Category Archives: Music
Song of the Day: Jill’s Theme by Ennio Morricone
Today’s song of the day comes from Ennio Morricone’s score for Once Upon A Time In The West.
Music Video Of the Day: Missing You by John Waite (1984, directed by Kort Falkenberg III)
This video was shot in downtown Los Angeles, near Pershing Square and its popularity on MTV helped to push the song to the top of the US charts. The song was inspired by Waite’s feelings while he was working and away from his wife. Myself, I’ll always think about it as being the song playing on the radio while I was driving a white Cadillac across the beach in Vice City. Unfortunately, I got so into the song that I drove the car straight into the ocean. That was when I discovered that Tommy Vercetti couldn’t swim.
Enjoy!
Song of the Day: Sweetly, Oh Sweetly by Riz Ortolani and Diana Corsini
Today’s song of the day comes from the soundtrack of Ruggeo Deodato’s The House On The Edge of the Park. Composed by Riz Ortolani and sung by Diana Corsini, Sweetly Oh Sweetly may sound like an innocent song but its use in Deodato’s controversial film is anything but that.
Music Video of the Day: Los Angeles by Frank Black (1993, directed by ????)
“I think I finally figured out my new song, ‘Los Angeles’, this morning. They got one in South Patagonia, they got another Los Angeles in Mexico, they got so many Los Angeleses. Bangkok has a Los Angeles, I read recently. I imagine there’s a lot of places in the world named City Of Angels. I wrote about a futuristic one too: ‘They got one in 2525, where it’s just like a beehive.’ I mean that kind of Los Angeles you might see in a film like Blade Runner.”
— Frank Black in VOX, Issue 30, March 1993
In 1993, after the Pixies broke up for the first time, lead singer Black Francis renamed himself Frank Black and embarked on a solo career. Los Angeles was the first single to be released off of Black’s first solo album, Frank Black. According to Black, the song was meant to take place in a futuristic version of Los Angeles, much like the one seen in Blade Runner. The first time I ever heard the song, I misheard nearly every lyric and I thought it was about a man who Black met, a good man who worked as an insurance agent. (For some reason, my mind always heard “sailing and shoring” as “selling insurance.”)
The video makes it clear that Los Angeles is meant to take place in some sort of future, with Black riding a hovercraft through the desert and looking like an extra from a Mad Max movie. I’m not sure who directed this video. Some sources hint that the video was directed by Black himself but I haven’t been able to find any definite confirmation.
After releasing two solo albums, Black went on to front Frank Black and The Catholics before reuniting with the Pixies and eventually changing his name back to Black Francis.
Black Francis’s real name? Charles Thompson IV.
Enjoy!
Song of the Day: Surprise Attack by James Horner
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan not only had the best battles and the most heart-breaking death but it also had the best score. James Horner’s score was as important a character as Kirk, Khan, Spock, and all the rest.
This piece was called Surprise Attack.
Music Video of the Day: King Nothing by Metallica (1997, directed by Matt Mahurin)
The music video for King Nothing was shot in Park City, Utah in December of 1996. It was directed by photographer Matt Mahurin. Mahurin directed his first music video in 1986 and he’s been churning them out ever since. Among the artists that Mahurin has worked with: Disturbed, Goo Goo Dolls, Marilyn Manson, Tom Waits, Alice in Chains, Queensryche, R.E.M., Tracy Chapman, and U2.
Enjoy!
Song of the Day: Convoy by C.W. McCall
On this Labor Day, our song of the day is dedicated to all of the independents out there. Convoy is usually described (somewhat dismissively) as being either a one-hit wonder or a novelty song but seriously, “We just ain’t gonna pay no toll,” is one of the greatest lyrics ever written and, in this post-COVID era, it’s a reminder that the human spirit was never meant to be regulated.
Someone tell the authoritarians. Someone warn the bureaucrats. Someone alert anyone who thinks they have the right to tell other people how to live their lives. We’ve got a mighty convoy and it’s a beautiful sight.
