AMV of the Day: Moonlight Requiem (Sailor Moon Crystal)

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Arleigh

It’s almost that time of the years when Through the Shattered Lens switches gears and goes into full dark fantasy and horror. While there will be the smattering posts that doesn’t dabble in all things dark and scary, it’s a month that’s become a yearly tradition and one that several writers on-site seem to enjoy. Though no one enjoys October at Through the Shattered Lens more than co-founder Lisa Marie Bowman. She’s the dark mother to all the writers at the site.

While it’s still not that month of darkness here’s a small taste of the sort of dark themes many of the posts will end up having during October.

The latest AMV of the Day comes courtesy of video creator Chiisus. The video manages to take the dark aspect of what too many outsiders to the anime scene as a light and kiddy cartoon: Sailor Moon Crystal.

This particular amv (anime music video) is titled Moonlight Requiem and combines the more dark fantasy side of Sailor Moon Crystal with the symphonic metal band’s Within Temptation and the melodic vocalizing of it’s frontman Sharon den Adel. The song chosen by Chiisus is one that many other amv creators have used in the past: “See Who I Am.” In fact, it’s the song to one of my all-time favorite anime music video: “Alchanum” by Rider4Z.

This time the song is used for Sailor Moon Crystal and, boy, if the song doesn’t fit in well with the scenes chosen for the video.

Anime: Sailor Moon Crystal

Song: “See Who I Am” by Within Temptation

Creator: Chiiisus

Past AMVs of the Day

In Case You Missed It…

Posted on September 12, 2016 by gary loggins

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Remember Toni Basil? She had a mega-hit record back in the 80’s with the infectious pop song “Mickey”. The multi-talented Miss Basil’s been around forever, known for her choreography on TV’s SHINDIG, the films THE TAMI SHOW and The Monkees’ HEAD (where she shared the spotlight with Davy Jones). She choreographed two David Bowie tours (Diamond Dogs and Glass Spider), directed videos with Talking Heads’ David Byrne (“Once in a Lifetime”), and has appeared as an actress in VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS, PAJAMA PARTY, EASY RIDER, and FIVE EASY PIECES, among others.

Recently the 72 year old, who co-founded the street dance group The Lockers way back in 1971, strutted her stuff at a Los Angeles dance workshop, and the crowd of young kids went nuts! The video has gone viral and in case you missed it, I’d like to share it with you now:

Yeah! You’ve still got the…

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The Wild & Wacky World of Dickie Goodman

Posted on September 6, 2016 by gary loggins

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“Sampling” in popular music today is as common as a cold, with hip-hop and electronica artists cutting in bits and pieces from other artist’s songs to create something entirely new. You could say Dickie Goodman was “The Godfather of Sampling” and not be far from the truth. Goodman and his partner-in-crime Bill Buchanan were the originators of “break-in” records, novelty discs that spliced snippets of contemporary hit tunes into comic scenarios, starting with the 1956 smash “The Flying Saucer Pts. 1 & 2”.

Goodman was born in Brooklyn on April 19, 1934. He was a struggling young songwriter when he and Buchanan came up with the idea of producing a comedy record based on Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast, using lines from rock records as answers to man-on-the-street questions. Goodman played the DJ while Buchanan acted as reporter “John Cameron Cameron”, a play on noted newsman and Timex pitchman John Cameron…

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Song of the Day: Paradise City (by Guns N’ Roses)

Posted on August 14, 2016 by Arleigh

One cannot reminisce about the 80’s music scene without including the biggest (and most dangerous) band of that decade. Well, the band and it’s handlers sure thought of them that way. The band I speak of is Guns N’ Roses. this was the band that dared to put the word hard back into hard rock after the glam metal scene began to turn it into a joke.

Nothing against glam metal. Mötley Crüe was and is a favorite rock band of the 80’s for me. Yet, even they succumbed to the hairspray overload that glam metal would turn into. These bands became more about their look (especially in their music videos) than actually playing good music.

Guns N’ Roses still had the teased hair, but their music when they released their Appetite for Destruction album was a breath of fresh air in the hard rock scene and would grab glam metal fans from the vapors of hairnet spray into the dark, dingy bluesy lounges and then the overwhelming open air arenas.

I’ve already featured two of the bands most famous tracks from their first album, “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine”, so it’s time to give their third biggest hit from this album time to shine.

“Paradise City” is a place we all should aspire to visit.

Paradise City

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home (Oh, won’t you please take me home?)

