Snobbery aside, my musical taste has always been consistent in that it was mostly inconsistent. While other kids were listening to Pump Up The Volume, my friends and I were making mixed tapes of The Who and Eric Clapton tunes. Still, there’s something endearing about the melody and lyric of 80’s music.

And if you were to ask me questions
You don’t really want to know
Your concern is just for show
Your name’s a number, just press a button
Your memories lost but they’ve not forgotten

During that period I may have listened to my share of new wave music; I’ll admit it. Chalk it up to the fact that Muchmusic was such a huge novelty in Canada. Their rotation included bands like Honeymoon Suite, The Spoons, and Jane Sibbery.

Watching your moves
They look so radical
Hearing your words
They sound fanatical
Something inside reveals you’re magical
How can I get enough?

Individual songs, mostly, remind me of that very specific time in my life. It was world-bending stuff then, but I can’t remember now if it was Tera (with an ‘e’) or Sarah (with an ‘h’) that I was lusting over while listening to Mr. Mister in the school bus. I do remember The Shuffle Demons being in the play list around the time that Becky tattled on me for trying to look up obscene words in the library. That was the summer of Honeymoon Suite, since rumour spread that they were to film the video for Wave Babies in nearby Sandbanks Provincial Park.

Wave babies when they’re lying on the sand
Wave babies and I want them in my hand
Wave babies when they’re lying on the sand
Wave babies and I want them in my hand, lying on the sand

I can probably still recite the lyrics to Romantic Traffic (oh, oh-uhuh).

He’s changing lanes
sees his chance
he passes up ahead
she’s losing him in romantic traffic
a place with no signs
to tell you where they’re going to

As I get older, that sort of magical association between music and memory seems to be fading — and it’s an altogether sad prospect.

Mimi’s still out on the sea
floating on a pink surfboard
she’s checking out her arms and legs
in case her casing’s getting burnt