Wednesday, August 3, 2011

1980: Times Square Brings New Wave to Middle America


Robert Smith 1980





















Jimmy, who grew up to become a Priest, turned me onto The Cure in mid-1979 while he and our friend Katie were dancing around, dressed in matching black garbage bag Halloween costumes based on a movie starring Tim Curry titled, Times Square.


Times Square, middle-class kids get introduced to Punk
























Times Square, to be honest, was a sweet, well intentioned little film, but, nothing much more then your average late 70's teen coming of age picture, with the only real grabber being the New Wave setting.

But that's really okay, because while the film was not my bag at all, the accompanying soundtrack album was a revelation.

Not only the Cure, but Talking Heads, The Pretenders, XTC, Suzi Quatro, Roxy Muxic, Gary Numan, Joe Jackson, the Ramones, Lou Reed and Patti Smith among others.


                  The Cure - Grinding Halt (live 1980) 



The importance of the Times Square record really can't be underestimated, because while just because of quality most of these bands were going to take off anyway, it never the less was the record that first took a generation of middle class, white American kids raised on Kansas, Boston and Molly Hatchet and introduced them to a more artistic style of music.





           The Pretenders - Talk of the Town


The very late 70's and the very early 80's do not seem in my opinion to get nearly the respect they deserve for the amazing music coming out at the time.

I'll just have to talk about the era much more often.

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