Oct 8, 2009
Where Bossy Risks Copyright Laws To Ask You A Question
Bossy took the above photo of Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler! No she didn’t, Andrew Youssef took the photo. But Bossy could have taken the photo, that’s how close she was to the stage when she saw the Psychedelic Furs last night!
Only, she left her camera at home. Other things she left at home: the ability to ever take a decent band performance photo. Ever.
Anyway. So there was Bossy, standing next to her friend Martha who got the both of them on the guest list due to a preexisting medical condition known as Martha Went To High School With The Tour Bus Driver. This is a photo of the tour bus driver:
So there was Bossy, marrying Richard Butler, the frontman of the Psychedelic Furs, who was so utterly youthful and captivating and graceful, Bossy kept confusing him with David Bowie:
Before we leave the subject of Richard Butler and David Bowie completely, lookee what Bossy found when perusing Google images!
Anyway. So there was Bossy, marrying Tim Butler. Bossy knows what you’re thinking. “Who’s Tim Butler, Bossy? We thought you married Richard Butler. Tim?”
So there was Bossy, marrying all manner of Butlers, and here’s what Bossy was wearing: her Chuck Taylors.
Other things Bossy was wearing: her Madonna bracelets.
Also? A pair of skinny jeans may have been involved.
So there was Bossy, dressed in her original 80s clothes, thinking about how Rachel Zoe said the fashion industry is in full-out 80s revival mode.
So there was Bossy, dressed in her 80s clothes, listening to the Psychedelic Furs, who are excellent and sound amazing and you really shouldn’t miss a show if they come to a city near you.
The above public service announcement made possible by 80-year-old Bossy and her 81-year-old ears. And don’t blame the club’s P.A. volume on any particular sound man. Or sound woman as the case may be, and it is. Because that sound woman reads Bossy.
So there was Bossy, dressed in her 80s clothes, listening to the excellent and amazing Psychedelic Furs through the crumpled film of the bar napkin shoved in her ears, and all Bossy kept thinking about was how so many of the current bands are ripping off bands like the Psychedelic Furs, because music is also in full-out 80s revival mode.
So if there was Bossy doing all that, then here’s Bossy’s question to you, her council. And yes Bossy has a question even though she made you stumble down a column of illegally used photos to find it:
Which came first? The 80s fashion revival, or the 80s music revival? Or is there a strange convergence of things that made it happen simultaneously?
And now Bossy will put herself back to bed to sleep off her sweet Psychedelic Furs late night, because employing words like convergence is usually a sign Bossy needs more rest.
80’s music was definitely gaining popularity before the 80’s clothes made their completely inexplicable comeback. Please, off the shoulder shirts and legwarmers, go back from whence you came!
I think the 80’s music came first.
Disclaimer: If there was an 80’s revival in my life, it would be all diapers and Sesame Street and cutting food into toddler-sized pieces.
Is it far to say you are “Wack-a-doodle”? but in a strange, oddly comforting and wonderful way. I hope so.
Could you pretty please try and not use SAT words before 3 pm on any post from now on, lol!!! I’m a little dizzy just trying to follow your line of thinking without having to understand it as well, jk. Love your writing, you always make me laugh…thanks
Holy crap, I’m going to need to read that at least 3 more times (without spitting out my coffee from laughing) before I can formulate a decision on the question. Love the 80’s tho. Music more than fashion
If you ask me the 80’s music never left. So only the clothes are in a revival state (lord help us). Last time I saw the Furs perform, they were touring with Echo & the Bunnymen (my all time favorite band ever). They were good, I admit. But thanks to them, the place was packed and I had to fight with a bunch of 40 and 50 year olds for my three inches of space by the stage. So I am sorta bitter about that and hold a grudge. No one gets between me and my Echo.
I don’t know the answer, but I do know there is some crazy photo shop going on in that picture of skinny jeans. Yeesh!
the actual 80’s came first.
