Archive for ‘1980s’

2012/03/12

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car (1987)

This song influenced a young DJ Academe’s sociological imagination.

LYRICS:
You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere

Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove

2012/03/11

Grandmaster Flash – The Message (1982)


Must disable annotations to watch.

LYRICS:

It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care
I can’t take the smell, I can’t take the noise no more
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far
Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car

2012/03/10

President Reagan Raised Gas Tax in 1983 for Road Construction

President Ronald Reagan signed into law a gasoline tax increase in 1983 for road construction and characterized the increase as job creating.

2011/12/15

MEGAPOST: The Game of Life and a parody/critique of socialism


Fun With Politics – Social Life Board Game Commercial
LYRICS:
Get lazy in the Game of Social Life.
You can spend more time with your kids and your wife.

Don’t be a doctor, they work too hard.
CEO? No! Mall security guard.

“Your successful business triples your tax rate.”

Get lazy, taxes take you money away.
So why go through the trouble? Mediocraty pays.

“Wait 2 years for cancer treatment. Lose 24 turns.”
“Oh, man! Inflation card. Everyone lose half your money.”

Get lazy, you don’t have to go to school.
Get free money, spend more time by your pool.

If you go to college, man those school loans are lame.
Why go through the trouble when we all make the same.

“You fall behind on your mortgage. Yes! Collect $1000 every turn.”
“You’re current on your mortgage. Pay an extra $1000 every turn.”
“The key is to not have any ambition.”

Get lazy, there are no rich people to hate.
Bring rich people down! Hey, aint life great?

“The spinner only has the number one, so nobody gets an unfair advantage. We wouldn’t want anybody to win now! Every other space is tax day! Well, for the dummies who make enough to pay taxes.”

Get lazy.

“Buy it while it’s still available.”

“Available only until there are no more rich people to leach off of, and the middle class goes completely extinct leaving only extremely poor, and not the kind of poor where you can still afford an iPod.”

“By Death of the Constitution Games.”

The game of life 1960 commerical- in color!

I remember when they ran this commercial a lot during the Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, so I’m gonna guess it’s from somewhere around 1967-68


1979-1981

“Be a winner at the Game of Life!”

*Bargain Hunter* by Milton Bradley. A poor-man’s *Game Of Life* that let kids experience all the headaches of adulthood..
“Hunt bargains to be the first to furnish your apartment and get out of debt.”

2011/12/15

Ronald Reagan: Life and Death

February 10, 2011

He was nicknamed The Gipper, Teflon Ron and The Great Communicator. http://www.WatchMojo.com learns more about the life, accomplishments and death of President Ronald Reagan.

2011/11/12

Nine to Five Trailer

User-created trailer for the movie 9 to 5, featuring the song of the same name by Dolly Parton.

Illustrates challenges of working women in the 1980s.

2011/10/30

John Mellencamp – Pink Houses (1983)

LYRICS

There’s a black man with a black cat
Livin’ in a black neighborhood
He’s got an interstate
Runnin’ through his front yard
You know he thinks that he’s got it so good
And there’s a woman in the kitchen
Cleanin’ up the evenin’ slop
And he looks at her and says, hey darlin’
I can remember when you could stop a clock

Oh, but ain’t that America
For you and me
Ain’t that America
Something to see, baby
Ain’t that America
Home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses
For you and me
Oooh, yeah
For you and me

Well, there’s a young man in a t-shirt
Listenin’ to a rockin’ rollin’ station
He’s got greasy hair, greasy smile
He says, Lord this must be my destination
‘Cause they told me when I was younger
Said boy, you’re gonna be president
But just like everything else
Those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went

Oh, but ain’t that America
For you and me
Ain’t that America
Something to see, baby
Ain’t that America
Home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses
For you and me
Oooh, little baby
For you and me

Well, there’s people and more people
What do they know, know, know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
Ooh, yeah
And there’s winners and there’s losers
But they ain’t no big deal
‘Cause the simple man, baby
Pays for thrills
The bills the pills that kill

Oh, but ain’t that America
For you and me
Ain’t that America
Something to see, baby
Ain’t that America
Home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses
For you and me

2011/10/30

John Mellencamp – Small Town (1985)

LYRICS

Well I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Probably die in a small town
Oh, those small communities

All my friends are so small town
My parents live in the same small town
My job is so small town
Provides little opportunity

Educated in a small town
Taught to fear Jesus in a small town
Used to daydream in that small town
Another born romantic that’s me

But I’ve seen it all in a small town
Had myself a ball in a small town
Married an LA doll and brought her to this small town
Now she’s small town just like me

No I cannot forget where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be

Got nothing against a big town
Still hayseed enough to say
Look who’s in the big town
But my bed is in a small town
Oh, and that’s good enough for me

Well I was born in a small town
And I can breathe in a small town
Gonna die in this small town
And that’s probably where they’ll bury me

2011/04/17

Smoking Crack in Hell’s Kitchen

Excerpt from The 90′s. [Released in 1989.] “Crack Clouds Over Hell’s Kitchen” by The Educational Video Center. Interview with crack addicts in New York City’s Hells Kitchen neighborhood who demonstrate how to smoke crack onscreen and describe its effects as they feel them.

2011/04/06

Public Enemy – Fight The Power (1989)

LYRICS:

1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hittin’ your heart cause I know you got soul
(Brothers and sisters hey)
Listen if you’re missin’ y’all
Swingin’ while I’m singin’
Givin’ whatcha gettin’
Knowin’ what I know
While the Black bands sweatin’
And the rhythm rhymes rollin’
Got to give us what we want
Gotta give us what we need
Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be
Lemme hear you say
Fight the power

2011/04/03

Judas Priest – Breaking The Law (1980)

These dudes are so metal, they can rob a bank with just their guitars.

LYRICS:

There I was completely wasting, out of work and down
all inside it’s so frustrating as I drift from town to town
feel as though nobody cares if I live or die
so I might as well begin to put some action in my life

Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law

2011/03/26

MEGAPOST: Celebrity Crack Cocaine Anti-Drug Public Service Announcements (PSAs)

Pee Wee Herman, telling kids not to do drugs.

Bruce Willis anti-crack PSA

LeVar Burton Anti-Crack PSA

Clint Eastwood PSA from the 1980′s

Bette Midler

A PSA that was on some of the original VHS tapes for the movie “Outrageous Fortune” 1987/88.

Ally Sheedy’s anti-drug psa

“This message isn’t about numbers, it’s about crack. I won’t bore you with the statistics, except to say it’s not worth becoming one for a 10-minute high.”

Long lost Olivia Newton-John PSA TV Commercial against crack cocaine use in the mid-1980′s

2011/03/16

Microworld with William Shatner (1980)

William Shatner explains microprocessors in 1980.

2011/03/08

All New For 1986! Mobile Telephones!

A nostalgic look back at the mid-1980s, when shoulder pads were big, hair was even bigger, and a mobile telephone had the dimensions of a large brick.

2011/03/08

HBO Starship Intro: Behind the Scenes (1983)

A Behind-the-scenes documentary on how the “HBO Starship” intro from the 1980′s was created. Taped off HBO in 1983 and captured from an old VHS tape.

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