Rock '84 & the human soul

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Rock-84/release/5739502

Listening to this tape again, I realized that a chunk of my soul was formed by the first four songs on Side A. There are other great songs on the tape (Sherry Kean - I Want You Back, Styx - Mr. Roboto, Culture Club - Karma Chameleon, ect....) but nothing beats the sequence of

A1 –Madness Our House
A2 –The Kinks Come Dancing
A3 –Men Without Hats The Safety Dance
A4 –Peter Schilling Major Tom (Coming Home)

The two first songs are very domestic and earthy, about mothers and sisters, houses and dancing, getting ready for school and Saturday nights - they describe real (if nostalgic) snap-shots of British childhoods.
Then the Quebec new-wave synthpunks show up! The Kink's songs is about boys asking his sister to 'come dancing', but Men Without Hats are here to defiantly dance no matter what anybody says, they are neither giving or awaiting an invitation

'Come dancing,' all her boyfriends used to come and call.
'Why not come dancing, it's only natural'
-kinks

we can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance well they're are no friends of mine
-men without hat

Following this declaration of independence, German synthpop arrives to announce not just independence from the domestic but independence from the whole world.

Four, three, two, one!
Earth below us / Drifting, falling / Floating, weightless
Calling, calling home

To understand the impact of those words, imagine a 9-year old me. Hating school. Dreading 5 of 7 days for 10 months of 12 months every year. No escape. Until this tape.

Take a moment with the Kinks & Madness to have a sentimental goodbye with your beloved family and house. Then a synthpop dance of independence, declaring your personal freedom from all social norms. Now time to get on-board and strap in...


My soul would scream these words. You could control my body but not my mind. Never.
Goodbye, McNaughton! Goodbye, St.Mike's! Goodbye, Mom and Dad! Goodbye, Reb, Raul, Sarah, Bazook, Bubba, Fats, Tee and Puppy!
Goodbye, I love you, but I'm in too much pain to stay here or stay sane.

Freudians call our desire for the weightlessness of space as a desire to return to the womb. I'm not going to disagree.
Philosophers recognize this same desire as the 'Gnostic rocket', the urge to escape the gross matter into the subtle realms of mind. I'm not going to disagree.
Guitars can make me weep but only Euro-synths had the raw electronic power to get this kid to a place of freedom.  

Listen to them in the same order as the tape and imagine the 30-seconds that comprise --the blaring brass end of 'Coming Dancing', a few second gap, and the synth start of 'Safety Dance'-- as a turning point in my selfhood. And when at the end of Major Tom, alone and isolated in the deeps of the void, realizes that he is 'home'....



...my path to growing up and leaving home had begun a million miles above my house...

Going through the other tracks I'm pleasantly surprised at the moderate number of American artists...

Tracklist
A1 –Madness Our House ENGLAND
A2 –The Kinks Come Dancing ENGLAND
A3 –Men Without Hats The Safety Dance CANADA
A4 –Peter Schilling Major Tom (Coming Home) GERMAN
A5 –Huey Lewis & The News Heart And Soul USA
A6 –Frank Stallone Far From Over USA
A7 –Michael Sembello Maniac USA
A8 –Styx Mr. Roboto USA

B1 –Culture Club Karma Chameleon ENGLAND
B2 –Sheena Easton Telefone SCOTLAND
B3 –Stray Cats (She's) Sexy + 17 USA/ ENGLAND
B4 –Sherry Kean I Want You Back CANADA
B5 –Kajagoogoo Too Shy ENGLAND
B6 –Duran Duran Rio ENGLAND
B7 –Naked Eyes Promises, Promises ENGLAND
B8 –Big Country In A Big Country SCOTLAND