Glenn Walker is a writer who knows pop culture. He loves, hates, and lives pop culture. He knows too freaking much about pop culture, and here's where he talks about it all: movies, music, comics, television, and the rest... Welcome to Hell.
Wow, 2016, you suck. George Michael, the singer-songwriter-producer born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, has passed away peacefully on Christmas Day.
Wham!, or Wham! UK as they were known when I discovered them, was one of my favorite groups, their blue-eyed soul blended with white boy rap was something I hadn't seen before and I dug it. I remember the duo, Michael combined with Andrew Ridgeley, and at the time, Pepsi and Shirlie, as their back-up singers and dancers, were one of my favorite acts. Long before the hit with "Bad Boys" and the megahit album Make It Big, I was a fan.
When George started to become the dominant solo act of the duo, and then went officially solo, I was still there. Songs like "Faith," "I Want Your Sex," and one of my personal favorite songs (and videos) of all time, "Freedom! '90" continued to hurl his star higher. Even sex scandals couldn't keep the man down. His "Last Christmas" is a favorite every holiday season, this one being no exception.
George Michael will be missed, a loss to many, and another victim of an unforgiving year. Love you, man.
Back in the day, before A Very Special Christmas came out, followed by several sequel albums, there were virtually no holiday songs in the New Wave, maybe only a handful, including "Christmas Wrapping," "Do They Know It's Christmas," and this one.
Originally released for Christmas 1983 around the release of the Pretenders third album, the first with their new line-up after the deaths of band members Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott. As the years have gone by, it has become a new wave classic of the season.
Here's the music video that was made a few years after the song first came out.
When most folks think of the Divinyls, they think of two things - the late lead singer Crissy Amphlett and their criminally overplayed 'one-hit wonder,' "I Touch Myself." Well, it's still a shame about Chrissy, however those of us in the know know that the Divinyls were far from one-hit wonders.
This 1985 single was written by pop mainstays of the era Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, and remains my favorite Divinyls tune.
As mentioned in the newest episode of The Make Mine Magic Podcast, I got the chance to see Captain EO again on our most recent trip to Orlando and Walt Disney World. Here are a few of my thoughts and observations.
From 1986 to 1996, this legendary seventeen minute music video/short scifi film was the main attraction at the theater next to Journey into Imagination at the EPCOT park in Walt Disney World. The adventure with the heroic Captain EO bringing a 'gift' to the evil fascist Supreme Leader. The gift is music, song and dance, that in the hands (and feet, voice, and body) of EO's Michael Jackson transforms first the soldiers of, and then the Supreme Leader herself (Angelica Huston), into better more positive people. The dark planet, looking very Giger at first is changed into a bight paradise.
Captain EO was the brainchild of Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Michael Jackson, trying to recreate the longform video story style of Jackson's Thriller in a new venue - 3D, or more accurately 4D. This is not just any 3D, but 3D with in the theater effects as well, including shaking chairs, internal light effects, and even misters in the seats. It's full effect. While in the nearly three decades since its debut, 3D effects in the cinema have gotten better, the full effects of this special theater still are pretty spectacular.
In memorial of Michael Jackson death and his achievements with Captain EO, EPCOT brought the attraction back in 2010. It was removed in 1996, though I don't think anyone said it out loud, because of all the legal problems Jackson was having at the time, and it was perhaps not thought he was a good role model for kids.
The stigma hasn't gone. There were jokes about 'kid touching' in line when I was there this past month, but still there were a lot of Michael Jackson fans in line who were very excited about the show. There was a genuine electricity in how psyched people were to see this. It was as if his crimes, supposed or otherwise, had evaporated, and all that mattered was this scifi musical spectacular from another age.
Disney shows the film as it originally played, with the same preshow as well, but calls it The Return of Captain EO, but it doesn't matter what it's called, this silly space opera with wannabe Muppets, and two terrific songs - "We Can Change the World" and "Another Part of Me" - along with coo special effects and great dancing, still dazzles and entertains. If you get a chance, definitely see it at EPCOT while it lasts.
