It's a short 80's Sunday Rewind today, alas there is much to be done for ScrapFest!
I've had "Wouldn't it be Good" by Nik Kershaw in my head for a couple of days. It's one of my all-time favorites; the Danny Hitton Hitters cover is on the Pretty in Pink Soundtrack, but Kershaw's original is the best. The theme of the song, as Kershaw puts it is a common one and well put:
Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes even if it was for just one day: And wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away. Wouldn't it be good to be on your side
The grass in always greener over there. Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care
As I drove home from Shreveport this afternoon, I put my 80's playlist on the iPod after the first hour on the road and something occurred to me: there are a great many songs I adore from John Hughes movies. If you read my earlier post about the influence of Hughes' films, you know I love the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, but it's also worth mentioning that Hughes introduced many bands to America's youth in the 80's.
What would the ending of Sixteen Candles be without Thompson Twins "If You Were Here"?
And my favorite scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off wouldn't be the same without the instrumental version of this Dream Academy cover of The Smith's "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want." It's the museum scene — you know it as soon as you hear the melody.
I'll leave you with my all-time favorite. I've written about this before, but it's The Rave-Ups (one of my fave bands) song "Positively Lost Me," which they play on stage at Cats, the club in Pretty in Pink. It's the song playing over the scene where Andie brings Blane to the club. This song is great for many reasons: 1. it was not included on the soundtrack 2. they were in the film because they were Molly Ringwald's favorite band 3. until very recently, the song wasn't available on iTunes and was considered rare 4. lastly, listen to the lyrics . Jimmer lists things the girl has lost, it's brilliant. The things are just things, but it also tells you quite a bit about their relationship, then he nails the last line with "you lost my face, you lost my laugh/and then you lost my confidence." And also brilliantly, the song is playing while Duckie tells Andie off. Great scene. Here's the song.
"You lost a lot when you lost me
Six paperback books and a dying tree
A looking glass and a diamond ring
You lost me and you lost some dreams
Oh, you lost your cool, you lost your keys
And then you lost a sense of honesty
Two blankets and a bookshelf piece
Two blankets and a bookshelf piece
A picture frame and a couple keys
Two blankets and a bookshelf piece
A picture frame and a couple keys
Stole a couple of dollars that I won't see
Two blankets and a bookshelf piece
A picture frame and a couple keys
Stole a couple of dollars that I won't see
You lost a lot when you lost me
You lost my face, you lost my laugh
and then you lost my confidence"
I've loved Tom Tom Club since back in the day. Everyone's heard Tom Tom Club, even if you weren't aware of them, you know them. I pulled the following from their website (which is impressive, by the way).
The Tom Tom Club was created by Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth in 1981.
Graduates from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974, they moved to
New York City where they founded Talking Heads as a trio with David
Byrne in 1975. Chris played drums, Tina played bass and David sang and
played guitar. In November of 1976 they signed to Sire Records and
released their first singles. In 1977 they were joined by Jerry
Harrison (of the original Modern Lovers) from Boston. Jerry played
guitar and keyboards. It was in early 1981, after five years of touring
internationally and four studio albums they wrote and recorded with
Talking Heads– Talking Heads: 77 (1977); More Songs About Buildings And Food (1978); Fear Of Music (1979); and Remain In Light
(1980)–that Chris and Tina were encouraged by Jerry and David, who had
each left the group to make solo albums, to do likewise. So they signed
with Island Records, then owned by industry legend Chris Blackwell, one
of the first people to fully appreciate the value of a great rhythm
section in and of itself. In March 1981 they flew down to Compass Point
Studios, Bahamas, to record.
So, yeah, Chris and Tina were in Talking Heads, but Tom Tom Club were revolutionary in the music industry. They were ahead of their time with "Genius of Love" and that song has taken on a life of its own. This is from the Wikipedia page on "Genius of Love":
Onto some video goodness. Love this. "Genius of Love," a hilarious video of "Wordy Rappinghood," "Pleasure of Love," and "As Above So Below" — the last being a weird video I know nil about, but features Judd Nelson for some reason. I know, weird.
This has been a Simply Red kind of weekend for me. Shut up.
There are only a few bands that get me like Mick Hucknall's band. And it has nothing to do him copying my red haired-blue eyed thing I've been working all my life (anybody from back in the day remember when I was Mick for Halloween in 1987? Yeah, that was me). I'm talking about some blue-eyed soul, though. Few bands did that better than Simply Red in the 80's. Now the band's just Mick and that's fine with me.
Simply Red debuted in 1985 with the superfantastic album, Picture Book, and released the great "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)" — a song about tough financial times (hmm, strangely familiar, no?) with the line "we talkin' 'bout Reaganomics." Now, does it get better than that? If I could make a list of phrases for be included in a song, "Reaganomics" would definitely be on that list (along with "after school special," but that's a blog for a different day). I used their title "Holding Back the Years" (their first US #1 single) as a title for a short story once, as I do love using song titles in my writing. The other videos I'm including today are a fan's vid of "Heaven," also from Picture Book, which is a lovely song about a bar; the song that never fails to make me tear up, Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" from 87's Men and Women and the cover of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me by Now" from 89's A New Flame. If you're a fan, Simply Red has a nice You Tube channel with heaps of high quality vids, lots of concert footage and more. It was nice to find high quality stuff for today's post, it's usually such a chore. When you go to the channel, check out "Infidelity," "For Your Babies," and "Stars." Enjoy.