Ah, breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck. You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c’mon? Ah, yeah, 10-4, Pig Pen, fer shure, fer shure. By golly, it’s clean clear to Flag Town, c’mon. Yeah, that’s a big 10-4 there, Pig Pen, yeah, we definitely got the front door, good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy…
Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth pullin’ logs
Cab-over Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin’ hogs
We is headin’ for bear on I-10
‘Bout a mile outta Shaky Town
I says, “Pig Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck”
“And I’m about to put the hammer down”
‘Cause we got a little convoy
Rockin’ through the night
Yeah, we got a little convoy
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
‘Cross the USA, convoy
Ah, breaker, Pig Pen, this here’s the Duck. And, you wanna back off them hogs? Yeah, 10-4, ’bout five mile or so. Ten, roger. Them hogs is gettin’ in-tense up here
By the time we got into Tulsa Town
We had eighty-five trucks in all
But they’s a roadblock up on the cloverleaf
And them bears was wall-to-wall
Yeah, them smokies is thick as bugs on a bumper
They even had a bear in the air
I says, “Callin’ all trucks, this here’s the Duck
We about to go a-huntin’ bear”
‘Cause we got a great big convoy
Rockin’ through the night
Yeah, we got a great big convoy
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
‘Cross the USA, convoy
Ah, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that, Pig Pen? Negatory, Pig Pen; you’re still too close. Yeah, them hogs is startin’ to close up my sinuses. Mercy sakes, you better back off another ten
Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket sled on rails
We tore up all of our swindle sheets
And left ’em settin’ on the scales
By the time we hit that Chi-town
Them bears was a-gettin’ smart
They’d brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinois National Guard
There’s armored cars and tanks and jeeps
And rigs of ev’ry size
Yeah, them chicken coops was full’a bears
And choppers filled the skies
Well, we shot the line and we went for broke
With a thousand screamin’ trucks
An’ eleven long-haired Friends a’ Jesus
In a chartreuse micra-bus
Ah, Rubber Duck to Sodbuster, come over. Yeah, 10-4, Sodbuster? Lissen, you wanna put that micra-bus right behind that suicide jockey? Yeah, he’s haulin’ dynamite, and he needs all the help he can get
Well, we laid a strip for the Jersey shore
And prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn’t have a dog-goned dime
I says, “Pig Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck
We just ain’t a-gonna pay no toll”
So we crashed the gate doing ninety-eight
I says “Let them truckers roll, 10-4”
‘Cause we got a mighty convoy
Rockin’ through the night
Yeah, we got a mighty convoy
Ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on and join our convoy
Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way
We gonna roll this truckin’ convoy
‘Cross the USA
Convoy! Ah, 10-4, Pig Pen, what’s your twenty?
Convoy! Omaha? Well, they oughta know what to do with them hogs out there fer shure. Well, mercy
Convoy! sakes, good buddy, we gonna back on outta here, so keep the bugs off your glass and the bears off your…
Convoy! tail. We’ll catch you on the flip-flop. This here’s the Rubber Duck on the side
Convoy! We gone. ‘Bye,’bye
Music Video of the Day: Money for Nothing by Dire Straits (1985, directed by Steve Barron)
Here’s a music video for anyone who is working hard on Labor Day.
In a 1984 interview, Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler had this to say about the song that would not only become the band’s biggest hit but also one of the best known videos from the early years of MTV:
The lead character in “Money for Nothing” is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He’s singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real….
According to Knopfler, he was in a New York appliance store when he heard a man who worked there complaining about all of the TVs in the shop being tuned to MTV. (Urban legend has it that the man was watching a Motley Crue video.) Knopfler wrote down the man’s exact words, which included the famous line about “money for nothing and chicks for free,” and later set them to music. (Knopfler also included the man’s controversial description of a rock star as being “that little faggot with the earring and the makeup.” In 2011, 26 years after the song’s initial release, that line would lead to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council banning the song from being played on Canadian radio stations.) After hearing the band’s initial recording of the song, Sting suggested the “I want my MTV” line and was rewarded with a co-writer credit.
The ground-breaking music video was one of the first to feature computer animation. Under the direction of Steve Barron, Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair (who later founded Rainmaker Studios) created the animation using a Bosch FGS-4000 CGI system and a Quantel Paintbox system.
Money for Nothing spent 3 weeks as the number one single in the United States and the video was named Video of the Year at the 3rd Annual MTV Music Awards.
Brad’s Song of the Day – “Death Wish” from CHARLES BRONSON – More Than a Vigilante – THE MUSICAL! 🎶
My wife and I spent some time at the pool at the country club today to celebrate the end of summer. I took Michael Winner’s autobiography, “Winner Takes All,” to read while Stacy worked on her tan. It’s an enjoyable read, and Charles Bronson is featured prominently throughout the book as he starred in 6 films directed by Winner. Of course, their most popular collaborations were the first 3 DEATH WISH films. My friend Henry Brooks wrote “CHARLES BRONSON: More than a Vigilante, THE MUSICAL” a couple of years back. One of his songs is all about Winner, Bronson and their blockbuster collaboration! It seemed appropriate to share that with you today. Enjoy, my friends! And by the way, that’s actor Steven Weber playing Charles Bronson!
Through the Shattered Lens 