The 80’s fashion revival came next when all of the hoity-toity fashion gurus got together over martinis one evening and plotted their next cruel fashion slavery and wanted to flex their powers on what they could make us wear.My guess is about 3 martinis in, one of them said something like “oooh, remember the 80’s? Skinny jeans? Parachute pants? Shoulder pads? Let’s TOTALLY do that again! If we can get the minions to wear that one more time, it will guarantee our total domination over society.”
a) I just lub me some Bossy
b) The Psychedelic Furs Pretty in Pink tour is when I realized that you CAN get acne on your head if you have a mohawk…leading me to NEVER EVER contemplate shaving my head.
c) Doesn’t this keep happening? It IS ~convergence~. Just like it was in the late 80’s when suddenly the 60’s were all the thing and my friends and I wore paisley pants (although always pegged) and YES – caftans! And music got all shreepy and once again full of citars (that’s not spelled right). Or in 197-ahem when everyone suddenly had to have a poodle skirt and I was the least cool girl in the 5th grade ever. Which means, I assume, that MY kids are going to have their own 90’s revival to contend with, which is when I scratch my head and say “what happened in the 90’s?” Because apparently I possibly had a medical condition of my own that decade called “being single”.
My friend and her husband went to the concert last night (which they also said was amazing), but before hand they went to eat at an Asian fusion place nearby. Guess who walked in….the band. They played it cool, but were texting people across the state. Shortly before they left Richard Butler passed their table and her husband said, “Excuse me can I have your autograph on my ticket?”. He said sure signed and talked to them for a few minutes about what he and they had for dinner. They said he was very cool. Glad you had a good time too!
Rebekah, it’s not just you. Nothing good happened in the 90’s, at least not music wise. Unless you like Nirvana. I’m hoping there’s no 90’s music revival. But I LOVE 80’s music!! Every once in a while I do a “80s Music Memory” post on my blog when I hear a song and it reminds me of some specific event/person/place in my 80’s life.
Hey, all it takes for a particular decade’s fashion revival is a generation of teens who did not live through it and adults old enough to feel nostalgic toward it. When I was in high school in the late 70s, we were on a big 50s kick. My mom HATED it! Then, when my daughter was a teen, the late 60s/70s stuff came back. I was appalled. Everyone knew the 70s were a joke — nothing good happened then.
So don’t fear, another decade or two and the 90s will be back. I swear. Even though nothing good happened then.
80s fashion was definitely first. The music has been more recent.
In 2000, my students were obsessed with 80s clothes and “looking more 80s”. They kept asking me about the hair and all I could say was, “bigger”.
As long as no shoulder pads are involved. I would like to point out that Mr. Butler (first picture) looks WAY better now than he did in 1863 with David Bowie.
Are shoulder pads back in again? Damn. I cut them out of all my jackets a long time ago because they were so ridiculous.
GAH Rebekah!
You said it! You said Caftan!.. a word I long to forget. Ever since the night I wore one to my Home-ec-end-of-the-school-year-dinner. Not only was it a caftan, with hood and all, but my mother made it! 
I have not spoken those words out loud since that night. Say it with me 1973! I need a beer… or six.
I don’t think 80’s music ever truly went away. The clothes, on the other hand, should have stayed gone. Tight rolled jeans, two pairs of slouch socks, lots of neon, spiral perms… ugh.
DemMom- I do have to say that there was some great music to come out of the 90’s besides Nirvana. Besides the fact that flannel and Birkenstocks was way more comfy than leggings and a mini skirt and teased bangs.
We went to see U2 the other night and the opening band was the new hip band, Muse. They sounded a lot like ’80’s band, The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Music, music, music! It’s *ALL* about the music. It cracks me up that my 14-year old daughter loves Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and listens to it with her friends, acting like she’s just discovered the coolest, new thing. Ha! Lisa Kuhn bought me that cassette for a 13th birthday present at least 12 years before you were even born, Missy!