EDIT: shut up. I found an 80's leftover. 1992's "Your Mirror," which I listened to relentlessly while going through a particularly hard time. Here is the video, a live version, and the lyrics — because it's right on, baby.
"Your Mirror"
I've got to stand up for myself This society don't care about nobody else I've got to be strong Even if I know that this feeling is wrong I've got to not care Even if I know that this world is meant to Share
Wait a minute. This is wrong Even the birds still sing their faithful song And your beauty lies within you Look in the mirror baby Look in the mirror baby
What you gonna do when your friends have Gone away And deserted you You'll have to be strong 24 hours can seem so long You're taught to not care And then not realise this world is meant to Share
Wait a minute. It's wrong Even the birds still sing their faithful song And your beauty lies within you Look in the mirror baby Look in the mirror baby
We've got to stand up for ourselves Even if a leader so cold wants to glory himself We've got to be strong Even if our reasons seem wrong We've got to not care Even if the world that we know may not even Be here
Hold it! It's wrong Even the birds still sing their faithful song And your beauty lies within you Look in the mirror baby Look in the mirror baby
This evening I had to look over my past 80's Sunday Rewind posts to check if I had featured Joe Jackson and was quite surprised to see I had missed him. Of course, this is an abomination on many fronts. Jackson is simply fantastic. If you haven't heard him you're missing out. Jackson ranks up there with early Elvis Costello and like Costello, is still recording and touring. So, I thought I'd show you my three favorite Joe Jackson songs, "Steppin' Out," "Is She Really Going Out With Him," and "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)."
There is only one summer theme song as far as I'm concerned and that's "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama, baby. How awesome is this song? Well, they wouldn't have put it in Karate Kid if it weren't awesome. And I have no idea why it's playing automatically — I'm sorry about that and I'll try to figure it out. Edit: ugh. Couldn't make it stop! Here's Bananarama singing it on Britian's Top of the Pops.
The song goes with the post I've been working on for a few days that should be posted later today or tomorrow.
Sometimes for fun listening there is nothing better than a good girl pop group and Bananarama did it well. How well? Does a little song called "Venus" ring a bell? Here's a few more vids for your Sunday. Oh, and Bananarama's back in September with a new album.
If you're a semi-regular reader of this blog you know that I'm a music lover and somewhat of a band and artist know-it-all, particularly of 80's music. In general, it's the post-punk, new wave genre that I love. You're not going to see any Kenny Loggins or Chicago or Van Halen on the Sunday Rewind, it's just not me. So, as I perused the old 80's iPod playlist this week, I kept going back two songs from a band I knew nothing about. That's an odd thing for me. I bought a compilation Rock of the 80's tape years ago with one of those two songs among the bigger hits from other well-known bands, and I rather liked the song, but never did any research on the band — just filed the song, and later another of their songs in my memory. And for as long as I've listened to those songs, I didn't think anything of the band.
That band was Romeo Void.
I decided today was the day for a Romeo Void Sunday Rewind and checked to see what was out there as far as music videos for the band, as I enjoy an 80's video for the cheese factor and because the interwebs is a visual medium, most blog readers would like to see a video from time to time. Because I came upon Romeo Void in the 90's after they had broken up and MTV was no longer playing their vids, I had no idea what to expect and from the singer's voice, I imagined a Debbie Harry-type girl fronting the band — not sure why. Here's the first video I watched, which was also their first , "Never Say Never," followed one of my favorite 80's songs, "Girl in Trouble (is a Temporary Thing)."
After seeing the video, I knew why I knew nothing about Romeo Void. Gotta love the VJ's commentary, "I don't know, by the looks of that girl, doesn't look like she'd get in any trouble." Jackass.
There are a number of bands that never got a fair shake after MTV became a marketing force and tool for the record companies. Tonight I realized Romeo Void was one of them. As I scanned the Related Videos on the right hand side of You Tube, I saw the now cancelled VH1 show "Bands Reunited" did a show on Romeo Void. Awesome. I poured a glass of iced tea and started watching.
I was not surprised to see the two themes that kept re-emerging: the familiar story of jealousy
over the group frontperson receiving most of the attention and the
record label's refusal to support a band whose lead singer, Native American, Debora Iyall, who was
plus-sized. Saxaphonist Benjamin Bossi tells the story of Clive Davis and his entourage coming to a show, only to walk out of the club before Debora sang a note. It was the group's misfortune to emerge during the infancy of music videos. As the band
recounts it, after they released the video to their second big single,
"A Girl in Trouble (is a Temporary Thing)," minus any camera tricks or effort to conceal Iyall, Columbia immediately pulled its support of the group, who was on tour at the time. Pathetic. I find myself wondering if this would happen today.
