History Thru Song

1977, "Watching the Detectives," Elvis Costello. 

1980, "Charlie Don't Surf" is a line from the 1979 war film Apocalypse Now, notably referenced in popular culture.  The song was released in 1979. 

from SongFacts,

The title comes from a line of dialogue spoken by the character Colonel Kilgore, a US cavalry officer obsessed with surfing played by Robert Duvall in the 1979 film Apocalypse Now. His most famous quote from that film - "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" - perhaps also inspired the lyric "Charlie's gonna be a napalm star."

1978, "Lotta Love," Nicolette Larson.  She's terrific in this 1980 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song, "Make a Little Magic," 1980.

1980, Recorded in 1979, and released in 1980, Squeeze had a hit in the early 80s titled "Pulling Muscles from a Shell."  We thought it was one of the coolest songs.  Obviously, there was the British invasion of the 1960s, but there was also the psychedelic rock invasion of the British, too, with Led Zepellin and Hoco Param, but there was also the British invasion of the early 1980s with all of the new wave and Mod songs.  Will never forget the concerts I attended with Roy Parker, Lance, Chris, Sally, and others to see the English Beat and then The Specials on Halloween night.  Fantastic memory.  

1981, Men at Work, "Down Under," 1981.  I enjoyed taking Debbie Jordan from San Diego, who attended SDSU, home of the Aztecs. We attended a football game against Brigham Young. I was mildly impressed with that.  I met her in a bar down in Solana Beach in 1983. Joe and Mike L. were with.  We danced.  We drank 1 or 2, then asked the gals if they wanted to walk on the beach.  They did.  We walked and talked.  Joe went off with his date and kissed. I wasn't so lucky.  But I did get Debbie's phone number and we went out on a date. It was nice. I met her mother.  Later that summer I took her to a Men at Work concert at the Greek and had a blast.  I also invited her to a Halloween party out at Sally's.  Debbie's brother worked and lived in Pasadena, so she stayed with him. 

1981, Will never forget how this Men at Work song, "Who Can It Be Now?," 1981, played on the radio frequently through the night at the Baldwin Park UPS hub where I worked from 1980 to 1983.

1981, "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes got regular airtime.  

1982, Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out."  Another British tune under whose spell we were falling. 

1982, Psychedelic Furs, "Love My Way."  I was working at at UPS as a loader from 12am-7am at the Baldwin Park facility, biding my time until my name in the list for drivers got called up.  I'd get off at 7am, go home and shower then run over to Citrus for one to two classes.  I think I took archery and golf.  Anyway, this Psychedelic Furs song played all the time on the radio, like KROQ.

1988, Edie Bricknell's "What I Am" got good airplay too.  She's the wife of Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel.  I can't recall too many experiences with regard to this song, although it kind of made me think of 

1998, "Iris," Goo Goo Dolls, 1998, sung by lead singer, John Rzeznik, who reminds me of Keith Urban.

 2010, Foster the People--Pumped Up Kicks, 2010.  My memory of this song makes me laugh because although it played regularly on the radio, I didn't quite hear the lyrics.  So when I first heard that "you better run, better run faster than my bullet," it shocked me.  LOL  Made me think again how degraded our culture was becoming.  The culture wasn't getting degraded.  I was. 

The first time I saw this music video was in 2011 or 2012, close to my time ending with the murderous mobs of LAUSD.  And the singer and song made an impression on me that love seemed like everything, and it must because it's when we lose love that we feel isolated and broken.