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  • A Purple Celebration: Happy Birthday, Mr. Nelson


    Today, June 7th, 2008, is Prince Rogers Nelson’s 50th birthday. And despite the contrarian, slightly grumpy figure he’s cut over the last couple of years, no one can deny that these 62 inches of dynamite are responsible for some of the best music made over the past thirty years.

    In an age where most artists or bands are lucky to cut two or three classic albums, Prince has made at least four absolutely perfect (Dirty Mind, 1999, Purple Rain and Sign ‘o The Times) albums, with another 5 or 6 that come close (Controversy, Parade and The Gold Experience chief among those). He’s the total package-one of the all-time greats on two instruments (guitar and keyboards), a strong songwriter, an amazing entertainer and a top-shelf vocalist.

    Turn on pop radio today and every song that doesn’t sound like Michael Jackson sounds like Prince. The hollow drum-machine suound that he perfected in the early Eighties is still in just about every Neptunes, Timbaland or will.i.am production. Justin Timberlake can talk shit all he wants, but all “FutureSex/LoveSounds” is, is a Prince album with Michael Jackson vocals.

    Shit, how many artists are so bad ass that you can put together a greatest hits album of songs that he’s written and/or produced but didn’t sing and it would still be as bangin’ as a greatest hits album comprised solely of music he wrote/produced/performed?

    Since Mr. Nelson is notoriously prickly about people posting footage of him on the web, I won’t dig through Youtube to find video footage of him. However, we can’t celebrate the man properly without at least some music, so enjoy some excellent music that while not fronted by the man, contained his involvement.

    Stevie Nicks’ “Stand Back” was not only heavily influenced by Prince’s “1999”, but the man himself played keyboards on this record and got a co-write credit for his handiwork.

    “A Love Bizarre” is essentially a Prince song. He sings every line along with Sheila E. and adlibs enough that the song really should be considered a duet.

    Maybe someday, someone will be nice enough to release The Family’s album on CD. For those unaware, The Family was Prince’s attempt to a) keep a band in his stable after the dissolution of The Time and b) “get some of that Duran Duran money”. Their 1985 album is a highly soughty-after classic, not only because it’s a great album but also because it contains the original version of “Nothing Compares 2 U”, which went on to become a huge #1 for Sinead O’ Connor.

    Happy birthday, Mr. Nelson. How many guys out there can rock the shit out of Radiohead’s “Creep” in high heels while only being 15 years away from social security?

  • Reality Rock Bottom Starring Tiffany

    Are reality shows where celebrities go to die, or is it where they can continue to stay in the public eye for just that much longer? Is being on a reality show just enough visibility to keep your back catalog selling if you were a former music artist? Or does it turn old fans away?

    Several weeks ago, word was out that CMT (Country Music Television) was going to give the go ahead to a wrestling reality show starring none other than Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea). It was thought that the show could be canceled because of the recent bad light shed on Hogan’s family based his son Nick’s arrest for recklessly driving and crashing, leaving his best friend in need of lifetime medical care and in a nursing home.

    It not only doesn’t look to be canceled, but it even has a cast, per this Yahoo! story. Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling is going to be running wild on us soon.

    Looking up and down the cast, you have classic television stars, former wives of classic television stars, NBA stars, and whatever Trishelle is. But also, you have an 80s pop icon in Tiffany. I guess posing in Playboy and being on Celebrity Fit Club wasn’t enough.

    I don’t want to see Tiffany taking bumps or being called “brother” by Hulk Hogan either, but you have to admit, this has car crash TV written all over it.

    The Cast

    Dennis Rodman (Rod The Bod)
    Danny Bonaduce
    Dustin “Screech” Diamond
    Butterbean
    Frank Stallone (Take You Back)
    Todd Bridges (Whatchu talkin’ bout Willis?)
    Tiffany (80’s pop star)
    Erin Murphy (“Tabitha” from Bewitched)
    Nikki Ziering (ex-Playboy Playmate and ex-wife of Ian “Steve Sanders” Ziering)
    Trishelle Cannatella (drunken Real World slut)

    I say that Frank Stallone takes the whole season as “The Italian Stallion II”.

  • Friday Throwback – Ownlee Eue

    In 8th grade, one of the dance crews was performing at our junior high school rally. One of the members of the crew was a good friend of mine, so I was excited to see them dance. I honestly don’t remember much about their performance, but mostly because I was mesmerized by the song that came booming out of those speakers that day. In junior high school, kids are easily influenced and start liking things they may not have liked because of who introduced it to them. Well, I can’t say that I wasn’t influenced because one of my friends was dancing on stage and it was very cool, but when music hits you, it just hits you.

    – Yep, those are polka dots. That was his signature look.

    – Dude just busted out with a keytar.

    – “Love, cherish, respect and always be there for you”

    – Is he ever going to play the keytar?

    – This was the first song I’d ever heard where someone told a girl he would drink her bath water. It was disgusting then and still is now.

    – Ah, the old hump the floor dance move.

    Kwame isn’t all that well remembered even though he had 3 songs chart in the top 10 on the rap charts in 1989 and 1990. He actually stopped rapping by the mid 90s but recently came back as a producer and has worked with some main stream folks. I don’t think we’ll see the return of the polka dots, but this is what happens when rap stars go to die. If they have a good understanding with how the music is put together, they become producers.