Ode to 1985: It Was a Very Good Year

Everyone loves an anniversary, right? Well, I would like to take a moment to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 1985, a truly great year for rock and roll. Things were simpler then, to be sure. Back then, I paid $11.50 for a ticket to my first U2 concert - at the Spectrum, a venue that now pretty much just hosts weird circuses, mud-bogs and minor-league hockey. Today, my ever-patient husband had to talk me out of shelling out another untold pile of cash to try and see my boys in New York City this fall, when we have already mortgaged our unborn children's future just to get to their show in May. I think I also had to give a blood sample, fingerprints and a urine screen.

1985 was also the the year of my first Bruce concert, at the Vet (which no longer exisits), and Live Aid, at JFK Stadium (which also no longer exists.) (Feeling old yet?) Live Aid was particularly cool because I got to go with my sister's boyfriend, who drove me there in his bitchin' Camero. Your local PBS stations, if it's anything like mine, has been airing the crap out of a 20th Anniversary special on Live Aid. Look for me in the crowd. I am one of the little dots, about mid-way back on the side, house-left.

2005 is actually shaping up to be a pretty amazing year for music, too, one which will hopefully include a Bruce show to accompany U2, the Finn Brothers, John Hammond, Glenn Tilbrook, and some guy named Bob Dylan. Not too shabby.

Maybe things really do improve with age.