Um hello? When did 80’s music ever leave? NEVER!
(thank goodness)
And I’m so jealous that you saw the Psychedelic Furs. Love them so. Missed them when they hit my town last month.
While it is true that BOTH functions of the 80’s are tres fabuloso (see, two languages!!) I do think it’s the music that keeps the fashion in business.
First, I am a different Em from the Em above. (From now on you may refer to me as Em Below. Wait, that sounds wrong..never mind. I should warn Em Above that I keep coming out on this page, though. So if people ask her about her girlfriend, they actually are thinking of me. But they don’t know me very well, because I’m single.)
Now that that’s straightened out….I think the music came first. Which amazes me because so much of the music was awful. (Some of it was spectacular, but some, not so good. Really.) I think it’s because everyone decided they wanted to bankers in the ’80s. I couldn’t believe it. I got all grown up and ready to join the revolution and it was GONE. And now we know where that led to. So yeah, ’80s rival? Really? Shoulder pads & drum machines instead of real, live drummers. Just say nooooo!!!!!!
Neither, or both — it was the revival of ’80s teen movies.
i have NO idea, but i am under the very firm conviction that they both need to go back to the 80’s, unless it’s REALLY good 80’s music, then it can stay, but the clothes, go away, go far far far away…
I’m with Jamie… those skinny jeans… ack!!!!
I’m with Jaime too. The eighties were a dreadful time for fashion and I’m sorry to the eighties music fans out there but for music too (except for the Cure). I don’t know why anyone would want to bring it all back.
Definitely the music. And happy to have it back. Have started to show the kids some of those 80’s movies. (Have got to get my hands on “Some Kind of Wonderful”. Last saw Psychedelic Furs at Penn’s Spring Fling a million years ago. They shared a bill with the B’52’s and Grandmaster Flash. Something for everyone
PS But I DO love Wham! What does that say?
Like Little Miss Sunshine, I was also sportin maternity clothes in the 80’s…So are those giant ugly zebra print Zubas, Zoobas, Zoomas, whatever they were coming back? ISH they were just plain horrid. Mind you, I could be thinking of the wrong decade with those! Whatever, I dont want to see men in those ever again, But I sure still love dancing to Prince!
I love Richard Butler as much as the next root-permed Valley Girl but he’s starting to look like Jane Lynch.
Doesn’t it bother anyone else that the hip shit from our generation is “retro”?
The 80s music crept back first. My husband and I have been commenting on the Cure-ish, Style Council-esque and Echo and the Bunnymen-ettes bands for months now but just last week I noticed a woman wearing what appeared to be Ditto jeans and I almost barfed.
These guys don’t age all that well, Bossy… Psychedelic Furs are, well– doomed. Look at Mick– it’s all the late nights, and the heavy partying, I guess. Life in the fast lane. Glad I’m over here on the shoulder…
The music came back first. My 14 year old son loves 80’s, especially Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and Art of Noise.
I grew up in the 80s. But I was not nearly as aware of these things as Bossy.
Music.
I was busy doing the “Mommy” thing in the 80’s, and so I cannot comment on the question at hand.
However. I can comment on amplifiers. If you EVER go to a harvest festival outdoor concert, and you happen to bring your friend who is a guitarist, and you get to see Foghat for free (even tho it isn’t exactly the Foghat that recorded Fool for the City) – DO NOT let said musician friend insist that you stand about 8 ft. from the stacks of Marshall amps. Just DONT DO IT. Unless you want to be stone deaf in your left ear for a week. Trust me.
I think it was the 80’s music. I’ve been hearing 80’s music in movies the last couple years & I think it is because the copyrights ran out & they are cheap songs to put in your sound track.
speaking of 80s revivals, I was near Community College this morning thinking that I look wildly unique and adorable in my chuck taylors with my boyfriend cut pants cuffed twice and my gradaddyish v-neck androgynous sweater, just like olden times- until I looked around and realized I was dressed like all the teenagers.
