ABC Music Humpday Videos - "Z" is for Ziggy Marley

And the very last entry for the first round of ABC Music Humpday Videos goes to....

Ziggy Marley's "Theme Song for Arthur", a  TV show on KPBS which began in 1996 and continues to the present day. I didn't even know the show was still on until I looked it up. Since TC is nearly 10, she's outgrown the show and the books and is now into tween stuff like iCarly, singers Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber (ha ha, sounds like "Beaver") and "Avatar - The Last Airbender" (the animated tv series not that James Cameron crap with the blue people).

"Arthur revolves around the lives of Arthur Timothy Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other. The series often deals with social and health-related issues that affect young children. There is a strong emphasis on the educational value of books and libraries as well as relationships with friends and family members. The television series is based on the Arthur book series, which are illustrated and written by Marc Brown..."
[from Wikipedia, "Arthur (TV series)]

I used to scour thrift stores and the public library book sales for books when TC was a baby. One day, I came across a stash of the Arthur book series at the old Purple Heart thrift store; there were at least 12 of them. They ended up costing just a dime each!!! What a bargain! The other titles I picked up here and there. Favorites included, "Arthur's Family Vacation", "Arthur's Valentine", "Arthur's Tooth",
Arthur's Chicken Pox", "Arthur and the New Teacher" and "Arthur Smokes Crack".  The last title, by the way, was not a real book, okay. Just checking if you were paying attention. Each book dealt with Arthur's relationships with his family and his friends and there was usually a positive message.

I chose this song because, duh "Z" is for Ziggy Marley and also because my daughter TC used to love watching "Arthur" when she was a toddler. We used to read the books to her and when she was old enough to read at age 5, she read the books to us! Bert and I enjoyed the book series as well and grew to love (and hate) certain characters, all of which were anthropomorphic. One particularly irritating character was Muffy (a monkey) who was probably the "bossy bitch" character. Kind of like a less "Lebanese" Peppermint Patty in "Peanuts". I also liked their cranky teacher, Mr. Ratburn (a rat). One lovable character we enjoyed was "The Brain" (a smart bear who was also African American) and of course, the title character, Arthur the aardvark. When we visited Thane in Boston in 2003, the Boston's Childrens Museum had a very cool Arthur and Friends exhibit complete with Mr. Ratburn's classroom and a library with actual props!

As much as I can't stand reggae music (especially that shit they play in Hawaii, "Jawaiian reggae")! It all sounds the same to me! I liked the positive message in this song:

"And I say hey - hey!
What a wonderful kind of day
If we could learn to work and play
And get along with each other..."

Check out the rest of the lyrics here.

Other considerations for the "Z" entry were:

Frank Zappa - "G-Spot Tornado" (from "Jazz from Hell"), performed by a live orchestra. Man, I can only image how wild the musical transcription of that song would be!

I also thought about Zwan - the supergroup starring former Smashing Pumpkins frontman, Billy Corgin. The group disbanded and I still don't even know what any of their songs were, hence, their exclusion.

ZZ Top - "Sharp Dressed Man" because those two dudes with the long beards are funny but man, using ZZ top would have been too easy...

and this was a close runner up, Zac Efron - "Ladies Choice" (from the revamped "Hairspray"). Yes, I said it. Zac Efron. The very lovely pretty boy himself, Zacquisha. He has prettier eyelashes than most chicks. I actually liked his acting in that movie too, but fk that "High School Musical Stuff" tho'!

Well, folks that was 26 weeks of looking at my uh, musical tastes. I will probably do a Version 2 of the ABC series...so get ready (to be tortured) for that! (insert evil laughter here)

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "Y" is for Y&T

Let's take a trip back to 1985!!!! It's Bay Area rock band Y&T's "Summertime Girls"!

This video, my friends, is a classic  textbook example of how cheesy and hilarious hard rock videos were in the 80's.

Let's see:

It was 1985, before rock band members felt the pressure to look "good" for MTV. Many rock bands that came out back then was pretty ugly (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, etc). The band members were most definitely not very photogenic. In otherwords, fugly as fk. Case in point, the rather porcine drummer in the yellow shirt. C'mon dude, do you really think a leather bikini'd babe is really gonna want to hump on you? I'm so mean.

And oh my (insert diety of choice here) - somebody poke my eyes out with a red hot curling iron! Those guys were wearingcriinge inducing tiny ass shorts!!! Shudder! I mean, it was bad enough when George Michael wore them on the "Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)" video, but he was at least a tiny bit attractive.  I think gay guys have a pass to wear those tiny Dove shorts because they can pull off that look! 

Don't get me started about the primitive lip syncing. 

The video was also reminiscent of David Lee Roth's "California Girls" video which came out roughly around the same time, but with more girls and less wierdos.

Other clues that will further interest future anthropolgists is the parade of stereotypical So Cal beauties through the skewed lense of the 1980's.

Big teased out hair on both the women AND the men. Check.
High waisted bikini bottoms. Check.
Half shirts. Check.
Muscle shirts. Check.
Roller skates? Check.
Giant boom box being carried while roller skating? Check and check!

Interesting things to note:
This video was filmed before the onslaught of ubiqutious plastic surgery in the late 90's to the present. Check out the chicks at the beach here. You can actually see their real tittays! No humongously and unnaturally round porn star size melons, but actual breasts in their natural shape. The boobage here is pretty real and in most cases, pretty normal. Once again, no oversized jugs like you seein every rockand rap video nowadays. Funny how standards of beauty change over the years.

I must admit, this is the ONLY song I know by Y&T. They've actually been around since 1974 and were originally named "Yesterday and Today", which is a pretty cool Beatles reference to their album of the same name (infamously known as the "Butcher" cover album, if you can find a copy somewhere!). I have to give them points for that.

