Five Song Friday: M is for Murderer
This Week: Desperate Clowns, 12-Letter Swears and Awkward Sincerity
Do you remember where you were on August 1, 1981?
That summer Saturday was host to one of the most shocking crimes of the Eighties.
It was the day that Video killed the Radio Star.
Even in the decade that gave us Jeffrey Dahmer, The Night Stalker and New Coke, this was next level heinousness.
Cold-blooded murder carried out on cable television.
Right there in front of us.
And we all watched like it was no big deal.
MTV wasn’t even subtle about it. The network kicked off their reign of terror with a bold and ballsy choice that bordered on psychotic.
Their very first video was “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by The Buggles.
The simple clip featured bespectacled frontman Trevor Horn staring into the camera and singing, “We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far / Pictures came and broke your heart.”
Then the cocky bastard suggested we put the blame on VCR.
I feel bad for Radio Star, who probably never saw it coming.
Radio Star was just sitting at home, minding its own business, when Music Video kicked in the front door like a freaking maniac.
Radio Star asked, “Can I help you?”
And Music Video replied, “No, but you can DIE!”
Talk about your hostile takeovers!
From that moment on, everything was different for music.
Radio Star had a good 90-year run. Marconi to The Manhattan Transfer. The golden years of listening with your ears.
But after August 1, 1981 it was all about the eyeballs. Looking was the new listening.
Music Video ruled for decades with an iron fist and a fog machine.
Michael moonwalked. Madonna showed her underwear. Puff Daddy partied on a boat.
Things got so out of hand that when Paula Abdul danced with a cartoon cat, everybody was just like, “Hey, that’s cool!”
It seemed like Music Video would rule forever, until one day… nobody cared.
I thought maybe that was just me, but the timeline checks out.
MTV stopped playing videos. Then MP3s and iPods got huge. Streaming music services came on the scene. Vinyl made a comeback.
Music returned to its roots as a thing you do with your ears.
I like it better that way.
Videos still exist. I’ve seen them in bowling alleys. They show up on social media sometimes. And in my “research” for these emails, I’ve watched videos from different artists.
Some are good. Some are bad. Most are “meh.”
For me, they just don’t add anything to the music.
Most of the time I regret watching because they fill my head with images that don’t mesh with the ideas of the song in my head.
If I like a song, it usually has more to do with the music or the lyrics than a kooky visual of five people dressed as lizards in suits playing instruments in the desert.
And sometimes all it takes is a weird mustache on the lead singer to tarnish my opinion of song forever.
But again, that’s just me. If you love music videos, keep on keeping on. I know there are probably some great ones out there that will make me into a liar, but I’m okay with that.
When it comes to music, I’m just old-fashioned I guess.
I like my songs like I like my Q-Tips…
Jammed way too deep into my ear holes and jiggled around until they tickle my brain.
Just like God intended.
Thank you for reading.
DJ Crankypete
Five Song Friday 016
“What’s the Altitude (feat. Hymnal)” - Cut Chemist
We’re going to start this week off with a track from 2006.
Remember 2006?
Italy beat France in the World Cup. Google bought YouTube for $1.56 billion.
And the Nintendo Wii made it safe for your grandma to play video games.
We lost Lou “You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” Rawls and Chris “Stop pointing that fucking gun at my dad!” Penn.
“Godfather of Soul” James Brown died on Christmas Day.
And we welcomed “bucket list” and “mumblecore” into our collective vocabulary.
For Cut Chemist (aka Lucas MacFadden), the highlight of the year was the release of his first solo album. After working as a team player in well-oiled musical machines like Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli, the DJ was ready for his close up.
This track always does the trick whenever I need to boogie in my seat like a hyperactive toddler with a full bladder.
“Down for Fun” - Liz Lawrence
Back when I was a young man, I would show the world that I was “down for fun” by putting Aussie mousse in my hair and wearing my fancy black collared shirt with just a dab of CK One below my Adam’s apple.
It never worked, but that wasn’t the point. I was sending a message. I was making myself available.
You want to have fun? I’m down. I’m SO down.
I LOVE fun. Fun is my jam.
Looking back, I can understand why my approach never worked.
The shirt was stylish but probably didn’t work with a full face of clown makeup.
I’ve also realized that women don’t like being squirted with a seltzer bottle or startled from behind with a bicycle horn. Everybody has their own definition of fun, and mine was probably a bit too aggressive and on the nose.
This song is not about desperate clowns.
Liz Lawrence is an English singer and songwriter known as one half of electro-pop duo Cash+David. This is from her 2021 solo album, The Avalanche.
Please enjoy.
“Do It Again” - Galactic, Cheeky Blakk
I learn something new every day.
Today, I learned that there is a special kind of hip-hop native to New Orleans called “bounce.”
The Wikipedia definition states that bounce is “characterized by call-and-response-style party and Mardi Gras Indian chants and dance call-outs that are frequently hyper-sexual and controversial.”
Boy oh boy, that’s a loaded sentence: Party. Dance. Hyper-sexual. Controversial.
That’s a jumbo-sized parfait of mortal sin and depravity. Which also makes for a catchy-as-heck banger of a song.
“Do It Again” is from Galactic’s 2010 album Ya-Ka-May. The New Orleans jam band invited Big Easy bounce diva Cheeky Blakk (aka Angela Woods) to do what she does best: blow the doors down and drop m-bombs like a boss.
“Fashionable People” - Joel Plaskett Emergency
I know what you’re thinking, “ANOTHER musician from Halifax, Nova Scotia?”
“You had one of those LAST week. If you love musicians from Halifax, Nova Scotia so much, why don’t you MARRY them?”
I get it. It’s a little bit weird. But honestly, I didn’t plan it this way. And I’m already married, so that bit wouldn’t work out.
Even though Joel Plaskett is probably a very fine young man, I’m just not ready to commit to becoming an international, bi-sexual bigamist.
This song by the Joel Plaskett Emergency is a doozy. It’s a wild ride that never stays in one musical lane. “Fashionable People” is frantic and funny one minute and awkwardly sincere the next.
Which makes sense when you realize that the song is from 2007’s Ashtray Rock, which has been described as a “concept album about high school love and suffering.”
I once made a concept album about high school love and suffering.
It was more like a mixed tape.
I called it, “Please Don’t Break Up With Me.”
It featured The Smiths, The Cure and 27 minutes of me crying into a microphone.
“Truth” - Alex Ebert
Musicians sure do love to play the name game.
Take Alexander Michael Tahquitz Ebert. While his current moniker is a logically abbreviated version of his legal name, his work with bands is more confusing.
For instance, he’s the lead singer of Ima Robot, which is confusing because he clearly is not a robot (number one rule of robots: they don’t have beards).
He’s also the lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I’m not trying to be difficult, but don’t you just assume that Edward Sharpe would take the lead in that band? If I was Mr. Sharpe? I’d be livid.
I guess we just chalk it up to “creative expression” or whatever.
Maybe he wanted to give those other bands a chance to succeed on their own merit instead of cashing in on people flocking to see the son of legendary film critic Roger Ebert.
Speaking of “two thumbs up,” this track is from Ebert’s 2011 debut solo album, Alexander. “Truth” is a gorgeous song that sounds instantly familiar.
The best way I can describe it is “Cat Stevens joins Ennio Morricone for a musical horseback ride.”
And now that I think about it, that’s the best way that ANYBODY can describe it!
I win!
Listen on Spotify
Listen on YouTube Music
That’s all for now.
Thanks for reading!
“Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician.” - Kurt Vonnegut