1980

I’m in my early 60s now, but I often feel that I should be 18. Maybe someone teleported me into 2025. Can they please teleport me back home to 1980? 😀 Maybe 18 will be my age in heaven.

In fact, I would like to re-live quite a lot of years. I’ve had a reasonably good life. I do re-live my life through my memories. I find music very helpful in that respect. I can hear an old song, and it transports me back to where and when I first heard it.

At a day-to-day level, 1980, and most other years, were probably quite mundane. There was always that mild sense of dread on Sunday night as I thought of school, college or work on Monday morning 😀. The nice thing about memories is that you can just jump back to the pleasant days. And even when you remember the unpleasant or boring days, you’re remembering them from a distance, so you’re not engulfed in all the negative feelings.

So why 1980? If you read my other posts, you’ll notice that I often make reference to the fact that I committed my life to Christ in August 1980, after spending about five years searching and trying to make up my mind. So, 1980 is a very momentous year for me.

But even apart from that, I enjoyed being 18. I was looking forward to reaching 18 throughout my teens. I was interested in politics as well as religion. I went to a lecture on Leon Trotsky in Connolly Hall, Cork, near the end of 1979. Then, I got involved in the Militant Tendency in the early months of 1980. The Militant Tendency was a Trotskyite wing of the Irish Labour Party. I didn’t see anything sinister about them. I don’t know why they called themselves “Militant”. Maybe it was just an analogy, like the Salvation Army use military metaphors. They were basically wanting communism, but not the sort of oppressive regimes associated with the Soviet Union and China. Looking back now, I think of them as dreamers, but I do respect them for wanting to make the world a better place.

I pulled back from them after I committed my life to Christ, because they were atheists and I thought that they might be a bad influence. And I eventually lost interest in politics. Well, not totally, but I wouldn’t bother joining a political party, though I respect those who do.

I have some nice musical memories of 1980. In the space of a few months, I went to see Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher at the Cork City Hall, Horslips at the Savoy and Lene Lovich, The Undertones and U2 in the Arcadia. Notice that concerts were £2.00 back then 😀. And albums might have been around twice that. I don’t think that bands made much money from touring back in 1980.

 

 I went to see The Police in Leixlip in July, supported by Squeeze and U2 among others. U2 were just a little Irish group back then. But it’s nice to have seen them before they became famous internationally. I pulled back from going to rock concerts too after I became a Christian. I saw it as being a bit worldly. I don’t think I needed to do that and no-one insisted that I do it, but I just thought it best. But I am nostalgic about the music of that era nowadays.

When you’re young, you tend to be strongly influenced by those you mix with, so after August, I tended to focus on the Christian scene. But I always maintained an interest in pop music, though I felt a bit more distant from it.

Here I’ll list my top 20 favourite secular songs of 1980.

• It’s Different For Girls​ – Joe Jackson
• I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down​ – Elvis Costello
• Games Without Frontiers​ – Peter Gabriel
• Another Nail In My Heart​ – Squeeze
• Going Underground – The Jam
• What’s Another Year – Johnny Logan
• Night Boat to Cairo – Madness
• Hi Fidelity​ – Elvis Costello
• No Doubt About It​ – Hot Chocolate
• Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime​ – Korgis
• Duchess – Genesis
• Xanadu – Olivia Newton John and ELO
• Could You Be Loved​ – Bob Marley
• Babooshka – Kate Bush
• The Winner Takes It All​ – Abba
• Ashes To Ashes​ – David Bowie
• Magic – Olivia Newton John
• The Same Old Scene​ – Roxy Music
• (Just Like) Starting Over​ – John Lennon
• Do Nothing – The Specials

In 1980, I bought two of Bob Dylan’s Christian albums. Here’s a song from each:

Dylan is playing in Killarney later this month. I saw him in Earl’s Court in June 1981. He does still play some of his Christian songs. But in Earl’s Court he played lots of them. I was pleased to find the exact concert on the extended version of his recent Trouble No More album.

When I started going to an evangelical church, I started getting to know hymns a bit more. Here I’ll add an old one and a new one that I became familiar with around August or September 1980.

I remember being puzzled by one line of the Charles Wesley Hymn, And Can It Be.

Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown through Christ my own.

Firstly, In Ireland, we use the term bold as a synonym for bad. As a child, you’re told not to be bold. But even if you use the word in its true sense, what’s this guy doing boldly claiming a crown. Shouldn’t we be humble? But the point he is making is that because Jesus paid for all his sins on the cross, and because he has trusted in the Saviour, he can approach the heavenly thrown with confidence. Jesus has won it for him.

Hebrews 4:16
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

2 Timothy 4:8
“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Titus 3:5
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

The second hymn is a newer one that was popular in Irish evangelical churches at the time and for many years after. We’d sing the old hymns, which I loved, but we’d also sing new choruses using acoustic guitars.