The band survived disco, new wave, neo glam, and even grunge. They've reunited several times as well. Obviously, I didn't care enough to go to any of their concerts though. I just remember this catchy song during the summer of 1985. "Summertime Girls" was a huge hit that year, along with Dead or Alive's, "You Spin Me (Right Round)", Prince's "Raspberry Beret", and "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday.

"Summertime Girls" was played out on KGB FM and KROQ. The video was on heavy rotation on MTV when they still played music videos instead of those crappy reality shows nowadays. This single came from their album, "Down for the Count". To listen to snippets of the songs, click here.

"Summertime Girls" got as high as #55 on the Billboard charts. The mid 80's was rife with hard rock and hair metal acts. Those were the golden years of melodic hard rock. Not quite as heavy as real metal, but not as soft like Journey or REO Speedwagon.

Adjust your high collared and layered Izod shirt, sit back on your rattan Papasan chair, press your itchy trigger finger on that can of Aqua Net, spray it round your carefully coiffed poodle perm, and chug that Bartles and Jaymes Seagrams Wine coolers straight outta the bottle! It's time to crank up this shit up to 11!!!!

One more letter in this Music Humpday Series to go! Then I'm gonna start all over again!

(Check this out for more hits from 1985!)

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "X" is for XTC

Here's something from XTC that sounds like it could have been lifted from a very swanky spy flick:

(click here to listen to snippets of the tracks)

From wikipedia's entry on XTC, Skylarking (album):

"Considered by many to be their finest album, Skylarking is a "life-in-a-day" semi-concept album which displayed songwriting and arranging heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Kinks. The title of the album was inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem To a Skylark and many of the songs expand on the pastoral themes of their 1983 album, Mummer, most notably "Summer's Cauldron" and "Season Cycle".

Although I never saw this video during the song's heyday in 1986,  I enjoyed XTC's other videos, particularly the controversial, "Dear God".  The info below explains the clothing worn by the band members which makes sense since the sound of "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" . Turns out that "The Prisoner" is about a British spy!:

"Promotional videos were made for "Grass" and "Dear God" (both directed by Nick Brandt). The Channel 4 music program The Tube also produced videos for "The Meeting Place" and "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" with the band wearing costumes from The Prisoner."

XTC was one of those 80's bands that wrote intelligent lyrics. Andy Patridge was brilliant in terms of his songwriting with songs like  "No Language in our Lungs", "Senses Working Overtime", "Generals and Majors", "Making Plans for Nigel", and "Earn Enough for Us". The year after XTC released "Skylarking" brought us their alteregos, the band The Dukes of Stratosphear (complete with fake names), releasing an homage of 1960's pop and psychedelia, "Psonic Psunspot" (contained the cheerful hit, "Vanishing Girl", another one of my favorite songs). That's also one of my favorite albums. My good friend N had the actual LP.  You only had two choices back then: LP record and cassette!

So sit back and relax in that Eames Chair, dial down the lights, drop another olive in your martini and relax to the soothing sounds of "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul"....

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "W" is for Whodini

Here's a coolass hip hop classic from 1984 by Whodini:

"The Freaks Come Out at Night" is from their first album, "Escape" which also had the hits, "Friends", "Big Mouth", and "Five Minutes of Funk". I remember "The Freaks Come Out at Night" at all the night dances in high school (along with Shannon, Debbie Deb, and Run DMC). Gosh, I only went to those events to get out of the house. I didn't really dance too much either and if it did, it was probably only spastic Molly Ringwald style dancing or just shuffling around to the beat. One of early hip hop's classic songs...(check out Molly at the :22 to :27 mark):

Ha ha, check this out. This is the CASSETTE TAPE cover of "Escape". My brother actually had the LP! Can you believe someone is selling the cassette version used at Amazon.com for only $6.89? The audio CD, which is out of print, is going for $79.99! WTF right?!

Here's more discography info on Whodini than you could shake a stick at! 

Other runner ups for "W":

White Lion - "Wait" (Mike Trammp is one hawt Dane with a killer head of hair! Vitto Bratta is the "almost Eddie Van Halen"
Wild Cherry - "Play that Funky Music (White Boy!)"
Winger - Hey, I'm kidding on this one! WINGER SUCKS!
The Who - "The Song is Over"
Wham! - "Last Christmas" (ha ha, George Michael!)
When in Rome - "The Promise" (80's!)
Whitesnake - "Still of the Night" (Hell yeah!)
Weezer - "Buddy Holly" (because I like how they morphed the band into a "Happy Days" episode!)

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "V" is for Van Halen

Oh yeah, a rock classic from my killer vault of awesome tunes.

Bros and Hos, this is  "Unchained" by Van Halen:

I had to restrain myself for not posting their other  awesome videos like the hilarious yet misogynistic "Hot for Teacher", or the "each-member-plays-out-his-fantasy-film-roles" in their cover/butchering of  Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman", or even the rock star stage shenanigans in "Panama" (loved Eddie's use of the "blowdryer" in that one). Oh no...

I chose "Unchained" which comes from their 1981 album Fair Warning.

Despite going double platinum, "Fair Warning" was not considered a commercial success because it had no radio "hits". I beg to differ. I thought this album was pretty damn good. My best friend N had the LP while I had the cassette tape of this album. I think it was all the better for it (not having any radio friendly hits), in my opinion. This was definitely not a "soft" pussy rock album. "Fair Warning" is one of VH's darkest albums with a cover that depicts someone getting their face punched in. The album starts off with Eddie's blistering hammer on axe attack with cascading notes punctuating the furious intro of "Mean Street", one of my favorite songs when it first came out. I was a 7th grade rocka rolla chick.
Remember my musical tastes are in a time warp but hell, I still love this music to death. This album in particular appealed to me because it was a mix of light and dark. There was very little "FFF" (Fast Forward Factor - as in cassette tapes, ha ha) for this. No shitty songs to fast forward since every song was good! I remember in the song "Dirty Movies", there's a line where the band members are catcalling the screen (hence the song's title) and someone is screaming, "Take it off! Take it all off!" and the radio stations actually played "Sinner's Swing" uncut which was surprising since there was a line in it where David Lee Roth sings, "She looked so fkg good, so sexy and so frail..." Whoa, wait a minute now? That was on the radio? KGB FM baby.