Just an urchin livin’ under the street
I’m a hard case that’s tough to beat
I’m your charity case so buy me somethin’ to eat
I’ll pay you at another time
Take it to the end of the line

Rags to riches or so they say
You gotta keep pushin’ for the fortune and fame
You know it’s, it’s all a gamble when it’s just a game
You treat it like a capital crime
Everybody’s doin’ their time

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home, yeah, yeah?

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home

Strapped in the chair of the city’s gas chamber
Why I’m here, I can’t quite remember
The surgeon general says it’s hazardous to breathe
I’d have another cigarette but I can’t see
Tell me who ya gonna believe

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah, yeah
Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home, yeah?

So far away
So far away
So far away
So far away

Captain America’s been torn apart
Now he’s a court jester with a broken heart
He said “Turn me around and take me back to the start”
I must be losin’ my mind, are you blind?
I’ve seen it all a million times

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah, yeah

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home?

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home, yeah, yeah

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home, home

Oh, I want to go, I want to know
Oh, won’t you please take me home?
I want to see how good it can be
Oh, won’t you please take me home?

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Take me home

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home?

Take me down, take me down
Oh, won’t you please take me home?
I want to see how good it can be
Oh, won’t you please take me home?

I want to see how good it can be
Oh, oh take me home

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
Oh, won’t you please take me home?

I want to know, I want to know
Oh, won’t you please take me home?
Yeah, baby

Song of the Day: 1980’s Edition

Rosanna! Rosanna!

Posted on August 10, 2016 by gary loggins

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Rosanna Arquette turns 57 today! The beautiful granddaughter of comedian Cliff Arquette (aka Charlie Weaver of HOLLYWOOD SQUARES fame) began her career in the 70’s with TV mini-series like THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST HOME and THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG, which brought her acclaim playing Nicole Baker in the adaptation of Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel based on the Gary Gilmore case.

Soon Rosanna hit the big screen, costarring in John Sayles’ BABY IT’S YOU, then her signature role as the bored housewife who takes a walk on the wild side in DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, the first major film for pop princess Madonna. Rosanna did some good movies (SILVERADO, 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE), then her career took somewhat of a nose dive, and she wound up in Europe a few years. Quentin Tarantino cast her as the dope dealer’s wife in the seminal PULP FICTION, and since then Rosanna has continued…

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Rockin’ in the Film World #7: The Beatles in A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (United Artists 1964)

Posted on August 2, 2016 by gary loggins

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(It’s a Sunday night, February 9, 1964. Everybody’s watching THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW to get a peek at this new phenomenon called Beatlemania. The adults in the room are disgusted, saying things like “They look like a bunch of girls!”, “They must be sissies!”, and “Yeah yeah yeah? What the hell kind of song is that??” They just don’t get it. But the six-year-old kid watching along does, and a lifelong obsession with rock’n’roll is born…)

From the opening shot of the Fab 4 being chased down the street by screaming teenyboppers to the final clanging guitar notes of the title tune, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT makes a joyful noise introducing The Beatles to the silver screen. John, Paul, George, and Ringo come off as a mod version of the Marx Brothers with their anarchic antics, guided by the deft hand of director Richard Lester. Shot in cinema verite style, this zany, practically…

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Song of the Day: Waiting For A Girl Like You (by Foreigner)

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Arleigh

After a week hiatus we’re back to reminiscing about and traveling the 80’s nostalgia track with another “Song of the Day” from my youth during the 1980’s.

This time it’s a power ballad from the British-American hard rock band, Foreigner. Yes, that band whose songs have become a staple of Pop 40’s and soft rock radio stations for a couple decades now were originally a hard rock band. While their popularity was never in doubt with the hard rock crowd of the late 70’s and as the decade rolled into the 80’s, it would take a power ballad to find them worldwide appeal from an audience that one wouldn’t associate with hard rock aficionados.

That song would be “Waiting For A Girl Like You” and this power ballad would be one of the band’s biggest hits and a constant requests on soft rock stations. While hard rock bands were never averse to composing power ballads for albums, they usually weren’t the major hits like their harder edged songs. With Foreigner, once the popularity of this song reached global proportions it would dramatically change the band’s future work.

They would become a band more known for their power ballads than their hard rock roots. Some fans of the early version of Foreigner probably didn’t like the change much, but the millions of new fans who did discover the band due to the never-ending radio airplay of their power ballads probably didn’t know what they were missing.

Now a new generation of music lovers will be discovering this band and this song due to the critically-acclaimed and surprise hit series Stranger Things on Netflix.

