#93: ABC / "Date Stamp"

- Writer(s): Martin Fry, David Palmer, Stephen Singleton & Mark White
- Year: 1982
- Album: The Lexicon of Love

Romance and Capitalism

Last week’s entry regarded love in the dizzy heights of the business world.  This week is about love in the trenches of retail.

Now that we’re in an “economic downturn” (I would say “recession,” but “they” recently declared that thing ended 15 months ago), societal critics are complaining about how the average-joe can’t get a job, can’t pay the mortgage, etc.

Do we long for the ‘80s?  Of course, I miss the culture, but what about the economy?  Sure, most fiscal indicators show that it was a whiz-bang-boom time, but if you watch any of those scholarly shows like VH-1’s “I Love the ‘80s” or “The Best One-Hit-Wonders Countdown” (with great cultural intellectuals like Henry Rollins and The Donnas) and the History Channel’s “America: The Story of Us,” (with accomplished historians like P. Diddy and Martha Stewart) – you’ll always get that line - “The ‘80s was a decade of excess and greed” – summing up ten years of a multi-million person civilization.

Shame for trying to improve your life.  You’re either losing your house or you’re losing your soul.

Thus, as the expert host of this pop music countdown, it would be easy for me to take the hundreds of retail metaphors that Martin Fry skillfully drops in this pop song and conjecture that it exemplifies the decade’s shallow credit card consumer culture.  Really, though, it’s just about love – love as a redeveloped and repackaged product, without a lifetime guarantee.

Four years later, David Byrne would match advertising slogans (“You get two for one, for a limited time”) for a similar “Love for Sale” theme, but much less cleverly.

“Date Stamp” begins with a solo of three humble guitar chords, strummed four times, only backed by an atmospheric synth, that swells, and then the first explosion: iconic cash register sound effects paired with a commanding bass-line.  Then the 2nd eruption: Fry’s charismatic voice with a catchy disco beat.

I make the sex.

Like other great songs by Stars, The Human League, and the Pet Shop Boys, “Date Stamp” demonstrates the appeal of sparring male and female vocals, and it’s a blast to hear Fry emote in an inclining pitch:

That heart`s on display, yes, that heart`s off the rails

A ship in the harbor with wind in its sails

Chain up love inside the chain-store girl

Chain up love and exchange it

Then Tessa Webb replies:
Is Monsieur a connoisseur or just short-changed?
Off the rack or custom-fit it all seems the same

Fry:

Look but don’t touch in paradise

Don’t let them catch you damaging the merchandise

I once read a posted comment on YouTube: “The ‘80s wasn’t a decade.  It was a party.”  Jam-packed with fun songs like this, that seems to be the most adept description.

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Several years ago, the magazine Lexicon (the best (now defunct) source for ‘80s music news), polled its readers, asking their favorite album from the decade.  ABC’s The Lexicon of Love was #1 - maybe predictable, given the magazine’s name, but it was quite a blow-out, receiving 40% more votes than #2 Duran Duran’s Rio.

This was the Top-20:

1. ABC / Lexicon of Love
2. Duran Duran / Rio
3. Depeche Mode / Black Celebration
4. Yazoo (Yaz) / Upstairs At Eric's
5. Kate Bush / Hounds of Love
6. Human Legaue/ Dare
7. Tears for Fears / Songs From the Big Chair
8. Depeche Mode / Music for the Masses
9. Tears for Fears / The Hurting
10. Frankie Goes to Hollywood / Welcome to the Pleasuredome
11. Pet Shop Boys / Actually
12. Thompson Twins / Quick Step and Sidekick (Sidekicks)
13. Propaganda / Secret Wish
14. Bronski Beat / Age of Conent
15. Talking Heads / Remain In Light
16. ABC / Beauty Stab
17. U2 / War
18. New Order / Power, Corruption & Lies
19. Prince and the Revolution / Purple Rain
20. Blue Nile / Walk Across the Rooftops
No Erasure?

Anyway, Guy, some '80s bands took that party vibe too far.  In three years, ABC went from the highs of Lexicon of Love to this:

So, comparatively, the Talking Heads deserve a bit more credit.