I came very late to this one. I know I had heard it on the radio and on the dance floor, but really I paid it no mind until hearing it multiple times on First Wave satellite radio. I even remember seeing the 45 RPM single at my old college radio station, but never put it on a turntable. My loss.
Active since 1979, this San Francisco synth band has made a career of sounding British, or at least mining the British sound of not just the new wave, but also punk, psychedelia, and even classic rock vibes. Still active today their influence can be heard in many of the acts of the 1980s, and this was their biggest hit.
One of my first memories of MTV was this video. I never saw the music video channel until about a year or so after it had first hit the air, and was in college at a friend's house, who not only had a Nintendo Entertainment System with the amazing for the time Donkey Kong home video game, but also cable with a projection TV in the basement.
"Stand or Fall" by The Fixx was the video that was on when I first came down into that basement, and as I recall, I saw it again later that afternoon as well. It wasn't a matter of it being popular at the moment, it was that the channel didn't have all that many videos yet. This was also around the time that Michael Jackson was making a stink about no videos by black artists on the channel, and something called "Billie Jean" was also starting to get airplay. I saw that one that afternoon as well.
Around this time however, The Fixx was very hot, follow up singles "Red Skies" from Shuttered Room, and from the next album Reach the Beach, there was "Saved by Zero" and "One Thing Leads to Another." Their videos were played on MTV in heavy rotation and for the non-cable users, "Video Rock," ad nauseum.
Led by Cy Curnin, lead singer and primary songwriter who has a solo career as well as participation in other musical projects, The Fixx continues to perform and record today.
I was a latecomer to The Cure, but once I discovered them proper, I loved them. I was aware of "Let's Go to Bed" when it came out, but The Cure really passed under my radar until their greatest hits album, Standing on the Beach. Then I was a hardcore fan, I wasn't a goth, I didn't wear any make-up, but I loved me some Cure, and even saw them in concert a few times.
"Lullaby" is one of their creepier tunes, with an even creepier music video directed by Tim Pope. The song was apparently the first single from 1989's Disintegration, even though most folks remember "Fascination Street" being first in the States, but "Lullaby" actually did quite well in the UK.
I first heard the song when WXPN debuted the album for the first time on a particular night. I was out with friends that night, and I made them stop what they were doing and get me to a radio so I could hear the premiere. Yeah, I did mention I was hardcore, didn't I? The song is one of quiet menace, not about Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man by the way, but more about Robert Smith's past with drugs.
Here we have another example of a rocker trying to climb on board the New Wave sound and ride it to a top charting hit. Billy Squier was always a hard rocker, probably best known for his hit "The Stroke" with its unique use of certain synth drumbeats. In his day, he was a rock god, notably opening for both Queen and Pat Benatar for two of the greatest concerts of my high school days.
I first got into him with his early AOR hit "The Big Beat" (you might not know it, but trust me, if you're a hip hop fan, you've heard it sampled hundreds of times), and rode along happily when "The Stroke" carried through to two hit albums with a string of hits from each. He was even one of those artists savvy enough to record a holiday song so he'd get played at least once a year. Then came "Rock Me Tonite," and it was all over.
Previously Billy had done only performance videos, him and the band on stage rocking out, now he decided to make a more traditional -or as luck would have it- a more bizarre video, to go along with his more pop new wave sound. The video featured Billy dancing and prancing in a pink Flashdance shirt and sliding through silk sheets. His dance, his affectations, and his gestures could at best be described as 'flamboyant.'
Here, take a peek…
Yeah. You get the idea. And that was the end of Billy Squier's rock career. Surprisingly, the song was his biggest charting hit, but the video, directed by Kenny Ortega, the mastermind behind Disney's High School Musical, succeeded in crashing Squier's career and causing many to question his sexuality.
Billy Squier continues to record and to perform today, including a stint with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. He does a lot of blues, jazz, and charity work, and on occasion, he does still rock. Just don't rock him tonite…
It's a classic timeless song, and now Dylan has made what was and remains one of the greatest songs ever into a mind-blowing, forward-thinking, interactive music video that not only must be seen to be believed, it must be experienced, and you might never see it the same way twice.
