This Week In The 80’s: In Charge of Finding Treasure In The Dark

This Week In The 80’s: In Charge of Finding Treasure In The Dark

It’s May of 1984. I’m a couple of weeks from the end of my 8th grade year and a great summer break before starting high school. There are four contraband cassette tapes that I’m listening to in HEAVY rotation at this moment in time and it just so happens that all four are represented on the countdown this week: The Footloose soundtrack which has four songs in the countdown this week (“Let’s Hear It For the Boy“, “Footloose“, “Dancing In The Sheets” and the video-less “Almost Paradise”), Midnight Madness by Night Ranger and their mega hit “Sister Christian“, Van Halen’s 1984 and THEIR video-less second single “I’ll Wait”, and Seven and The Ragged Tiger from Duran Duran with their first #1 song “The Reflex”. I have no idea why but I fell in LOVE with this song. Played the life out of it. I thought Simon LeBon was the coolest cat around and I even tried extremely hard to put together an outfit like the one he wears in the video but, sadly, it never worked out for me, fashion-wise. The video is still one of my top three favorite videos from the 80’s to this day.

That video, coupled with their live album, Arena, that came out later in ’84 made them the one band I desperately wanted to see in concert but was never able to. Even as an adult, I’ve never really had an opportunity to see them live.

Until now.

I randomly told my wife a year or so ago that if Duran Duran ever made the rounds again in the states that I’d be traveling somewhere to catch a show. Well, in March they announced a tour to support their newest album, FUTURE PAST (solid album, by the way). And, true to my word, I picked a city and made plans to go see them. So…this August my wife and I are traveling to Chicago to see Duran Duran in concert. Fourteen year old me screamed like a little girl when I bought the tickets. If you’d like a sample of how good they still sound, check out their recent appearance on Austin City Limits.

Admittedly, this has just been a post to fanboy over the Duranies and to say I’m going to see them in concert and you’re not. Sue me. I will leave you with one little extra tidbit, though, free of charge. A little further down the chart this week, sitting at #32 on it’s way to a peak of #20, is a goofy little song by a goofy little band: “Run, Runaway” from Slade. I absolutely love this song and have since the first time I saw the video. When I listen to it, I listen to it loud. It’s simply not a song you can play at a low volume. Turn it up and dance around like I am as I write this post!

This Week In The 80’s is a weekly look at the Top 40 charts with Eric Vardeman. His Twitter handle is @ericvardeman.