I’m relying on 23-year-old memories, since I didn’t have the foresight to tape the whole thing, but I’m pretty sure a-ha were on top of the MTV countdown in 1985. (The network certainly did everything they could to push that video.)

At any rate, somebody’s done a new “literal” version of “Take on Me” that’s very much in keeping with the spirit of our 1988 countdown here. If you haven’t seen it, you must check it out. (Thanks to Tom for the tip.)

posted 13 October 2008 in Links. 1 comment

U2 did a free “surprise” show at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in November 2004. I took some photos of the concert, but I prefer the picture I took of the bridge:

posted 10 October 2008 in Photos. no comments yet

Back from the commercial break, we find Kevin Seal standing on top of a ladder, with the top half of his body out of the frame. “The top one hundred of 1988!” he shouts. He jumps off the ladder and then lies down on the floor. Standing up and dusting himself off, Seal says, “It’s a concrete floor. I didn’t allow for that.”

Seal introduces the next video by Pat Benatar, noting that she recently took three years off to raise a family. He doesn’t specify that her husband is guitarist Neil Giraldo, or that they had a daughter named Haley Egeana in February 1985. (Lacking precognition, he also doesn’t mention that Haley went on to star amongst other celebrity offspring in the E! reality show Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive.) “In only three years’ time, you can have yourself a family too,” Seal says in a huckster pitchman voice.

The video: We pan across an empty theater in sepia tones, and then cut to Benatar, sitting on an upturned milk crate, wearing a leather jacket and a hat, looking totally adorable. She may not have realized it, but her career was winding down (this turned out to be her last top-40 single) at the ripe old age of 35. There’s a guitar lick playing; we see Giraldo in a white tanktop, sporting a fine, fine mullet. The other members of the Benatar band all seem to have big metal hair. Roadies toil away, doing important technical work like plugging in cords and tightening up the braces on the drum kit.

The song has a long instrumental intro; unfortunately, it’s not particularly memorable. Nevertheless, the guitar lick builds up a head of steam, with the whole band joining in. We see Benatar backstage, holding a Styrofoam coffee cup and blowing bubble gum. Two other people look through snapshots (including one of a motorcycle–whatever reminds you of home when you’re on the road, I guess).

Finally, Benatar sings. The song, it turns out, is pretty blah. It’s got a forgettable sing-song melody, and Benatar never really gets to cut loose the way we know she can. Most of the greatest moments in Benatar’s career come when she goes completely over the top (e.g., the “Hell is for hell!” outro in “Hell Is For Children” or the children’s choir in “We Belong”). “We live and learn from our mistakes / The deepest cuts are healed by faith,” she chants, quite a few times. She also drops a reference to “the kick inside,” presumably a shoutout to her favorite Kate Bush album and the source of “Wuthering Heights,” which she covered eight years earlier.)

Lots of quick cuts and rotating stage lights in the empty theater. The footage alternates from black-and-white to sepia-toned to full color. Onstage, Benatar has taken off her hat. We see Giraldo getting a haircut. Benatar bows in front of hundreds of empty seats. The band goofs around awkwardly for the camera backstage.

Suddenly, we have a full house of fans, with overdubbed cheering. This transition is a fairly blatant swipe of the “Livin’ on a Prayer” gambit from the previous year, but the Bon Jovi video did it with a lot more panache, including switching from black and white to color when the fans arrive. For some reason, the Benatar video now focuses on the stage lighting, with multiple shots of the overhead lighting array. It looks like the setup for an arena show, crammed into a smaller venue. (It’s possible it’s actually a totally different location than the empty theater–the stage seems to have a new configuration.)

Closeup on Benatar, whose hair is looking a little frizzy: backlighting can be unkind. She gently twists her hips and snaps her fingers. The lights go berserk. The drummer keeps throwing his head back like he’s trying to stop a nosebleed. The fans cheer.

In many ways, the end of Benatar’s career dovetails with the end of the commercial dominance of AOR radio, where for many years she was one of the token women vocalists. Two years after this video, another female singer from Long Island with operatic training would hit the charts for the first time: her name was Mariah Carey. At the time, I don’t think anybody realized that a torch was being passed.

“All Fired Up” hit #16 on the American pop charts, the last of Benatar’s fifteen top-40 singles. You can watch the video here.

posted 9 October 2008 in 1988. 2 comments

Some of you already know this: Scraps (Soren) DeSelby had a serious hemorrhagic stroke on Monday and is currently in the ICU. In addition to being a frequent and quick-witted commenter here, he’s a good friend; I’m fervently hoping for a speedy and complete recovery, and feel helpless being on the other side of the country. For further information and updates, the Making Light blog is the place to go.

posted 8 October 2008 in News. no comments yet

Since there’s a new season of The Sarah Silverman Program starting tonight, it seemed like a good time for me to put an extended version of my 2002 interview with Silverman up in the archives.

A few notes:
1. Silverman kept doing the Jesus Is Magic jokes for many years–one of the things I liked about her having a TV show (aside from, you know, it being entertaining) is that it required her to come up with new material.
2. The sister who appears in this article is not the same sister who’s a member of the TV show cast.
3. Silverman had just started dating Jimmy Kimmel when I interviewed her; she acknowledged she had a boyfriend, but wouldn’t tell me who it was.
4. In retrospect, I don’t think Silverman actually tells many jokes about racism per se, although racism often appears in her act. I think she usually does material about being unaware and self-absorbed, and is at her funniest when she fuels the comedy with something serious/transgressive in the real world, such as racism or genocide.

