To Live and Die in LA at 40

Way back in the fall of 1985, I was working part time as a D.J. for our local AM radio station–KWHK–in my hometown of Hutchinson, Kansas. Though the format of the station was Adult Contemporary Rock, KWHK had flirted for a bit with New Wave/College Rock. As such, we still received all the possible New Wave and College Rock promos. No body at the station wanted them, so I inherited a truly glorious set of vinyl. My prized possession was XTC’S Skylarking.

I very much remember when Wang Chung’s To Live and Die in L.A arrived. At the time, I didn’t think much of Wang Chung. Being somewhat of a snob and privileging anything that even smacked of progressive rock, I didn’t really take dance music too seriously. Thus, I didn’t think too much of Wang Chung.

Then, I previewed To Live and Die in L.A. Immediately I was taken with it–how complex, how driving, how smart, how utterly cinematic the music was. This wasn’t dance music–which is what I expected from Wang Chung–but something much close to, say, Yes’s Drama, Rush’s Power Windows, or The Fixx’s Reach the Beach. This was the real deal. The transition from track three, “Wake Up Stop Dreaming,” to track four, “Wait,” was especially proggy, something worthy of “Trees” and “Xanadu” on Exit Stage Left. The whole first side of the album brilliantly builds and climaxes with “Wait.”

True to form, side one of the album contains all the songs with lyrics, while side two is purely instrumental. Both sides are excellent.

For forty years now, I have thoroughly enjoyed this soundtrack. Once I switched to CDs–away from vinyl–To Live and Die in L.A. was one of the first CDs I purchased. I return to it several times a year and remember fondly that period of the first half of the 1980s when Prog and New Wave so beautifully blended into one.

What about the movie? When it first arrived in Hutchinson, 40 years ago this week, my closest friend and debate colleague, Ron Strayer, and I went to an early showing. We were suitably blown away from it. It was one of the most intense and violent movies I’d seen up to that point in my life, and I was rather taken with it. Watching it now, I see its flaws, and it doesn’t grab me like it used to.