This series approaches each year as a nine-song spread – loosely based on tarot readings – drawn by instinct, arranged for flow, and interpreted only after the sequence reveals its shape. What emerges is not a ranking, but a reflection: a portrait of a year told through tone, tension, and transition.
1979 – Cultural & Astrological Snapshot
1979 doesn’t present itself as chaotic…but it feels increasingly unsettled. In cinema, Kramer vs. Kramer dominates with emotional realism. Conflict moves inward involving family, identity, and responsibility. The breakdown is no longer societal, it’s personal. “The Amityville Horror” taps into a different fear. The threat is inside the home. Safety itself becomes questionable.
Meanwhile, on a global level, the Iran hostage crisis begins when American diplomats are seized in Tehran. 50+ hostages will be held for over a year along with a constant media presence that reshapes public anxiety. On a lighter note, The Music for UNICEF Concert is held, a precursor to large-scale global charity events. Music begins positioning itself as a vehicle for collective response. The world isn’t falling apart loudly…it’s tightening, quietly, from multiple directions at once.
This is a Saturn + Pluto pressure year. Saturn with its restriction and internal pressure goes up against Pluto’s deep transformation beneath the surface. Pluto is in Libra which reflects directly in the hostage crisis due to diplomacy under stress.
NOTE: The Full Spread audio playlist is included at the end of this post. (Listen Before, During or After…or Not at All)
ACT I – Awareness, Identity & The Coming Shift
1. “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” – Neil Young
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away…”
1979 opens with a warning…quiet, but unmistakable. Neil Young isn’t just reflecting on relevance; he’s anticipating obsolescence. There is a growing awareness that something fundamental is changing, even if it hasn’t fully arrived yet. The measure of an artist is no longer just sound or substance, it is visibility, adaptability, and presence. Much like the silent film stars who struggled when voices were finally required, a new transition looms on the horizon. Some will adapt. Others will disappear. The question is no longer what you create, but whether you can survive what comes next.
2. “The Logical Song” – Supertramp
“Please tell me who I am…”
If Young senses the shift, Supertramp tries to understand it…and fails. “The Logical Song” dissects the systems that were supposed to provide identity, only to reveal their limitations. Education, structure, and rationality produce function, but not meaning. As the culture inches toward a more image-driven future, logic becomes even less sufficient. The tools that once defined identity are no longer adequate for the world that is forming. The question remains unanswered, and perhaps unanswerable within the framework itself.
3. “Message in a Bottle” – The Police
“I’m sending out an S.O.S….”
By the end of Act I, awareness turns into isolation. “Message in a Bottle” captures the feeling of reaching outward in a world that is becoming increasingly fragmented. Communication exists, but connection does not. The signal is sent, repeated, amplified, but still uncertain of who, if anyone, will receive it. As music moves toward a more visual and performative medium, the nature of communication itself begins to change. The voice is still there…but it is already competing with something else.
Act I of 1979 stands at the edge of transformation. Relevance becomes uncertain in the face of change. Systems of identity become inadequate and incomplete. Communication becomes fragile and increasingly isolated. What emerges is not panic, but recognition. Something is shifting and not everything built for the past will survive what comes next.
ACT II – Resistance, Contradiction & Survival Mode
4. “Refugee” – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
“You don’t have to live like a refugee…”
If Act I recognized instability, Act II begins by pushing back against it. “Refugee” is a refusal, an insistence that displacement, whether emotional or societal, is not inevitable. Yet the very need to say it suggests otherwise. The tension is built into the premise: resistance implies pressure, and pressure implies a system already in motion. The voice is strong, but it is also reacting to forces it cannot fully control.
5. “Cruel to Be Kind” – Nick Lowe
“Cruel to be kind…it means that I love you…”
Where resistance begins, contradiction follows. Nick Lowe reframes morality itself, suggesting that harm can be justified if it serves a greater purpose. The tone is upbeat, even charming, but the logic is uneasy. Clarity gives way to rationalization. What once might have been considered wrong becomes acceptable – necessary, even – under the right conditions. The system isn’t just external anymore; it has begun to reshape how decisions are made.
6. “Life During Wartime” – Talking Heads
“This ain’t no party…this ain’t no disco…”
By the end of Act II, the metaphor becomes explicit: life itself is reframed as conflict. “Life During Wartime” strips away illusion and replaces it with urgency. Normal structures – pleasure, leisure, stability – no longer apply. Survival takes precedence over expression. The voice is no longer questioning or resisting, it is adapting. The system has shifted, and the individual must shift with it.
Act II of 1979 moves from resistance into adaptation. The individual pushes back against displacement. Morality becomes flexible and conditional. Life itself becomes structured around survival. What begins as defiance evolves into acceptance, not of the system, but of the conditions it creates. The fight isn’t over, but the rules have changed…and they’re no longer negotiable.
ACT III – Internalization, Numbness & Inevitable Descent
7. “Dream Police” – Cheap Trick
“They’re inside my head…dream police…”
Act III opens with a shift from external pressure to internal surveillance. “Dream Police” blurs the boundary between reality and perception, suggesting that authority no longer needs to exist outside the individual…it has already been absorbed. What once felt like resistance now feels monitored, even within thought itself. The tension is no longer situational; it is psychological. Control has moved inward.
8. “Comfortably Numb” – Pink Floyd
“I have become comfortably numb…”
Where awareness intensifies, feeling begins to fade. “Comfortably Numb” presents withdrawal not as defeat, but as adaptation. Sensation dulls, emotion recedes, and distance becomes a form of protection. The overwhelming complexity introduced earlier in the year is no longer confronted, it is managed through disconnection. The system is no longer resisted or analyzed; it is endured.
9. “Highway to Hell” – AC/DC
“No stop signs…speed limit…”
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