I’ve said this here before and I’ll say it again. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame does an awful job of inducting worthy rock and rollers. How could LL Cool J or Donna Summer possibly make the Hall of Fame before massively influential groups like The Small Faces/The Faces and T. Rex? I just don’t get it.
6th grade. My tennis shoe-roller skates were packed and ready to roll. Jimmy, who was already a ladies’ man at 12, showed me how to feather my hair and helped me clean up as best as I could. He had Jordache Jeans and a cool Members Only shirt and jacket. I was probably wearing worn corduroys and a USMC t-shirt, the same outfit I wore 3 times a week.
We headed down to Skateland West in Westland, Michigan, for an afternoon of roller skating. I suppose I was interested enough in girls that I wanted their attention, but I think I was more impressed in what Jimmy would think of me should a girl show some interest. If I hadn’t been going there with Jimmy, my focus would have probably been on skating, which I liked.
Videos were still something of a novelty at that time. No one in our town had cable so MTV had not reached us. We saw videos on a big projection screen when we went skating. The video that stands out on this particular trip was “I Know There’s Something Going On” by Frida, born Anni-Frid Lyngstad, the raven-haired former one-fourth of Abba.
I was pretty innocent in those days, but I was alert enough to catch the sexual undertones of the song. The video seemed kind of risque, though I wouldn’t have used that word as an 11 year old. Whether it was the song, the video or both, that few minutes in time nearly 30 years ago seered into my brain.
I saw the video once (until years later when I found it on youtube) and heard the song dozens of times on the radio. It was (or seemed to be) a big hit at the time, but it’s not one of those songs that has found its way into the rotation of stations that play 80’s music. Maybe this blog will start a revival. *wink*
The Sound of the Pounding 