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Can’t stop the rock
By briantologist | March 21, 2004
First, I woke up this morning feeling like a bear had been sitting on me for most of the night. Apparently those beers and wine and more beers added up. Sheesh.
Second, after Darleece returned with a Bacon Egg ‘n’ Cheese Biscuit I was way too hung over to feel guilty about eating, we settled in for some quality time with our good friend VH1 Classic, quite possibly the greatest cable music network ever created. This morning: “Rock Show,” which today meant “Metal Show,” starting with nothing less than an Iron Fucking Maiden video (“May I Play With Madness?”), followed immediately by some hot Dio Action (“Rock’s Children,” which seemed to be about followin’ your dreams, as illustrated by two metal kids in a magical pawn shop operated by none other than Ronnie James Dio himself, natch), and capped off by a shot of Ratt (“You’re In Love,” also known as “Not ‘Round and Round’ “).
I never claimed to be anything approaching current in my musical tastes. I’m less out of touch thanks to MTV’s various cable extra channels — the ones that play videos without making a big fucking deal about it like MTV itself does during the hour a day it actually plays videos — but truth be told, I’m a VH1 Classic guy at heart.
It’s not constant classic rock, or it wouldn’t be the least bit interesting. Their real strength is in the way they cart out these bizarre, obscure old videos by bands you’ve never heard of and didn’t really give a shit about the first time around. (This is in best evidence during the All-Request Hour, which seems to be devoted mainly to Serbian dance bands from the early eighties.) It’s not that the music is good this time around either, but man, these days it’s just nice to see something that probably wasn’t approved by a focus group.
Topics: Exciting, Possibly | 9 Comments »
March 21st, 2004 at 12:17 pm
Two videos I loved but only saw a handful of times and would love to request: “Dog Police” by Dog Police, and “Welfare Recipients” by Welfare Recipients. Just goes to show that having a single that’s the same as your band name will guarantee obscurity, and a cozy place in my memory.
March 21st, 2004 at 3:21 pm
I love VH1. Sadly I don’t see much of it since I don’t have cable, but recently while partaking of it at someone else’s house I discovered the show “Best Week Ever” and damn, it rules.
My personal Ratt favorite is “Lay it down.”
March 21st, 2004 at 6:34 pm
As an employee of a TV programming provider that shall remain nameless I sometimes get paid to watch things like VH1 Classic. Life is good when I can sit on a couch and call it research. On a Dio note my fantasy baseball league drafted today and I was very happy to see one of our teams is the “Holy Divers”. Rock on.
March 21st, 2004 at 6:46 pm
Holy crap, that rules. I must admit, fantasy sports team names often yield some of the finest moments of distilled brilliance I’ve ever seen. Leagues I’ve been a part of have included the Sweaty Cajun Firefighters, the Weeping Teenage Goth Chicks, and the Grubby Little Fat Kids. As for myself, I’ve been the general manager/owner of The Third-World Dictators, The Christopher Reeve All-Stars, The Thick Hearty Soup, and The Former Speaker Of The House Carl Albert.
The best part of the naming process, for me, is making my team logo in Photoshop. The one for the Third-World Dictators was among the best, with my own head substituting nicely for Fidel Castro’s.
March 22nd, 2004 at 2:01 am
The Third World Dictators make my entry for this year The Lazy Eyed Robots seem like a foolish choice.
March 23rd, 2004 at 9:49 am
I always opt for the obnoxious sex-related names, like the Knights of Sanchez, or the Angry Dragons.
Oh, and Ratt ruled my world in the mid-80s.
March 23rd, 2004 at 10:25 am
After seeing Uncle Milty in the “Round and Round” video, and the preponderance of old movie clips in “You’re In Love,” I’m kind of baffled by Ratt. Specifically, it almost seems like they were trying to position themself in the market as the butt rock band that’s really into old movies. Make themselves stand out from the crowd, and whatnot.
God help me, I’m nostalgic for butt rock. I mean, I figure periods in pop music are interchangable in their stupidity, and as such, continuing to love butt rock just makes me out-of-date and stupid, rather than just plain stupid. And at this point, one more knock against me isn’t gonna make much difference.
March 23rd, 2004 at 10:25 am
Oh yeah, and “Knights of Sanchez” fucking rules.
March 26th, 2004 at 7:41 pm
Barrett is totally wrong.
Big Country had a song called “Big Country” on an album called “Big Country” and they are in the hearts and minds of Americans even today. Even though they are dirty foreigners.
Regarding the drinking, you should take up vodka or whiskey, or some other good hard liquor, and leave the wine alone except for dinner or special occasions (e.g. weddings, Christmas, and lunch). Wine gives the worst hangovers due to the sulfites and all that other impure shit that winds up in the bottle. Last night I had five shots of anejo tequila and two beers, stayed up late, and still woke up hangover-less.