Tonight (11/13/17) at 8:40, I’m digging into the year 1981 for “40 for 40” on the Loop. That was the year when MTV launched and subsequently sucked up a lot of my middle school free time. With so many of the 80s MTV artists and songs buried under the weight of their more-successful peers, I thought I’d share a few for old times sake:

URIAH HEEP “THAT’S THE WAY THAT IT IS” – I saw the video for this and immediately bought the album in 1982. “Abominog” was an easy purchase, due to having the most evil album cover ever (pictured below).

TARNEY-SPENCER BAND “NO TIME TO LOSE” – Textbook one-hit wonder. But what a hit…

RAINBOW “ALL NIGHT LONG” – Graham Bonnet’s only Rainbow album. On this video, he looks like an angry, coked-up used car salesman. This song was enough to make me buy “Down to Earth” (and follow Bonnet to Alcatrazz).

MINUTEMEN “THIS AIN’T NO PICNIC” – I knew the second I saw this video that I was watching something cool and under-the-radar. The video led me to buy “Double Nickels On the Dime,” which I didn’t love the way rock critics loved, but this song will always sound exciting to me.

EMERSON, LAKE AND POWELL “TOUCH AND GO” – Powell steps in for Palmer on this very 80s track. That keyboard hook is a hell of an earworm, though.