Soundtrack
Music has a way of weaving itself into your memories. I can listen to a song from the 1980’s and most of the time I can tell you exactly where I first heard it, provided the song moved me in some way.
In the 1980’s our music options were plentiful. It was a time of musical creativity unlike any I have experienced ever since. I tended to gravitate to the alternative sounds, which you will find in this list, but on the whole I listened to just about anything in those times. Even disco!
Here are some of the standout albums I remember from that time.
The Waterboys – A Pagan Place
This album is probably the one I listened to most during 1987 in the lead up to my call up date. It’s a really powerful assembly of songs and every note is indelibly etched into my mind. The track that most resonated with me at that time was Red Army Blues. It’s a masterpiece in poignancy and while the time period and setting is entirely different to when I was a soldier, the same emotions exist for anybody who has been called to serve their country and been let down.
My good friend Martin Grafetsberger had this album and kindly recorded it onto a tape for me sometime in early 1987. I remember sitting in his parents’ lounge overlooking North Beach while this was going onto tape and thinking I had really scored.
Kate Bush – Hounds Of Love
Martin also recorded this gem of an album on the other side of the TDK D90 that carried the Waterboys album for me.
It’s hard to classify this type of music. I think it exists somewhere between rock and art. It’s almost classical in nature and I think it has to be listened to in its entirety because each song is like the chapter of a book. It’s ethereal and yet also sticky. Running Up The Hill is the big hit that Kate had with this album, but the standout song for me is the other single Cloudbusting. The original video starred Donald Sutherland as the father who’s experiments attracted the attention of the government agents. Again, this theme of standing against the government finds a resting place in my soul.
Deacon Blue – Raintown
Such a brilliant assembly of songs in this their debut album. Every time I hear this record I am taken back to the little side pub at the Killarney Hotel called The Pig & Whistle where on my first pass I heard the two singles Loaded and Dignity for the first time. To me this music screams soulful English pub in the 1980’s, where there is no time to worry about, no stress, no demands. Just people having a good time being together, drinking pint after pint and making goo-goo eyes at potential life partners.
If I was forced to pick a favourite track I’d probably chose Loaded on days when I am a little melancholy. But then on days when I am feeling chipper I would go for Dignity. That said this entire album needs to be played start to end and enjoyed as one thing.
To Michele Terblanche, wherever you may be in the world, thank you for introducing me to this one.
Talk Talk – The Colour Of Spring
This is in my top 5 albums of all time. I don’t think any other album stokes my music appreciation quite as much as this one does. It is an absolute masterpiece. Rhythm, cadence, spiritual spatiality. It carries it all for me. Every song is a carving out of the stuff that we need to cling to in times of uncertainty. I can’t really write too much about it because it is just too beautiful for me to describe.
I had this on the other side of the Deacon Blue tape and the bus driver played it on the trip back to Kimberley after that first pass. I remember Martin (Maurice) saying to me that it was so relaxing he fell asleep.
U2 – Rattle & Hum
When the Joshua Tree came out I had already been a U2 fan for a few years. My cousin Andy brought me the War album when I was sick in bed with some malady in 1983 and it blew me away. They were so unknown in South Africa at the time that I didn’t even know if their name was U2 or War. Anyway, the next album they brought out was An Unforgettable Fire and by then they were a household name, particularly because of the hit song Pride (In The Name Of Love), which was an unapologetic ode to Martin Luther King. To be honest the man they were singing about didn’t even enter our thought processes in South Africa, but the power and passion of the music was undeniably indicative of the political direction they were heading in as a band.
The Joshua Tree came out when I was doing basics and as described in this chapter of the memoir it got played to death in the bungalow (much to the disgust of some of the boerseuns. I thought it was Ok, but because it became so commercial it never stuck to me the way the next album did.
Rattle & Hum is a live album of the tour they did in support of The Joshua Tree and it’s about as visceral an album as they have ever made. Pure, raw and evocative. The song Silver & Gold kind of explains how many of us also felt about the apartheid situation in South Africa at the time. I remember this song playing in the bungalow somewhere in Pretoria and one of the boneheads got really upset about it. There are always exceptions.
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars
I bought this album somewhere in Pretoria on one of my AWOL‘s into the city. I’d heard the track What I Am on the radio and it really pressed the right sonic receptors in me. This would have been around the time I met Sharon and Sheri. I think. Anyway, that song is great but the rest of the album is a bit wishy washy. I did play it quite a lot at the time.