Song list (listen to snippets here):
1."Mean Street"
2."Dirty Movies"
3."Sinner's Swing!"
4."Hear About It Later"
5."Unchained"
6."Push Comes to Shove"
7."So This Is Love?"
8."Sunday Afternoon in the Park" (instrumental)
9."One Foot out the Door"

Anyhow, this was the live version of "Unchained" since there wasn't really a video for this song. This lineup is the classic incarnation of Van Halen, not of that Sammy Hagar or Gary Cherrone (Seriously please? Ugh!) on vocals. It's David Lee Roth baby. And none of that let's replace original bassist Michael Anthony with Eddie Van Halen's obese son, Wolfgang. Nepotism at it's worst.  Back in the late70's when girls were putting up their Tiger Beat posters of Shaun Cassidy or Scott Baio on their walls, I had Eddie Van Halen posters. Courtesy of Creem Magazine and Hit Parader. My parents were pretty liberal I guess buying me those mags. I didn't have teeny bopper idols on my walls, I had Eddie Van Halen and his "Frankestein guitar" as well as the late Randy Rhoads (from Ozzy Osbourne's "Blizzard of Ozz").  Some things never change.

There were no runner ups to the "V" choice. There weren't really a lot of options for me.At least one ones that I liked. Hmmm, Voice of the Beehive? Velocity Girl? Vixen? Stevie Ray Vaughn? Vinnie Vincent Invasion? Vandenberg (shit, they were pretty good!), and oh my God, I almost forgot! Velvet Revolver! Well, Van Halen still rules over all these choices!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "V" is for Val Kilmer (as "Nick Rivers" in "Top Secret!")

Now who doesn't love YOUNG Val Kilmer back when he was a young 20-something? Here he is in his debut film role as teen idol Nick Rivers in the 1984 cult classic, "Top Secret!" (a mashup parody of Elvis and WWII films). Incidentally, Val Kilmer really sings all the songs in "Top Secret!", foreshadowing his role as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's, "The Doors":


From the Wikipedia entry on "Top Secret!"

"The film tells the story of Nick Rivers (Kilmer), an American pop singer (whose songs sound suspiciously like those of Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys and Little Richard), who goes to East Germany (but the film also parodies films set in Nazi Germany) to perform at a cultural festival. While there, he becomes involved in a resistance movement and helps the beautiful Hillary Flammond (Gutteridge) rescue her father (Gough), a brilliant scientist being held by the Germans and forced to build the deadly Polaris mine.



The film also features short performances by Omar Sharif as Agent Cedric, and Peter Cushing as a Swedish bookstore proprietor, in a scene filmed completely in reverse."

This movie was all kinds of hilarious! There was a funny scene with Hammer Horror films regular, the great British actor Peter Cushing (better known as the Grand Moff Tarkin for you Star Wars geeks) holding a magnifying glass to his eye. When he removes it, his eye really IS huge!!! Ha ha! I also loved how  everytime Nick Rivers and his love interest would make out, fire places would show up. It's the silly kind of movie you'd expect from the creators of "Airplane!" another cult classic.

Val Kilmer, what happened to you?

From the Ultrahot Iceman...to modern day Sasquatch!!!

And as a palate cleanser...

OMFG, here he is as Jim Morrison..."I am the Lizard King!!!"...."Mother!!!!! I want to......"

Only four more letters left..

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "U" is for U2

Let's bring this gem back from the vault, shall we?

This is the Kevorkian remix of "New Year's Day" by Irish rock band, U2. It was the third song on their third album, the most excellent "War" (1983). What's cool about this remix is that there are extra lyrics on this version that are not on the US single version.

According to wikipedia's entry on "New Year's Day" (song):

"New Year's Day" was written about the Polish Solidarity movement...and driven by Adam Clayton's distinctive bassline and The Edge's keyboard playing. It was the band's first UK hit single, peaking at #10 on the singles chart... In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed the single at #427 on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

The lyric had its origins in a love song from Bono to his wife, but was subsequently reshaped and inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement."

For a young teen like me at the time, listening to U2 songs was an educational experience. None of that "party til you puke" mentality there. They were intelligent and didn't dumb down their songs for the lowest common denominators. They threw in their politics and weren't afraid to do so.

I thought this bit of trivia about the video was quite cool:

"The video was one of their first to see heavy rotation on MTV. It was filmed in Sälen, Sweden in December 1982 and directed by Meiert Avis. The band only appeared in the performance scenes of the video as it was filmed in the dead of the Swedish winter. U2 guitarist Edge revealed in the official U2 biography that the four people riding on horseback in the video that appeared to be the four U2 members were in fact four Swedish teenage girls disguised as the members of U2 riding on horseback with masks over their faces. This was done as the band were frozen from shooting the video in sub-freezing temperatures the day before. Their biography states that Bono refused to wear any headgear despite the cold weather and had a lot of trouble mouthing the lyrics. The video also features footage of Soviet troops advancing in winter during World War II."

U2 was one of my favorite bands back in the 1980's. As you already know, my musical tastes are pretty much stuck in a time warp. As for U2, I only like their stuff right before 1987's "The Joshua Tree" , which I didn't like at all. Everything before that is gold to me: these includet heir debut album, "Boy", followed by "October",  "War",  the live album "Under a Blood Red Sky", and "The Unforgettable Fire".  While they've changed their musical style and direction over the years, I still respect U2 as a band, but I still hold a candle up to their earlier albums.

