Welcome to thatwasrockandroll. By some chance I found myself listening to Klaatu. You have to be of a certain age to even know of them. And if you're able to remember them, you probably didn't have the time or the OCD to chase the Conspiracy about who they were (or, more accurately, who they were not).
Klaatu is a child of its time. The whole "Are they the Beatles?" hysteria would never fly in today's always-connected, insatiable thirst for knowledge world. But in the late '70s, College Student Me actually called Capitol Records in Los Angeles because I wanted the Real Scoop. I ended up in Marketing, where some intern or toady said they had "no comment" before "no comment" meant anything. We listened backwards, did mathematical analysis on the track lengths, and scoured the record sleeve for any clues that might solve the "mystery". Oh, and it was a true staple of our Stereo Wars. I didn't notice any references to Alan Parsons in the YouTube comments, but this track in particular has a very Parsons-esque vibe. But the music was good. Really good. So good that when it was revealed that Klaatu was not indeed The Beatles, but rather a group of Canadian lads with an excess of appreciation for the Fab Four and a fabulous grasp of symphonic music. This was Prog Rock at its finest. 40 years. Really...
One of the great things about the Internet is that has allowed people with skills and too much time on their hands to create stuff. Stuff that you used to find out only after you knew someone for a while (like: "I didn;t know you built a replica of the Death Star in your backyard"). Now a trip to YouTube will reveal all sorts of crazy stuff.
These alchemists take disparate elements and combine them into something "different". Sometimes the results are awful (The Britney Spears crying fan comes to mind). But I'm gonna leave those out of this discussion. Instead, I want to share some truly inspired creations.
Let's start with my favorite of all time--"Stayin' in Black". Yep--take the Bee Gees, take their classic "Stayin' Alive" and mix it with AC/DC's "Back in Black". While that sounds like a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic salt (full and earnest apologies to Dr. Seuss), it's actually awesome. Just listen for a minute (or rock out for the duration. Your call):
Want more AC/DC mashup? Try this one on for size-a little diddy called "Rolling in the Black":
AC/DC isn't alone here. My favorite of all time is the mashup of six country songs by different artists that sound EXACTLY the same:
Once you go down the YouTube rabbit hole it's truly amazing. Whatever your taste in music, somebody is working on something that will blow your brains out. It's fun. I'll keep listening and share some others with you...
Pete
PS: Yes, I've been silent for some time. It's been a rough few months. The light I see at the end of the tunnel is actually not another train. I'll try to do this much more often...
I drink a prodigious amount of diet soda. Hell, I used to have Diet Dr. Pepper on hand for trade shows and education sessions. I loved many different brands but probably none more than Diet Pepsi.
Diet Coke has always had a "metallic" taste to it, especially in the early '80s when it was introduced. I always preferred Diet Pepsi, almost to the point of being exclusive about it.
Two-odd years ago the Geniuses at Pepsi decided that they would take this iconic brand and change the formulation. It had been "sweetened" by aspartame for as long as the compound existed. The Geniuses read too many articles authored by self-proclaimed "experts" and determined that aspartame had to go. I think I remember the research--that if you drank 400 cans of diet soda a day for 10 years your chance of getting cancer went up 3%.
They chose Sucralose, a poor substitute that rendered Diet Pepsi undrinkable. I stopped buying it. I even sent a note to Pepsi registering my disappointment. Some areas of the country got a "Classic" version of Diet Pepsi, but the Carolinas did not.
Flash forward to February. Pepsi announces that it's going back to the aspartame version. And there was rejoicing in all the land. It appears that the "New Coke" debacle wasn't heeded by the Geniuses at Pepsi. In the end, they got too much blowback and had to change the formulation.
What does all this have to do with music, or rockandroll? Nothing, really. It does show that Pepsi cannot find its rear end with both hands, and do not learn from their mistakes. I present to you Exhibit A in how not to choose a spokesperson.
In the early '80s, Maddona happened. From obscurity to the top of the heap in just a year or two. Pepsi, seeking to appeal to younger drinkers (who preferred Pepsi to Coke in taste tests), spent an amount equal to the GDP of most Central American countries for Madonna to do commercials and be visible in Pepsi's marketing.
Madonna. Lightning Rod. Makes her own decisions about her image. What could go wrong?
