The SFB

Random musings from a Gen X life lived on the edge… of nothing except Lake Erie. 70s and 80s pop culture and music.

history

  • The Lost Art of Hanging Out

    DO PEOPLE “HANG OUT” ANY MORE? Hanging out on the hood of my friend’s car. Summer 1984 Remember hanging out?  Sitting around? Shooting the shit?  Gabbing? Pondering? Talking about everything and nothing at all? Do people even talk anymore? Like in person? Scrolling through nostalgia accounts on Instagram, looking at  photos of young people from… Read more

  • Candy-O, I need you so…

    Let’s go back to 1979. Lately, for some reason I’ve been completely taken with the song Candy-O, which surprisingly was never released as a single. I’ve spent a good amount of time watching different live versions of The Cars perform this song. If you’ve read my previous work, or watched my YouTube channel, you know… Read more

  • 1978, New Wave, and The Cars

    Another take on the New Wave cred of my current favorite old band and a little review of the musical bounty of 1978. Here’s a topic that is adjacent to my obsession with The Cars:  the music of 1978. I’ve hopped in the way back machine and have been reliving my past; specifically when I… Read more

  • The Cars Live at the El Mocambo

    WHAT A SHOW! It captured a moment in time and the fun this band was having at the start of their amazing run. I just re-read for the second time the 1997 Goldmine article The Cars: Shake it  Up, Drive It Out by Steve Roeser.  I had read parts of it several months ago but… Read more

  • 1984-What a year for music!

    And the year I graduated from high school. I followed a thread on Twitter (I still can’t call it X) started by @PreetBharara in which he posed the question “What was the best song of 1984?”. Impossible to choose.  I have been meaning to write about the music of 1984 for a while now in… Read more

  • Where Are All the Kids Today and What Are They Doing?

    I frequently take walks around the village, through the neighborhood where I grew up, past houses where my friends lived, on streets where I hung out when I was a teenager, and most of the time the streets and sidewalks are empty. I wonder; where are all the kids?  What are they doing and where… Read more

  • The Comfort of the Way Back

    I’ve invested a lot of time recently in an entire subculture; people who write, blog, post, and make videos about musicians and bands and singers they remember from their formative years who may or may not still be around.  This begs some questions.  Why have I done this and why does this subculture exist?  Why… Read more