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Nostalgicmusicmonth

1985 Moon Dance

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Nostalgic Music Month Day 18

1985 By Jon Hilton

Our identity is defined by our experience and no other year in my life was more important to my development as a person than 1985. It was a year of change, learning, tragedy, triumph and ultimately the first real push into the person that I became. Looking back we tend to forget much of the mundane and negative and cherry pick the positive memories. For me there is no need to do this about 1985, it was all significant and memorable. Like all other things in my life, there was a soundtrack to that year that brings back the emotions of the era and always allows me to look back in reverence and love for that most formative year.

  1. Don’t You Forget About Me– Simple Minds- One of the most shared rites of passage in all people’s lives is the graduation from high school. It was June 13, 1985, when I experienced this. It was the culmination of four years of emotional and mental turmoil. On that day I played in and lost the Western Maine baseball final to Falmouth. We got back in time to
    I won’t forget about you!

    change and the next thing you know, I was graduating. Then we had a project graduation where you stayed up all night at the Boothbay YMCA, followed by a morning tour of Boothbay Harbor, and then a breakfast at the Legion in Damariscotta. It was a long night. One thing that is for sure from four years previous to that day to this one, I have never forgotten the people I shared that experience with. They are timeless and precious.  Tell me your troubles and doubts. Giving me everything inside and out and Love’s strange so real in the dark. Think of the tender things that we were working on……..

  2. Trapped – Bruce Springsteen- In that year, USA for Africa was trying to feed the world, and we were naive enough to believe that it would happen. this song reminds me of that spring of 1985 when I was involved in some tragedy. Until today I never really realized how much this song reminds me of that time. Life seems to have a way of hitting you hard sometimes, and how you react to that will define you. If your not careful they can trap you in that moment and keep you there. I like to think that all the people that I cared about then escaped these tangles. Good will conquer evil and the truth will set you free. And I know someday I’ll find the key…….
  3. If you Love Somebody Set Them Free– Sting- In 1985, my contemporaries and myself were looking for freedom and the powers that be decided to set us free on the world. This meant that relationships had to change, we all knew this was happening and in order for all people to reach their full potential, they need to be allowed to spread their wings and see what great things they can create. It would be great to keep all people exactly the same, but moments like that are meant to be just moments. They were perfect for their time, but all things must pass on to the next stop on the journey. Our job is to let it go and appreciate the experience we had and the lessons we learned. There are few teachers who are more appreciated than those I knew in 1985.  If you need somebody, call my name. If you want someone, you can do the same. If you want to keep something precious, Got to lock it up and throw away the key.
  4. Lay Your Hands On Me– Thompson Twins- This is a song that is very 1985ish. As we worked our way toward the inevitable end of our high school existence, there are so many people that you shared memories
    Lincoln Academy today looks much different than it did then………Like us it has come a long way.

    with. Some were longer term and some were just for a short time. All had an impact on me. Sometimes there are situations that you need support and to feel like some people care about you.  When it all comes down to the end, it’s the people that we care about and care about us that define who we are. This little 1985 ditty takes you back to that time and the feeling of being young. Back and forth across the sea. I have chased so many dreams. But I have never felt the grace. That I have felt in your embrace.

  5. Money For Nothing– Dire Straits- During the summer of 1985 I worked for one o the best people I ever knew. He made cabinets and I was his faithful assistant. I sanded things like no other.  We used to ride from job to job and listen to music and this song was one of the popular ones because we would have liked some of that money for nothin’.  I also wanted my MTV so this song really had it all.  There was a freedom in this job that I am not sure I have experienced since. We worked hard and got things done, but when the task was accomplished, it was left there and I was allowed to pursue my true passion of that summer which resided in Pemaquid, Maine. I have always been grateful for the lessons I learned that summer about work, people, and life.  And he’s up there, what’s that? Hawaiian noises? Bangin’ on the bongos like a chimpanzee. That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it. Get your money for nothin’ get your chicks for free. We got to install microwave ovens custom kitchen deliveries. We got to move these refrigerators we gotta move these color TV’s.

Van Morrison by Mike Martin- Day 18

Sir George Ivan “Van” Morrison is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and producer, born August 31, 1945. Known as “Van the Man”, he started his professional career as a teenager and continues to record and tour today with an album, Roll with the Punches, just released on September 22, 2017.

Every October, I am ready to listen to my favorite Van Morrison’s song ,  Moondance  -a song that established Morrison as a musical icon and a song that makes me feel incredibly relaxed and confident.

Well, it’s a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
‘Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And I’m trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the night’s magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush

My other favorite Van Morrison song was released as a single in mid-June 1967 (just about the time I was turning one) and reached number ten on

Moon Dance

the popular music charts in the United Sates.  Brown Eyed Girl (Live) is a true classic and still remains one of the most requested songs, on the radio and at weddings, in the United States today, 50 years after its release.

