Over the past few weeks, I have been asked the same question multiple times. “Who is your favorite group?” While at first glance, it doesn’t seem like such a daunting question, for me it is. Music is more than a distraction to keep me occupied in the car. I can hear an old song and tell you exactly what I was doing and thinking when this song was popular. To me, songs are milestones. I really listen to the music and the lyrics. The lyrics are what attracts me to a song. If a song makes me think, then I tend to gravitate toward it. After being asked this question recently, I sat down and compiled a list of the most influential musical groups during certain periods in my life. After much thought and deliberation, I was able to come up with a list of 3 of 4 of my so-called favorites. The list is comprised of groups, I haven’t even thought about individual artists yet. That is a task for a much later date.

My childhood and high school years

During my youth, new wave music and heavy metal/rock music topped the charts. Seldom did someone like both genres, but I did. I grew up in a small Southern Indiana and more often than not Def Leppard and Van Halen were cranked on the stereo being played from homemade mix tapes. But then I heard about a group from England called Duran Duran. I saw them on MTV and it was love at first sight. Then ABC, Culture Club and A Flock of Seagulls followed.

 4. The Eagles come in at 4 because I grew up listening to them with my Dad and his friends. I quite possibly might have been the only middle school student in Indiana whose favorite song was Hotel California. I remember having the 8 track and the album versions. Yes, I remember 8 tracks.

“Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
“Relax, ” said the night man,
“We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave”

 

3. The Police are my number 3 because Synchronicity pretty much defined my later high school years. People would put the it on and let the whole thing play. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t heard Every Breath You Take. Even before Synchronicity, I loved Roxanne and Don’t Stand So Close To Me, but  Wrapped Around Your Finger was the song I was drawn to.

“You consider me the young apprentice
Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis
Hypnotized by you if I should linger
Staring at the ring around your finger

I have only come here seeking knowledge
Things they would not teach me of in college
I can see that destiny you sold
Turned into a shining band of gold

I’ll be wrapped around your finger”

2. Journey takes my second spot. Journey Escape was the sing a long album. If you were in the car with friends taking laps around the square, there was a good chance Journey was playing. Open Arms was the theme of more than a few local proms and an anthem was born in Don’t Stop Believin’. Who doesn’t know that song?

“Just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world 
She took the midnight train goin’ anywhere 
Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit 
He took the midnight train goin’ anywhere “

1. Duran Duran and my obsession with them will probably be some of my most vivid memories of high school. What the Beatles were to my parents’ generation, Duran Duran is to my new wave generation. The band influenced my musical tastes, my clothing style and my artistic side. I decorated my room around this very album cover. The first song Duran Duran song I ever heard was Is There Something I Should Know, but I have many favorites: Save A Prayer, Girls On Film, Hungry Like the Wolf, and the Reflex. Their videos were cutting edge and visually appealing.

“And you wanted to dance so I asked you to dance
But fear is in your soul”

More to come…