80s rock ’n’ roll photographer Lynn Goldsmith reveals stories of Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and more

nypost.com:

assassination of John Lennon … I think Chris Stein [of Blondie] put it best: ‘The ’80s murdered what was left of the ’60s.’”When an editor suggested she excavate her old photos from the decade for a possible project, Goldsmith grudgingly started going through her negatives.

But as she pored over her trove of images, she realized that the 1980s were actually pretty rad.“I really saw what a creative time it was,” the Detroit native said. “As I started putting it together, I thought I could do this alphabetically to show visually the range — how different Bananarama is from Barry Manilow.”“Music in the ’80s” (Rizzoli) showcases the dazzling breadth of the Me Decade: The Rolling Stones to The Boss; Herbie Hancock to Run DMC; Madonna to Goldsmith’s old college pal Iggy Pop; The Pretenders to, yes, Barry Manilow. “I wondered, ‘How did I ever photograph all these people?’” said Goldsmith, who was also making her own dance music under the name Will Powers at the time. “How did I sleep?

Did I ever get laid in the ‘80s? And I had to leave out a lot of artists because there weren’t enough pages!”She captures these personalities at their most surprising, their most glamorous and their most true — probably because she is a musician and artist herself. “I shoot from the point of view of a fan,” she said.Here, Goldsmith shares some of her photos and stories from the ’80s.The first time Goldsmith heard The B-52’s, the campy, cartoony New Wave quintet from Athens, Georgia, she knew she had to meet them. “I went, ‘They’re gonna be huge!’” she remembered.

So Goldsmith traveled to the band’s new house in Nyack, NY, to photograph them on her own dime. (She said that 90 percent of the images she produces are “on spec,” or with the hopes of.