Are there certain songs that instantly make you think of a scene in a movie? I’m not talking about songs that were made to be part of a movie soundtrack like “Eye Of The Tiger” for Rocky III, “Don’t You (Forget About Me) from the Breakfast Club or even “Time […]
In honor of my friends who are running today (especially those that are running the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll 13.1 and 26.2), today’s Sounds of Saturday is “Run Runaway” by Slade.
I think this is one of the best running songs around and it is always on my playlist to […]
Image: Fred Seibert
Believe it or not, there was a time when MTV actually played music videos and could really be called Music Television! When MTV was born in 1982, I didn’t have cable television but I was obsessed with the idea of seeing the music I loved on screen.
During the hey-day of MTV, I’m lucky that any of my friends wanted to hang out with me. All I ever wanted to do when we’d go to their houses was watch MTV and when we did, I was the crazy person waiting for Duran Duran videos to come on screen. Without MTV, I could not have experienced Live Aid. MTV brought music to life for me and for many others of my generation.
When I heard that the original MTV VJ’s were collaborating on a book there was no doubt that it would become one of my #13in2013 books to read. It took me only one night to practically inhale the history and the stories from VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave.
VJ isn’t your typical biography because it’s about the lives of 5 people, the early days of cable television and a revolution within the music industry. Profound when you think about it but the book is easy reading. The friendly style of early MTV is evident even in the book’s format because as a reader you feel like you’re in the room during a conversation between four friends (Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman and Martha Quinn) just rehashing old times. The 5th original VJ, J.J. Jackson, died of a heart attack in March 2004 but his views were included in the book via excerpts transcribed from videos and books.
Sadly, there aren’t a lot of photos in the book but these pioneers of the video age do a great job of giving readers a visual picture of not only great stories about some of the hottest artists of the 1980’s but it also allows you to know more about the VJ’s as individuals and how they became a part of the creation of a cultural phenomenon during the early days of cable television. […]
I had a post scheduled on 5/15 so today’s Sounds of Saturday video may not be entirely appropriate but it is necessary. This is from the “Daltrey Sings Townshend” event that I was lucky enough to be a part of in 1994.
It’s a great song and one of […]
Howard Jones was all over the radio when I was in high school. “No One Is To Blame” was one of the anthems of my adolescence….but that’s not this week’s video.
I’ve been lucky enough to see HoJo live a few times and he never disappoints. Not even the […]
Most people know Paul Young as the voice that opened Band Aid’s, “Do They Know It’s Christmas” in 1984. I was (and still am) a big fan of Paul Young.
In 1985, I waited online to get the best spot possible to the “Miller Music on the Pier” Paul Young/Nik Kershaw […]