12 February 1989: I Will Decide When I Go or I Don't Go

1. Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
2. Simple Minds: Belfast Child
3. Michael Ball: Love Changes Everything
4. Mike + The Mechanics: The Living Years
5. Holly Johnson: Love Train
6. Bobby Brown: My Prerogative
7. Roy Orbison: You Got It
8. Morrissey: The Last of the Famous International Playboys
9. Yazz: Fine Time
10. Robert Howard & Kym Mazell: Wait
11. Rick Astley: Hold Me in Your Arms
12. Roachford: Cuddly Toy
13. Ten City: That's the Way Love Is
14. Simply Red: It's Only Love
15. Sheena Easton: The Lover in Me
16. Samantha Fox: I Only Wanna Be with You
17. Sam Brown: Stop
18. Hue & Cry: Looking for Linda
19. Fine Young Cannibals: She Drives Me Crazy
20. Def Leppard: Rocket
21. Texas: I Don't Want a Lover
22. Then Jerico: Big Area
23. Kylie & Jason: Especially for You
24. Poison: Every Rose Has Its Thorn
25. Adeva: Respect
26. Erasure: Crackers International
27. Will to Power: Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird
28. Neneh Cherry: Buffalo Stance
29. S'Express: Hey Music Lover
30. Brother Beyond: Be My Twin
31. Raze: Break 4 Love
32. The Style Council: Promised Land
33. Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: Can't Stay Away from You
34. Debbie Gibson: Lost in Your Eyes
35. Milli Vanilli: Baby Don't Forget My Number
36. Boy Meets Girl: Waiting for a Star to Fall
37. Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians: What I Am
38. Pop Will Eat Itself: Can U Dig It?
39. Inner City: Good Life
40. Tone Loc: Wild Thing / Loc'ed After Dark

~~~~~

Oh, by the way, I saw Fahrenheit 9/11.

So, what did you think?

Well, it was all right. Pretty interesting but I didn't enjoy it all that much.

You're not supposed to enjoy it!

Huh. And there I was naively thinking that films are supposed to be enjoyable.

This week's highest new entry comes in all the way at number two and it illustrates the dangers of bringing serious issues into the realm of pop. Belfast Child has good intentions dealing as it does with The Troubles but it's a song that failed to leave much of an impression on the minds of kids at the time. The eighties - for all of its supposed narcissism - were something of a golden age for thoughtful pop that took on issues which, crucially, helped make young listeners aware of what was going on. Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears, Ghost Town by The Specials, Fast Car by Tracy Chapman: all appealed to kids while tackling some heavy subject matter. Where Simple Minds falter isn't simply by their attempts at clumsily fusing half-baked folk with tired stadium rock - though they're certainly guilty on that count too - but in failing to enlighten. My eleven-year-old self kind of knew what it was about due to the title and the bleak Ulster industrial docks in the video but I nevertheless came away as unconcerned about the problems in Northern Ireland as I was unentertained by the song itself.

A more enjoyable hit that dealt with important issues at the time was Hue & Cry's Looking for Linda. A big favourite at the time of my sister's (she bought the single at some point in February), it tells the tale of an encounter with an alcoholic woman on a Scottish train and the protagonist who attempts to reach out to her. The gentle, appealing melody and Pat Kane's gorgeous, jazzy voice make this an easy song to fall for - and one that could easily be misunderstood, as I can attest. I knew it wasn't just a straight up love song - I figured it was about a neglected, battered housewife who's trying to escape her nasty, controlling husband - but the alcoholism and suicide attempt ("I will decide when I go or I don't go", hence this week's entry's title) were lost on me. Still, there was something of a story to Looking for Linda, it seemed important and it was - still is, in fact - an immensely enjoyable tune.

I always think that there were four major news stories that I remember from my year in England. Two - the Ben Johnson doping scandal and the Lockerbie disaster - have already been covered; the remaining pair will be dealt with in due course. But of course these aren't the only news items I can recall, just the ones that really stick out. They bring back where I was when I heard about them (even if I tend to dislike those "where were you when..." discussions, as the great Christopher Hitchens said about Princess Diana's death: "Where was I when I heard the ghastly news? Who cares.") and are the ones that immediately come to mind - even if one wasn't really all that significant at the time. As far as other headlines are concerned, Exxon Valdez was sad but I couldn't quite grasp just how catastrophic it was, Mrs Thatcher's Poll Tax experiment was decried by some pop stars I liked but was in its infancy and wasn't going to affect us prior to our return to Canada, the wrath of children falling down wells in the US was too absurd to be taken seriously - even if it was probably a forerunner to the freakshow coverage that dominated American news in the nineties - and the Clapham Junction disaster - I'm ashamed to say now - left me rather indifferent.

The second week of February brought a pair of memorable news stories which couldn't have been more different from one another. Returning from our brief trip to Ireland on the Sunday, we had Monday off and went on a day trip to Dedham in the pristine Constable country of northern Essex. Everyone lunched on gigantic jacket potatoes - fast becoming one of my favourite English pub dishes - and we all made a game attempt at not letting the rain spoil the fun. Back in Laindon, we switched on the telly and tuned into the Brit Awards. Nowadays the Brits are a slick, well-produced showcase of the UK's pop talent but they were anything but back in 1989. Smash Hits magazine had already heaped harsh criticism on the awards due to many of the questionable nominees - in the category of Best Male Solo Artist, the choice of Steve Winwood was met with a simple (?????????????????) - but this was merely the tip of the Titanic-felling iceberg. Hosts Mick Fleetwood and Samantha Fox were pitiful and they weren't helped by poor direction and planning. Performances were dull and the whole affair was rather thin on star power. The whole thing was so wretched that my sister and I couldn't even be bothered to unleash scathingly cruel jabs that we were typically more than happy to foist upon phony baloney awards shows. "What a Fiasco!" cried the next issue of Smash Hits.

The next day the papers must have been similarly shredding The Brits to pieces but there was already an even bigger story developing. I went to school that Tuesday happy that I didn't have to give out Valentine's cards to everyone in my class (as I would've been expected to do had I been back in Canada); in the UK, the most romantic day of the year was much more of an optional event and it didn't bother me in the least that I received precisely as many cards festooned with hearts and cupids as I gave. Meanwhile, Britain's literary elite began turning up for the memorial service for famed travel writer, novelist and noted Moleskine notebook enthusiast Bruce Chatwin. As Martin Amis tells it, however, most in attendance were already thinking about Salman Rushdie and the fatwa that Ayatollah Khomeini had just placed on him. Suddenly there were demonstrations all over the world and effigies of the writer were being torched. Bookshops were refusing to carry Rushdie's offending novel The Satanic Verses and the author quickly went into hiding.

It was a story that I found interesting - at least for a time - but one that I could only instinctively form an opinion on. I was too young too care one wit about the intricacies of freedom of speech (and I have to say my idealistic self hasn't changed much on that one: while I am fully aware of just how important free speech is, I wish we didn't have to constantly go on and on about it) but I knew that the Ayatollah was a scary looking guy and those mobs were out of control. Otherwise, it was something I was simply too young and too unaware to have much of an idea about. A pity there weren't any pop songs to enlighten me.

~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Love Train
older Paul's retro pick: The Last of the Famous International Playboys