Recently in Friday Evening Videos Category

So, the Girlfriend and I returned from Hawaii early Sunday morning, and what with a brutal case of jetlag and the disconcerting effects of re-entering the humdrum after 10 days in Fantasyland, well... we both kinda forgot about Valentine's Day this year. And you know, I'm fine with that. Not that I have anything against Valentine's per se -- the idea of a holiday to celebrate love and romance is fine, in principle -- but in practical fact, it's really just another one of those consumption-oriented holidays on which you feel pressured to spend money you don't have (especially just after returning from 10 days in the most expensive state in the union!) on stuff you don't need. Seriously, I have a banker's box down the Archive filled with little plushy critters that are holding hearts and wearing red t-shirts with endearing messages on them, and they're all adorable and were much appreciated when I first received them, but now they live in the dark shadows of a box in the basement, no doubt dreaming of the long-ago day when they were plucked from the shelves of the Hallmark store and how everything used to be happy and bright but now that's all gone, and how sad is that? How can I possibly sentence more innocent plush toys to that Phantom Zone existence? What kind of monster would I be?

Cough. Ahem. Wow. Not sure where that came from. Anyhow, I may be content with not doing much of the traditional V-Day thing today, but I also don't want to come across as a total curmudgeon on the subject, because I don't feel all that curmudgeonly about it. So in the spirit of acknowledging the day without really engaging too deeply with it, I've got a video I'd like to dedicate to my eternally patient traveling companion (and new roomie!), as well as to all you lovers out there in InternetLand. This is most romantic song I could think of today... well, okay, actually it's the first song I thought of, but whatever, I think the sentiment still applies... Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

It is an interesting (and possibly pathetic -- I leave that to your measured judgment) truth about me that I still enjoy most of the musical artists I listened to as a teenager. I've expanded my repertoire considerably since then, of course, adding new artists and even whole new genres to the great, swirling mass of music I find pleasing, but unlike many people I know, I've never really shed the older stuff... with a handful of exceptions. One of those is the band Styx. Once upon a time, I thought they were the coolest. I had their albums on vinyl and cassette, I wore a t-shirt, I coveted the Velcro-flapped wallet bearing their logo I saw at the state-fair midway booths, the whole she-bang. But at some point over the past 25 years, I just got bored with their sound. Blame the near-constant airplay of "Come Sail Away" on classic-rock radio, I guess.

Even so, there are a couple of old Styx tunes I still like, on the rare occasion I actually hear them anyplace. "Too Much Time on My Hands," with its insistently throbbing bass line, is a catchy classic, and "Mr. Roboto" is a sublime masterpiece of 1980s kitsch. "Babe" is a lovely romantic ballad. And then there's "Lorelei," which is just a damn good rock and roll song. It was originally recorded in 1976, before the music video had fully materialized as a form, so here's a live performance from 20 years later:




There's a reason why I chose this particular song for tonight, besides me just plain liking it. The music you most care about is the stuff that resonates, you see, that forms a soundtrack for your life, and that lyric about living together, well... I have an announcement to make.

The woman I refer to here as The Girlfriend, my lovely Anne, is moving in with me tomorrow.

It's a tremendous step for us both, the first time either of us have lived with a significant other, and it's long overdue. Embarassingly so. If anyone out there doesn't already know how many years we've been a couple, I'd rather not say, because I am honestly ashamed it's taken us so long to make a big grown-up move in our relationship. I can't even fully explain why it's taken so long, although there's little question in my mind that it's mostly my fault. Basically, we found a pattern, and it was comfortable enough, so we stayed there. For years. But now we're finally moving forward. I'm nervous, but also anticipating nights in front of the fire (I got a gas log for Christmas!) watching crummy old TV shows on DVD, and not feeling like I'm dividing my attention between two households, and all the other little pleasures of cohabiting.

Wish us luck, won't you? After the way the year has gone so far, we might need it...

