What a Fool Believed

THE FLIP SIDES OF '79

Trends came and trends went, but rock & roll lives on and we're still dancing...

Call what remains a report from the front; what a fool believes; what any man could learn by paying attention to the radio:

There was the week last winter when Elvis Costello came out with 'Armed Forces,' a record so brave it couldn't be true; the week he called Ray Charles a nigger, I knew that it wasn't.... Listening all summer long to Donna Summer's 'Hot Stuff' and finally deciding that the Stones should have had her produce 'Some Girls'.... Watching the kids at the beach with their Cheap Trick tapes, spinning 'Surrender' twenty times a day.... Blowing my last five bucks on Van Morrison's 'Into The Music' and feeling cheered up.... Playing Sly Stone's new record, which was like running into a dear old friend.... Seeing 'The Kids Are Alright' and starting to cry when Keith Moon made that sudden, awful change from indestructible youth to fatigued old age.... Discovering Peaches and Herb's 'Reunited' on the radio one Sunday morning and stopping the car, breathless that soul music still lived.... Gaping at James Brown dancing at his own press party.... Neon Leon at the Mudd Club, Beaver Brown at the Fast Lane, Ellen Shipley in Poughkeepsie, Carolyne Mas at the Other End.” - Dave Marsh

— ROLLING STONE (12-27-79)