Russ Kay: "1985 in Review"

[alexxkay]

Another of dad’s services, this one from early 1986.

1985 IN REVIEW

You realize that this is undoubtedly the only church in town with its own disk jockey ...

THIS MORNING I'm going to share a highly colored view of some of the news events of the year just past, with some musical accompaniment and commentary – and I'm sure some editorial opinion will creep in. I'll begin with a piece that Harriet says I should adopt as my theme song for these occasions ...
0:12-0:41 I HEAR THE MUSIC OF THE WORLD A-TURNING

1985 was not a real good year. It seemed as if there was bad news — and only bad news — wherever you turned. It was the worst year in aviation history, with over 1600 people killed in plan crashes. It got so tht you'd think twice about flying ...
0:45 - 0:56 LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
0:56 - 1:13 PHILIP BLASS
And if that wasn't bad enough, terrorists around the world had a field day with hijackings, airport bombinbs, shootouts. It made you want to stay at home and not travel outside the country.

One byproduct of this international unrest was a real revival, partway through the year, of patriotic feelings. We were all glad to be ...
1:19 – 1:37 BORN IN THE USA

In a similar vein, one of the year's biggest movies was RAMBO, which seemed to
tell us tht any kind of violence was OK in a good cause, because we are Americans. Even President Reagan publicly admired Rambo's fight-back attitude. Of course, Ronniw was always shooting his mouth off about something
1:40 - 1:43 D0N"T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT
(NOW SKIP TAPE TO 3:06)

1985 saw the Russians get yet another Premier — the first one in years who isn't on or near his deathbed ...
3:06 - 3:32 VOLGA BOATMEN SONG

And even though the US-USSR arms-control talks bogged down, it did come to pass that Gorbachev and Raagan had a summit meeting ... the first in six years. It aroused a lot of unfulfilled hopes ...
3:28 - 5:10 STRANGEST DREAM

Elsewhere on the international scene, South Africa was in the news throughout the year ...
5:14 - 5:47 MARCHING TO PRETORIA
But they weren't — and aren't — marching together in South Africa today. The struggel against Apartheid goes on ...
5:48-6:35 WE SHALL OVERCOME

At hone, things were somewhat more peaceful. Unless you happened to live in Philadelphia, where the police dropped a bomb on a house and wiped out an entire neighborhood ...
6:39 – 7:49 1812 OVERTURE FINALE

SPIES were in the headlines in unprecedented numbers. WE found them in industry ...
7:52 - 8:00 007 THEME
in the FBI ...
8:01 - 8:13 SECRET AGENT MAN
AND OUTSIDe the Israeli Embassy ...
8:15 - 8:27 HAVA NAGEELA
This outbreak of espionageb brought forth new cries for the death penalty ...
8:31 - 9:09 DEATH TO THE TRAITOR

THE ECONOMY improved for many people, got worse for many others. It made a big difference which end of the scale you were on. The Administration policies worked to widen the gap between rich and poor. Let's listen briefly to each side
9:10-10:10 A TRULY NEEDY FAMILY OF YOUR OWN
On the other end, life could be grim, which caused many people to look for some form— any form — of escape ...
10:13 - 11:12 BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY

GOOD GRIEF! What a terrible year! I looked for some good news, and found a few items:

11:16 - 11:33 STAR WARS THEME OVER
THE SPACE PROGRAM had notable success in putting satellites into orbit as well as bringing them back to the garage for a tuneup and grease job.

11:36 - 12:01 WATER MUSIC OVER
UNDER WATER, there were some interesting developments. Mel Fisher found his Spanish treasure galleon off the Florida coast, and we finally located the resting place of the Titanic.

IN SHOW BUSINESS, Clayton Moore won his court battle and was allowed to remove his sunglasses and put on his mask again ...
12:03 - 12:15 WILLIAM TELL FANFARE

MUSICALLY, 1985 will be remembered as the year that Pop Music discovered a social conscience and reached out across the world ...
12:18 - 18:15 WE ARE THE WORLD
(fade down)
No, 1985 was not a real good year. It had a lot in it we'd just as soon forget about. But let's try to remember that there was good. Let us honor the message and the spirit of this song and carry it forth into 1986 ...
(bring music back up for a bit, then fade out.)