Music Monday: 1982

Leon Stevens

January 29

There is a radio show on CBC here in Canada that occasionally does a feature called SYNTH: Songs You Need To Hear.

Now, I can't say to someone, "You'll like this song" (or book for that matter) because I can't presume that others will share my taste in music (or books), so it is safer to say, "You might like this" and if they don't like it, so be it.

Maybe you will find a new favorite.

CBC MUSIC, Central · Mornings with CBC Music

1982. The year of Michael Jackson. And Duran Duran, And Prince. But my friends and I were looking for music with a little more edge. Radio was the only source of new music, unless...

Unless you knew someone with a satellite dish who could get MTV:

Remember these? Took up the whole backyard.

Then we discovered rock music magazines. Hit Parader, Kerrang, Metal Edge, Circus, Creem. That's how we discovered new rock/metal bands and read about the shit our favorite rockers were getting into.

For us it was the year of The Scorpions. Blackout. One of the best album covers, followed by Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. Both those covers made parents cringe. Oh, and Twisted Sister came out that year, but that's another story.

There still were more mainstream bands that you weren't embarrassed to to be caught listening to by your buddies.

I feel obliged (if not legal bound) to have 35% of my featured music to be Canadian content, but I'll do much better with 100% Canadian content and play some of the songs on the airwaves that year.

Many outside of Canada might not know Aldo Nova, who's song Fantasy reached number 23 on The Billboard Hot 100 Chart. He has written many songs for other artists over the years including Blue Oyster Cult, Jon Bon Jovi, and even pop singer Celine Dion.

Then there's Triumph. Formed in Toronto, Triumph was comprised of the core group of Rik Emmett, Mike Levine, and Gil Moore. Triumph received 18 gold and nine platinum awards in Canada and the United States over the span of their career.

If you thought "Rush", yeah there are the inevitable comparisons.

Toronto was a Canadian rock band formed in the late 1970s in Toronto, Ontario, and perhaps best known for the top-ten Canadian hit "Your Daddy Don't Know".

Betcha didn't know they wrote and recorded this song three years before Heart took it to the top of the charts:

And finally: Saga. On the Loose was the first single from Saga's fourth album.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down my memory lane.

-Leon

Want to read more music blogs? Here are some of the ones I follow: Mostly Music Covers, Take it Easy, Beetley Pete, A Sound Day

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/