Dream Academy

A notable one-hit-wonder: The Dream Academy's "Life In a Northern Town."
Really, other than liking the song a lot, there's not much to say about it.

Rhinestone Diapers

Elton John is one of the few unique individuals whose music spans inexhaustibly over the decades. There's no question that his best work was with Bernie Taupin in the 70s, but he definitely had notable work in the 60s, 80s, and later on.

Elton and his partner, David Furnish, have just adopted a baby boy. Needless to say, I am delighted and hope that everything works out for them. After reading interviews of people who have worked with Elton in the past, I have been given the strong impression that Elton can be a bit of a bitch and materialistic. Nothing would give Sir Elton a taste of the receiving end of that like fatherhood.

Good luck to them all!

Lady T

R.I.P. Teena Marie (Lady T)

She was called the Ivory Queen of Soul. When she joined Motown in 1979, her face did not appear on her first album because Motown worried that their black audience would be put off by a white performer. When her face appeared on a later album, her voice was so loved that race was not an issue.



Lady T: March 5, 1956 – December 26, 2010

Long Version

Today, tracks have many mixes. There's dance mixes, techno mixes, hip-hop mixes, etc. Many songs have a dozen different versions with slight to massive variations.

80s music, however... You had the one version played on the radio, sometimes a slightly different version on the album, and a live version (listened only to devoted fans who loved that particular song and happily put up with the concert noise.)

And then there was the long or "extended" version.

This is when the artist would take their latest hit and stretch it our long enough to fill an entire side of a 12 inch LP. This was heaven for those who loved music stretching as long as they could go. To others, it was like listening to ten minutes of the Greatest Hits of Yoko Ono.

Duran Duran fans swooned with excitement when the epic hit, "The Reflex," was extended. Really, one cannot say "Ta-na-na-na-na-na" enough.



Billy Idol was not satisfied with calling his remixed hit, "To Be A Lover," extended. This is the "Mother of Mercy" version. Works for me!

Born... where?

I love parodies. Although Weird Al Yankovic is the King of Song Parodies and I love his music to pieces, Cheech Marin's little remake of Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" is definitely one of my favorites.

Ban This!

Controversy anyone? Any attention, even negative attention, can be the best thing to happen to an artist's career.

When George Michael left Wham! for a solo career, he started it off with the infamously titled "I Want Your Sex."

The song itself is rather bland but the juicy title caused such outrage that many radio stations (both US and UK) banned it. George Michael's solo career soared! Everyone wanted to buy a copy of it because simply because of it being called "immoral."



I'll be publishing a book soon. For the record, it's immoral and should be banned. Tell everyone about this outrage.

Lights Out...

Last night there was a power outage in my neighborhood. It was very dark. So what does one do?

Dance to a little Peter Wolf...

Dreams Have Frozen Crystal In The Morning

It's December, a time when we hear the usual holiday music playing; about 300 artists singing their own versions of the wide variety of 7 or 8 songs that are either about baby Jesus, Santa, or winter.

I'm one of those odd individuals who, once in a while, would like to hear a different song concerning the season.

This is a beautiful and mournful song by Duran Duran (video is fan-made) that gives the feel of a dead and frozen world, though I remember reading an interview from one of the band members that it's largely about the sadness of baby Jesus growing up to face dark times and death and of the helplessness his mother must have felt.




Yes, I know of the "happy" ending, but Duran Duran keeps the story real with "Winter Marches On" by reminding us of the sad details that are frozen in time.

Talk...

Sometimes a good video has nothing to do with the song but contains something cool to look at. This little gem from Talk Talk has animals.

This song was covered by No Doubt in 2003 but I do like the original better.