Sure, we have artists like Beth Ditto, who is not only unapologetically plus-sized, she's also starting a fashion line, but we're also bombarded with Jenny Craig commercials and Photoshopped magazine covers. As a self-taught graphics chick, one of my favorite websites is Photoshop Disasters, it features the worst in what you see everyday, but may never notice (until right now). All of the images below are from PSD.
Why, here's someone I've never listened to willfully. This is a smaller image than what's on PSD, but do you see what I see? Yeah, she has giant boobs, but she also has one giant hand. Why? Did the graphics department make one hand smaller or one bigger? Mariah, did your head shrink since your last album? What exactly is going on with your belly button? Hell, your shadow doesn't even match up.
Something has been 'shopped with her chin, but I can't figure out what it is. It's like one of those pictures that were in the Hightlights magazine when I was a kid where you circle the things that don't belong, like a sock in a tree or a television with real rabbit ears. I can't look at this anymore, it's almost as bad as listening to one of her songs.
That hand is scary, man.
Here we have spawn of Achy Breaky Heart. I assume to make Miley look more like a real musician and not a manufactured Disney pop princess, Glamour magazine gave her a guitar as a prop.
Although I've never played guitar, I've seen a few in my day. I've
never seen one with an invisible part of the neck connecting to the
head of the instrument. For reasons known only to someone who super likes the eraser on Photoshop, they took the neck of the guitar out.
Mr. Eraser has also 'shopped out part of her torso by her left arm above the guitar. Why?
Finally, I'm no fan of Beyonce, but I know a lot of people like her. She also is a woman who wears many hats — singer, dancer, actress. She also must wear a bunch of gloves because she has 4 arms. Of course, the third is circled for us, but one is sprouting out of her head as well.
What these photos say to me is "hey, guess what else we've 'shopped that you can't see?"
We're living in an age where there is no such thing as a real photograph anymore. With a computer you can have bigger boobs, a smaller waist, longer neck, or an extra arm. I can put your head on someone else's body if you want.
I'm not sure if Romeo Void would have debuted in 2009 they would have had more success. There are all shapes, sizes, and colors in the music industry today, but I still think we have a long way to go.
EDIT: If you saw the blog earlier, there were videos I had lovingly captioned for you, but I couldn't figure out why they were playing automatically. I'm sorry, I don't know what the problem was, so I took them off and put in the regular vids. I'm beyond bummed that you can't see the fun captions, but I couldn't have the vids annoying you. If I figure it out I'll put them back up.
I'm sure a few of y'all were wondering when I'd get around to Simple Minds. Please. Like there was a doubt I'd get to my boys from Scotland. Simple Minds are best known for their song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from The Breakfast Club, but they have quite the history and music catalog. The guys started out as a punk band named Johnny and The Self-Abusers in 1977 before changing their name and putting out a rock album, then settling into the "New Romantic" side of New Wave. In 1985, The Breakfast Club launched Simple Minds into overnight American success and they had their only #1 U.S. hit. To capitalize on their new fame, the band released Once Upon a Time which included the hits "Alive and Kicking," "Sanctify Yourself," and my fave "All the Things She Said." I usually don't offer video commentary, but we have to talk about the videos today. I put actual work into this post, which you can't see now. "Sanctify Yourself" and "All the Things She Said" are so good I had to caption them myself. People, 80's videos get no better than "All the Things She Said." I forgot the degree of awesomeness it achieved and and actually said "shut the eff up" when I watched it earlier — yes, it's that good. Enjoy the videos.
It's been a long, hot weekend. The air conditioning is out at Casa Faler, so I'm blogging from a hotel while the kids are sleeping. I was planning a Tom Tom Club post for Sunday Rewind, but decided I'm in more of a Crowded House mood, partially because I do love me some CH, but also because I know you, dear reader, already know more about CH than Tom Tom Club and I don't need tell you any background — they're Austrailian, yadda yadda yadda. There is more to them than that, but I'll have to tell you another time, another post. I will tell you that is was more difficult than I thought to find the videos this week. Damn record companies and embedding-disabled videos, for realz, I searched for much too long for these three videos most because of my OCD for my blog, partly because I need something to keep my mind off of other things. Anyhouse, here are "Don't Dream It's Over," "Something so Strong," and "Better Be Home Soon." The last song features a line I love, "and I know I'm right for the first time in my life." Love that.
Edit: how freakin' cute is CH singer Neil Finn? If anyone needs me today, I'll be in 1986.
Edit # 2: shut the back door. I did no research for this post, since I'm a slacker and was trying to find the three vids for you — lo and behold, I discovered something just now that somehow got past me. ME! CH drummer Paul Hester was the Chef in the Wiggles "Fruit Salad" video. I few years ago, Molly was hooked on the Wiggles, so I've seen "Fruit Salad" many times and thought the chef looked familiar, but couldn't put my finger on it. This is nice news, since previous to this knowledge when I've thought of Hester, his 2005 suidide immediately comes to mind. I much prefer to think of his smiling face from the CH vids and his Chef appearance in the Wiggles. Okay, that's enough edits for one post. Sheesh.
kerryfaler.blog 