The 80s: Age 7 through 17

Wow. If you’re my age you’re going to totally suffer some productivity loss playing with this MASSIVE list of links to 80s music videos on YouTube. (Yes, the page is in Spanish. No, it won’t be a problem for you.)

Also, you will probably want me to remind you about the site that makes it easy to download these videos…

I can’t comment on the list–it’s waaaaaaaaaaay too big. However, I can select a few links, almost at random, from the first few letters of the alphabet and comment on them.

Wow, I’m Totally Downloading This

Boomtown Rats – Don’t Like Mondays

I bet you didn’t know that Bob Geldof‘s autobiography is one of three biographies I have read. I wish there was a video for Diamond Smiles.

Cowboy Junkies – Sweet Jane

You know, after seeing the Junkies in concert at U of T during my high school years, I kind of had a crush on Margo. I actually ran into her at a club (also in Toronto) on a different occasion, and managed to not make an ass of myself. Plus, it’s a Velvet Underground tune.

Elvis Costello – Veronica

Surely this needs no explanation.

Friday Night Videos

A-HA – Take on me

The classic 80s video. And, the style of the visuals was classic enough that it still looks good.

Aerosmith – Janie’s Got A Gun

I remember that the week this album came out I was invited to a party at the college. I was still in high school, but worked at a restaurant with some girls from the college, who were having a party in residence, and I got invited. One of the girls just kept playing this song over and over and over. I didn’t mind, because she was a cute college girl and I was a geeky sixteen year old.

Alan Parson’s Project – Don’t Answer Me

This video is totally Friday Night Videos, from the days before we got MuchMusic and Erica Ehm.

Alannah Myles – Black Velvet

I actually helped with sound when she played in at the Arts Centre on this tour. By “helped with sound” I mean–got in free to the show, and got to hear the sound check, because I knew the guy who was working sound (from that same restaurant with the college girls). My strongest impression is that she was incredibly foul-mouthed during the sound check.

Europe – The Final Countdown

The apotheosis of hair pop-metal. Also, if Derek Winch ever reads this, he should be retroactively embarrased for how much he liked this at the time.

They Made a Video For That?

Accept – Balls to the Wall

At age sixteen, while backpacking around Europe, I caught Ozzy Osbourne‘s No Rest For The Wicked tour while I was in Milan. These guys opened. Italian metal-heads loved this song.

David Hasselhoff – Looking For Freedom

German music fans have even more questionable taste than the Italian metal-heads.

Dead Kennedys – California Uber Alles

I’ve actually been listening to this a lot this week. I had no idea there was ever a video.

Dio – Holy Diver

I own three Dio CDs, another product of my misspent youth. Somehow I managed to avoid realizing that Ronnie James Dio is actually some kind of evil pixie.