I want my

Some years ago I posted a blog entry in which I listed all the music videos I remembered adoring in the early days of MTV, circa 1982. I was 11 at the time. I didn't say so in the entry, but I more or less assumed I would never see any of them again.

Enter YouTube. Turns most of these are now available online, for free, and presumably illegally. (The quality is poor.) And so I have been grooving on some heavy-duty MTV nostalgia these days. Watching these videos, even the dumb ones, has a powerful effect on me. I must confess that my feelings regarding the clip for Toni Basil's "Mickey" are so strong that seeing it again moved me to tears. (But faithful readers know that I cry easily when there's music playing.)

I've reproduced my list below, and linked to some highlights. Judging from my Site Meter statistics, that old blog entry has generated a fair number of hits for this page. Who knew there was such interest in Haircut 100?

.38 Special
Caught Up In You
Hold on Loosely
Adams, Brian
Cuts Like a Knife
Run to You
Ant, Adam
Ant Music
Asia
Heat of the Moment
Only Time Will Tell
Bananarama
It Ain't What You Do
Really Sayin' Something
Basil, Toni
Mickey
Beatles, The
Love Me Do
Benatar, Pat
You Better Run
Blue Oyster Cult
Burnin' For You
Bow Wow Wow
I Want Candy
Bowie, David
Ashes to Ashes
Buggles, The
Plastic Age
Video Killed the Radio Star
Carnes, Kim
Draw of the Cards
Cars, The
Shake It Up
Since You're Gone
Cheap Trick
If You Want My Love
She's Tight
Chilliwack
My Girl
Clash, The
Rock the Casbah
Collins, Phil
In the Air Tonight
Costello, Elvis
Oliver's Army
Cougar, John
Hurts So Good
Jack and Diane
Crenshaw, Marshall
Someday, Someway
Whenever You're On My Mind
Crosby Stills and Nash
Southern Cross
Daltrey, Roger
Free Me
Devo
Love Without Anger
Through Being Cool
Whip It
Dexy's Midnight Runners
Come On Eileen
Dire Straits
Skateaway
Dolby, Thomas
She Blinded Me With Science
Doors, The
Touch Me
Duran Duran
Hungry Like the Wolf
Planet Earth
Rio
Easton, Sheena
For Your Eyes Only
Fagen, Donald
New Frontier
Fleetwood Mac
Hold Me
Flock of Seagulls, A
I Ran
Genesis
Abacab
No Reply At All
Haircut 100
Love Plus One
Hall and Oates
Maneater
Private Eyes
Harrison, George
All Those Years Ago
Hendrix, Jimi
Fire
Human League
Don't You Want Me
Iris, Donnie
Love is Like a Rock
Sweet Merilee
Iron Maiden
Run to the Hills
J. Geils Band
Centerfold
Freeze Frame
Love Stinks
Jackson, Joe
Breaking Us in Two
Steppin' Out
Jefferson Starship
Jane
Jett, Joan
Crimson and Clover
I Love Rock and Roll
Joel, Billy
Allentown
Pressure
Johansen, David
We Gotta Get Out of This Place/Don't Bring Me Down/It's My Life
John, Elton
Still Standing
Jones, Grace
Demolition Man
Joplin, Janis
Tell Mama
Judas Priest
Hot Rockin'
Kinks, The
Predictable
Kiss
I Love It Loud
Lewis, Huey
Do You Believe in Love
Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do
Working For a Living
Loggins, Kenny
I'm All Right
Loverboy
Workin' for the Weekend
Madness
House of Fun
One Step Beyond
Our House
McCartney, Paul
Ebony and Ivory
Take It Away
Miller, Steve
Abracadabra
Missing Persons
Words
Motels, The
Only the Lonely
Musical Youth
Pass the Dutchie
Newton-John, Olivia
Physical
Nicks, Stevie
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
Numan, Gary
Cars
Palmer, Robert
Clues
Parsons, Alan
Eye in the Sky
Petty, Tom
You Got Lucky
Plant, Robert
Big Log
In the Mood
Police, The
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Invisible Sun
Spirits in the Material World
Pretenders, The
Brass in Pocket
Kid
Tattooed Love Boys
Queen
Under Pressure
Reed, Lou
Women
Rolling Stones, The
Going to a Go Go
Hang Fire
Neighbors
Start Me Up
Time is on My Side
Waiting on a Friend
Rush
Tom Sawyer
Saga
On the Loose
Santana
Hold On
Specials, The
A Message to You Rudy
Split Enz
Six Months in a Leaky Boat
Springfield, Rick
Don't Talk to Strangers
Springsteen, Bruce
Atlantic City
Squeeze
Black Coffee In Bed
Tempted
Stray Cats
Rock this Town
Stray Cat Strut
Styx
Mr. Roboto
Too Much Time on My Hands
Talking Heads
Once in a Lifetime
Taylor, James
Used to Be Her Town
Thoroughgood, George
Bad to the Bone
Tom Tom Club
Genius Of Love
Townshend, Pete
Face Dances Pt. 2
Rough Boys
Tubes, The
Talk to You Later
U2
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Van Halen
Oh, Pretty Woman
Vapors, The
Turning Japanese
Wall of Voodoo
Mexican Radio
Who, The
Another Tricky Day
Don't Let Go the Coat
Eminence Front
You Better You Bet
Wright, Gary
Really Wanna Know You
XTC
Senses Working Overtime