Waiting For A Girl Like You

So long
I’ve been looking too hard, I’ve been waiting too long
Sometimes I don’t know what I will find
I only know it’s a matter of time
When you love someone
When you love someone

It feels so right, so warm and true
I need to know if you feel it too

Maybe I’m wrong
Won’t you tell me if I’m coming on too strong?
This heart of mine has been hurt before
This time I wanna be sure

I’ve been waiting for a girl like you
To come into my life
I’ve been waiting for a girl like you (waiting for a love)
And a love that will survive
I’ve been waiting (I’ve been waiting) for someone new
To make me feel alive
Yeah, waiting for a girl like you (waiting for a girl)
To come into my life

You’re so good
When we make love, it’s understood
It’s more than a touch or a word we say
Only in dreams could it be this way
When you love someone
Yeah, really love someone

Now, I know it’s right
From the moment I wake up till deep in the night
There’s nowhere on earth that I’d rather be
Than holding you tenderly

I’ve been waiting for a girl like you
To come into my life
I’ve been waiting for a girl like you (waiting for a love)
For a love that will survive

I’ve been waiting (I’ve been waiting) for someone new
To make me feel alive
Yeah, waiting (waiting) for a girl like you (waiting for a girl)
To come into my life

(Ah)
(Ah)
I’ve been waiting (Ah)
Waiting for you
(Ah) Ooh, I’ve been waiting
(Waiting) I’ve been waiting, yeah

(I’ve been waiting for a girl like you)
(I’ve been waiting) Won’t you come into my life?
My life
So long (Waiting for a girl like you)

Song of the Day: 1980’s Edition

Song of the Day: Kyrie (by Mr. Mister)

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Arleigh

There was one band during the 80’s that everyone seemed to dismiss, yet their album were selling out. It was almost as if no one wanted to admit that they enjoyed listening to this band. The band I’m talking about is Mr. Mister. Yes, even the name sounds like something that we might consider today as being too hipsterish. A name made to sound to be oh so clever.

Yet, Mr. Mister had two hit albums that many bands of this era couldn’t admit to having. The 1980’s was an era of great music, but it was also one where way too many were also quite disposable. People nowadays complain about how music has no soul and that it was all corporate driven. Well, this era has nothing on the Reagan-era of the music industry.

Mr. Mister would pump out two hit albums before breaking up in the late 80’s with most of the band members joining up with different Christian rock and music groups down the years.

One Mr. Mister song that was catchy and remained so would be their hit single “Kyrie”.

To a teenager of the time the song was memorable and easy to sing along to. It’s later on as teens became adults that we’ve come to realize that the song itself was a Christian liturgy prayer and the whole song was just a prayer backed by pop rock melodies. It’s no wonder that the band’s member would find their second wind in the music business as part of Christian rock groups.

Kyrie

Kýrie, eléison
Kýrie, eléison
Kýrie

The wind blows hard against this mountainside
Across the sea into my soul
It reaches into where I cannot hide
Setting my feet upon the road

My heart is old, it holds my memories
My body burns a gem-like flame
Somewhere between the soul and soft machine
Is where I find myself again

Kýrie, eléison
Down the road that I must travel
Kýrie, eléison
Through the darkness of the night

Kýrie, eléison
Where I’m going, will you follow?
Kýrie, eléison
On a highway in the light

When I was young, I thought of growing old
Of what my life would mean to me
Would I have followed down my chosen road
Or only wished what I could be

Kýrie, eléison
Down the road that I must travel
Kýrie, eléison
Through the darkness of the night

Kýrie, eléison
Where I’m going, will you follow?
Kýrie, eléison
On a highway in the light

Whoa, oh, oh
Whoa, oh, oh
Whoa, oh, oh
Whoa, oh, oh

Kýrie, eléison
Down the road that I must travel
Kýrie, eléison
Through the darkness of the night

Kýrie, eléison
Where I’m going, will you follow?
Kýrie, eléison
On a highway in the light

Kýrie, eléison
Down the road that I must travel (will you follow?)
Kýrie, eléison
Through the darkness of the night

Kýrie, eléison
Where I’m going, will you follow? (will you follow)
Kýrie, eléison
On a highway in the light

Kýrie, eléison
Down the road that I must travel (yeah)
Kýrie, eléison
Through the darkness of the night

Kýrie, eléison
Where I’m going, will you follow? (will you follow?)
Kýrie, eléison
On a highway in the light

Kýrie, eléison
Down the road that I must travel (will you follow?)
Kýrie, eléison
Through the darkness of the night

Kýrie, eléison
Where I’m going, will you follow? (will you follow)

Song of the Day: 1980’s Edition

Song of the Day: Never (by Heart)

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Arleigh

To say that the Wilson Sisters (Nancy and Ann) who fronted the band Heart will forever be crushes would be an understatement. These ladies, for a growing teenager whose hormones were on overdrive, were a surprising find during the early years of MTV when they actually showed music videos. The sisters and their band had already made their bones during the 70’s but for most boys and girls of my era it would be the “Big Hair” Era of hard rock during the 1980’s that would introduce Nancy and Ann Wilson to a new generation of fans.

