1. True by Spandau Ballet

 1. True by Spandau Ballet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI-UNoK-jeM&list=OLAK5uy_kCIuWE2ZiRbRWnVfjsTrgN014SgsfDlfU

In my Top 200 list I explained the following about my #3 song "True."

While many of the songs on this top 200 list are associated with negative emotions and memories, this song hearkens back to a day during my senior year in high school when I experienced a moment of complete bliss. Actually, it wasn't a moment. It was a bliss-a-thon that lasted the entire album version of "True" as I slow-danced with Jennifer Palmer during the senior year homecoming dance. And although that relationship didn't work out in the end, every time I hear this song it triggers a memory of absolute happiness.

Over the years, the association of Spandau Ballet's music and that feeling of bliss has expanded from that one song to the entire album. It reminds me of that time in my life before the Great Depression--from April to October of 1983--when I felt at the top of my game. During that summer the song "True" had been rising up the charts, and whenever I heard it I thought that it would be the perfect slow dance song. I wasn't wrong. Falling head over heels in love when dancing toe to toe was pretty easy with this song playing. Unfortunately, I fell harder than I should have (right through the floor and into the basement), and it set me up to go through The Great Depression for the next four years. But that feeling of bliss was a really important experience for me to have, because after that dance I knew that I would have to feel that level of bliss with whatever woman I was going to marry in my future. And I didn't feel that kind of bliss with any other girl I dated until I met Julie. When I felt it with her, that was the moment The Great Depression officially ended, and I felt at the top of my game again.

In regards to the quality of music on this album, the things I liked about the sound of "True" can be found in every other song on the album. The consistent quality of the lyrics, the interesting instrumentation, the danceable rhythms (with bongos aplenty!), the whole soulful vibe--it is a complete package that, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of Spandau Ballet's entire music catalogue. The albums that came before had a much different punk/new wave sound, and the albums that came after it had less of that soul influence and more of a late-'80s rock sound. But True hits that musical sweet spot for me that makes my ears say "Thank you!" while at the same time triggering that sentimental part of my brain that remembers dancing with the red-haired girl of my dreams while on a double date with my good buddy who, I believe, was also feeling a high level of bliss at the same time on that same dance floor with a cute blonde that had a smile that could melt pretty much anything made by man and a fun laugh that made anyone that heard it immediately want to make her laugh again. Frankly, I thought that out of all the romances that my Arimo Mafia friends had, my buddy and his date were the best match and had the best chance of turning into something that could last beyond high school. I guess that deep down inside I really knew that my chance of having a long-term romance with my dream girl was about one in a billion. Our personalities simply weren't a good match. Also, the age difference was a problem. How could I realistically expect that she would want to wait around for me not dating anyone else for three years while I went to college and a mission? Yep. It was doomed to fail long before it even began. However, it still happened. And it had a huge impact on my tastes in music. So many of my Top 60 albums are related to The Great Depression because music was one of those things that I used to cope with the way I felt about others and myself. But in regards to this album, I know this much is true--the love we may have lost in high school prepared us to find the love of our lives later on. And for the role this album played in making those moments of bliss happen, I have to place it at the tippy top of my Top 60 albums list.

Nardo