For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.

Day 12

Simple. Repetitive. And addictive. It just worked. It was the summer of 1989 when “So Alive” came strutting on to the airwaves. This radio darling was accessible and infectious, but still a near perfect embodiment of the band’s unique sound and persona born out of mishmash of gothic and motorcycle culture - which stretched across everything from album art to videos. In “So Alive”, Love and Rockets pulled off something rarely achieved in music: they sold out without selling out.

Let’s break it down. Steady, hypnotic snare hits from Kevin Haskins. Keyboard chords that envelope and swarm, nearly choking the listener. Daniel Ash doing his best leather-clad cross between a whisper and a growl. And that soulful trio on backup vocals. It was so effortlessly cool. And, for a high school teenager crazy about music like me, well, that was almost all that mattered.

“Wish I could stop. Switch off the clock. Make it all happen for you.”