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Even before Music Fridays, we occasionally offered end-of-the-year songs to encourage readers to ponder the human condition and, hopefully, pledge to do something about it. Like Living Loud in 2006 and Jimi Jamison in 2008.
Michael Jackson so jumped the shark for me in the '90s...but this anthem is worth bringing back.
It's "Earth Song" from 1995...with a hope that we all get serious about saving our world in 2012.
Join you then...
I've always loved that song. The hope. The trepidation. The possibility.
"Maybe it's too early in the game." Yeah...it's a scary move to lay yourself out like that. But, at this time of the year, isn't it worth it?
Hell yeah...
Just like Mexico. Asking what you're doing next December 21st. Because, ummm, that's the next end of the world (according to some). And, if you believe that to be true...wouldn't you want to be at ground zero, like Tapachula or Xunantunich? They're preparing the welcome mat.
Actually, I'd like to be at the polar opposite of ground zero (Madagascar works) so I could watch it unfold...and have a few moments to say "Shit...the Mayan's were right."
And then, have a few minutes to do what we all say we want to do when the end of the world is near.
If Santa missed your place overnight...it was because he was in Jackson Hole.
Merry Christmas.
Probably one of my all-time favorite rocker renditions of a Christmas Classic. Between Jon Anderson's etheral voice and the minor chord change up in the chorus, it's goosebumps everytime.
Especially on this "Oh Holy Night."
J'exuse. "The River" is kind of a downer as we roll into the weekend. But, admit it...that duet was cool.
So...let's do some fiddle. Today's two-fer features John Mellencamp and his daughter Teddie (along with the smokin' Lisa Germano) from a soundcheck back in '87 doing a much more upbeat "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus."
Smiles all the way around...as I hope your holiday festivities provide.
For our final Holiday-inspired Music Friday find, we turn to an artist that doesn't get the attention he once did and still deserves...one Herbie Hancock.
I remember playing his classic "Chameleon" a lot during my days on the radio at WKCO (and not because its length allowed for other activities).
We offer this sensual duet with the amazing Corrine Bailey Rae, covering the Joni Mitchell classic, "The River."
And we hope your holidays are bright. And filled with love.
I can remember when this became my favorite Christmas story tradition.
The radio station for which I once worked would buy the pre-recorded "36 Hours of Christmas" package of holiday songs and stories to air each year. That way, we could have the part-timers work Christmas Eve and Day without too much fear that they'd screw up the format. Yeah...we didn't do it for you. We did it for us.
Anyway...early in the 36 Hours ('round about 4pm on Christmas Eve each year), the pre-recorded reels of tape would issue up a recording of Lorne Greene doing a reading of O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi." I had never heard the story (despite my mother putting the greatest works of literature in my hands during my wild, mispent youth). And, I was inexplicably mesmerized. Year after year, I would make sure I was either "running the board" or near a radio when Lorne's rendition would appear.
Sunday night, I caught the American Players Theatre's final performance of their simply sensational version of this incredible classic. If they do it again next year (and I so hope they do)...you must go.
But, here's the thing. I have always regretted not recording that Lorne Greene version. Now, decades later, those reels of tape are surely gone from terra firma...and I figured I'd never hear it again.
However, the internet is a wonderful repository for the sharing, caring people of this earth. And a search this Holiday Season uncovered the masterpiece that transfixed me 30 years ago.
I hope you have 15 minutes to spare this weekend...because here it is, "The Gift of the Magi" read by Lorne Greene.
Yeah...I'm a hopeless romantic. And I hope you are, too.
With TV shows like Howie Mandel's Mobbed, the Flash Mob is very close to jumping the shark. But, this one, filmed at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Business is pretty damn cool.
Even cooler? My 80-something Dad sent me the link :)
Continuing the purge of stuff that accumulates over time. Articles saved for some inane reason that now are but quaint.
Like an "Internet at a Glance" page from a 2001 issue of the now defunct (but once cool) Business 2.0:
The then "typical" internet user went on line 5 times a week viewing 174 pages that year. Yahoo had the most visitors per week (Google was in its infancy and didn't crack the Top Ten while YouTube was four years away).
It was eleven years ago next weekend that many thought Y2K would cause jets to fall from the sky and utilities to go off line.
What a long strange trip it's been.
It was probably seven or eight years ago that Billboard magazine interviewed me regarding rockers that were selling their songs to corporations for ad campaigns. I didn't have a problem with it, I said...because songs like "School's Out" had run their course and could now touch new generations.
So, why am I having a problem with Jon Bon Jovi's appearance as a pitchman for Advil? It makes perfect sense agewise. He's branching back into movies. He's not just a rocker.
But, it just feels...I dunno. Wrong.
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