In honor of the late, great Etta James, who passed away this morning at the age of 73, here's her very first hit single and a big favorite of mine, "The Wallflower," a.k.a. "Roll with Me, Henry," a.k.a. "Dance with Me, Henry," from the year 1955:



Not much of a video, I know -- although I personally enjoy watching obsolete media technology do its thing -- but I couldn't find any actual clips of James performing the song, and this at least gives you the authentic sound of a nearly 60-year-old recording. The sharp-eared movie aficionado may know this song from Back to the Future -- it's playing in the cafe after Marty decks Biff and runs out with the meatheads in hot pursuit, launching the "skateboard chase" scene. -- and it was on the soundtrack album from that flick that I first heard it. So why do I love this song? Well, the Back to the Future connection doesn't hurt -- it's one of my favorite films, and I listened to that soundtrack a lot back in the day -- but mostly it's just a catchy tune that makes me happy when I hear it, simple as that. Curiously enough, the co-writer and producer of this tune, Johnny Otis, who is often credited with discovering Etta, passed away himself just a few days ago. (He's probably best known for his own recording of "Willie and the Hand Jive").

Etta James is most often associated with the song "At Last," which has become a standard at weddings and was so memorably significant at President Obama's inaugural ball, and for that record's sound, she is often thought of as a jazz singer. But she was far more than that. In her time, she performed pop standards, traditional blues, '60s soul, and even a cover of Guns 'n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" on her final album. It is her work from the '50s and '60s that I enjoy most, though. Like so much from that era, it's just plain good music. As I said, it makes me happy for no reason... and need we ask anything more of our music?

Oh, in case you're wondering why tonight's selection has three different titles, it's because the song's original name, "Roll with Me, Henry," was considered a little racy by the standards of 1955, so it was changed to "The Wallflower." (Interestingly, the lyrics remained intact, probably because they very obviously refer to dancing and not the innuendo that many would assume, but the title was the important thing for preventing radio executives from tossing the demo before they listened to it). In a later cover version by Georgia Gibbs, both the chorus and the title were switched for the less controversial "Dance with Me, Henry." Those were very different times, to put it mildly.

The previous video reminded me of something a couple friends turned me onto a while back, which I've been meaning to post but just haven't gotten around to. It's another live performance, this time by a musician named Johnathan Coulton. I'm not at all familiar with him -- I gather he's an indie artist with a pretty sizable cult following -- but the song is catchy and seems to have benign intentions, i.e., Coulton doesn't sound like he's being cruel toward my main man despite the (apparently) humorous nature of the lyrics. It's hard to tell for sure since it's sung in French and I don't know French, but... well, I'll let Johnathan himself explain what it's about:



One thing I particularly appreciate about this (and which I assume is deliberate) is how much it sounds like... a Rick Springfield song! No, really, the guitar tone here is very similar to Rick's own audio signature, the same sound you hear on "Jessie's Girl," among many others. I like that sound, obviously, and I liked it so much in this song that I was fully prepared to purchase one of those new-fangled download thingies until I learned the album recording is somewhat different. Maybe Coulton will release another version with that deep, early-80s thrum that I love so much. In the meantime, enjoy this one as we roll on past midnight, chasing after the early morning hours...

Between working in an understaffed office populated by inconsiderate ignoramuses and presided over by a hard-headed old skinflint, and a bad case of a medical condition called "positional vertigo," The Girlfriend has been suffering through a truly craptacular week. So I'm going to dedicate this week's music video to her, in the hopes that it will provide a little comfort. Or at least make her smile for a second.

"It's Always Something" is a 1999 song by our mutual main man that gradually over the years has become one of my all-time favorites of his. Yes, it's right up there with "Jessie's Girl" in my book, believe it or not. I find a lot of meaning and resonance in this tune, and also a genuine sense of optimism that I often have trouble generating on my own. Just like Rick Springfield himself I would guess, based on what I've learned about him in the past 12 months. It's a great song, in my humble opinion, one that in a more just universe would've been a tremendous hit. As it is, though, I didn't even hear it until a couple of years after it came out. C'est la vie, I guess, and certainly right in line with the song's own ironic narrative.

This isn't a music video per se; it's a live performance clip from a concert Rick gave earlier this year, so unfortunately you get the shaky-cam effect and the sound is kind of dodgy in places. But it's the best clip I could find, and Anne knows the lyrics anyhow...



If any of the Loyal Readers out there don't know the lyrics and can't decipher them from the video (and also give a damn), you can find them in an earlier entry I wrote about this song...

Hey, kids, how you all doing? Apologies for the rather brusque "I'm going on vacation, kthxbye" thing in the previous entry, but work and life were both pretty hectic leading up to my latest expedition and I just ran out of time to blog about my plans. There's never enough time for all the things I want to do, never, and I don't know how it got to be that way or how I can get my life back to something more like what it used to be. It's probably my deepest, most chronic frustration.

Anyhow, in case you're wondering, I've been in Washington, DC, and at various Civil War sites in Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland with my buddy, Loyal Reader, and fellow Blasphemous Bastard* Robert, finally ending up back in Pittsburgh, where he now lives. I returned home Tuesday night and have spent the rest of the week struggling with that surreal dissonant sensation you sometimes experience after traveling -- well, that I sometimes experience, anyhow -- where you feel like you ought to be someplace other than where you actually belong. Anyone else ever feel that way, or is it just me?

In any event, this week's video is a little something I've dredged up especially for my traveling companion, who made a rather startling confession to me during our time on the road. In the 18 years I've known him, somehow it never came up that he'd once been a fan of Twisted Sister... you think you know a guy!

I don't see how anyone who was a teen in the '80s could not like this song, and it still works. On one level, it's utterly ridiculous and silly, of course, but it's also such an effectively rabble-rousing, almost existential cry of defiance against mindless authority and  complacence. Truth is, our post-9/11, post-modern, post-everything 21st century America could probably stand to be reintroduced to the ideas espoused in this little ditty. Especially when it comes to being frisked like common criminals at the airport, something yours truly had to undergo on my way home from Pittsburgh.

Anyhow, the video for "We're Not Gonna Take It" is nearly perfect, a genuine classic of the medium. The young boy's Wonder Woman-style spinning transformation into the powerful, take-no-prisoners gargoyle figure of Dee Snider became one of the iconic images of MTV's heyday, and the casting of Mark Metcalf as the, ahem, candidate for Father of the Year was nothing less than brilliant. (In case you can't quite place him, Metcalf played the sadistic ROTC officer Neidermeyer in the classic 1978 "slob comedy" Animal House, and his spittle-flecked rant against the boy's taste in music basically recreates one of the signature scenes from that film. Some Loyal Readers may also recognize him -- or at least his distinctively resonant voice -- from his recurring performance as The Master during the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of course, The Master never raised his voice and Metcalf was buried under pounds of latex, so its wasn't immediately obvious why the actor seemed so familiar. But I got a big grin when I finally figured it out.)

And now that we're all pumped up and ready to go out and take on The Man, let's start the weekend, shall we?

 

Ben E. King had been a member of the fabulous R&B group The Drifters (a group notorious for frequent changes in personnel, usually due to disputes over money), but he left in 1960 to embark on a solo career. "Stand by Me" was his second major solo hit following the lovely "Spanish Harlem"; it made it to number four on the Billboard chart in 1961. Then, like many other notable songs from the '60s, it found a second life in the 1980s after appearing in a popular movie. It peaked at number nine in 1986.

Interestingly, I don't remember ever seeing this clip back in the day. I first encountered it on the Stand by Me Special Edition DVD released in 2000 and it utterly charmed me with its nostalgic transition from 1961 Ben E. King to 1986 Ben E. King -- he didn't change much in 25 years! -- and of course with the presence of Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix. I like that they weren't playing Gordie and Chris, but were (apparently) themselves, and they seemed to genuinely understand the coolness of hanging out with a musical legend. Or at least they acted as if they did. I can't help but smile when I watch this... even if it is a little eerie knowing that River would die on a grimy sidewalk outside a sleazy LA nightclub a mere seven years later. Watching him in this video, seeing his effortless charisma and confidence, even at such a tender age, only underscores the tragedy of his too-soon death. He could've made so much of his life, and it's so evident in this clip...

For this week's musical selection, I was going to track down a fun little clip I know of that features Ben E. King singing "Stand by Me" with the young cast of the movie -- I may still post that later -- but my plans changed when I read this morning that Jani Lane, the original lead singer of the late-80s hair-metal band Warrant, died yesterday. He was only 47, just five years older than myself, and although his death is still being investigated, he is known to have had a lot of problems with substance abuse, so I'm willing to bet the cause of death won't turn out to be "natural." It's too bad, and a little spooky considering how near he is to my own age.

Warrant is of course best known for the song "Cherry Pie." With lyrics consisting of not-at-all-subtle innuendo and lots of sleazy attitude, it was naturally a monster hit in the waning days of glam-rock, just before grunge came along and depressed the shit out of everyone. But I'll be honest, I never cared much for that one. There's nothing I like better than a good, dumb, crunchy-guitar-based  tune about getting laid, but "Cherry Pie" is a little too dumb for my tastes, and it doesn't have much of a melodic hook, not like, say, Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" or just about any of Poison's major hits. (I did enjoy watching the video on the big projection TV in the student union, though. That Bobbie Jean Brown was rather pleasing to the eye...)

My favorite Warrant song -- the only other Warrant song I know, to tell the truth -- is actually this one, a track called "Down Boys,"  which I discovered only a handful of years ago when I picked up a compilation CD of 80s-vintage hard rock that included it in between Aldo Nova's "Fantasy" and Blue Oyster Cult's "I'm Burning for You." But what a great tune it is; have a listen and try to tell me this doesn't make you happy:

Now there's a song that's just made for top-down driving on a sunny day. It has the kind of riffs that make me want to put the pedal down and power out around the slow-poke blockade of mommy mini-vans, making a break for the open road that leads to the foothills, the way I did when "Cherry Pie" was on the charts and I needed to clear my head. And in fact, I think that's just what I'm going to go do right now. I can hear the Mustang calling. Time to find that compilation disc and crank it high...

Given the events of this morning, I think there's really only one possible song I can post tonight:
 

Ah, Rush. The Canadian prog-rock so beloved of nerdy, intellectual fourteen-year-old boys and Ayn Rand fans (often the same people, now that I think about it). And also, weirdly, by the mullet-and-muscle-car set I used to hang on the fringes of. I was never a huge fan of these guys -- a greatest-hits compilation is all the Rush I require, thank you, and then I really only like about two-thirds of the songs on the disc -- but this particular song raises the hair on my arms. The throbbing synthesizer is very 1981, but also very dramatic and futuristic... at least in terms of how we used to imagine the future. Nobody in '81 anticipated Auto-Tune. I'll happily take the synths over that thing.

Anyhow, this song was obviously inspired by STS-01, the first shuttle flight made by the lost Columbia. The voices you hear layered over the music -- part of what makes the song so awesome, in my opinion -- are the real thing, taken directly from the tapes of that historic launch. And all the non-Rush clips in this video are authentic to the first flight as well. If nothing else, this song and video should demonstrate just how prominent the early days of the shuttle program were in the North American zeitgeist, as reflected by our pop culture. People were excited about the shuttles back then. It's sometimes easy to forget just how excited. There was so much hope and optimism about where we were going, so much national pride generated by our achievements in space. Healthy, non-militaristic, non-jingoistic, non-partisan pride, I might add. The '80s usually don't seem that distant to me; I can clearly remember so many of the textures of everyday life back then. But tonight... well, things have changed so much in this country that the '80s may as well have happened in the Cretaceous Era.

And now, to bed, I think. It's been a long damn day. But first, maybe I'll just click over to NASA TV and watch a few minutes of the earth slipping by beneath Atlantis on the live feed... so peaceful... Goodnight, kids...

This isn't the usual sort of thing I post as a Friday Evening Video, being neither a true rock-and-roll song nor a relic from the 1980s, but I ran across it earlier today and found it utterly charming, for reasons that will quickly become obvious:



Ah, pretty girls and rayguns... like sweet, sweet catnip!

My Loyal Readers are probably thinking that your host, being such a big-time nerd and all, can name the source of all these clips. Well, not quite. I recognize most of them but believe it or not, there are several that completely mystify even me. I'm guessing they were British productions that never made it to the states, or which I've simply never managed to catch.  I could've done without the clip from Starship Troopers at roughly 2:30 -- I loathe that piece of shit movie -- but the poignancy of the very final scene more than makes up for it. Oh, my sweet Sarah Jane... the first celebrity death in a long time that genuinely hurt.