This playlist is available, on iTunes as a (whatever they call it) thing. List. Think of it as a “celebrity playlist.” Of course I’m a celebrity. In my own mind.
Honorable mention, includes this clip. And this one. Art of Noise?
Talking Heads: I’ve already done a reprise of their stuff, epic and timeless, in its own right. No more need be said.
In a Big Country by Big Country
Miami Vice Theme by Jan Hammer
99 Luft Ballons by Nena
Maniac by Michael Sembello
Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2
Rank And File by Rank and File
Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chung
Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo
Vamos a la Playa by Righeria
Tainted Love (original) by Soft Cell
Sex by Berlin
Venus by Banamarama
Never Say Never by Romeo Void
Cool Places by Sparks
Our House by Madness
Rapture by Blondie
China Girl by David Bowie
Rock Me Amadeus by Falco
Money for Nothing by Dire Straits
New Frontier by Donald Fagen
Reel Ten by the Plugz
(Honorable mentions, Stevie Ray Vaughn and ZZ Top)
Musical musing:
It’s not an exhaustive listing, I was shooting for a length that would fit on a single (audio) CD. Still needs work. Won’t quite make it. However, each song is a definite bookmark from my history. Some of the old, familiar names have popped up on Face Book, which is what prompted this list.
Worthy of mention, yet again, it was a rent car, headed south to work at the coast, from North Austin, with a stop off in Lockhart for BBQ with bubba sean – and a tape. No one uses tapes anymore. The “Mexican Radio” song, long before there was a you tube link? The lyric is, “There’s a hot wind, on my shoulder and the touch of a world that is older….”
The list isn’t choreographed correctly, and the timeline is off. I’ll straighten that out as I play with it. Burned it onto a iPod list for now, and I’ll see about the order. There’s a frankly commercial point and yet, some strictly artistic genius both contained therein. Speaks to a time.
The Ramones, singing about “Psycho Therapy,” or “I want to be sedated?” Consider, then, the local favorite cowboy crooners, “Two Tons of Steel,” doing their “hat” version of “I want to be sedated.”
The last three songs in the list have special meaning, should be obvious. Dire Straits, more than one level, from a long-lost West Texas night, spinning along at 55, under the stars, lives and hope, stretching for miles. Not really the first, but the first I recall as the trips across the barren West Texas terrain. Cool night sky, big Ford V-8 pulling us along, towards some kind of destiny.
I try not to have many regrets, but part of one year is bookmarked – for me – with “edgy” network TV, to wit, Miami Vice. Which, in its time, you know, it was cool. Can run but can’t hide. Face the music.
“New Frontier” is an anomaly. The animation work was decidedly retro – ten years before retro was even remotely cool. Not listed was “Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s” other single, “Two Tribes.” The video featured two world leaders in a wrestling ring. Looked like the Russian and his nemesis, then-president Reagan. Which is why “new Frontier,” anomalous as it might be, still means something. Again, the test of some art is how it stands up over time.
There was a poster at the Alameda Museum, in the Latin Music collection, featuring the Plugz. Anti-commercial “Latin” punk-infused music, much stripped down in style and execution. Which prompted me to look that canon. Featured as the musical genius on Repo Man (1984 indie film). The closing theme song, allegedly a musical tribute to the master of the spaghetti western music, Ennio Morricone.
On The Air playlist:
Bauhaus. The Cure. Dead Kennedys. Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics. The Blasters. Grace Jones. Flock of Seagulls. Duran Duran. Depeche Mode.
Who/what is missing from that list?
