27 Days of Old School: #22 “Here I Go Again” (by Whitesnake)

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Arleigh

“An’ I’ve made up my mind, I ain’t wasting no more time
but here I go again, here I go again.”

Previous entry to our 27 Days of Old School I mentioned something about how hard rock and metal music videos were mostly the realm of hair metal bands. Videos all about loud, over-the-top costumes and personalities. bands such as Motley Crue and Poison just to name a few. Other bands would mimic the long, over-teased and hairsprayed look which gave hair metal it’s name. Coming in at #22 is a rock band from England that took on the look of your typical hair metal band, but had some deep roots in old school blues rock.

“Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake is a great song of the 80’s and part of it was due to an even more awesome video which included a young Tawny Kitaen, white lingerie and the frontman’s Jaguar XJ. Yes, the car used in the video is David Coverdale’s own car. Kitaen would later marry David which just took the whole thing full circle.

While Whitesnake and Coverdale made sure to take advantage of the hair metal look of the 80’s he definitely channeled Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant more than he did Vince Neil or Bret Michaels. And for that the world was and continues to be grateful.

27 Days of Old School: #21 “One” (by Metallica)

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Arleigh

“Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please God, wake me”

Yeah, my taste in music see-sawed back and forth from one end of the spectrum to the other. Yesterday, I reminisced about one of the best R&B ballads from my time as a teenager in high school during the late 80’s. Today, I focus on one of the songs on metal end which remains (in my opinion) one of the best metal songs ever put out there.

“One” was the final single released from Metallica’s fourth album, …And Justice For All.

The song also had the distinction of being the first ever Metallica song which was accompanied by a music video shot for it. Metallica had avoided making music videos of their songs for years. Their success as a band never needed the assistance that MTV could provide. They saw it as a badge of honor that they’ve never made a music video, but that change in January 1989 when the single for “One” was released and a music video followed soon after.

A music video that combined elements from the 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun and the band playing inside a warehouse. It was an effective video that more than convinced many skeptics that when done properly a metal music video was possible. This wasn’t a video using garish colors, over-the-top imagery of hair metal music videos. It was a video that was just as heavy and through-provoking as the song it was made for.

27 Days of Old School: #20 “Whip Appeal” (by Babyface)

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Arleigh

“‘Cause you’ve got that whip appeal
So work it on me”

It would be impossible not to include one of the most popular old school ballads from my era.

“Whip Appeal” was the third single off of singer-producer Babyface’s second R&B album, Tender Lover. The single released in early 1990 just in time for the song to put it’s melodic hooks into everyone who heard it for the first time. I can confirm that this was a staple of all high school dances and proms from 1990 and onwards. It was one of the go-to ballads that would get couples and potential ones to get on the dance floor and just sway to the song.

Ballads like this are truly old school. When I say they don’t make them like this anymore there’s some truth in that. The lyrics themselves are quite risque, but definitely more subtle than what R&B artists nowadays put into their own form of ballads. There’s a classic soulful sound to the music that harkens back to the Motown sounds of the 60’s that have been lacking in most R&B today.

A song that’s 25 years old and yet still planting it’s soulful hooks into old and new listeners alike.

27 Days of Old School: #19 “You’ll See” (by Madonna)

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Arleigh

“I have truth on my side,
You only have deceit”

For #18 on the KTSL Old School charts I had Madonna’s “Take A Bow” and what better way to follow it up but with it’s sequel which arrived as a single for her 1995 compilation album, Something to Remember.

“You’ll See” is another ballad that brings to conclusion the story of the mistress (Madonna) from “Take A Bow” and the Spanish bullfighter (Emilio Muñoz) with the tables now turned as the former takes control of her life and moves on while the latter sees his mistakes though too late.

This song has a Spanish musical influence to it’s production from the use of a Spanish guitar that begins the track and returns throughout the length of the song. While “Take A Bow” strained Madonna’s vocal skills to their limits it is the opposite for “You’ll See” where the song’s composition works to take advantage of Madonna’s vocal range and not trying to go beyond what she’s capable of.

27 Days of Old School: #18 “Take A Bow” (by Madonna)

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Arleigh

“No more masquerade, you’re one lonely star”

Pushing the line of what constitutes old school for me would be when the 1990’s started to move into the mid-1990’s. I was still young enough to remember high school, but already a couple years from having graduated from it in 1994. One of the last few old school songs that made the cut for this list was the one song where I fully bought into Madonna as an artist and not just a great performer.

“Take A Bow” was a single off of her Bedtime Stories album and it couldn’t be more opposite from her previous work. For one thing, it was written by R&B producer extraordinaire Babyface.

The video for this song was a nice touch in using the bullring in Antequera, Spain as the set with Madonna channeling golden age glam. Definitely not the sort of look her fans have been used to for years before this album.