About this video, I love the extended piano intro and the visuals...very haunting. If you know the original song, you will notice that the lyrics are a little different:

"You won't hold me, hold me down
You won't break this heart
I, I will be free again


A stone cold night on a cold stone floor
A pulse of light on a prison door
I want to be with you,  
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes
On New Year's Day


I will begin again
I, I will begin again


Though I want to be be with you, be with you 
Night and day

Nothing changes
On New Year's Day...
On New Year's Day..."

The DJ Kevorkian remix totally skips these lyrics:

"Under a blood-red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white.
Arms entwined, the chosen few,
Newspapers say, it says it's true." and so on and so forth!

A classic song by one of THE best bands in the world. "New Year's Day" features Bono's impassioned voice, The Edge's masterfully atmospheric guitar playing, the unforgettable bassline of Adam Clayton, and the sparse drumming of Larry Mullen Jr.. (who was a mere 22 year's old at the time of the single's release; OMG! He's  still the cutest one in the band!). Check out this old photo of U2 below! Bono was rocking that mullet. Larry Mullen Jr. looks like a baby! And the Edge isn't wearing a beanie! Sorry Adam Clayton, you're like the Ringo of the group! As Jimmy Kimmel would say, "Not handsome!"

Me thinks that Larry has aged well...

I just realized, I'm all the way up to "U"! Only 5 more letters!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "T" is for The Time

Okay, this isn't the actual video of "Chili Sauce" (there wasn't one), but rather, a pretty funny re-enactment of The Time's Quiet Storm-like ode to salacious horniness...

Allow me to share some of my favorite lyrics from this classic slowburn of a song...

Morris Day:"In my bedroom....I have a brass....waterbed..."


Date:"Really?"


Morris Day: "Ummmm hmmmmm...It's just surrounded by plants and lights and shit...and all kinds of little erotic artifacts!"

I love how these people paid homage to "Chili Sauce" despite their extremely low budget video. They lipsynced the dialogue  and acted exactly like how I would have pictured the song to be. I loved how they recreated the dinner scene in someone's tiny apartment!

The video characters include:

"Morris Day" (lead singer of The Time)
his "date" ("Oh Morris, was that really necessary?")
the "waiter" ("Yes! We're remodeling!")
and of course, Morris Day's right hand man, Jerome (always there to lend a mirror or a "hand" to Morris Day)

"Chili Sauce" was the third song on side 1 of The Time's 1984 album (and their 3rd studio release), "Ice Cream Castle", which also spawned the dance r&b hits, "Jungle Love" (Oh Wee Oh Wee Oh!) and "The Bird". My brother had this record and it was one of our favorites during that time! Listen to snippets of the album here. Don't you just love their clothes?! This shit was pimpastically smooth at the time! Jesse Johnson's pink suit and white shoes? Jerome primping Morris Day's collar? Gotta lurve Morris Day's two-tone Stacy Adams...

Following the success of Prince's semi-autobiographical movie, "Purple Rain", and the ensuing craze for the Minneapolis sound, the Time had risen from being Prince's opening act to a full fledged phenomenon on their own thanks to the antics of Morris Day and Jerome. They also had a really tight band. Musicians,  Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis later became well known for producing such acts like Cherrelle, Alexander O'Neal (another Prince wanna be), The SOS Band and Janet Jackson. Guitarist Jesse Johnson later went solo ("Can You Help Me?"and "Be Your Man"), even appearing on the "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack ("Get to Know Ya").

Chili Sauce is one of those songs you have to listen to from beginning to end to get the full effect. Another "timeless" classic, pun intended. Guffaw, hyuk, knee slap, rawr!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "S" is for Styx

Time to mix it up a little with classic rock dinosaurs, Styx:

Babe was my FAVORITE song a long ass time ago. 1979 to be exact, when Styx released their album, "Cornerstone".

"Babe" was their first and only number one single. I could have sworn "Mr. Roboto" would have hit #1 as well! (That song was to come several years later)....

Had to crank this post out, will write more rapier-like witty commentary later. Ha ha.

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "R" is for Ready for the World

 Oh no she di'nt!!!!!!

Oh yayssss, she did! (please say this in an exaggerated Morris Day accent!)

Yes people, it's one of the groups that played at my high school's Grad Nite at Disneyland back in 1987 when real bands used to play instead of DJ's....

The one...the only Jheri Curl-licious Ready for the World!!!!

And you will note that I did not choose the more popular, "Oh Sheila" or the more salacious, "Tonight"  or "Deep Inside Your Love", all of which are songs that I also like. All of these fktastic songs came from their eponymous first album, "Ready for the World" which also had the gems, "Slide Over", "Ceramic Girl", "Human Toy" (see a pattern here?), "I'm the One Who Loves You", and "Out of Town Lover". Come to think of it, this was a pretty good album, I must say!!!

Click here to see the complete list in order and to hear musical snippets!

So, yeah, I did not choose "Oh Sheila".

I had to pick a song rife with barely disguised sexual innuendo as well as a vintage old school video that had some of the most craptastic special effects ever. Those effects, I'm sure, were quite the shiz back in the day. Very high tech. Ha ha.

The computer graphics in here are just as bad as the old guy in a robe demonstrating how to blow up the Death Star" graphics on "Star Wars - A New Hope, Episode IV" (that's really the FIRST movie for you non Star Wars geeks).
Ready for the World was so damn awesome! They had the Prince protege thing going on. It was the Minneapolis sound with the funky synthesizers a la The Time, Jesse Johnson (lead guitarist of The Time), and Andre Cymone (former bassist for Prince). This song also had R2-D2 like sounds!

"Digital Display" was a fun song to dance to back in the day, along with Shannon ("Let the Music Play"), Debbie Deb ("Lookout Weekend" and "When I Hear Music") and Trinere ("I'll Be All You'll Ever Need")! Ha ha. Anyways, it's has unintentionally hilarious lyrics (don't you just love the countdowns in here?) and a dated video with a fake "robotic woman" to boot!

