Welcome back to Balladeer’s Blog, with another musical shoutout. It’s the Bostweeds -no, not the Mighty Mighty Bosstones – the Bostweeds with the iconic opening song to the Psychotronic film classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
I’ve always felt that if I get married I’d like my bride-to-be to walk down the aisle to an instrumental version of THIS song. It might even be a deal-breaker!
Filed under opinion
This latest installment of “Give them a shoutout before they’re dead” needs to have its title adjusted to “Give them a shoutout before they’re ALL dead.” The Velvet Underground – during its years when Lou Reed, “the poet of destruction” himself, was its creative heart and soul – was magnificent.
Pictured here are (in rear) Lou “Ostrich Guitar” Reed, Sterling Morrison and John Yule sporting his Dark Lord Satan ‘stache. In the front are the legendary blonde goddess Nico and drummer Maureen Tucker, as always looking like someone photo-shopped a slightly startled 12 year old boy into the group’s picture. (I love Maureen, it’s just a joke.)
Lou Reed is dead but before all the members are gone I decided to do a shoutout to the group that DEFINED being ahead of their time. The Velvet Underground’s influence on music ran so deep it was like the proverbial “Citizen Kane Effect” – its innovations became so universally employed by others that it’s easy to forget there was a time when they WEREN’T being used.
We all know Brian Eno’s legendary line about how – though only 30,000 copies of the Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut album were sold – “everyone who bought a copy started a band of their own.” There are times when it seems like that wasn’t just hype. Hell, I often argue that the Prince song All The Critics Love U In New York seems inspired by the Velvet Undergound piece The Black Angel’s Death Song.
Here’s the song Heroin, one of the group’s most haunting. The way Lou Reed conveys the hopelessness and obsessiveness of heroin addiction makes this the furthest thing from what it was often accused of being – a song glorifying drug use.
Hardly. Reed hammers home every unappealing aspect of enslavement to the drug while taking the listener up and down on the highs and the inevitable crashes. Even sex becomes a mere secondary (maybe even tertiary) consideration as heroin takes over.
Anybody who would listen to this song and say “I gotta try some of that!” was doomed from the minute they crawled out of the womb anyway.
Filed under opinion
Balladeer’s Blog’s feature “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead” strikes again! I know it doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the lyrics to this song but for several years I have thought of this country’s criminal organizations called Democrats and Republicans as the “Ball and Chain” which need taken away.
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Whenever I feel a little down or find myself contemplating the myriad contradictory truths of existence I find contentment in one particular song. I think we can all relate to the larger message behind the lyrics.
Filed under humor
Balladeer’s Blog’s feature “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead” strikes again!
This time it’s Joan Jett’s cover of the old AC/DC song Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.
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Balladeer’s Blog presents another edition of “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead.” This time around it’s to Wang Chung, for their memorable soundtrack for the INCREDIBLY underappreciated movie To Live and Die in L.A.
The movie was from some of the creative team behind Miami Vice and was often described as “Film Noir Meets MTV.” After a teaser depicting Secret Service Agent Richard Chance and his partner saving the U.S. president from a Muslim terrorist the main story focuses on the often-neglected role of the U.S. Secret Service: fighting counterfeiters.
Ironically the movie features top scenes from the novel it’s based on, yet presents the story with the exact opposite meaning that the novel offers. Both are enjoyable but in entirely different ways – the film as flash and the book as substance.
And Robert Downey SENIOR has a small role for you trivia buffs.
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Balladeer’s Blog’s latest installment of “Give them a shoutout before they’re dead” features Brian Tyler and the Red Elvises’ work on the soundtrack to the monumentally overlooked film Six String Samurai (1998).
FOR MY REVIEW OF THE MOVIE CLICK HERE
In the meantime, here’s On My Way To Vegas, the song that plays over the closing credits to this post-apocalypse rock and roll samurai movie. The video is a fan tribute featuring scenes from the film as the song plays.
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Balladeer’s Blog’s opening subject for my new “Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead” category comes to a close. This is the last go ’round for Adam Ant (Stuart Leslie Goddard) so I made it a Double Feature.
First up, it’s Desperate But Not Serious, which is not only a very catchy song but also gets featured in an accompanying music video … from the 1980s. Even if you had no idea about ANYTHING that happened in the 1980s you would STILL be able to guess it was a 1980s music video.
Then, wrapping things up, is Adam’s cover of A Dandy in the Underworld, done in honor of one of his idols: Marc Bolan from T-Rex.
Here they are! Next time around I’ll focus on a different figure or group.
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