Year 11: 1983

 

All Night Long by Lionel Richie

When introducing yesterday's selection for 1982, I made reference to Casey Kasem's Top 40 Countdown, which brought back a flood of memories for this child of the early '80s.  For the younger crowd following along, what I'm about to recount might seem akin to the horse & buggy days of transportation, but for those from my era, you may recall the struggle-positioning your portable cassette player next to the radio, closed off in your room to minimize any background noise, fingers poised on the record and play buttons, true masters of the art pushing them down in synch just as Kasem or whichever DJ was providing the lead-in stopped talking and the song began.  The intensity would not let up until the final note was hit and the buttons would be stopped, salvaging a clean recording of the song without the intrusion of the DJ.  These tapes begat mix tapes which begat mix CD's which became archaic once ITunes entered our existence. We live in a world now where you can hear any song you want at any time, provided you have an internet connection.  If you had told 11 year old me that this time would come, I would imagine we were listening to these songs on demand in our flying cars. 

That leads to a story and the choice for 1983. Truth be told, this is another instance where this isn't my favorite song from the year--give me Night Ranger's Sister Christian, David Bowie's Modern Love, or The Call's Walls Came Down.  That said, it's still a catchy song that puts a bounce in my step and who can find fault with Richie's stylish leather pants.  But the reason it's the choice is the absolute struggle I, along with my cousin Dan, found in getting this song onto our DIY cassette tapes.  For whatever reason, we had let the song pass us by when it was on the weekly Top 40 and we were now in the wilderness, obsessed with our elusive prey, relying upon good fortune or the advance notice of our local DJs which never seemed to arrive.  When we would see each other, we would recount our tales of woe-seconds late on pressing the record button, interruptions from an older sister, and other obstacles.  It seemed like All Night Long would fade away from preservation on our 99 cent cassette tapes, until one day. . .I think it was Dan, maybe it was me, but we achieved that clean recording and then shared with the other.  The chase was no more and as I type out this memory, I ache a little bit for those simpler times.