1980: A Golden Decade Begins

You may be already or if not you will probably soon will be sick of me constantly broadcasting my belief that the 1980’s was the golden age of heavy metal. One of my original motivations for beginning this blog was to trumpet that belief, with the intention of backing it up by portraying all the great albums, bands and other fantastic memories I have from that year. There were some down sides to that golden decade as well, especially with who the US and UK had as president and prime minister during that time, but that’s another matter.

Golden decades have to start somewhere and for me it started in 1980. My life back then was totally different. First and most important, I was serving my country and had been in less than six months when it all began. As a new marine, I was longing to be sent to Iran and go and rescue the hostages single handed. Three days before the botched rescue attempt in the April, my battalion was woken up at two in the morning and driven to the air base forty miles away and put on a plane only to be told it was a drill. Three weeks later, President Carter sent us to Key West Florida to deal with the Cuban refugee crisis. I spent the last four months on a ship sailing around the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean where I got within 67 miles of the coast of Iran, but once again, wasn’t allowed to go and kill anybody.

Enough of my life for that year, what about the music? In the first months of 1980, I can say I was a total convert to Molly Hatchet, playing the “Flirtin’ With Disaster” album constantly.

I also found myself being led down the trail of other great bands that would make their mark that year in the form of AC/DC, Judas Priest and especially Van Halen. The first two mentioned would put out albums that would fully enshrine them as all time greats and although in the case of Van Halen, some would look down on the “Women and Children First” album, (I don’t) they would still be one of the biggest names of that year.

Judas Priest

AC/DC

Van Halen

I will of course be visiting all of these albums when I cover the decade opening year as well as those who were up and coming like Iron Maiden and Saxon and visiting other classic albums as well. So, I hope that you will all join me for what looks like to be a glorious ride through rock/metal history.

Next post: Foreigner- Head Games

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