1984
80s songs about horses
There were a lot of different themes in the 80s – whether they be fashion, movies or in music. And in music, horses were a popular thing to sing about. Here are three that I can remember and still like.
Wild Horses – Gino Vanelli
This catchy tune was released in 1987, and reached #55 in the US top 100 but #7 in Canada (where Gino was born). The song earnt Vanelli the Juno Award for Recording Engineer of the Year (which he incidentally shared with his brother that year).
The clip is in black and white and features a sexy female playing the harmonica. And no, I have no idea what her name is – in fact I don’t know the names of the other band members either (can someone help me?).
I know I said the tune is catchy, but when you look at the lyrics ……. well I’ll let you make up your own mind. Weird.
As the sun goes down on the Arizona plain
And the wind whistles by like a runaway train
Hey hey hey it’s a beautiful thing
Well it’s me and you and a flatbed truck
My heart kicking over like a whitetail buck
Hey hey hey in the middle of spring
You can cut me deep
You can cut me down
You can cut me loose
Don’t you know it’s okay
You can kick and scream
You can slap my face
You can set my wheels on a high speed chase
Hey no matter what you do
Wild horses could not drag me away from you
Wild horses could not drag me away from you
As the sky falls down from the midnight blue
Spittin’ like bullets on a hot tin roof
Hey hey hey it’s a beautiful sound
Well it’s me and you in a flatbed truck
In a foot of mud just my luck
Hey hey hey a hundred miles out of town
You can call me a fool
You can call me blind
You can call it quits
Can’t hear a word you say
Cause if I had you once
I’m gonna have you twice
I’m gonna follow my heart instead of good advice
Hey no matter what you do
Wild horses could not drag me away from you
Wild horses could not drag me away from you
Watch the video clip on YouTube.
Wild Horses – Nik Kershaw
Not one of Nik’s more popular songs (he had far better), but this one was released in 1984 on ‘The Riddle’. The Riddle reached UK #8, U.S #113, AUS #39.
Laid Back – White Horse
I love this song. Laidback were a Danish band, and released this song in 1983. White Horse was a dance track with a repetitive, memorable bassline and ambiguous, drug and/or sex-themed lyrics (“white horse” being slang for heroin) that became popular in US clubs. It spent three weeks at number one on Billboard’s National Disco Action charts. White Horse ’89 was released in (have a guess) 1989 by Laidback’s label but it did not have the success of the original.
Revenge of the Nerds
Talk about an iconic movie of the 80s! Put together a few nerdy characters, college girls and buys, some catchy music and you have a great movie that you can watch over and over again without losing interest.
Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) and Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) are nerds and best friends, both heading to Adams College to study computer science. Even the music and ‘nerdy’ jokes are great at the beginning, setting the theme for a typical callege loser-to-hero story – but in it’s own special way.
Lewis and Gilbert move into a freshmen dorm with other first-year students, and are immediately set upong by the Alpha Betas, a fraternity to which many members of the school’s football team belong. The leader of the Alphas is Stan Gable, played by Ted McGinley of Happy Days fame.
The team’s coach (John Goodman) uses his intimidation to overrule the school’s Administrative Dean Ulich (David Wohl) and has the Alpha Betas evict the freshmen from the dorm for their own purposes. lewis and Gilbert work with the other outcasts whose characters are revealed in more details, and finally renovate a run down house for their own.
The Alpha Betas and their associated sorority, the Pi Delta Pis, harrass the nerds, and the story evolves further with the boys being continually tormented when they are trying to get in good with the Lambda Lambda Lambdas (Tri-Lambs). Come along the female nerd sorority, the Omega Mu.
I must bring up the outstanding (?) character of Booger (Curtis Armstrong), someone that you would not associate in real life, but in the movie was a real hero and funny guy with his unique and careless attitude towards life.
The movie comes to a head, where one night Gilbert has enough of the bullying and storms in the homecoming pep rally that the Alpha Betas are involved with. With a bit of asisstance from other chapters of the Tri-Lambs, the nerds get their way, and Lewis gets his girl, who just happens to be a member of the Delta Pis.
Here is one of the main songs from the movie. Looking at it now makes me laugh as it seems so corny, but don’t forget it was 1984!
A great movie, and as I said before, one that you can watch over and over & still enjoy.