It’s oleskool night

Last Friday night I engaged in a bit of #oleskool reminiscing courtesy of YouTube and my sista Gladys W (my collaborator). Hashtagged #oleskool, together we posted some songs from our nightclubbing days in Brisbane in the late eighties and early/mid nineties.

Unfortunately, we were all on Abstudy, so none of us could afford cameras (actually I had a camera but could never afford to get film developed). So sadly, we have no or very few photographs of this period. Though happily, we have no or very few photographs of this period. (No – that is NOT a typo).

All we have are our memories. As I said in Facebook comment last week –

Music has the ability to transport us to other times and to other places. Turn it up. Close your eyes. And you’re there…

By popular demand (or perhaps simply at the urging of Delvene Cockatoo on Twitter), I’m going to indulge for a second Friday in an #oleskool trip down memory lane.

In the interests of not posting all the same links again, here is the list who featured on last week’s (the inaugural) #oleskool outing:

(I could embed the videos but that’s too much drama – just click on the hyperlinks & you’ll be in YouTube in a sec)

Jimmy Cliff – Reggae Night #oleskool anthem?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH4cZlLPeQ0&feature=share


Kool and the Gang – Fresh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ1XwGDcA4&feature=share

Not eighties, and maybe a bit new for oleskool En Vogue – Free Your Mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7iQbBbMAFE&feature=share

MARS Pump up the volume reminds me of The Homestead at Zillmere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPhUr-T6UM&feature=share

Stevie Wonder Superstition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDZFf0pm0SE&feature=youtu.be

Billy Ocean Caribbean Queen (Is is possible to capture how much I loved this album?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiEqqQo0Pko&feature=share

Bob Marley Could you be loved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i-gcWdBUb8&feature=share

I was skeptical that this would beat the George Benson original, but yes Taylor Dane’s Can’t get enough of your love is deeaaddlly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARErtoVJqU4&feature=share

The Jackson’s Can You feel it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW1fXL3s7bk&feature=share

The hair. The porn-star tash. The Commodores Night Shift
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkEDe6Ljqs&feature=share

Peaches & Herb Shake Your Groove Thing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtaZ48fERfc&feature=share

How are Earth, wind and fire NOT the ULTIMATE oleskool? Let’s Groove –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XOY7lsBVpo&feature=share

I think this was the first full record I ever bought Hot Chocolate‘s Greatest Hits. Here is It started with a Kiss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3pf7o-9OOk&feature=share  though @Jo_Barnes recommended Paul Kelly’s version – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2XI6velQA&feature=youtu.be – I remain unconvinced.

The first record I ever bought was the single of Eye of the tiger by Survivor.

This is a proper oldie, but still makes the oleskool cut I reckon Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ Tracks of my tears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNS6D4hSQdA&feature=share

Kool and the Gang’s Celebration is timeless. It still gets played.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M&feature=share

Hues Corporation – Rock the boat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBwsG8ubFw&feature=share

Play that funky music by Wild Cherry (the guitar at the beginning of this song is SO cool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRr2kf84V2M&feature=share

Chaka Khan’s Aint Nobody (Aint nobody like Chaka Khan IMO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvPZo52X5vo&feature=share

Lady Marmalade by Labelle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoEjB71dkEo&feature=share


Soul II Soul Back to life (I so wanted these pants)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB54dZkzZOY&feature=share

This clip is crazy but Malcolm McLaren’s Buffalo Gals was great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SgvJY9xxcA&feature=share

We all will always love Marvin Gaye’s I heard it through the grapevine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hajBdDM2qdg&feature=share

New Edition’s Candy Girl was soooo deadly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAFg2TQk9v0&feature=share

Deniece William’s Let’s hear it for the boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnuYhFRYbAw&feature=share

@sgrhall added Morris Day & the Time’s Jungle Love to the collection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFl_QKkLxXc&feature=youtu.be

Hair notwithstanding, we all LOVED DeBarge’s Rhythm of the Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAQSZhazYk8&feature=share

Gregory (scrumptious) Abbott – Shake You Down (yes please)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc8wmLul3uw&feature=share

Club Nouveau – Lean on Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4twC1dJqUI&feature=share

Colour me Badd – I wanna sex you up (okay then. yes I danced to this in public)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ask_sedxu0o&feature=share

On Facebook we posted

Lisa Standsfield – Round the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf9q0DN0dGw&feature=youtu.be

And the song that made the most connection was the timeless Womack & Womack’s Teardrops which I’ll embed here cause it’s so deadly and cause we went to seem W&W at Transformers in Brisbane in the 1990s.

The YouTube archives can be fickle, courtesy of the copyright police. If the links don’t work, we can find another ….

What’s your okeskool request?

Follow #oleskool on Twitter tonight. Better still, post your own #oleskool favourites on twitter …. and have a yarn …