Sample lyrics include:

"36, I always dreamed of your measurements
In neon lights
24, at Christmas baby maybe you can
light up my room and brighten up my nights
36..."

And here's the chorus:

"I've never had a girl before
with much of a figure
So excuse me if I start to play
with your Digital Display"

Oh my God, these lyrics are so innocently lecherous! Thank goodness the teachers didn't censor songs at the dances, otherwise we wouldn't have been dancing to the classic ode to grinding, Prince and Sheila E's duet, "Erotic City"!!!

For the record, the other bands that played during my Grad Nite were:

• Wang Chung (Ugh! "Everybody Wang Chung tonight!" Suckd)
• Bobby Brown(Yes, fresh out of New Edition and pre-drug addict and pre-Whitney Houston beating days)
• Glass Tiger (whatever happened to them? Oh well, who cares, they sucked ballz anyways)
• Nancy Martinez (who?)
• and get this, Oran "Juice" Jones("I Saw You...and him...walking in the rain!"!!!! )This last one I did not know. He wasn't on the brochure but I was checking on the web and he is listed as a performer!!!! I'll have to check my brochure again!

Hope you enjoyed this brief foray into mid 80's territory!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "Q" is for Queen

Okay, it's MUSIC GEEK time again!

The often imitated but never duplicated genius that is the late and great Freddie Mercury from one of the greatest fucking rock bands of all time, Queen:

This little known gem , "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" is the 8th song (or back in the good old days, song 3 from Side B) of Queen's album  Day at the Races (1976) which was their follow up album to A Night at the Opera. Incidentally, both albums were named after Marx Brothers films.

The previous album was best known for the epic and bombastic rock opera, "Bohemian Rhapsody" and to a lesser extent, one of my favorite songs, "You're My Best Friend". Personally, I loved the "A Night at the Opera" (referred to hereafter as ANATO)  as a whole, but I love "A Day at the Races" much more. Queen were masters of multi-tracking and up until 1980's album, "The Game", entirely synthesizer free.

Before the bastardization  of and piece mealing of songs by itunes, people bought albums, not songs. Albums were bought and listened to in their entirety. Queen were masters of putting together cohesive albums which flowed from beginning to end.

Album tracks included (for a blow by blow description of each song, click the link to "A Day at the Races" underneath the video):

Side A (I say "sides" because I'm old school like that. Comments in red are mine):
1 - Tie Your Mother Down (very Caveman!)
2 - You Take My Breath Away (beautiful vocals and piano)
3 - Long Away (one of the few songs where guitarist Brian May sings)
4 - The Millionaire Waltz (another piano driven song)
5 - You and I (another one of my fave songs from this album)

Side B
1 - Somebody to Love (Freddie Mercury's favorite Queen song, as well as my husband's - a fun song to sing along to and a masterpiece in multitracking)
2 - White Man (penned by Roger Taylor, the drummer - talked about the injustices towards the Native Americans by whites)
3 - Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
4 - Drowse (a cool song featuring drummer Roger Taylor's vocals and cool slide guitar by Brian May)
5 - Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together) (a few verses are sung in Japanese!)

"Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" is not a hard rocking Queen song, in the vein of "Tie Your Mother Down" ("ANATO) or the precursor to speed metal's, "Stone Cold Crazy (from their third album, "Sheer Heart Attack"). Rather, it is a sweet yet rollicking song utilizing Mercury's piano skills and multitrackedvocals. If you listen to the lyrics, they're quite witty.

Here's the 3rd verse:

"Ooh let me feel your heartbeat (grow faster, faster)
Ooh Ooh let me feel your love heat
Come on and sit on my hot-seat of love (ha ha!)
And tell me how do you feel right after-all
I'd like for you and I to go romancing (liked this transition)
Just say the word - your wish is my command"

And here's the verse after the guitar solo:

"Dining at the Ritz we'll meet at nine precisely
I will pay the bill, you taste the wine
Driving back in style, in my saloon will do quite nicely
Just take me back to yours that will be fine (Come on and get it)"

It's so very British and I just love Mercury's judicious use of falsetto. Justin Hawkins eat your heart out!  And Freddie Mercury is the Queen of Camp as well! Who else can wear a one piece harlequin outfit and get away with it? Okay, maybe Johnny Weir can!

Most recently, easy listening bore Jason Mraz did a bland note for note rendition on the Queen tribute album, ""Killer Queen - A Tribute to Queen" (2005), which is a pretty damn good tribute for the most part. Unfortunately, I felt that Mraz's take on the song offered nothing new to the Queen canon.

The Letter "Q" was pretty limited. For me, it was either Queen or metal band Queensryche Queen of the Reich - Holy Fk! Listen to Geoffrey Tate's air raid siren vocals! That song kicks a$$!), but since I love Queen waaaay more, it just had to be Queen...

Until next week...

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "P" is for The Plimsouls

Dude, what else can I say, except this song is pure pop perfection...

"Now" was the second song on The Plimsouls self-titled first album which was released in 1981.  Led by ex-Nerves frontman, Peter Case, The Plimsouls were an early 80's new wave band best known for their song, "Million Miles Away" which was featured on the Valley Girl soundtrack (featuring none other than Nicolas Cage).  This isn't really a "video" of the actual song, but more of a pastiche of pictures of the Plimsouls that a fan put together. In any case, I Heart This Song To Death.

This is a song you will hardly hear on the radio since "Million Miles Away" gets more play during those Resurrection 80's weekends. Besides "Now", I also really liked "How Long Can It Take" and "Zero Hour". More here at the Plimsoul's MySpace.

If there can be any song that sums up longing/want/frustration, this song would be at the top of the list. It seems so very "Romeo and Juliet"-like...They've just got that dirty, raspy garage band feel as well as those chimy neopsychedelic guitars  that I love so much!

