Stuck in the '80s Podcast

What if you were 16 years old in the summer of 1985, armed with little more than a Sony Walkman, a few cassette tapes and the belief that somehow — some way — you had to make it to Live Aid?

That’s the idea at the heart of Live Aid Runaways, the new novel by Shane Robitaille.

Shane joins the podcast along with researcher Livi Stanford to take us behind the scenes of a story that mixes fictional characters with one of the most unforgettable real-life events of the decade.

The novel follows teenagers Nick Stark and Stacy Rivera as they make their way toward Philadelphia and JFK Stadium, where Live Aid would bring together some of the biggest names in music on July 13, 1985.

But getting the details right required more than simply firing up an old Live Aid video.

Shane and Livi talk with us about the extensive research behind the book, including conversations with fans, broadcasters, performers and others who helped recreate not only what happened onstage, but what it actually felt like to experience that remarkable day.

We also talk about why Live Aid still holds such a powerful place in Gen X memory, the challenge of weaving real history into fiction, the music that helped shape the characters and the strange joy of returning to 1985 — at least for a few hundred pages.

Frankly, if someone could turn Live Aid Runaways into an actual time machine, we’d happily pack a Walkman and climb aboard.

COME SAIL WITH STUCK IN THE ’80s

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There really was nobody else quite like Dolly Parton.

In this special episode of Stuck in the ’80s, we remember Dolly — the songwriter, singer, actress, entrepreneur and wonderfully funny human being who somehow became a national treasure without ever seeming like she was trying to be one.

Joining us is longtime friend of the show Annie Zaleski, music journalist and author of the new book Dolly Parton: The Stories Behind the Songs. Annie takes us inside Dolly’s extraordinary songbook, from the classics everybody knows to the deeper cuts that reveal just how gifted a songwriter she really was.

Of course, we spend plenty of time in our favorite decade, when Dolly became a full-fledged pop-culture superstar thanks to 9 to 5, “Islands in the Stream,” The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, “Real Love” and a run of music and movies that made her seemingly impossible to avoid — not that anybody particularly wanted to.

But this episode is about more than the hits. It’s about what made Dolly different, why her music connected with so many people, the humor and humanity behind the rhinestones, and the enormous legacy she leaves behind.

Join us as we celebrate the life, songs and stories of Dolly Parton.
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Some ’80s bands sold millions of records. Some filled arenas. Some became so permanently embedded in pop culture that you can’t walk through a grocery store without hearing them over the frozen peas.

And then there are the bands that somehow found us anyway.

This week on Stuck in the ’80s, we’re celebrating Book of Love and a handful of other synth-pop bands that deserved a little more attention the first time around — and whose music might sound even better today.

Our centerpiece is a conversation with Book of Love singer Susan Ottaviano.

Book of Love arrived in the mid-’80s with a sound that never fit comfortably into one box. Were they synth-pop? New wave? Alternative? Dance? College rock? Maybe the fact that nobody could quite figure that out is one reason the music has aged so well.

Susan talks with Spearsy about the band’s beginnings, the influence of groups such as The Cure and The Slits, the importance of New York’s music and art scene, and what Book of Love learned when they suddenly found themselves touring with Depeche Mode.

There’s also a fascinating discussion about what happens to music decades after its original release. Songs get rediscovered. Movies and streaming introduce bands to people who weren’t alive the first time around. Music that once sounded like it belonged to a very specific moment can suddenly sound contemporary again.

And then comes our favorite question: the Podcast Time Machine.

If Susan could go back and change one moment in Book of Love history, what would she do?

Her answer: Get a better lawyer.

Ouch.

She also considers another tantalizing bit of alternate ’80s history: What might have happened if Book of Love had ended up on Mute Records, the label famously associated with Depeche Mode?

Susan also gives us an update on Book of Love’s future. This could be the band’s final full tour, although she says the group still plans to make more music.

After the interview, Brad and Spearsy keep the synthesizers plugged in for five more bands from the second half of the ’80s that they wish more people had discovered.

There’s Canada’s Kon Kan, whose “I Beg Your Pardon” brilliantly repurposed Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden” for the dance floor. Germany gives us Cetu Javu and Camouflage, two bands that inevitably drew comparisons to Depeche Mode. Australia contributes Boxcar, who had the unenviable task of bringing electronic music into a guitar-heavy pub-rock scene. And finally there’s Red Flag, whose story begins with brothers Chris and Mark Reynolds and takes a much sadder turn in the years that followed.
Maybe that’s part of the fun of being Stuck in the ’80s after all these years. There are still bands to rediscover, songs that deserve another spin and stories we somehow missed the first time around.

So dust off the synthesizer, apply an unreasonable amount of reverb and join us for Book of Love — and five more synth-pop bands we wish we’d heard more from.
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We all have that one movie from the ’80s.

Maybe yours is Back to the Future. Maybe it’s The Breakfast Club, The Goonies or Say Anything. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the greatest movie ever made. It just has to be the movie that found you at exactly the right time and somehow never let go.

For Steve, that movie has always been Streets of Fire.

Walter Hill’s 1984 “rock & roll fable” gave us a strange and wonderful world of neon streets, roaring motorcycles, pounding music, Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Amy Madigan and a very young Willem Dafoe in one of the more memorable pairs of overalls in cinematic history.

It wasn’t a box-office hit. It never became the franchise its creators once envisioned. But Streets of Fire found its audience over the years, becoming a cult favorite with a visual style and soundtrack that remain unmistakable more than four decades later.

This week, we’re opening the Stuck in the ’80s archives and traveling back 15 years to revisit our original tribute to Streets of Fire, first released in 2011.

And after you've taken that trip back with us, maybe ask yourself: What was your special movie of the ’80s?

THE ’80s CRUISE

Ready to stop merely talking about the ’80s and actually live them for a week? Join Stuck in the ’80s aboard The ’80s Cruise in 2027 for seven days of music, memories, trivia, questionable dancing and thousands of people who understand why the ’80s still matter this much to us.

Use promo code STUCK when booking to receive $250 in onboard credit per cabin.

Come sail with us. Because apparently spending 20-plus years talking about the ’80s still wasn't enough.
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Forty years ago, Paul Simon released one of the most unlikely blockbuster albums of the 1980s.

Graceland arrived on Aug. 25, 1986, blending Simon’s unmistakable songwriting with South African rhythms, zydeco, gospel harmonies and a completely new way of building songs. The result was an album that sounded unlike almost anything else on the radio — and somehow became one of the defining records of the decade.

In this episode of Stuck in the ’80s, we go track by track through Graceland, from “The Boy in the Bubble” and “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” to “You Can Call Me Al” and the title track. We also look at the album’s controversial origins during apartheid, the musicians who helped shape its sound, its Grammy-winning success and why it still feels so timeless 40 years later.

Plus, we ask the bigger question: Where does Paul Simon rank among the greatest songwriters of our lifetime?

And don’t forget: Stuck in the ’80s is sailing again with The ’80s Cruise. Join us at sea with some of the biggest stars of the decade, live music, trivia and plenty of ’80s insanity. Use promo code STUCK when booking to receive $250 in onboard cabin credit.
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