It was 1979. The last year before a new decade began. I had finished school, and passed the MCE, but not good enough to do Form 6 in a government school. Looking back, it seems so many things were happening simultaneously.
The times were a tad different then. As was the norm, those of us with good results went on to university. The rest of us went to work, including me. I spent the entire year looking in vain for a job.
Still, I remember standing in the Kilat football field in Prai one bright shiny evening, and thinking I am 18. Young, and with all of life ahead of me. Life is good. A classic case of young naivety!
It was a year of coming of age; I was out of school, not a boy anymore, but not yet an adult, and faced with the daunting task of what was I going to do with my life. I remember standing outside our Chai Leng Park home one morning and reflecting what was life all about.
Was it just a matter of being born, growing up, go to school, work, get married, grow old and one day die? Surely it had to be more than that? I didn’t realise at the time that I was asking the basic philosophical questions. What is the meaning of life? What am I doing here? Why?
As if in synonymous with change, politically, for the first time in history a woman – Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime minister in the UK.
Iran became an Islamic Republic and 63 Americans were taken hostage in the American Embassy in Tehran.
In Malaysia, RTM began colour transmission.
Thank goodness for Zurhan, another childhood friend. One day he cycled up furiously to my house and exclaimed “You’ve got to hear this – the best song of all time!” He was referring to the Bee Gees’ “Spirits Having Flown” that had just been released and in particular to the mammoth hit “Tragedy”.
Music wise, Sony launched the first Walkman. Technology was evolving and it was the in thing to possess at the time. But at US$200.00 it was priced way out of range for the likes of me, although I did get one as a gift from a close friend much later.
Meanwhile, Michael Jackson had released his breakthrough album “Off the Wall” in August – ensuring his future rise as the “King of Pop”.
Pink Floyd released the concept album “The Wall” with the top selling single “Another Brick in the Wall”. The protest song hit a raw nerve with me, probably because it reflected my own struggles of growing up and the inability to understand a world that I was not prepared for.
That same year another band was making the waves – The Police. Their second album, Regatta de Blanc, loosely translated as “White Reggae”, was released in October.
It contained two top 10 UK hits – Message In A Bottle and Walking On The Moon. Their 5th and final album – 1983’s The Synchronicity contained a hauntingly beautiful “Walking In Your Footsteps“.
There was one more final throw of the dice that 1979 threw at us, one that surpassed all of the above for me and my friends. Nick, my mate from school introduced us to Supertramp and Breakfast In America, in particular “The Logical Song”.
It was made for us we felt; no doubt there would have been many others who felt the same way. It spoke to us on so many levels. It became our own personal favourite, including the one and only late Thiaga. This one is for you man. Rest in peace.