THIS is what could go wro ng:
"Like a Virgin". writhing around on the stage singing "touched for the very first time". After signing Madonna to a $10 million contract, Pepsi was besieged with complaints from parents who would prefer their daughters not to emulate the product spokesperson. They pulled the plug on Madonna, probably incurring a very high "Pay or Play" clause. I loved it.
What were the executives thinking? Didn't they know Madonna was the Poster Child for "Sex Sells"? Idiots. You'll probably notice they aren't going out on the edge for endorsers anymore. This adventure, coupled with the Diet Pepsi mess is what happens when you're #2---you get desperate and start taking risks. Some blow up in your face. I'm just glad they woke up and smelled the aspertame on Diet Pepsi.
Welcome to thatwasrockandroll, after a hefty absence (hey, I told you I was sick).
Today's entry is from the "strange" folder--songs that I really like but only once in a while. My tolerance for out-of-the-box thinking is pretty high but not enough for me to handle an ongoing diet of things that are truly off-center.
Exhibit A is a song from 1984. The song is crazy enough, with what can only be called "avant garde" instrumentation. The only thing that's further out there than the song is the video. It was a different time--MTV was only 4 years old and to get attention you needed a video with wild visuals. This one doesn't disappoint, for sure...
Door #2 has another eclectic combination. It was a Pot Luck combination of instruments, styles, and visuals. Tell me the guitar player (who only turns up in the video when his part is played) doesn't look like Elvis Costello. The tune is catchy, and always cheers me up. There's a version that's almost six minutes long but my "off-kilter" alarm goes off after about 4. This is the short version, but it contains all the important components. A mashup from 1998 that still has power today...
I still say "Wind it up, baby!" every so often. I have no idea why.
Last, but certainly not least, is everyone's favorite dance band. Listening to their music is a full-on assault of bass, drums, samples played on rapid repeat, and so on. The tune is something of an "earworm" and once you hear it you can't "unhear" it. But the reward is the video--showing us a side of a major actor nobody knew he had. I give you a man who is game for just about anything, whether it's on screen or live on Broadway (I saw him in a play called "A Behanding in Spokane" with Sam Rockwell that sent chills down my spine). Take it away...
I'll return to the beaten path later. But today just seemed "right" to indulge my "other" side...
After a LOOOONNG layoff, it's back (or I'm back, or somebody's back. I'm easily confused these days). Wanted to do a series of "Two-Hit Wonders", or possibly "Three-Hit Wonders" to remind us that while yes, the artist may have had a Big Hit, they had more than one of them. Like today's entry.
Back in the early '80s, pop music was undergoing a radical transformation. The creation of MTV added a new element to traditional rock/pop/soul/disco music. Now you could "see" a song as well as listen to it. Bands with lower-quality music could "make it" based more on their visual presentation than the music.
The first band that comes to mind from MTV's early days was Duran Duran, but it's grossly unfair to label them as a "one-hit" or even "three-hit" wonder. Instead, I'm talking about a great song coupled with a earth-moving video that made an obscure Norwegian band world-famous. You remember it, don't you?
The scene that begins at 1:35 (a freeze frame is above) is perhaps the most dramatic, goosebump-raising visual in MTV's history. And a-ha, the band in question, is often mentioned as a "one-hit wonder" because of the hugeness of "Take On Me". But let's not do that. Let's explore the band's discography a bit further for 2 other "hits".
First up is the sequel to "Take On Me":
"The Sun Always Shines On TV" is a fabulous tune that won two MTV Video Awards (when there was all manner of breakthrough videos due to the newness of the medium). What I love about this video is that it begins where "Take On Me" ended--with the actress/love interest from the first video--and then told its own story.
But that's not where a-ha's streak ended. A sign that an artist has "made it" is being selected to create a song for a James Bond movie. And just not any Bond movie--it was The Living Daylights, where we were introduced to the new actor, Timothy Dalton (my favorite Bond, by the way). The song has a melancholy feel to it, but enough of the Bond ethos due in no small part to John Barry, who did many of the Bond scores from the '60s.
a-ha remained a force in Europe for a long time, and are back on the road in 2018 with an acoustic show. Wonder if their lead vocalist still has those stratospheric high notes...