Hey, where did we go
Days when the rains came ?
Down in the hollow
Playing a new game
Laughing and a-running, hey, hey
Skipping and a-jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our, our hearts a-thumping

Please, have a wicked Wednesday day, and if you have any questions, drop us a line and please partake in #OctoberNostalgicMusicMonth and while you are at it take a trip to Greenville, Maine-I understand the foliage is majestic this time of year! #visitGreenville

#OctoberNostalgicMusicMonth #visitGreenville

Nostalgicmusicmonth

Born to Be Ironic

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Nostalgic Music Month Day 10

Bruce Springsteen by Jon Hilton

It would be hard to think of nostalgia and music for me without including Bruce Springsteen. For many of the formative years of my life, the music of the E Street Band punctuated the activities and defined many of the moments.  Even though I have never raced cars in the streets, or even been to Atlantic City, there is a message in the music that a kid from Maine could definitely relate to and find comfort in. Growing up, I listened to Bruce as I fell asleep many nights, to the dismay of my brother who I shared a room with. The people I shared these times with are very special to me and always will be.

  1. Rosalita– This song reminds my of my own Rosalita, we were the best of friends and in a world where most people suck, it was good to have one who was awesome to hang out with and have fun. There were many nights we would listen to Bruce Springsteen, sing, laugh and just enjoy being alive. Those nights with my Rosalita are bright memories and I think of her now whenever I hear this song and wonder why I made the mistakes I did. Rosalita is still in my heart and always will be.  “Someday we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny…..”

  2. Hungry Heart– When it comes to decisions in life, I think sometimes we make choices in the moment and we don’t see the long game. I was never good at expressing how I felt, and when feelings I didn’t understand came into my heart, I shut down. The whole thing, I would just avoid the situation. Not the best coping mechanism. Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing. I took a wrong turn and I just kept going. Too many times this has been the case as it was with Rosalita.

  3. Atlantic City-There is something magical about the Nebraska album that resonated with me and still does to this day. The desperation in life that a person can feel and the hope of a new day.  The message of this song is exemplary of the quiet desperation filled with hope that I had as a young man and still do today. Oh, everything dies, baby, that’s a fact
    But maybe everything that dies some day comes back.  

  4. Spirit in the Night– There are many times that the spirits in the night remind me of. I knew Hazy Davy and we used to drink Black Label and talk about what life would bring, even though we really had no idea beyond the day we were in.  Rosalita is always a prominent memory from this song because of the many times we spent together just talking about life. Again we had no idea what was in store, it was all ahead of us then. Now not so much.  Spirit in the night (all night), in the night (all night)
    Stand right up and let her shoot through me.

  1. Racing in the Street– I have never raced a car in the streets, but as a metaphor, this song captures how I feel about life. People have dreams and over time many of them have been forgotten echoes of who we used to be. Life has a way of making you forget your dreams sometimes as obligations and expectations replace those dreams. It is important to remember that it isn’t too late to do what you dream of, even if that is just racing in the streets.   Some guys they just give up living
    And start dying little by little, piece by piece, Some guys come home from work and wash up, And go racin’ in the street………

Honorable mention- Thunder Road, Born To Run, Born in the USA, Badlands, Jungleland, Dancin’ in the Dark, I’m on Fire, Human Touch, Brilliant Disguise, The River, Because the Night, No Surrender, The Rising, Prove it All Night, The Promised Land, Backstreets

 Alanis Morissette by Mike Martin

Today is a day to discuss Irony. What’s irony? Thanks to Alanis Morissette-Jon Hilton, My Spiritual Advisor, and I talk about ‘it” on the rare occasion when we have nothing else to discuss. Isn’t it “Ironic” , don’t you think.

Alanis Morissette is a Canadian American alternative rock singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actress. She was born June 1, 1974. In 1995, she released “Jagged Little Pill” which sold more than 33 million records, and more importantly, she gained me as a lifelong fan

Her best work came when she played God in “Dogma”, a 1999 American fantasy comedy film, written and directed by Kevin Smith, who stars along with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Alan Rickman, Bud Cort, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, George Carlin, and Janeane Garofalo. . I have always thought that God is a female. This movie proves it! -Is that ironic? I’m not sure.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary “irony” is “a figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used”

Let’s face it, the irony is a confusing concept. I guess “Ironic” isn’t technically ironic, but the verses are rich with situational ironies-defined as “the state of affairs or event(s) that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects to happen”.

An old man turned ninety-eight

He won the lottery and died the next day.

This circumstance is situationally ironic-Jon Hilton-you really must think!

“Ironic” was Morissette’s highest ranking hit reaching number four on the US Hot 100 chart on April 13, 1996. Jagged Little Pill was only expected to generate enough money for Morissette to make a follow-up album, but the all changed with the success of the album’s first single, “You Oughta Know”–a raunchy tribute to an ex-lover–a much easier concept to understand than irony, I really do think!

And I’m here, to remind you

Of the mess you left when you went away

Party-on folks, and if you have any questions, drop us a line and please partake in #OctoberNostalgicMusicMonth and while you are at it take a trip to Greenville, Maine-I understand the foliage is majestic this time of year!

#OctoberNostalgicMusicMonth #visitGreenville