"Girl, I need your love tonight
I can't wait
I must know
What's on your mind
The same thing's on mine
I can't wait any longer
Oh yeah, 'cause I need you NOW


Right NOW
NOW
Right NOW
Oh yeah


They'll never take this night away
It's yours and mine until the day
It's all right for one night
We'll never have this chance again
So love me now and we'll pretend
It's all right
For one night
Right NOW"

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "O" is for Oingo Boingo

Emerging forth from this dusty vault of  80's musical treasures known as my brain, I bring to you one of the quirkiest and coolest bands of all time... Oingo Boingo:
Oingo Boingo was a band formed in the early 70's under the moniker, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. The band name was later shortened to Oingo Boingo and was joined in 1976 by wild eyed frontman, Danny Elfman who was later to become a well known film composer, notably for Tim Burton flicks, "Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure", "Beetlejuice", "Batman", and "Sleepy Hollow", to name a few. Incorporating diverse musical influences which encompassed new wave, jazz, and a frantic ska-tinged horn section, Oingo Boingo was popular in the early 80's, at least in Southern California. They were also well known for their songs, "Only a Lad", "Nothing Bad Ever Happens to Me", "Wierd Science", ""Grey Matter", and "Dead Man's Party".

"Little Girls" is the first track on their first album, "Only a Lad" (released in 1981). The video was pretty funny as well as mildly disturbing.  The lyrics are also pretty pervy:

"I love little girls they make me feel so good
I love little girls they make me feel so bad
When they're around they make me feel
Like I'm the only guy in town
I love little girls they make me feel so good

They don't care about my one way mirror (<------------------I always thought this was a creepy line!)
They're not frightened by my cold exterior
They don't ask me questions
They don't want to scold me
They don't look for answers
They just want to hold me..."

Throw in a chick with a short skirt, the maniacal cacklings of Danny Elfman, stilted early 80's video production and robotic lip syncing, and the best thing of all, MIDGETS!!!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "N" is for Night Ranger

Yes, I admit it! I used to like Night Ranger! None of that "Sister Christian" shit though!

"Sing Me Away" is from their album "Dawn Patrol" which was released in 1982. Night Ranger was a favorite of the Mr. Pyromaniac as well as Ronin and Thor of the Schoolboys (Bert's coterie from junior high which extended to high school, college and the present day). Except for Mr. Pyromaniac because he is supposedly in jail for arson and/or drugs.

But back to Night Ranger.

I secretly felt embarassed to like this mainstream rock band. They didn't really rock hard enough like Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden or Motley Crue. They were kind of radio friendly even. They were not liked by the critics or by many who considered them too corporate or too vanilla. Liking a radio friendly band was the kiss of death for any junior high kid wanting to have street cred. Ha.

Night Ranger's guitarist Brad Gillis was best known (by me at least) as the late great guitarist Randy Rhoads' replacement on the "Speak of the Devil" tour (the album was a tribute to Rhoads - the album cover has a memorable photo of Ozzy with his mouth open and blood/jelly spilling out). For those of you who didn't know,  Rhoads  was a talented classically trained rock guitarist who formerly played lead guitar for Quiet Riot and  Ozzy's solo project and album of the same name, Blizzard of Ozz. Sadly, Rhoads was killed in a tragic plane crash in 1982. I have his yellowed obituary somewhere in my boxes of stuff in my garage. But I digres... Brad Gillis was hired to sling his axe for Ozzy and his band for this tour and there you have it, the Night Ranger and Ozzy connection.

According to Wikipedia's entry on Night Ranger:

"Dawn Patrol's first single, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", received a boost through its MTV video airplay and peaked modestly at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Sing Me Away," a concert favourite sung by Keagy [my notes: Keagy was the drummer who shared lead vocalist duties with guitarist Jack Blades, who later was part of the group, Damn Yankees], failed to chart even though it also featured on MTV."

I totally remember this song with fond memories. It was one of my favorite songs on "Dawn Patrol". The first three singleswere pretty good, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", "At Night She Sleeps" and this song.  The rest were pretty forgettable.

"Sing Me Away" is one of those harmless rock ballads that you raise your arms in the air and flick your bic...so click on that video and open your cell phones (the modern equivalent to flicking your bic I suppose) and sway like there's no tomorrow!

Runner ups:
New Order - Thieves Like Us"(instrumental)- One of their most gorgeous songs; featured in "Pretty in Pink"
Gary Numan - Cars This was suggested by Kirk. Poor Gary Numan. Is he known for anything else besides this song?
New Edition - Cool It Now Because you HAVE TO HAVE your OLD SCHOOL! Loved Ralph Tresvant's voice before it changed! See Bell Biv Devoe before they became Bell Biv Devoe! See Bobby Brown before he became a drug using wife beater! Plus you get to see the Afro version of the mullet in this video!
Nina Simone - Just in Time From one of the most romantic movie sequels ever, this song is featured in the last moments of Richard Linklater's sequel to "Before Sunrise", which was "Before Sunset"...By the way, the link to the video is in Spanish. Oops.
No Doubt - Don't Speak The keyboard intro of this song was inspired by Aerosmith's classic "Dream On"...OMG, Gwen Stefani is a total babe. I would go lesbo for her.
Nu Shooz (just kidding - they sucked ballz)

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "M" is for The Monroes

If you were a San Diego music fan back in 1982, you SHOULD remember this song from a local band which unfortunately became a victim of the "one hit wonder" syndrome...The Monroes' lone hit, "What Do All the People Know"... Think back to the days of KGB FM 101.5, back when the station was really good! Or even KPRI 106.5! That's what I'm talkin' about....Hearing this song was inescapable...

When the Monroes came out, they were supposed to be the next big thing to come out of San Diego. Unfortunately, their record label, Alfa ended up dropping them and selling them out to another record company that didn't give a shit about them. No support. Band went downhill. From opening up for the Greg Kihn Band (best known for "The Breakup Song" and "Jeopardy") and (gasp! Dr. Noah Drake himself), the very hot Rick Springfield...to one hit wonder status. Okay, at the time I didn't think Rick Springfield was that hot, but in retrospect, yes, he was pretty good looking. Now, he's a big old mess with his wierdly botoxed face.

