The Sexiest Man Alive, 1982 Edition

Seriously, Adam Ant (he's the one on the left) was The Sexiest Man Alive (Montag Edition)  in 1982.

I think the Ant may have started to jump the shark by the time he recorded "Strip" in 1983. There's a little too much Adam on display in this one--I don't mean skin-wise as much as I mean mugging-for-the-camera-wise with a lot of flashy "dolly birds." Not my thing, obviously.



I'm also not sure that this song stands the test of time in the way that "Ant Music" or "Desperate But Not Serious" do. It may pass muster musically but lyrically it just seems like such a comedown from those tunes. Again, the transition from punk to new wave to mainstream is in evidence. Get on your Honda scooter and ride.

But "Strip" will always hold a special place in my heart ever since I discovered that the female voice-over in the middle was done by none other than Frida Lyngstad from ABBA.

All hail Frida! All hail The Ant!

Those were the days, my friend

. . . We thought they'd never end. We'd sing and dance forever and a day . . . .

Was there ever anything sexier than Adam Ant? No.

Except for Adam Ant and Grace Jones together in an ad for a Honda scooter that no one even remembers nowadays. Who was the market for this thing, les jeunes de Paris? Except in New York and Chicago, you wouldn't stand a chance on the street or in street cred on such a scooter in the U.S.

Honestly, nobody did devil-may-care, fancy man, naughty Bond villain, and sexy beast with Apache face paint and Burundi drums better than early '80s Adam Ant. Viva Le Ant!



Good lordy, could we use an Adam Ant today. The entire punk and new wave movement should be on standby throughout history to perform periodic cultural bust-ups: To unplug the jukebox; to force us all to try another flavor.

As much as I wax on about the '70s and early disco culture, by 1978 or 1979, things really did need to change, and change they did for a little while.

But then they went back to the beginning again. When did punk become as stylistically slick and predictable as disco? When everyone started calling it new wave? When Adam Ant and Grace Jones did a Honda scooter commercial? When some girls from one of my last classes at university starting telling me how much they loved Duran Duran and thought that made them edgy? Not in 1983 it didn't.

Then again, even early '80s Duran Duran had more substance than the stuff that was getting played and "rocked out" to in my college town's downtown bars back in the day.

The funny thing is, I don't think even the rawness of punk or the danger of new wave could break through the capitalist culture logjam we find ourselves in today.