A music-obsessed, retired San Francisco lawyer, and author of the rock & roll memoir Jittery White Guy Music (available on Amazon)... picking a random album or song in his collection every day or so and sharing a few thoughts.
My Top 2000 Songs #1159: Working With Fire And Steel
Ok, this one's kind of a weird entry. It's an oh-so-very-80s British new wave single, the title/lead-off track from Liverpool act China Crisis' 1983 LP. I don't think it got a lot of play here in the US, and don't remember how it managed to dig its way into my subconscious--maybe it was on a teen movie soundtrack? or got played at one of those high school parties you barely remember except for the mixtape that was playing? And it's not necessarily the catchiest of tracks, no "Take On Me" chorus everyone can sing from memory. Indeed, when I heard about China Crisis many years later, I assumed they were some 80s band I had completely missed, shocked when I heard this track and immediately recognized it as something familiar from earlier in my life.
I think it's all about the atmospherics. It's full of all those British new wave touchstones--dated synths and electronic drums, heavily accented vocals--that make it sound like the perfect illustration of music circa 1983, conjuring those magical/miserable high school years, hanging out watching MTV and going out to see John Hughes movies.
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