Before we get into the news of the day, some notes on VH1 Classic’s weekend programming, which consisted of the channel showing a chunk of its vault’s videos from the ’80s in alphabetical order (by artist, then by song). Why the evil geniuses at Viacom wanted to encourage shut-in-ism among the part of its demographic that probably needs sunshine and air more than most is beyond me, but that’s probably because I was too busy getting sucked in to give it much thought.
1. Paul McCartney’s “Spies Like Us” was, perhaps surprisingly, not a terrible “movie tie-in track” like so many other songs I had the pleasure of catching over the course of the weekend. (Although the ending to the video, which has Macca, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase “humorously” crossing Abbey Road, is wrong on too many levels.) But I’m still a total sucker for “No More Lonely Nights.”
2. People–including someone in VH1 Classic’s graphics department–still have a problem with the whole “where to put the apostrophe when you’re abbreviating a decade” thing. Just think of it this way: The apostrophe goes where the numbers are missing. In this case, when you say “’80s,” that apostrophe is actually a teeny, tiny knife that lops off a “1″ and a “9″!
3. Have you guys ever noticed the green-screening on Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F,” and how it turns him into a mini-Harold running around scenes from Beverly Hills Cop? As if the whole enterprise needed to have more of an 8-bit feel.
4. Surely many of you who were alive during the heyday of “Axel F” had at least three friends who showed off their mad synthesizer skillz by forcing you to sit through multiple renditions of the track on their tricked-out Casios, right? (See also: the theme to Miami Vice. I wonder how much the popularity of the home synthesizer influenced the popularity of these sorts of instrumentals, and vice versa?)
5. The Mary Jane Girls: Still awesome.
6. To revise a post from last week, Peter Wolf’s “Lights Out” could do with a makeover by a producer who would make the whole thing more brittle.
7. I really miss the days of semi-anonymous bands who have great songs that are complete and utter mysteries to me, yet sound incredible on the radio. Case in point: “The Promise” by When In Rome, a middling 1988 hit that I didn’t find out the authorship of until, um, 1995 or so.
8. Yes, someone took to the Internet and typed out the whole playlist. (And this is where you find out that the channel only played part of what it has in its vaults, because, like, I’m pretty sure Michael Jackson and Prince made more than five videos during the course of the decade.)
Case in point: “The Promise” by When In Rome…
i feel as if some long-missing, crucial puzzle piece has suddenly been discovered under the radiator. perhaps everything is going to be okay from now on.
Along the lines of “The Promise” I would put “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora and “Living in Oblivion” by Anything Box. I love those jams.
I totally missed this because VH1 Soul was playing hours and hours of videos by Prince and various Prince proteges at the same time.
I too miss the days of the anonymous new wave band. Bands like The Breakfast Club, When In Rome, After the Fire, The Outfield, Modern English and Talk Talk (before they got awesome) whose sole purpose was to release one great song that is as interchangeable as the last one and disappear. In fact, the last really anonymous bands to get hits were Primitive Radio Gods (essentially one guy who made a killer of a song) and New Radicals (essentially a really poorly hatted guy and that girl from “All in the Family” along with a bunch of people who didn’t matter).
@Jess Harvell: I didn’t know who did this song until it was used over the credits for “Napoleon Dynamite”.
@DocStrange: Also Real Life, with “Send Me an Angel” and/or “Catch Me I’m Falling”.
“Axel F”? Maybe if you’ve advanced past entry-level floundering attempts at “Jump”.
@Big Gray.: “No One Is To Blame” should also fall into this category.
I watched a bit of this as well and swooned along to all the Bryan Ferry videos. Wish they would have played Hipsway’s “The Honey Thief” (what a GREAT one-hit wonder).
I learned that few things are more ridiculous, even for a Lou Reed fan than the video for Dirty Blvd.
Paul McCartney’s “Spies Like Us” was, perhaps surprisingly, not a terrible “movie tie-in track”
It is, however — embarrassingly — McCartney’s last Top 10 hit in the U.S. I don’t hate this song by any means (I kinda like Macca when he gets goofy, “Uncle Albert”-style), but…man, what a way to go.
People-including someone in VH1 Classic’s graphics department-still have a problem with the whole “where to put the apostrophe when you’re abbreviating a decade” thing.
The goddamn New York Times had this wrong for years (annoying, because they set grammar-and-punctuation standards for everybody), but to my relief they finally fixed it a couple of years ago. Now if we can only get the newspapers to stop capitalizing and spacing “website” as “Web site.”
Surely many of you who were alive during the heyday of “Axel F” had at least three friends who showed off their mad synthesizer skillz by forcing you to sit through multiple renditions of the track on their tricked-out Casios, right?
I guess I’m showing my age, because for me and my Casio, the showoff track was Vangelis’s “Chariots of Fire” theme.
The Mary Jane Girls: Still awesome.
See, this is why (ducking as I say this) I liked the Pussycat Dolls’ first single. I totally thought “Don’t Cha” was a bid to make them the next Mary Jane Girls, with Busta in the Rick James role (or maybe Cee-Lo). I only came to regret my open-armed welcome of the Dolls a couple of singles later, when they became annoying-vapid instead of fun-vapid.
(Insert Lloyd Bentsen homage/quip/analogy here, re: Quayle:JFK::PCD:MJG)
I missed Bryan Ferry, Madonna and Queen, which bummed me out big time. But otherwise, was happy to see long-forgotten things too, especially things I only knew the chorus of!
Also, I’d forgotten that the video for Ultravox’s “Vienna” was probably responsible for my obsession with that city.
Best surprise: Charlie Sexton’s “Beat’s So Lonely” — wow.