It’s hard to call out a specific year as one of my favorites because my most favorite years include meeting and marrying my wife Sarah and the birth of my four sons. However, outside of those great years to come, there are few that stand out and none more than 1984!
This was a year when I was opening to the broad landscape of the world versus the narrow scope of living in Livingston, TX. I was heading into my freshman year, transitioning from a kid in junior high to a full-fledged teenager in high school. It felt so empowering! I remember our 8th-grade class had a huge end-of-year swim party at Memorial Pointe on Lake Livingston and as I looked around we all seemed older and more mature. It was probably figment of my imagination but it felt transformational.
The music of 1984 continued to be stellar with one of my favorite groups, The Cars, releasing Heartbeat City. I had been a fan for a few years but this album, coupled with the many videos on MTV, launched The Cars into another stratosphere with songs like “Magic”, “Drive”, and “You Might Think”. Another monumental album released this year was Van Halen’s 1984. Again, a foundational band in my musical library, Van Halen would release its best selling album, which coincidentally would be David Lee Roth’s last. 1984 was a complete detour from Van Halen’s past albums with its synthesizer hit “Jump”. At first, I wasn’t sure if I liked it but the more I listened to it the more I loved it. While “Jump” was an odd choice to release first, it made sense as the rest of the album was an exploration in great music with hits like “Panama”, “Hot for Teacher”, “I’ll Wait”, “Drop Dead Legs”, and “Top Jimmy”. It simply was an incredible album and helped to diversify my taste in music. I didn’t stop there as I was also heavily digging Echo & The Bunnymen and found one particular song hauntingly good, “The Killing Moon”. I was always one of those that if I like something, whether it be music, sports, etc that I would just listen or do it over and over again. However, now I was listening to everything from the punk scene to English rock to hair bands and college rock. I simply couldn’t get enough of the different kinds of music that was coming out at the time.
I felt so alive in 1984 and my desire to grow up fast and head to college was beginning to accelerate based on all of these factors. I was practicing tennis every day of the week with a single goal to be a tennis professional. While I loved music, my only talent was appreciation so my childhood desire of working in tennis was still intact.
I’m sure every generation has an opinion on what was the best decade but as I mentioned in my previous post discussing the 1980s, I would stand it up against any decade out there. To say I’m biased is an understatement and I also recognize there were some serious fashion challenges such as shoulder pads, double-breasted suits, the mullet, and big hair to name a few. But throw on some 80s music at your next get-together or party and see what happens. You’ll see smiles, laughs, dancing, singing, and an overall good time. As I’ve said many times, I love the entire decade but 1984 definitely stood out in my youth. It was, and still remains today, totally aweseome! To put it simply…It was my awakening.
16 of 50 - 1984