Set your TiVo

The cable channel CMT will air a "Hee Haw" marathon the weekend of July 29. Hey, Grandpa, what's for supper?

There's always magic in the air

Thanks to Charles Hughes for the big Junker mention on his blog, and for his very kind words about me. For some reason I am reminded of one of the Junkers' first shows, a party in the basement of a building I lived in on North Ingersoll Street, here in Madison. This was not long after I moved here, back in 2000 or so -- so long ago, in fact, that we were called not the Junkers but the Benders.

I was still so new to playing live music that I was terrified to perform even for that group of partygoers, most of them friendly hippies who were guests of my flatmates and neighbors. But we made it through our set, and then came the performance by the headliners, a sort of jazz-rock combo fronted, if memory serves, by the boyfriend of one of the ladies who lived in the apartment upstairs from mine.

Midway through their set, they launched into the familiar riffs that begin George Benson's funky remake of the old Drifters tune "On Broaday." (Benson's version, you'll recall, played at the beginning of the Bob Fosse film All That Jazz.) It soon emerged that no one in the group was equipped to sing the song. It was too hard for the regular singer, or the guy who normally sang it was sick, or something.

I must have been standing nearby, because I was quickly handed the lyrics and pressed into service. And so one of my earliest performances in Madison live music was a George Benson tribute. I love that song, and that version, and I believe I sang it with gusto -- including, of course, the scatted portions.

Years later, at a Junkers show, I ran into someone from that band, and he said a tape existed of the performance. He promised he would get me a copy, but I'm still waiting. Anyone else got a dub?

Stately nature

On the other hand, the heat has its gifts. Last night on my front porch I was treated to a rare sight: a storm of heat lightning to the south. Gorgeous flashes of yellow and white light silently roiled the evening horizon, and I marveled. Television is great, even in summer, but sometimes it is important to remember to look up.

Pant pant

It's hot out there, which reminds me of the time some years back when Ereck and I went to a backyard barbecue. It was hot like this.

The evening began pleasantly enough. Soon we decided to play some rounds of the Tape Game, wherein the names of celebrities are affixed with tape to the foreheads of players, who have to deduce their identity by asking yes or no questions. The game can be marvelous fun, but that night a perfect storm of bad feelings set in, and thanks to the heat -- and to the copious amounts of alcohol we all had drunk -- a dispute over the rules turned into an ugly screaming match. I don't know if I've played the Tape Game since.

David Lee Roth had it right in this, as in so many things.