browser, and there are
already half a dozen pictures submitted, so check it out if you can,
I spent a lot of time perfecting this script, and would like to think
it wasn't wasted time.

Added Elevator Action to the list of games you can play online.

I upgraded the messageboards on the sites, to support some cool new
features (user profiles, spell checking, text formatting). There's
also a lot of messages being posted lately, so if you don't check
the messageboard often, now might be a good time to check it out.

I'm focused on updating site with the information submitted as it
comes in rather than add new features and pages. I will probably try
to add enhancements to features already on the site as well. I'm also
learning Javascript at my new job, so expect some of that to creep
into the site somewhere as well.

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 3. Favorite Misheard Lyrics This Month
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>From amiright.com

Steve Winwood's, "Higher Love"

Misheard Lyrics:
Send me a hired love

Correct Lyrics:
Send me a higher love

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 4. Favorite Top Ten List
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By: Doug
10. "Think of Laura" by Christopher Cross
Nothing I could say could possibly justify this selection. I just loved this song.

9. "Heartbeat City" by The Cars
Their most under-rated song

8. "New Moon on Monday" by Duran Duran
Loved that album cover

7. "Always" by Erasure
The remix is great, too. Very rarely the case.

6. "Zippity Doo Dah" by Ric Ocasek
Yes, THAT Zippity Doo Dah. From the Everything But The Mouse album.
Walt Disney himself would have approved.

5. "Holiday Road" by Lindsay Buckingham
Theme to the movie Vacation. "My dad says I'm the best french kisser
ever". Yuck.

4. "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" by Elton Motello
Gonna make you be a girl?

3. "Starry Eyes" by The Records
Little known band... too bad, they rocked.

2. "Heartbeat City" by The Cars
Oh Jackie... what took you so long?

1. "Forever Young" by Alphaville
Let us die young... or let us live forever. Chilling.

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 5. Review Of The Month
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Duran Duran, "Pop Trash"

Unlike some months, this album is going to get a track by track
treatment, so beware, long review ahead! As anyone who has spent some
time flipping through my site knows, I'm a life long Duranie (or at
least since they formed, when I was 8). So you should approach this
review from the angle of a self-confessed fanatic of the group.

Someone Else Not Me
        Soft, dreamy, the only song on the album Simon wrote the
 lyrics to(Nick Rhodes wrote the rest). Definitely a 60s influenced
 sound, somewhat mellow, but an excellent track musically and
 lyrically. Will get nowhere near the amount of airplay it deserves
 (it's the first single from the album).

Lava Lamp
        Not too many people would write a song about a lava lamp.
  With some sitar thrown in to add a 60s aura (which is of course
  appropriate considering the subject matter), this song really can't
  be described. It doesn't sound like anything they've done before in
  my opinion.

Playing With Uranium
        One of my favorite tracks from the album and the first
 up-tempo song of the album. But not too uptempo. Has a swirling type
 sound, very richly layered though, with some cool bursts of guitar
 near the beginning of the chorus.

Hallucinating Elvis
        No. Please. No. Why? Guys, this is a strange, almost
 rap-influenced piece. It was sorta fun to see Simon do it on the
 Hard Rock Live concert, but it certainly doesn't stand up on it's
 own. The refrain is repeated way, way, too much throughout this one.
 I skip this one, a lot.

Starting to Remember
        Great lyrics, slow, too slow though. This one puts me to
 sleep. It really doesn't sound like a Duran Duran song either, but
 then again, the whole album is only vaguely Duran Duran sounding.

Pop Trash Movie
        Originally written for Blondie, who turned it down. Simon was
 quick to convince Nick to do it for this album. Another slow,
 pondering song. A little too dreamy for my tastes, and a little too
 long.

Mars Meets Venus
        The best track on the whole album. I love this song.
 The lyrics are really just a couple of personals being read off,
 with the refrain "Someone is perfect for you, when mars meets venus,
 do you wanna bet your life, your gonna be perfect for them too?"
 This is a Duran Duran song. Certainly not another "Rio," but plenty
 of synth and guitar, with a cool beat you can dance to. Probably the
 only song you can dance to on the album.

Lady Xanax
        Xanax is an anti-depressant drug. This song is clearly
 written, and performed from the point of view of someone who wants
 some. Very slow and dreamy, I feel the need to stifle a yawn when I
 listen to it. Not to say it isn't good, it's just not what I want
 from Duran Duran. "The Chauffeur" was slow and dreamy, but it had
 some cool instruments thrown in, and Simon's voice was much deeper
 and had more character.

The Sun Doesn't Shine Forever
        This sounds like part two to Meddazaland's "Michael You've
 Got a Lot to Answer For." Very slow and dreamy, song with some
 passion.

Last Day On Earth
        A fast paced tune, with some good loud guitar. Some nice
 change ups between versus. A good track which sounds like something
 that could have appeared on their ill-fated 1990 Liberty album, but
 better.

Depending on where you live, your CD will either have an alternate
version of "Someone Else Not Me" in Spanish or French (America gets
Spanish, Canada and the UK gets French). The music is the same, just
different lyrics. From what I've heard, the accent and translation is
done fairly well.

This album sounds like they're trying to capture that middle age
market I guess I'm supposed to be a member of now. I got news for the
guys though, I still listen to new music, some of it quite loud, as
do my peers (who are older than me). Simon might not be the same
person he was when he was out touring at age 23, but he's not this
old yet.

Overall I was disappointed with the album. I of course was
anticipating it since I first heard samples from it, which may have
been too much anticipation. I give it a 3, if only because of the
three tracks I really like, "Playing with Uranium" "Mars Meets Venus"
and "Last Day on Earth"

If you're a hard core Duranie like me, you'll have to own it. If you
managed to catch "Someone Else Not Me" on the radio and you liked it,
then this is probably the album for you. I liked it, I just didn't
like it enough to make an entire album with the same mellow pace. The
casual fan who liked either the Rio era or the "Wedding Album" era,
will probably want to stay away.

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 6. Trivia Quiz -=- Music & Movie Quotes
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5. "It seems that all you've learned is that Caesar is a salad
    dressing dude"

4. "Kissing like a bandit stealin time
    underneath a sycamore tree"

3. "I don't patronize bunny rabbits"

2. "I can see a new horizon underneath the blazin' sky
    I'll be where the eagle's flying higher and higher"

1. "I'll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash you got."

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 7. Rant of the Month
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Is nothing sacred anymore?

This week's Entertain Weekly (Weakly?)... has an article entitled,
"I'll be Back" (how original guys). It describes all the sequels in
the work for movies over the course of the next few years..

The 80s flicks being considered?

Terminator Part 3. This one will take place during the wars that
won't happen anyways since the whole storyline was supposed to end as
a result of the end of the T2 movie. I guess blowing up that lab
didn't help John Connor's future.

Indiana Jones part 4. Estimates state it probably won't happen until
2007. umm.. hello? Harrison Ford is almost 60 NOW guys.  Unless he's
going to play his own father (which would be nowhere near as good as
Sean Connery's portrayal of his father) or maybe his son's father, I
would hope it's a prequel.

Crocodile Dundee 3, Crocodile Dundee in LA.  Ok. The second one
wasn't THAT bad, but I could think of better sequels. So why a
third? If it has "That's not a knife...etc" it should be pretty
predictable...

Isn't it bad enough we hear our favorite songs butchered by acts too
untalented to make a hit with their own material? Do we really need
to suffer through more awful movies too? I cringe at the thought of
what else they might dream up.

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 Ending...
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That's all for this month.. next newsletter should be out at the
beginning of August.

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