 By the way, I was in 7th grade going on 8th when"What Do All the People Know" hit it big...Do the math. I'm old. Ha ha. Well, not really. If you didn't notice by now, I live in a musical time warp. Ask me who's popular? I really have no idea. I have an inkling because I do work in a high school and I know what the kids listen to. But...if I had a choice, I would be listening to 80's shit ALL THE TIME. And I pretty much do.

This song is one of those songs that brings me back to the 80's. KGB was promoting the hell out of the Monroes and even featured them on their annually produced "Homegrown" record series!(more on KGB and "Homegrown" here My friend N and I had a hell of a time trying to find this song. We ended up pooling our money to get it at Blue Meannie Records in El Cajon because it was the whole album, not a 45! I think we spent $10 on it. Just for that one song. Just so we could make our cassette tape compilations! (more on our compilations here).

I think it's one of the most perfect pop rock songs of the 80's. The catchy beat, the new wavey keyboards, the hand claps (very cool!) and the lyrics...

"Tell me if I'm getting in too deep
every night I'm talking in my sleep 
Lately I am so confused
I really don't know what to do...

Could you be the one I'm thinking of?
Could you be the girl I really love?

All the people tell me so
But what do all the people know..."


I really liked this guy's article on his blog and this article from The SD Reader by music critic Jay Allen Sanford.  Click here to see the band's picture...I vaguely remember the video being played in the early stages of MTV, but for the most part, this video has been buried in the cobwebbed vault of my mind. Until this post actually.  Just my little trip down memory lane with a San Diego connection!

Runner up videos for this post....and this was pretty fkg hard because I like a lot of bands that start with the letter M!

Muse - "Knights of Cydonia" (hilarious!)
Morrissey - "Everyday is Like Sunday" (nice and mopey)
Megadeth - "Symphony of Destruction" (because I liked Dave Mustaine's growl and his fkg awesome hairdo)
Metallica - "Until It Sleeps" (awesome video, very Boschian)
Modern English - "Hands Across the Sea" (notice I did not choose "Melt With You", the more obvious choice!)
and... the always non-misogynistic Motley Crue's "Piece of Your Action" (ha ha, gotta love those lyrics - and you can see Tommy Lee when he was young and NOT married to Pamela Anderson)!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "L" is for Living Colour

Anyone remember Living Colour? Frontman Corey Glover kicks ass! He has one of the powerful  voices in rock! Their guitarist Vernon Reid was also a hotshot!

Open Letter to a Landlord was one of the singles from their album, Vivid (1988). Before Living Colour hit it big, the bandplayed at Montezuma Hall at SDSU in 1989...I remember Mr. Agua Dulce raving about the show. I was actually supposed to go with Mr. Pyromaniac that night but had to work instead. Damn May Company. I should have called in sick that day!

They were the next big thing and I found them to be great role models for people of color who wanted to ROCK because in the 80's, black musicians were typecast as just R & B crooners or hip hop artists. Unfortunately, Living Colour didn't really get the respect that they deserved - maybe America wasn't ready for black rockers? I thought they were absolutely brilliant! Their lyrics were not about "I'm big and bad and I wear all these gold chains, blah blah blah" or "bitches and hos" or whatever. They sung about thought provoking and socially conscious topics...
The only thing I thought was laughable was Corey Glover's bright neon neoprene Body Glove outfits. Oh yeah, and the bike shorts too. Remember that horrid fashion trend? I'm glad that's done with!

More on Living Colour (courtesy of their Wikiedia entry):

"Living Colour is an American funk metal band from New York City, formed in 1983. Stylistically, the band's music is a creative fusion influenced by heavy metal, funk, hard rock, free jazz, hardcore punk and hip hop (although the band are frequently tagged as being a "hard rock" act). Their lyrics range from the personal to the political, in some of the latter cases attacking the Eurocentrism and racism of America. The band were prominent members of the Black Rock Coalition during the late 1980s and early 1990s (a movement which also featured Fishbone, and 24-7 Spyz). "

[My notes - Have you heard any Fishbone and 24-7 Spzy stuff? They were  awesome too! I  especially liked the 24-7 Spzy songs "Spyz Dope" and "Grandma Dynamite"! Memories of college years!

Runners up to this entry:

The La's - "There She Goes"
Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir"
Lita Ford (Okay, "L" was her first name) - "Kiss Me Deadly"
and dammit, I fkg forgot Lush - "Sweetness and Light"!!!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "K" is for the Knack

Ladies and gentlemen...I present to you the horny power popsters known as the Knack!


Hello! I love love love this song!

From the Knack's debut album, "Get the Knack" (1979). Black suited and skinny tied rock band The Knack were hitting it big in 1979 with their hit single "My Sharona". Disco was pretty much dead and then the Knack came along. I remember the memorably tight 2/2 bass line (incidentally, the Knack refused for "My Sharona" to be used for Ving Rhames ass rape scene in "Pulp Fiction" - Tarantino opted for the Revels, "Comanche" instead!) and my friend's older brother practicing that song incessantly on his bass guitar.

A LOT of the songs from this album were pretty horny ("Maybe Tonight", "My Sharona", "Frustrated"), especially this one! I guess I never realized that when I was younger, I just liked the beat and didn't really pay attention to the lyrics...And speaking of lyrics...

From the Wikipedia entry of the song:

"The lyrics, such as the refrain "She'll be telling you 'good girls don't but I do'", were considered misogynistic by some critics. Other lyrics that created controversy included the lines:

"And she makes you want to scream
Wishing you could get inside her pants",
(this line was rerecorded as "wishing she was givin' you a chance" on the "clean" single release)
 and:
 "And it's a teenage sadness Everyone has got to taste.
An in-between age madness That you know you can't erase
Til she's sitting on your face. "(This is followed by a background voice exclaiming, "It hurts!").

