This may be the first music video of the COVID-19 era.
This song was recorded about a year ago, for the Rolling Stones’s next album. That’s a project that the Stones are still working on but, over the past month, Living In A Ghost Town has suddenly become very relevant. This video was shot around the ghost towns in which we are all currently living.
Just think, all of the new and edgy bands haven’t had anything to say about the coronavirus. The Rolling Stones had a lot to say and that’s why they’re still the world’s greatest rock and roll band.
“I wrote the words later for the opening scene of Wim Wenders’Until the End of the World. The movie is supposed to take place in the year 2000, so I spent a lot of time trying to image music of the near future: post-rock sludge with lyrics sponsored by Coke and Pepsi? Music created by machines with human shouts of agony and betrayal thrown in? Faux Appalachian ballads, the anti-tech wave? The same sounds and licks from the 60s and 70s regurgitated yet again by a new generation of samplers? The Milli Vanilli revival? Rappin’ politicos… sell your soul to the beat, y’all? Well, it was daunting… so I figured, hell with it, I’d imagine Talking Heads doing a reunion LP in the year 2000, and them sounding just like they used to.”
— David Byrne on Sax and Violins
Sax and Violins was one of Talking Heads’s final hits before the band broke up in 1991. It was also one of their final videos and it seems appropriate that the song sounds like both a warning and a celebration. Whenever I hear “Mom and Pop, they will fuck you up,” I wonder if that was a description of the band’s inner dynamic, which had become Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz vs David Byrne by the time of the time of the band’s break-up.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the video is all David Byne, with the band’s lead singer singing the song with his trademark look of detachment on his face.
Apparently, this song was inspired by a music industry cocktail party that the band attended. It was also apparently inspired by Bob Dylan’s feelings towards the industry, though Dylan was not involved in recording or performing the song.
As for the video, what’s interesting is how literally it interprets the song. Seriously, the poor guy really is stuck in the middle and he really does have clowns and jokers to either side of him!
Earlier today, COVID-19 claimed the life of singer-songwriter Adam Schlesinger. Schlesinger was only 52 years old.
Adam Schlesinger may be best known for his work with Fountains of Wayne but he also wrote and produced songs for several films. He was Oscar nominated for writing the title song to That Thing You Do, one of the best rock and roll films of the 90s. The song was not only catchy but it was also the epitome of everything that was great about pop music. With this song, Schlesinger and the film paid tribute to every single band that has ever had a one-hit wonder.
In tribute to Adam Schlesinger, here’s That Thing You Do:
Though everyone is probably most familiar with Joan Jett’s cover of the song, I Love Rock N Roll was originally recorded by a London-based group called Arrows.
Though Arrows were only together for three years (from 1974 to 1977), they were popular with British teenagers and they even had their own TV show on Granada Television, where they would play their own songs and introduce other acts. This video for I Love Rock N Roll comes from that television show. This is probably from the same episode of the show that Joan Jett saw in 1976 while she and the Runaways were on tour in the UK. She liked the song so much that she covered it when she made her first solo album. Her version, of course, went on to become a huge hit.
(As popular as they were in the UK, Arrows were basically unknown in the United States. During the time they were together, they only performed in the U.S. once and that was for an episode of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert in 1975. When Jett released her version of I Love Rock N Roll, most American listeners were unaware that it was a cover.)
The song was written by Alan Merrill, who was the lead singer for Arrows. Sadly, Merrill, who was sick with COVID-19, died on Sunday. Today’s music video of the day is dedicated to his memory.
Are you living in a dystopian future that was apparently inspired by Blade Runner?
Well, don’t worry. Spice Girls are here!
One thing that I like about the Spice Girls is that you could always sing along to their songs. The other thing I like about them is that, regardless of how simple their music may have been, their music videos were almost always ludicrously overproduced. That’s the case here, where Spice Up Your Life is transformed into an anthem for revolution.
Spice Up Your Life was directed by Marcus Nispel, who has subsequently directed a few features film that I didn’t care much for.
For the record, even under lockdown, I’m still dancing.
Of course, now, I have to either go do it in the backyard or clear some space in the living room. But that’s okay. It’s not important where you dance. Instead, it’s just important that you do it.