So, I was fashion forward 20 years ago, and then I fell out of fashion because I refused to change the way I dress and then society finally caught up with me as I headed up this trend, right?
right?
I don’t know… In the 80’s I was more into Care Bears and the Smurfs. Is that wrong to admit?
If I wasn’t already having a blog crust on Bossy, I am now. Anyone who loves my buddy Erin McKeown wins in my book.
OH NO. BLOG CRUSH. BLOG CRUSH. NOT BLOG CRUST!
Oy vey!
Well, since I didn’t totally leave the 80’s music – nobody comes between me and my Journey w/ Steve Perry thankyouverymuch (although the new guy isn’t bad)- I’ll say the musice. My DH would say the fashion (?) because he still wears those weird precursors to pj pants the funky patterned jam pants.
And I swore for a second there that the 4th pic down was “DaddyScratches” of http://daddyscratches.com/
I need to go breath in some Aqua Net.
OMG, is that Wonder Woman costume painted on? Because I am so totally stealing that when I finally get my body painted and walk around naked. Not going to do that a PFurs concert though, because I love them. Thanks for the post since I missed them a couple of weeks ago in my hometown.
I think the fashion comeback made people aware of the 80s music and brought it back to the forefront. Then again, I’ve been listening to 80s music SINCE the 80s, and haven’t even thought of my 80s clothes for one second since the decade departed, so … there is that.
The 80s music revival has been in effect since… oh…. 1990. In fact, I remember riding down the road in 199… *mumble* and hearing Molly’s Yes for the first time. I thought “huh… wait… didn’t this band have a song on the *insert John Hughes movie here* soundtrack?”
And the Killers? Heeellloooo…
As Grandpa Simpson so aptly noted, everything is a rip-off and the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached.
I didn’t know either of these revivals were taking place! Isn’t Rachel Zoe so 2008??
(LOL at the 404 Error)
OMG !!!!! That womans ass is huge. I’m sorry what were you saying?
I don’t know, but chuckies will never ever get old. 2.5 just grew out of his handed-down-from-big-brother size 8 toddler black high top chuckies, and nothing could ever really out-cute that.
Another thing that will never get old is reading Bossy’s awesome comments. Thank so much.
Oh, and I can claim that I have seen the Bossy uniform in real life, but did not notice the clothes tugging. Nor was her skin looking the least bit papery.
you are Blliant! Billiant with a CAPITAL B!!
Wait – so you’re telling me that the 80’s went OUT enough to come back IN?
Wha? No comprende.
Me and Richard spent some quality time together when I was a bus-riding, pre-driving teenager…. in fact, we may have been having a torrid affair that he was completely unaware of. You can thank me for breaking him in for you later.
p.s. I’ve never gotten a good photo at a concert either. Mostly b/c I am too nervous to bring my big camera into a venue where I know the probability of getting a drink sloshed onto it is high. Sadly, those little point & shoots just don’t cut it.
I need links to 80s fashion revival photos. Like today. have a costume to put together tomorrow.
I am late on this bus, but: 80’s music. Via crap-tastic homages to 80’s/early 90’s “punk.” (with musical and video references that teenage listeners still do not understand)
One thing that I do love about this revival, despite the insistance upon big hair and leg warmers, is that 80’s movies have made a huge comeback among the youngsters. (If they ever went away, which I do not think they did)
In my world, the 80’s really never stopped. at least the music. I never wore legwarmers, but my jeans were cuffed and rolled, and the rebok’s with the straps went to Purple Heart in 1990. I had a Choose Life tshirt that I shared with my friends, and a giant U2 shirt that we took turns with. Acid wash and 2 tone jeans were a staple in my closet. And while my musical taste has evolved, there are plenty of 80’s originals in my ipod. I think the music came first, the fashion is still evolving.