Bands at play in 1979 had no idea what the Eighties would bring, so they sharpened their own cutting edges.
Today a quick sampling from three bands that were already mentally set for the next decade. You can almost hear the 80s in their music, bumping like a safe heartbeat on an ultrasound.
The Runaways burst upon the Hollywood club scene of 1979. Dismissed at the time as a marketing gimmick, they have since grown in stature as the first all-female band to make a substantial impression on the public by playing loud, straight-up, guitar-driven rock & roll. All were teens in the stable of promoter/manager Kim Fowley, who played up the sleazy jailbait imag. The Runaways' sound and attitude broke new ground.
Adam and the Ants were a British new wave punk rock band formed in the late 1970s. Lead singer Stuart Goddard aka Adam Ant had the revolutionary Johnny Depp pirate-like appearance going well before the famous Disney films appeared. With his hopping Ants, he achieved significant success in the early 1980s with albums like “Kings of the Wild Frontier” and blurred the lines between punk and glam.
The post punk Gang of Four hailed from Leeds England, where they confused a lot of people. Take their name. Many think it comes from China's Chairman Mao. Actually, it's the big four Structuralist theorists who were in fact French intellectuals. But screw philosophy, we are here to rock. The band forms in 1977, comes to New York, sees Television and The Ramones in concert, and begin recording in earnest the following year. From their debut album Entertainment, released in 1979, The Gang of Four takes a poke at revisionist history with Not Great Men.
Three rockers from the twilight of the 70s, destined to appear on 80s mixtapes and at least one future Old School. Here is Hat Trick ‘79.
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