With the official release of Artpop earlier this week, and Lady Gaga's press thrust about the new album, some interesting news has come out regarding the star. She is apparently addicted to marijuana claiming to smoke up to 15-20 doobies a day. Wow. That's a lot. Granted she says it was because of breaking her hip earlier in the year, but still… she's either exaggerating or just really really messed up. In the Madonna/Salvador Dali tradition of "There is no such thing as bad publicity," stupidity is always the exception. Either that, or she's the new Snoop Dogg.
Before we get to the album, Lady Gaga has also released an app to go along with the album called, what else, Artpop. It's very psychedelic and possibly, if you'll excuse the pun, drug driven, and attempts to interact with the user and allow them to interact with other little monsters.
You begin your journey with the album's opening song and concept, "Aura." The app appears that it should be able to play other tracks from the album as well, but that never worked on my iPhone at least. I guess this is a bit fun, and useful if you want connect with other monsters, but otherwise it's only fun in an "Oooh, shiny" kinda way.
On to the actual album, Artpop, I have to say I'm not all that impressed. That said, when I first heard the advance single "Applause," I hated it, then days later it had grown on me to me my favorite song of that moment. "Venus" hit me the same way, at first dislike, but then growth. Weird.
Not fond of the second single, "Do What U Want" with R. Kelly, either. The love song to "Dope" kinda stands out because of Gaga's comments, but doesn't seem like a hit to me either. Only "MANiCURE" and "Gypsy" show any first listen promise to my ears. Artpop is sadly full of fairly standard and substandard dance music. I've been a little monster since the beginning, but unless all the other songs on this collection start playing fungus and growing on me, I think she may have stumbled with this effort.
There was a time when Rick Springfield was cool, we may all want desperately to want to forget it, but it's true. Memory is a tricky thing. We may want to remember Rick Springfield as bubble gum pop, but there was a time he was considered not only rock, but even a little tiny bit new wave. I heard "Jessie's Girl" for the first time on WMMR, and follow-ups "Affair of the Heart," and the two videos featured here, all on WYSP during their new music hour.
Rick Springfield was impossibly huge in the early 1980s, between his music career, appearances on "General Hospital," and even a feature film Hard to Hold, before vanishing into semi-obscurity.
The truth is that he had been around a long time before his 'overnight success,' was a minor pop idol and even had his own Saturday morning cartoon in the 1970s. And after, he was the original "Forever Knight," the original "Human Target," and released what I think his best album, Tao.
I fully agree with my online friend DJ Marilyn Thomas, "Bop 'Til You Drop" is a New Wave song, no matter what you say, you selective memory music heathens.
And then there's this one...
"Human Touch" by Rick Springfield
Rocker trying desperately to be new wave in a music video, trying to capitalize on the odd music video fashions of the time, pretending it's the future, and looking uncomfortable the whole time - check. For a long time, this was what music videos looked like. At least it's not...
"You Got Lucky" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Wow, the future looked kinda bleak in the early 1980s...
Over on The GAR! Podcast, as part of the Robin Renee Blog Tour, Ray and I interviewed Robin for about a half-hour or so. One of the things that came up in conversation was transformative moments in music on "Saturday Night Live."
In those early seasons of the program I was exposed to many new musical experiences that shaped and influenced how I perceived music, and in the growing punk and new wave atmosphere of the late 1970s, "SNL" was full of new musical experiences. Both Robin and I were affected by an appearance by David Bowie. Ray talked about seeing Fishbone, although much later. I remember being amazed by Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, The Specials, The Clash, the B-52s, Gary Numan, and yes, DEVO.
I wouldn't be as hardcore into the band as I was later in the Freedom of Choice and New Traditionalists years, but the visuals and sounds stayed with me. I was especially drawn to their cover of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," and that it did what all covers should seek to do, overtake the original. I still to this day feel the DEVO version is superior to the Stones'.