“I love everything about strippers–except the way their butts get that metal-pole smell.”

posted 8 October 2008 in Archives, Articles. no comments yet

A lonely bugle plays over an image of Jon Bon Jovi–who’s looking morose, with his left hand on his cheek. Maybe Jon’s run out of bottles, and hence no longer knows what day of the week it is.

“Bon Jovi on the road,” says the Voiceover Guy. “They play their guts out.” The image changes from JBJ to fans going berserk in black and white; I think all this footage is taken from the “Wanted Dead or Alive” video. To demonstrate that it is indeed 1988, somebody holds up a lighter. We see the band taking a bow at the end of a concert. Voiceover Guy: “Then they move on. And where are they headed next?”

Over the backdrop of an American flag, there’s an inset color image of Jon Bon Jovi, surrounded by a sparkling golden circle. He’s wearing a black cowboy hat and pointing into the camera. “We’re coming to your town!” JBJ promises.

As the “Bad Medicine” synth part plays, Voiceover Guy continues, “MTV presents the Bon Jovi New Jersey tour, debuting January 26th in… Dallas. Watch for the dates for your town, because we’ll have them first. Plus exclusive road news, world premiere Bon Jovi videos, and a Bon Jovi contest in February!” We see close-ups of maps, and then some clips from the “Bad Medicine” video.

Cut to Bon Jovi in an MTV studio, saying in unison, “See us live and see us on MTV!” Only four of the five members are in this shot–maybe they ran out of Aqua Net just before they went on camera.

The next ad: “A serial killer has New York City by the throat….” Arrgh, it’s The January Man ad again. This makes the fifth airing so far. Thought for this airing: Was Kevin Kline one of the last American men able to pull off a mustache?

Michelob Dry: Another “What Dry Was / What Dry Is” spot. Different from the two previous spots, but the same general principle: hot, dusty scenes are replaced by a guy diving into the water and a sexy girl running her hands through her wet hair. “Michelob Dry: it’s brewed longer to start bold, finish clean, and refresh completely,” says the announcer, who doesn’t seem to understand that everybody’s looking at the girl.

“Heroes come in all sizes, but adventure doesn’t come any bigger than this.” Lots of half-baked swords-and-sorcery footage: an evil queen, a big castle, a midget. Why, it’s Willow, now available on videocassette! “At last, a family epic with a heart to match its spectacle.”

Another MTV bumper closes out the ad break: guys with colorful boxes on their heads while a breakbeat plays and animated graffiti scrolls by in the background.

posted 7 October 2008 in 1988. no comments yet

This website has been linked to by some interesting and worthy websites, but never from an online dispatch about a labor action by university professors in Mongolia. Until last week.

posted 7 October 2008 in Links, Self-reflexive. no comments yet

I first met Michael Stipe in late 1989 or early 1990; he was tagging along with KRS-One, who was giving a talk (about world history, I believe) at Yale University. (They had not yet released their collaboration on Out of Time’s “Radio Song.”) I introduced myself to KRS-One’s publicist, Leyla Turkkan. She had a request: could I get them some coffee? Indeed, I knew where the kitchen was. When I returned five minutes later with coffee, Stipe looked me directly in the eye and said, “Thank you, Gavin.” Keep in mind, we hadn’t been introduced: while I was gone, he had made a point of finding out my name so he could be polite to me when I returned.

The second time I met Stipe was this past May at the Hollywood Bowl, where R.E.M. was headlining. When I mentioned his long-ago graciousness, Rolling Stone’s photographer chimed in with his own story of Stipe being polite, and the singer became visibly embarrassed. “Yeah, yeah, I’m a nice guy,” he said, and quickly changed the subject.

I was at the Bowl to write a backstage report on the R.E.M. tour as it began; it’s winding down now, but still has some dates in October and November. Unfortunately, the magazine only had room for about half of what I wrote, so I’ve added the original version of my article to the archives here.

Not in either version was some of the arcana I learned from my day at the Bowl: “Ignoreland,” for example, which became a staple on the tour, was originally suggested as a joke by Scott McCaughey when the band was brainstorming potential songs via email, but happily, the band took the idea seriously. McCaughey was baffled as to what the droning sound in the background of “Ignoreland” was; producer Scott Litt told him it was a harmonica (and threw in the bonus tidbit that the song was originally called “Howler Monkey”).

And who’s “Jack Pruitt,” who gets name-checked in the closing track on Accelerate, “I’m Gonna DJ”? Stipe says he just made up the name. “There’s no Mr. Richards, either,” he added.

posted 6 October 2008 in Archives, Articles. 3 comments

I took this picture two days ago, on my way home from a dentist’s appointment.

Even in Los Angeles, walking has some fringe benefits.

posted 3 October 2008 in Photos. no comments yet

I had a surprise same-day deadline today, so the next installment of the 1988 countdown will have to wait until next week.

But I thought I’d share a list I came up with last week while I was waiting for Beck to hit the stage:

TOP FIVE MOST-FAMOUS MUSIC VENUES IN THE USA:
1. Carnegie Hall
2. The Grand Ole Opry
3. The Apollo Theater
4. The Hollywood Bowl
5. Red Rocks

I disqualified anyplace that wasn’t currently in business (see ya, CBGB’s) or where the primary use is sports (adieu, Rose Bowl).

If you disagree with any of my choices, or if you think I left someplace out, say so in the comments!

Topic for future consideration: what would be the top five outside the United States? Budokan, probably. And…?

posted 2 October 2008 in Tasty Bits. 8 comments