Crazy '80s

When Power Station bangs a gong, old teen-agers still bang along

Power Station band members, from left, Robert Palmer, Andy Taylor, John Taylorand Tony Thompson
Power Station's debut album, with "Still Get it On (Bang a Gong) the first cuton Side 2
Bill Legend, left, Mickey Finn, Marc Bolan and Steve Currie of T. Rex
T. Rex's "Electric Warrior" album included "Get it On."

This is the first in a series of stories celebrating the unforgettable songs (even if you thought you've forgotten them you haven't, trust us) from arguably the craziest music era of all time: The '80s. Whether this was the music of your youth or long before your time, a little bit of the '80s surely lives in you.

Anybody who knew me as a 13-year-old kid in the summer of 1985 had to be mighty sick of “Get It On (Bang a Gong)". I played the hell out of this thing. I bought the cassette and never listened to another song on it, just kept cueing up Bang a Gong and air-drumming through the whole thing.

This was a summer ritual for me: With no school and all day to watch MTV, I’d really latch on to a particular song or two and absolutely kill them. Some of those songs — as you may have guessed — don’t hold up so well today.

“Don’t Let It End” by Styx? Anyone? How about “Taken In” by Mike And The Mechanics? Any takers? Surely you’ll give me “Powerful Stuff” by The Fabulous Thunderbirds? Right?

(Crickets, crickets ...)

OK, so my taste wasn’t so refined back then. But I will defend “Get It On (Bang a Gong)” to this day with fierce conviction. And the funny thing is that there’s no way this song should have worked. I know supergroups were all the rage back then, but this one was goofy even by those lax standards.

The Power Station lineup?

Well, I wasn’t a Duran Duran fan. I thought their success was more a product of MTV than any merits their music might have had, so having the two Taylors as guitarists certainly didn’t float my boat. The only thing I knew about singer Robert Palmer was “Bad Case Of Loving You,” which wasn’t exactly high on my playlist. And drummer Tony Thompson? Honestly, I didn’t know Chic from shinola.

The Power Station’s first single, “Some Like It Hot,” was OK, better than I expected, but nothing that set me on fire. But “Get It On” had me from that stuttering opening, with Andy Taylor blasting out blaring chords that seemed to shake the TV when the video played. Then Thompson came in, pounding the hell out of his drums to clear out the debris for the main riff.

Who knew the Taylors had it in them? It was like they had several years of pent-up frustration built up from being essentially video actors in Duran Duran (I couldn’t even be sure there were guitars in any of their songs). Whatever the case, they played with a ferocity that still busts through the speakers. And Thompson? Wow. His drums must have cried for mercy at the end of the song.

Holding it all together with unruffled sophistication was Palmer, singing the verses with mounting intensity before belting out the chorus with raw power. Plus, he was the essence of cool in the video, barely opening his mouth to lip-synch the lyrics as if he were dipping snuff the whole time.

Are you ready for the ultimate blasphemy now? Years later, I finally heard the original version of the song by T. Rex, a hallowed rock classic. I had always thought, since copies are rarely as good as the original, that the T. Rex version would blow me away. But I was underwhelmed. Compared to the Power Station’s version, the whole thing felt a little limp.

Alas, the momentum from “Get It On” wasn’t enough to sustain The Power Station for much longer. Palmer decided to go solo, and when the band appeared on Miami Vice they did so with not-in-the-same-league-as-Palmer singer Michael Des Barres. What should have been a glorious intersection of two of my youthful pop-culture obsessions was spoiled.

The Taylors went back to Duran Duran, their guitars once again collecting dust. Thompson played with a reunited Led Zeppelin at Live Aid, but was severely injured in a car accident, scuttling anything further. Palmer made a mint as a solo artist winking at his suavely lascivious image in progressively less-amusing videos. Des Barres played a snooty maitre d’ in the smelly car episode of Seinfeld earning some measure of forgiveness from me.

The original quartet reunited for a half-hearted reunion album in 1995, but, predictably, it went unnoticed.

Saddest of all though were the deaths of Palmer and Thompson, within two months of each other in 2003. To paraphrase another great '80s anthem by Ray Davies, part of my teenage self died then as well.

But “Get It On (Bang A Gong)” is indestructible, so The Power Station lives on through it. I had it on replay the whole time I wrote this thing.

Needless to say, my typing was atypically slow. It turns out that I just couldn’t keep from air-drumming along, just like the old days.

First, The Power Station's cover version. After that, sample the original version by T. Rex:

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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