Climie Fisher – Everything
This had come out a few months before I met Tracy. Or should I say before Tracy barged into my life on that fateful night in 1988 at The Med. There are only two songs that are worth listening to on this record and they were the popular singles, Love Changes (Everything) and Rise To The Occasion. They were huge at the time and you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing them. Tracy liked them quite a bit too. She could actually sing, that girl, now that I remember.
The Blue Nile – A Walk Across The Rooftops
Craig Kriek recorded this for me on one of the tapes I had. I loved it from the get go. It’s a similar type of vibe to Talk Talk, but probably not quite as musically embellished. Stand out track is Tinseltown In The Rain. I still summon this record up from the depths of the streaming services whenever I can. It’s a good one, but I think their follow up Hats is better.
Morrissey – Viva Hate
The Smiths were huge in the 80’s and plenty of the gang of drivers, particularly Rob Chivers, were always playing one or other Smiths album in the bungalow. It took me a while to warm to them but I eventually did. Morrissey went solo in 1988 and this was his first offering. As far as music goes it’s an okay listen, although if you’re a Smiths fan you want to hear his voice with Johnny Marr’s guitar.
I bought this album on one of my many passes and took it to my cousin’s house along with a few others on a soused weekend (I remember we were out all night and then caught a bus to the Bluff where we carried on drinking like we had no tomorrow).
The best track is Suedehead and another standout is Every Day Is Like Sunday, although this latter one reminds me of just how I used to hate Sundays when I was in the army because that was the day I would have to take the Elwierda bus back to camp. Ugh.
The Church – Starfish
This is another album that I bought in Pretoria on the back of receiving a recording from Craig of one of their earlier albums. Now here’s the weird thing, I do remember listening to this often back then, but when I played it on Apple Music recently I simply can’t remember any of the songs. It’s like the music has been wiped from my memory.
Fine Young Cannibals – the Raw & The Cooked
This came out in 1989 and you couldn’t escape it. Wherever you went you’d hear it being played. Everybody loved it. My favourite track from the album is Good Thing. Not much else to say about it.
Echo & The Bunnymen – Echo & The Bunnymen
My first exposure to the music of Echo & The Bunnymen came in 1986 when I was “studying” electronic engineering at the Natal Technikon. One of my classmates there (I think his name was Darren Swart) was totally into everything alternative and one of his favourite bands was Echo.
I can’t recall where I first heard the two main tracks off this album, but I suspect it must have been at Le Club in Hillbrow on one of our spirited visits there with Willie Thomas and his gang of quasi-goths from Boksburg. It’s a great album and acts as a kind of bridge between true alternative music and the more mainstream type of rock. Bedbugs & Ballyhoo is an awesome song, as is Lips Like Sugar. Timeless stuff but it bears the DNA of the late 1980’s alternative scene.
Steve Winwood – Chronicles
Richard Dreyfuss starred in a movie in 1987 with Emilio Estevez called Stakeout and in one of the scenes the female lead, Madeleine Stowe is cooking something while listening to Higher Love. I don’t know what it was about that scene and that song that worked so well but it turned me onto Steve Winwood in some way. I recall buying this record from one of Musica’s small stores (I think it was the only Musica in Durban at the time, well before they became ubiquitous) down the far end of Smith Street. I met up with Wayne (Warren) at Valerie’s place in Albert Park and we played it there. It was pretty good, we liked it. I had also bought it with another album but I have totally forgotten what that was.
Favourite tracks from this compilation are Higher Love and Arc Of A Diver.
Sting – Nothing Like The Sun
Throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s I was a massive fan of The Police. I had almost all their albums and when they broke up it was like losing a family member. Sting kind of became the resurrection man of the spirit of the band when he brought out his first solo album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles, but I didn’t really like that one at all. This album was a different kettle of fish entirely. It had jazz and fusion hooks and I was kind of into soft jazz at the time (thanks to my Mom who introduced me to David Sanborn and a few others). I recall feeling very sophisticated when listening to this record. It brings back really good memories of that epic pass I got over Christmas in 1988, drinking lots of Hansa Pilsener on the balcony in Port O’ Durban (our building) and watching the world go by below me.
I like every track off this album. If I had to pick a favourite it would probably be Little Wing, this version is the first I had ever heard of it, I had no idea that it was actually a Hendrix song.