COVID seems like such a weird way to spend a childhood...except for all the other ways. Solitary, sure. Antisocial, of course. But weird is a relative term.
I was thinking back to the music videos that defined my childhood in the 1980s, and I couldn't help but be struck by how weird it all seems in retrospect.
Take an artist like Haysi Fantayzee:
I'm pretty sure I eventually met the guy singing in that video years later, when I became a med student at UCSF. Walking into Amoeba Records in the Haight, an eerily similar malnourished white guy with dreads offered to sell me acid. I politely declined.
Another memorable facet of the era was hypersexualized music bellowing forth from pretty boys with eye shadow.
Their outfits were the illegitimate love children of the scarves worn by Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and the silk button down pirate look that came either from Keith Richards' wardrobe or the Seinfeld puffy shirt episode.
While there was no shortage of one hit wonders in the 80s, one band comes to mind as sorely underappreciated: Ready For The World. With hits like Love You Down, Digital Display and Oh Sheila they showed a mastery of their era that few can rival.
Think heavily featured keyboard and drum machine, generous helpings of Jheri Curl and a song you as a 7th grader could play on repeat as you pined for that unattainable 8th grade girl.
Yes, they might have borrowed some grunts and fashion tips from Prince. But matching skinny ties? Dance moves coordinated to the millisecond? Head bands that would not look out of place in a fitness video starring Olivia Newton John? I feel nothing but love and gratitude when I replay their songs today.
Finally we come to a single video that makes sense within the context of my medical training. We have a profusely sweaty man in an ill-fitting suit making jerky movements who ends up on the floor.
The lyrics might have been written by a philosopher king begging you to reconsider how you spend the days of your life.
It's not surprising that they emanate from someone who seems to be in the throes of alcohol withdrawal, if not outright delirium tremens.
The most distressing truths, then as now, are spoken by the most marginalized in our society.
Will this be the generation that listens?