The 1980s would see the birth of the electronic era. During the next ten years, electronic components would become more and more sophisticated as they became smaller and smaller. When IBM came out with the Personal Computer (PC model 5150) in August of 1981, this electronic era would officially be ushered in. Video games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders would take over the leisurely life style of the "Me" generation. Cable TV was born and CNN became the first all news network. MTV would revolutionize the music industry. Fox Network would become a major contender in the television market (to everyone's surprise). Compact Discs were first produced in 1983 along with camcorders. By the end of the decade CDs would outsell LPs. The "'Shop 'til you Drop" generation would make binge buying and credit card maxing a way of life. The decade started with double digit inflation. Of course when Ronald Reagan became president and inherited this economic travesty, it made him a convenient target for left wingers to take aim at and blame. Gas was about $1.19 a gallon early in the decade but would actually drop to about .89 cents a gallon by it's end.
Walt Disney World was flourishing and growing by leaps and bounds. To add to the frenzy, other theme parks started to spring up all over Central Florida. Circus World, Boardwalk & Baseball, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Universal Studios - all but demolishing many of the "Old Florida" attractions, such as Cypress Gardens, Gatorland, Silver Springs and Weeki Wachee Springs. While some of the old-liners managed to hold on to a thread, most were severely if not fatally damaged. More and more orange groves were being plowed under to make way for cookie cutter housing developments as far as the eye could see - the population and traffic were exploding.
Having
left the Bellamy Brothers Band just before the New Year, the year 1980 found me
back at
home with my wife of little over a year, who had just found out she was
pregnant with what would be our fourth child. Nancy had a daughter (Jenny) from her first marriage and I had two from my first (Craig and Wendy). Our timing for theses things was always impeccable. I
was
finding it very difficult to return to the small pond after swimming
in the ocean and making the transition back to reality after living
in one
of my fantasies. I was at an all-time low in the self esteem
and really had no idea of what would become of Nancy, myself, and
our
ever growing family. In August 1980, number three daughter (#4 child), Trudi, was born.
I had been doing quite a bit of writing and had a burning desire to be a country artist. I had made a couple of trips to Nashville and had a small measure of success generating some interest. During 1980, I, with the help of Len Walls, recorded the tracks on several songs and then took two of them to Nashville to finish and mix. In February 1981 we got a release on "Prairie Dust" records of "Take Me Home With You", a song I had written a couple of years earlier. Nancy and I hired an independent promoter who managed to get the song on the Billboard chart, but the label's promoter (the wife of the label's owner) was offended (?), royally cussed us out, and then pulled the song. The kicker would come a couple of months later on May 26, 1981, when my dad died of a heart attack.
Not willing to let these setbacks beat us down we looked for other avenues of marketing. One big obstacle that seemed insurmountable at the time, was that the only bass player I had played with in the past twenty years was still on the road with the Bellamys. I was willing to try and get an act together but I didn't know another decent bass player who would put up with my eccentric behavior. Then it occurred to me that Nancy had learned to play a little guitar when she was younger. I asked her if she was interested in learning to play bass - she was eager - within 6 months we were playing some of my original songs. We put together a band, Southern Honey, and played together for about 3 years before we decided to scrap the band and quit the lounge circuit and give up marijuana for religious reasons. Almost immediately on dissolving the band - she was pregnant again. We managed to salvage Joe Spann from the Southern Honey band and started working with homemade music tracks at a local Winter Haven family restaurant. With Alabama's release of "Close Enough To Perfect", a couple of concert opportunities came up and we were able to pay for our fifth child, Christina, who was born in September of 1984.
In 1985, we started working seasonally at the Circus World theme park on I-4 near Haines City and eventually in 1977 would finish out the eighties playing full time, 6 days a week performances, at the Boardwalk and Baseball theme park built on that same location. B&B provided us with the only regular paychecks we ever enjoyed.
Before the decade was over, among other things, I would
have released and charted my own single ("Take Me Home With You"), fronted a mostly female country
band (Southern Honey), written two top 5 hit country songs ("Close Enough To Perfect" and "Love's Gonna Get You"), accepted an award on national television (Music City News Awards),
participated in a 3+ year lawsuit (ugh!), played for food and tips in a home-cookin'
restaurant (Skeeters), joined the circus (Circus World), and performed over 3500 shows in a peddler's
wagon (Boardwalk & Baseball).
The
eighties would turn out to be a collection of extreme highs and extreme
lows, then end up in that comfortable rut that everyone thinks they want
until they get there. An old Chinese curse is said to be, "May you live in interesting
times". It makes me think I must've ticked off an old Chinese man
somewhere about the end of the seventies -- the eighties were definitely "interesting
times".
Original
Songs
Carl's Scrapbook: The 1980s
