Well, maybe not for anyone else, but it is for me.
It was 1982. the Commodore 64 was the cool new thing, Britain and Argentina went to war over the Falkland islands, spymaster Yuri Andropov rose to power in the Soviet Union, and Vic Morrow and two chidren died in a helicopter accident while filming Twilight Zone. Disney opened EPCOT to the public, John De Lorean got busted for coke, the Unabomber narrowly missed killing people at Vanderbilt, and Larry Walters took his famous balloon flight in a lawn chair.
Ronald Reagan was president. I didn’t like him because he was a conservative, and conservative pricks like Jerry Falwell were trying to destroy rock music. Us kids thought that was a scary thing at the time, but of course he never had a chance: MTV had just launched, the Biograph theater on Lincoln was staging midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the airwaves were filled with songs like Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero“, Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger“, the B52s’ “Rock Lobster“, and Golden Earring’s other hit.
(Follow the “Eye of the Tiger” link to check out what music videos used to look like. Yikes.)
There was also a hardrocking band called Axe, and they had just released their third album, Offering. The first cut on the album was “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party In The Streets.”
It was the end of my last year in high school. The hot summer was filled with good friends, fast driving, wild parties, and rock and roll. I was at the top of my game with the whole world ahead of me, and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party In The Streets” was the sound of freedom.
It’s a purely personal reaction, I’m sure. I don’t know anyone else who had that reaction to it. Heck, I’ve never even met anyone else who remembers the song. But to this day it gives me a rush like no other.
It starts with a keyboard intro that I instantly recognize, then the guitars come in with power chords to punctuate the rhythm, and then the drums and Bobby Barth’s strained voice:
You know, I know, this ain’t gonna last forever
Let’s take advantage while we still can
I’m sure that you’ll find the days couldn’t get any longer
Day after day it’s gettin’ old fastLet’s have a knock down, drag out rock ‘n’ roll party in the street
Get all the boys together have them tell everybody that they meet
Friday night at midnight we’re all gonna get what we need
Let’s have a knock down, drag out rock ‘n’ roll party in the streetYou know, I know, we ain’t gonna show no mercy
To anyone that tries to get in our way
I’m sure that you’ll find we got to put the word out for certain
Once the party gets started we’re all here to stayLet’s have a knock down, drag out rock ‘n’ roll party in the street
Get all the boys together have them tell everybody that they meet
Friday night at midnight we’re all gonna get what we need
Let’s have a knock down, drag out rock ‘n’ roll party in the street
Axe broke up after guitarist Michael Osborne died in a car crash. Barth worked on other projects and then in 1997 he put the band back together and they recorded new versions of many of their songs for the album Twenty Years From Home. I think this was a work-around for a sticky rights issue or two, allowing the band to finally release CD versions of the songs.
In many ways, the newer version of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party in the Streets” is a better song than the old one. Barth’s voice seems clearer and richer than it was in 1982, the guitar work is more crisp, and the whole thing has a more professional sound.
But the original version will always be my favorite. For most of a year, I lived my life to that song.
You are the exact same age as me and I remember that song well. I remember it well because I remember seeing the LP cover advertised on the cover of Billboard and laughing at its sterotypical run-of-the-mill-metal-LP-cover-but-even-lower-budget” cover and I figured I’d never even hear the thing. Then I heard it on either the Loop or maybe MET and I laughed out loud at how bad it is. My reaction at the time was “At least the Ramones are dumb on purpose – Axe are too lame to know how lame they are.” Axe – the most generic rock band of all time.
Thanks for the buzzkill. Jerk.
My boyfriend is fond of watching VH1’s “That Metal Show” — they chose the name because it sounds better than “That nostalgia show for middle-aged people who want to think they’re still cool” — and last Saturday, as he was watching an interview with Dave Mustaine, he said, “You know, they’ve never had a guest younger than fifty.”
After watching the “Metal Mania” video show afterwards, I have come to the conclusion that the only two metal bands which existed in the 80s were the Scorpions and Rainbow.
P.S. I’m still several years younger than you, Mark! Ha ha ha ha ha.
I was never a big metal fan. Oh, it’s hard not to like Ozzy, but I never really got interested in Maiden or Def Leppard or Zeppelin or Motorhead or Scorpions or Van Halen or, well, most of the metal scene.
Yeah, but where I grew up — as a cash-poor child who could not afford to experiment with the less-mainstream music I got into in college — pretty much all of my musical knowledge came from either the radio or my parents’ hippie record collection. And radio in my area was either top 40, R&B, Christian contemporary or metal. So I went the metal route.
The “Girls, Girls, Girls” video is, I think, where I got the idea to check out the local strip clubs to pay for college.
Yes folks, it’s all true! Heavy metal music will turn your daughters into strippers!
Is this a great country or what?
Finally something we can Agree on Mark! You like the music you like because it’s your fucking choice! Not because the album cover is lame. This is a free country and we should be exposed to those things we enjoy and not let other people tell us what is good or bad or lame. Russ 2000 is a douche-bag.
It was kind of a dick move…
Yet another band I will have to go look into further. I know there were a lot of 80’s bands I didn’t follow.
My top 3 Rock n Roll Songs would be:
1. Respect – Aretha Franklin
2. Louie Louie – Kingsmen
3. I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye