{"id":8304,"date":"2016-04-29T18:09:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-30T00:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=8304"},"modified":"2016-04-29T18:09:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T00:09:52","slug":"friday-evening-videos-kyrie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2016\/04\/29\/friday-evening-videos-kyrie\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Evening Videos: “Kyrie”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had been thinking I’d do something related to Prince for this week’s Friday video — since his untimely death, a lot of interesting clips have been surfacing of him performing with other artists<\/a>, or in unexpected<\/a> venues — but this morning I had an inspiration to go with something a little different.<\/p>\n

I was driving to the train station, headed directly toward the Wasatch Mountains that brace up the east side of the Salt Lake Valley like a fortress wall. The tattered remnants of last night’s rain clouds were snagged on the jagged peaks and flowing through the canyons and contours of the mountains like a thick, steel-gray liquid, and as I grew nearer to this ominous, beautiful sight, a song lyric leaped into my mind: “Kyrie eleison<\/em> down the road that I must travel…”<\/p>\n

Don’t look so surprised. For a time in the mid ’80s, there was a middle space between the electric-guitar-based rock that I loved and the synth-based New Wave stuff that I loathed, and the pop band Mr. Mister fell squarely into that sweet spot. “Kyrie” was the second of two number-one hits that emerged from the band’s sophomore album, Welcome to the Real World<\/em> (the first being the more ballad-like “Broken Wings”). While the refrain was a mystery to me for years — I eventually learned that Kyrie eleison<\/em> is Greek for “Lord, have mercy,” a phrase found in many Christian liturgies — I always liked the throbbing synthesizer rhythm that underpins the song (yes, there are<\/em> synth songs I like!) and the overall uplifting tone of the lyrics, which manage to be wistful and optimistic at the same time. And even though I’ve never been a religious person, who hasn’t hoped for a bit of grace as we travel roads both metaphorical and literal?<\/p>\n

“Kyrie” was released late in the year 1985 and eventually peaked in March 1986, occupying the Billboard Hot 100<\/em>‘s top spot for two weeks. That was my junior year of high school. I had my driver’s license by then, and was starting to venture out on my own, usually in a brown 1970 Thunderbird that was probably three times the size of the car I drive today. I remember more than once putting my window down and singing along to this song with the wind in my hair.<\/p>\n

The video isn’t especially memorable, I’m afraid, falling squarely into the cliche’d “shots of the band performing in a vast, darkened space juxtaposed with candid backstage shenanigans” category. But the song is good — interestingly, for a synth-based pop song from that era, it doesn’t sound especially dated to me — and the band was reasonably nice to look at. I still trend to dress more or less in the same style as the lead singer, Richard Page, for whatever that’s worth:<\/p>\n