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MISSING PERSONS: MISSING IN ACTION?

You can almost hear Casey Kasem's voice running down the great American pop mysteries of 1984: Where's Doug Fieger? Will the Jacksons tour in our lifetime? Who will Kenny Rogers do his next duet with? And what's missing from Missing Persons? They-were, after all, one of the greatest pieces of pop culture we'd seen since the Ramones, albeit a different kind of culchah.

August 1, 1984
Laura Fissinger

MISSING PERSONS: MISSING IN ACTION?

FEATURES

Laura Fissinger

by

You can almost hear Casey Kasem's voice running down the great American pop mysteries of 1984: Where's Doug Fieger? Will the Jacksons tour in our lifetime? Who will Kenny Rogers do his next duet with? And what's missing from Missing Persons?

They-were, after all, one of the greatest pieces of pop culture we'd seen since the Ramones, albeit a different kind of culchah. Ex-Frank Zappa players say phooey to eSoterica, write pluperfect '80s radio techno-pop, hiccuped and hiyoooed by the pluperfect platinum blonde. No platinum records right off, but the best-selling debut EP to date and a gold debut LP called Spring Session M. Usually it takes a band a few more discs before they become a symbol of Rock's Current Decline, but Missing Persons walked out of El Lay and into disrepute without any detours. The fact that they made some pretty good music in songs like "Words" and "Destination Unknown" was almost beside the point—-they had exactly the right look (MTV loved them) and sound to symbolize New Music, to the delight of some and the dismay of many.

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