The "clean" single edit also changed this last line to "when she puts you in your place".

No wonder it sounded so different on the radio! I have the "dirty" version which is, of course, much much better and that's the version that goes on my power pop compilations!!!!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "J" is for Joan Jett

It's that time of the week again...
Fresh out of her stint from the pioneer all girl teen rock group, The Runaways, Joan Jett forged ahead in the 80's with a smokin' album, "I Love Rock 'n Roll", her second solo effort but the first to feature her backing band, the Blackhearts, which also contained the hit title song.

Jett's version of Crimson and Clover was a badass remake of the song, originally recorded by American rock group Tommy James and the Shondells in 1969. If the name of this band doesn't ring a bell, dig back to the annals of your mind and see if you remember late 80's mall teen popster Tiffany's horrific version of I Think We're Alone Now...Remember it now? That was another Tommy James and the Shondells hit.

While "Crimson and Clover" was about a woman and sung by a male, you'll notice that the lyrics are NOT changed when Jett sings it, making it much more "intruiging":

"I, I don't hardly know her
But I think I could love her
Crimson and Clover
Ah, and when she comes walking over
I've been waiting to show her
Crimson and Clover
Over and over..."

I don't give a damn if she hasn't come out of the closet yet but I've admired Joan Jett since the early 80's as a young teen and a budding chick rocker. As a rock icon, she had it all, the musicianship, the singing chops, and a killer fashion sense. I emulated her thick eyeliner in junior high and dug her hairstyle and her outfits. She never compromised her femininity as a female rock musician and for the most part, kept herself covered up unlike some other female musicians who felt they had to show their tits and sex it up to play with the big boys.

And because I love trivia so much, here's a cool fact about this song (courtesy of Wikepedia's entry):

The song is famous for a unique "wobbly" vocal effect near the end of the song. To produce this effect, Tommy James plugged his microphone into a guitar amplifier, flipped the tremolo switch, and repeatedly sang the line "crimson and clover, over and over". When it was released in November 1968, some listeners thought he was saying "Christmas is over" instead of "crimson and clover."

This is known as a Mondegreen, which is "the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, typically a standardized phrase such as a line in a poem or a lyric in a song..."

Anyhow...check out this cool shirt which is a take on those "What Would Jesus Do?" shirts. I think I like this version much better. Here's where you can order it! It also comes in pink!
Until next week's installment...

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "I" is for Icicle Works

This song takes me back to 1984...

Okay, I'm totally dating myself, but this was one of my favorite songs ever in the entire universe! This gem "Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)"was by Icicle Works, a little known band that came out of England in the early 80's along with one of my other favorite bands, Echo & the Bunnymen. I said it before and I'll say it again, ENGLAND HAS THE BEST BANDS EVER!!!! Name the genre - New wave, Heavy Metal, Rock, Neo-Psychedelia!They had it all! I love British bands! They seemed much more intelligent than American bands and of course, having very cool accents was also a plus.

I loved the jangly guitar sound and the tribal drum beats of this song. Unfortunately this was their one hit in the U.S. and they were more popular in Britain than over here. The radio station 91X (91.1) had just switched over to the "New Wave" format in 1983 and this song, along with the Smiths "What Difference Does it Make?" and Depeche Mode's "People are People"were on heavy rotation!

According to the song's entry in Wikipedia:

"In the U.S., Arista Records refused to release the record unless some changes were made. First, the track was remixed slightly in order to remove a brief spoken-word intro that was heard over the opening bars of music. (The woman performing this intro was identified only as "Mariella" on the original Situation Two single sleeve.) Then the song title was reversed, becoming "Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)". This change was made so that the record's primary title would match the words sung repeatedly in the chorus, making it easier for radio listeners to track down the record in the stores."

I like the longer version of the song better (the British import version). I remember Astroboi had a t-shirt with the lyrics on it - he got it at the Spring Valley swap meet. This was when wearing pins/buttons with bands names on your jacket was "in". I totally wanted that shirt. I think he had the 12" single too. I could be wrong, but in any case, I loved loved loved this song (and still do).

There aren't a lot of other bands that start with "I" that I really like. There's Ice House (remember the song, "No Promises"), not really into Ice Cube, Iron Butterfly, Incubus or Indigo Girls either.

Wait!

Oh fuck, I could have also chosen INXS!!! Gaaaaaargh!!!

ABC Music Humpday Videos - "H" is for Helmet

Let us all bow our heads and give thanks to ,Helmet....


Time to SLOW BANG YOUR HEADS! God, I love this song!

From one of the best albums of the 90's, Meantime (1992) which spawned the singles, "Unsung" and "Give It". Bone crunching staccato riffs. Complex rhythm changes (a la Rush or dare I say Metallica). Page Hamilton's angry voice cutting through the maelstrom. In an era swimming with grunge bands and plaid shirted frontmen, Helmet was a refreshing breath of fresh air for this metal starved post graduate student. In the late 80's the music scene was rife with hair bands - many of them talentless fks who couldn't sing worth shit or had guitarists who were Van Halen or Malmsteen hacks & sound a likes.

I first heard of this band from Mr. Pyromaniac. At the time, how embarassing..the soundtrack to "The Little Mermaid" was popular. Mr. Pyro had himself an animated character crush - Ariel had a big rack you know. We were riding in Mr. Pyro's 1987 Mustang listening to Ariel's "Part of My World" then there was a quick switch to his tape deck. In popped this ear blistering single and holy shit! I felt compelled to go to the Wherehouse Record store to find this cassette! Yes, this was a long ass time ago because I mentioned a now defunct music store, a tape deck and cassette tape! Helmet, 24/7 Spyz, Primus, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More...memories of the early 90's (which wasn't my favorite music era)....