I was already on board the Wilson train (Nancy being my favorite) with their two power ballads from their 1985 self-titled album, “Alone” and “These Dreams”, but these ladies were not just about power ballads. They could rock out with the best of their male counterparts. The fact that both Ann and Nancy were accomplished singers in their own right put them heads and shoulders above most of the hard rock frontmen. Ann Wilson could belt out a tune, hold a note for ages and not lose any power behind those vocals. Nancy would do back-up duties, but no less impressive as a soprano, but it would be her work as lead guitarist that would mesmerize a certain young teenager.

It would be in the track “Never” that the band busts out their hard rock chops. They sure don’t make bands like these anymore. These ladies rocked then and they rock now. Rock on, ladies!

Never

Hey baby I’m talking to you
Stop yourself and listen
Some things you can never never choose
Even if you try, yeah
You’re bangin’ your head again
‘Cause somebody won’t let you in
One chance . . . one love
Your chance to let me know

We can’t go on
Just running away
If we stay any longer
We will surely never get away
Anything you want—we can make it happen
Stand up and turn around
Never let them shoot us down
Never—Never
Never—Never run away

Hey baby you know it’s true
Why you bother lying when you know
That you want it too
Don’t you dare deny me
Walk those legs right over here
Give me what I’m dying for
One chance . . . one love
Hold me down never let me go

We can’t go on
Just running away
If we wait any longer
We will surely never get away
Anything you want—we can make it happen
Stand up and turn around
Never let them shoot us down
Never—Never
Never—Never run away
Never—Never
Never—Never run away

Hey baby I’m talking to you
Stop yourself and listen
Some things you can never choose
Even if you try, yeah
You’re bangin’ your head again
‘Cause somebody won’t let you in
One chance . . . one love
Your chance to let me know

We can’t go on
Just running away
If we stay any longer
We will surely never get away

OO OO Never
OO OO Never

We can’t go on Never
We can’t go on Never

OO OO Never
OO OO Never

We can’t go on Never
We can’t go on Never

Song of the Day: 1980’s Edition

Song of the Day: Hazy Shade of Winter (by The Bangles)

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Arleigh

Another song from my youth during the 80’s is the classic rock song from the all-girl rock band The Bangles. It makes an appearance in a later episode of Netflix’s Stranger Things, but it’s better known as the unofficial anthem for the drug-fueled drama Less Than Zero starring a very young (and rumors abound of being very drugged out) Robert Downey, Jr.

Less Than Zero was adapted from a novel written by the 80’s agent provocateur Bret Easton Ellis. It definitely was part of the list of 80’s films that all the teens wanted to see. It being rated-R meant double the temptation. It was a film that both celebrated and condemned the Reagan-era yuppie culture that was fueled by excess amount of drugs, alcohol and sex.

The song “Hazy Shade of Winter” would become part of the film’s soundtrack and The Bangles had been tasked with covering the Simon & Garfunkel song of the same title. Where the former was more attuned to the duo’s folk sensibilities, the cover by The Bangles would put a harder edge to the song which made for a nice complement to the rough edges of the film.

Oh, I still have a major crush on Sussana Hoffs to this very day.

Hazy Shade of Winter

Time, time, time
See what’s become of me…

Time, time, time
See what’s become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please

Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a Hazy Shade of Winter

Hear the Salvation Army Band
Down by the riverside
It’s bound to be a better ride
Than what you’ve got planned
Carry a cup in your hand

Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a Hazy Shade of Winter

Hang onto your hopes my friend
That’s an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again

Look around
Grass is high
Fields are ripe
It’s the springtime of my life

Seasons change with their scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won’t you stop and remember me

Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky
Is a Hazy Shade of Winter

Look around
Leaves are brown
There’s a patch of snow on the ground
Look around
Leaves are brown
There’s a patch of snow on the ground
Look around
Leaves are brown
There’s a patch of snow on the ground