It works as a ballad and the video itself turned out to be a nice short film that help tell the story behind the lyrics.

27 Days of Old School: #17 “Take On Me” (by A-ha)

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Arleigh

“Say after me
It’s no better to be safe than sorry”

The 1980’s was a decade of excess in every sense of the word, but it was also the decade that gave birth to so many one-hit wonders. One such wonder was a song that I never failed not to like no matter that I grew older. Even now I would sing-along to this song whenever I come across it on-line or I find a mixtape of it.

“Take On Me” by the Norwegian synthpop band A-ha was a simple enough song, but when heard by way of it’s groundbreaking music video which combined live-action scenes with rotoscoped pencil sketching of the video it became an instant classic. The video was just like most music videos of the 1980’s in that it tried to wrap a story around the song though most of the time I had no idea what was going on.

Despite the video making little sense I still consider it a nostalgic favorite of mine from the days when MTV actually played music videos.

27 Days of Old School: #16 “Gimme All Your Lovin'” (by ZZ Top)

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Arleigh

“Gimme all your lovin’
All your hugs and kisses too,
Gimme all your lovin’
Don’t let up until we’re through.”

I didn’t know what blues and blues rock was when I first heard it on the radio and then watched it on MTV. I did know that they had a real unique sound that was very much like rock, but also had a sort of country vibe to it.

One of the first bands of blues rock that I really ended up being a fan of was ZZ Top and it was mainly due to their three videos for three singles off of their Eliminator album. The first one that I saw was for the track “Gimme All Your Lovin’“.

The video itself was just very cool. It had everything a young boy was curious about. Cars, girls and rock and roll. Well, mostly it was the girls and the video to this song introduced the “Three ZZ Girls”.

It was much, much later in high school that I went back to listening to ZZ Top and their songs and realize that they were pretty much singing about sex, sex and more sex to the tune of Texas boogie blues. I ended up loving the band even more then.

27 Days of Old School: #15 “You Shook Me All Night Long” (by AC/DC)

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Arleigh

“Taking More Than Her Share
Had Me Fighting For Air
She Told Me To Come But I Was Already There”

You shook me all night long! Yes, on the KTSL charts at No. 15 is just one of the greatest rock songs ever. Hyperbole and all that, but this song is just awesome times awesome equals awesome.

AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” first appeared in their mega-blockbuster album in 1980, Back In Black. It wasn’t until 1986 when it was re-released as part of their Who Made Who album. It was during it’s re-release that I first heard and first saw the new video that accompanied the song. I think every teenage boy ended up glued to their TV’s whenever this video came on. They probably ended up taping the video for further repeat viewing.

As is their style, the song was just full of double entendres and the video itself just played up on the song’s lyrics. This video and song was just hard rock at it’s most 1980’s excess and debauchery and it was great.

27 Days of Old School: #14 “The Trooper” (by Iron Maiden)

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Arleigh

“The Bugle sounds and the charge begins”

I didn’t hear #14 the year it came out in 1983. I wasn’t too much into heavy metal at that age (still just 10). Now, once I got into high school and expanded my circle of friends (still not much but did include a couple who were into metal) I was finally introduced to heavy metal.

One of the first songs I really got into was Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” from their Piece of Mind album. Even from the first time hearing the song I had an idea what the song about. I was already a huge hoarder of all things military history in my teen years and I knew the song was about the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War.

What I didn’t realize at that time was that the song itself was using a famous poem about said charge. So, in addition to getting me into heavy metal (which waxed and waned in the years since until meeting necromoonyeti online), I ended up learning about Tennyson and his poem about that fateful charge of British Light Cavalry against a well-defended and heavily-armed Russian artillery battery.

Also, seeing the cover for “The Trooper” with Eddie in full light cavalry regalia waving a cavalry saber and a bloodied, tattered Union Jack just hit me right in my wheelhouse.

27 Days of Old School: #13 “Alone” (by Heart)

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Arleigh

“How do I get you alone”

Early last year I posted one of my favorite songs from my youth and it was by the band Heart. That song was “These Dreams” and still continues to be a favorite of mine to this day. My second favorite from this band is their power ballad from their 1987 album Bad Animals.

“Alone” is actually an even better song but “These Dreams” was just the song that first introduced me to the Wilson Sisters, Ann and Nancy. Where the earlier song was more folksy in it execution with “Alone” we get a full out power ballad that includes Nancy doing a guitar solo near the end. Ann Wilson crushes this song and just reinforces the fact that she remains one of the best, if not the best, female rock vocalist to ever belt out a song.

Oh, I still have a major crush on Nancy Wilson right up to this day. She’s definitely the first lady of rock.