re: #115 William Barnett-Lewis

Trust me, I know :) Few recall that they did a song named that anymore.

Boy & October were interesting but in no way made you expect the explosion that was War. The only other album that blew my mind as hard while I was in Germany was Sprinsteen’s Born In The USA. Unlike Ronnie, I GOT those lyrics the first time through and sat crying in my arms room that morning.

We were fortunate enough to have a radio station here on Long Island called WLIR, which was an early adapter of the ‘New Wave’ format established by KROQ in Los Angeles. They were on U2 (and all the other New Wave bands of that era) very early, and the song you mention got regular airplay for a while.

They also introduced NY songs like to R.E.M’s ‘Radio Free Europe’ single, which I still consider their best work. It’s kind of amusing to see the punkish moppets in this video, as opposed to the band they turned into.

REM - Radio Free Europe