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Lost in the ’80s Special Edition: MTV, 1983

John C. Hughes January 27, 2008 15

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Some giving soul out there has provided something of a Holy Grail for LIT80s fans, including me — they’ve posted three full hours of MTV from 1983 (The Best Year for Music, Ever!), complete with all VJ segments (oh, Mark Goodman — your unruly mop rules!), commercials, and yes, full videos. It’s a fascinating and nostalgic time capsule, and whoever posted it is sort of my new God now.

Notable videos to watch out for include the Tubes’ “Monkey Time,” Nick Heyward’s “Whistle Down the Wind,” and Garland Jeffreys’ “96 Tears,” all clips that got very light rotation and have barely been seen since. Enjoy!

Part One:

Part Two:

Via Boing Boing and some kind-hearted soul.

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POSTED IN » Lost in the '80s, Music
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  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

    I know it marks me as an old fart but, damn, MTV was awesome when it used to be MTV.

  • EightE1

    Man alive — this takes me back. WAY back. What strikes me most is how much fun this stuff is to watch — not just from a nostalgic perspective, but from the simple enjoyment of watching music and accompanying visuals. There will never be anything like this again, and that's a shame.

    The commercials, however, were fun on a purely nostalgic level.

    I raise the evening's pint glass to Uw Moeder, the original downloader. Many thanks, Uw.

    Rob
    EightE1

  • http://astreetproductions.com/weblog andrew_t

    This is amazing.

    I particularly like the “ask your cable company to hook you up with stereo MTV” promo. It's weird to remember “stereo TV” being such a big technological advance, kinda like HD is now.

  • http://www.bullz-eye.com WHarrisBullzEye

    Funny, I got this link last night myself and was going to forward it to all you good PopDose folks today. Glad you beat me to the punch and put it up to share with the world.

    I want my MTV BACK!!!

  • Ray

    Awesome! This was MTV back in the day!!!

    One of my favorites that I haven't seen in eons is the video for “Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime)”. bu The Flirts. Totally cheeky fun video, the girls in the group were babes and you gotta love how they dumped the pizza in the guy's lap at the end of the video!

  • http://www.popdose.com 1Py_Korry1

    Why does MTV even bother with the name these days? They ought to call it “The Hills TV.”

  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

    Not bad. More concise than “Rich Young Adults You Would Murder In Cold Blood With Your Bare Hands If Only Jurist Prudence Saw Things Your Way Or Was Forced To Watch An MTV Marathon… TV… A Viacom Company”

  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

    My favorite video way back then was Madness' “One Step Beyond!”

  • Thierry

    I watched all three hours this weekend – and loved every minute of it. My favourite moments have to be the Police t-shirt ($12.00! No C.O.D.'s! Buy one for your dog!) and that patently bizarre ad from the National Association of Coffee Producers (or something like that).

    Also, I probably still have some VHS tapes lying around with hours of MuchMusic from around 1991. This REALLY made me want to look for them again.

  • :::theroux

    OMG. They played the shit out of that video. Leather skirts, cable-knit blouses and fuck-me pumps. And what was up with that pizza? It was paper-thin and looked effin' nasty.

  • :::theroux

    I even miss the rambling banter of the VJ's. They sometimes talked for 15 minute stretches, reading the “MTV Viewer Mail” and providing any/all random detail/trivia on whatever artist's video was next to play. And you always knew what time it was because that rocket launched every hour on the hour. We were hanging out with the music geeks (love ya Nina B.) and watching bizarre vids made on the cheap. Thanks for posting this.

  • http://retro-remixes.blogspot.com deltablues2

    This only reminds me of the sad “anniversary” celebration they had where they claimed to be rerunning the first day of MTV. It turned out they were simply replaying the same videos. No VJ's. No retro-mercials. No cheesy outfits / hairdos. No deal.

  • D

    Check out Garland Jeffreys' “96 Tears” video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxXzTR2-3ng. It's fantastic!

  • D

    Check out Garland Jeffreys' “96 Tears” video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxXzTR2-3ng. It's fantastic!

  • D

    Check out Garland Jeffreys' “96 Tears” video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxXzTR2-3ng. It's fantastic!