Albania - "Identitet" by Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko
I love the drums, and the music video, which I don't know if they will be able to reproduce its energy and creativity on stage. Luckily it's a catchy well done song. No idea what they're saying, but I think this one will definitely get through to the finals.
Armenia - "Lonely Planet" by Dorians
Pretty song, and being pretty always gets you far in this contest. We'll see.
Azerbaijan - "Hold Me" by Farid Mammadov
Azerbaijan is always a strong competitor, and this pretty boy power ballad is no exception. Not my favorite, but it has good odds.
These Eurovision veterans are back. Their previous "Water" remains one of my all time favorite songs from the ESC. Always great percussion, but I don't think this is their best sadly.
Finland - "Marry Me" by Krista Siegfrids
Finland is another nation who always has a strong submission. This year they enter a more pop and dancey tune. The music video shows off Krista's range and humor, but I wonder if that will come off on the stage. I'm kinda rooting for this one, but then again, I'm partial to Finland.
The second Semi-Final will take place on the 16th of May.
In my review, at Biff Bam Pop this week, of Adam Ant's new album Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter, I talk a bit about my first impressions of Adam and the Ants. You can check it out here.
I remember playing both the Kings of the Wild Frontier and Prince Charming albums constantly and obsessively. I loved them. As I had mentioned before with The Police, I also got to see the music as well on "Rockworld." It was the beginning of a life long love affair.
No matter how you slice it, Adam Ant is a true superstar of the New Wave, whether he agrees to the label or not. His career has spanned from the mid-1970s to today with this fabulous new album.
Earlier this week, on David Bowie's birthday, he released the first single and music video from his new album. We all thought he had retired, so yes, it was quite a shock, and a delight.
David Bowie is a rock god. That is completely undisputed. I also love him. He is one of my favorite artists. I was thrilled to hear this news and downloaded the song, unheard, immediately when I found out about it. Take my money, iTunes, I don't even have to hear it. That's how I feel about Bowie.
Here's the music video for "Where Are We Now?"
Wow. What is most stunning about the video is that after over forty years in the music video business (that's right, kids, Bowie's been doing it longer than MTV has), he can still amaze, and mesmerize, and innovate. The video accompanies a song that is slow and drifting at first but builds at the end, almost like the work of Kate Bush. The more I listen to it, the more I like it.
I can't wait for the new album. David Bowie's The Next Day is scheduled for a March 12, 2013 release.
This alt folk tune song from 1985, the first single and video from Suzanne Vega's self-titled first album, a while before she hit big with "Luka" or "Tom's Diner," stirs a hard memory for me.
At the time it was the favorite song of an African-American girl I dated only twice. I thought I was cool with the racial differences between us, but obsessed constantly about how crazed my parents, especially my dad, would be if they found out. She insisted she wasn't going out with my parents, she was going out with me.
In the end it didn't work out. Two dates and it was over. I was an idiot, she was smarter than me, and the relationship was a lost opportunity I have regretted blowing for years. The song still makes me sad.
Suzanne Vega had a fairly successful run after "Marlene," with notably the two hits I mentioned above, from one of my fave albums of the genre, Solitude Standing. She continues to perform, record and is a musical pioneer in the digital world.
This was never a single by Billy Idol, and yet it did receive its share of airplay and clubplay. From the album Rebel Yell, it is surprisingly almost a tone clone of the title track. Perhaps it was for folks who had grown tired of hearing the real "Rebel Yell" over and over and over again… and yet still wanted more of the same…
Lone Justice, fronted by Maria McKee, was formed in 1982 as part of the Los Angeles cowpunk (I bet there's a word y'all haven't heard in ages) scene. With help at different times from Tom Petty and Steven Van Zandt, they managed to chart with "Shelter," but were unable to have any higher charting singles.
Maria McKee went on to have a solo singing career but has been much more successful as a songwriter, penning hits for Bette Midler, Feargal Sharkey, and the Dixie Chicks.
Special thanks to my Twitter buddy Cathi for reminding me of this one. Sadly, I had forgotten.
