That’s me sometime in December 1980: I was 15, a high-school sophomore and unabashed music freak. My all-time favorite act was Paul McCartney & Wings, though the Beatles were a pretty close second. I owned several of the Beatles’ LPs, including their red (1962-66) and blue (1967-70) best-ofs, and listened to them quite a bit. But McCartney (with and without Wings) was current, and churning out new product on a regular basis – an important thing. His erstwhile partner and friend, John Lennon, was shot to death on the 8th of the month, not long after releasing his first album in five years.
Prior to his death, I owned Lennon’s Shaved Fish compilation and the “(Just Like) Starting Over” single, which had been released in late October; I bought both at the Hatboro Music Shop. Joe Celano, the proprietor, was accustomed to me taking upwards of an hour flipping through the LP racks in his (fairly small by today’s standards) store before settling on a single 45, which cost a buck. What can I say? I was a kid; money was tight.
Money was tight for adults, too. The economy was, all things being equal, a disgrace. Unemployment clocked in at 7.1 percent for the year; and the wage killer known as inflation was 13.5 percent. Those economic bad times, which continued for the next few years, were why Ronald Reagan soundly defeated incumbent president Jimmy Carter that November.
Anyway, to my Christmas list:
It consisted, as the above picture shows, of two hand-held video games, neither of which I received; four LPs, three of which I did; three books, of which I received all; a calendar; and a wallet. (I also received, as always, clothes and stuff.)
Of the video games: I was a Space Invaders enthusiast, and often played for 20 or 30 minutes on one quarter at the arcade in the Village Mall. I believe I already had it for our Atari VCS console, but could be mistaken – that may have been to come. The handheld Entex model just meant that I could have taken it with me – perfect for backseats, the school bus and/or school cafeteria. I have no idea what drew me to list Toss-Up; I likely saw a TV commercial and thought it looked like fun. (It was actually made by Mego, not Meeco; and now goes for $1,499 on Ebay.)
Of the books – G. Gordon Liddy’s autobiography, Will, is an odd request for a 15-year-old kid to make, but I was an odd kid; I saw Liddy interviewed on The Dick Cavett Show and found him fascinating – just as I found professional wrestling fascinating, which explains The Main Event. The Beatles Forever, of course, needs no explanation. I still have the copy I received that Christmas in my personal archives (aka the attic).
And now to today’s Top 5: Christmas 1980 (via My Christmas List).
1) Pat Benatar – “Heartbreaker.” I’ve written about Pat Benatar before on this blog, most notably on this Top 5. Although I’m sure I first heard “Heartbreaker,” “I Need a Lover” and “In the Heat of the Night” in 1979, simply because I listened to rock radio, I didn’t buy anything of hers until her second album, Crimes of Passion, in late 1980.
2) Wings – “Wild Life.” The Wild Life album wasn’t one of McCartney’s best, but it has its moments.
3) Paul McCartney & Wings – “Medley: Hold Me Tight/Lazy Dynamite/Hands of Love/Power Cut.” Red Rose Speedway, the album that followed Wild Life, is a much better produced effort from McCartney & Co. Originally slated to be a 17-song, double-LP set, it was trimmed down to one LP by cutting nine songs and adding this 11-minute medley…which, for whatever reason, I liked at the time. I still do, though that may be nostalgia at play.
4) The Beatles – “A Day in the Life.” Nicholas Schaffner’s Beatles Forever tome remains one of the most insightful books about the Beatles written. And, since there is no actual song associated with the book, I’ll go with one of the Beatles’ best…
5) The Doors – “L.A. Woman.” I didn’t receive the Doors’ Greatest Hits that Christmas. I actually didn’t need it – anytime you wanted to hear the Doors, all one had to do was turn on rock radio and, within an hour or so, you were guaranteed to hear “Light My Fire,” “Hello, I Love You” or one of their other radio staples. In time, I eventually picked up their first album, Morrison Hotel and the L.A. Woman LP.
The Old Grey Cat 