|
SONGSPEAKwhat's your price for flight? |
| { | Earlier Entries | } | { | } |
Archives!
TAG: 80s music
-
songspeak
I’m finding it hard to believe you’re just seven
Who doesn’t like Bryan Adams?
Well, everyone, as far as I can tell. But that doesn’t stop them from playing his songs on the radio. It’s one of those unfortunate facts of life. The song that I tend to hear the most by him on mix 93.1 during the workday is Heaven.
When I hear it, I recall a songspeak moment from Matt’s and my past when we shared an office. We were diligently working, as usual, and Heaven came on the radio. And the chorus begins:
Baby you’re all that I want
When you’re lyin’ here in my arms
I’m findin’ it hard to believe
We’re in heaven
"Yeah, you like that?"
But as the song was playing, I sang along, “I’m findin’ it hard to believe, you’re just seven”. I was amused by the thought of Bryan Adams having a torrid affair with a child and writing a song about it. I mean, after all, he’s Canadian. It wouldn’t be that surprising.
I still think of that whenever I hear the song. And the next time you hear it, just replace the words “we’re in heaven” with “you’re just seven”, and every other instance of the word “heaven” with “seven”. The song will take on a whole new meaning, I promise you.
Screw you Bryan Adams, you pedophile.
Tags: 80s music, bryan adams, facts of life, heaven, mix 93.1, pedophile, seven, we're in heaven, you're just seven
comment?
-
misheard lyrics
I am a tough tough personality
I already told you all about one of my biggest misheard lyrics from my youth, but Matt hasn’t shared his yet, so I thought I’d go ahead and do it for him.
These guys don't look so tough.
It comes from Living Colour and their big hit Cult of Personality. I still hear it on the radio all the time, and I remember Matt telling me that when he was younger, he thought Corey Glover was singing “tough tough personality” instead of “cult of personality”. I guess I can see how that would make sense, except at the end when he would be shouting, “I am a tough tough! I am a tough tough!”
Does it really sound like that? Watch the video and judge for yourself…
Tags: 80s music, corey glover, cult of personality, living colour, tough tough personality
comment?
-
songspeak
One Night of Queen: A Songspeak Outing
Matt's ticket, which he promptly washed.
Flash! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
This past Friday night was a night 17 years in the making. Matt and I attended One Night of Queen at Springfield Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts. The ticket stub can be seen on the right. Would we play games with you?
You see, our relationship blossomed 17 years ago in high school, where we would talk about music on the bus ride home. Wayne’s World had just come out and repopularized Bohemian Rhapsody. This was my first real exposure to Queen, but Matt would tell me about all the quirky songs in their vast library of work, like Fat Bottomed Girls and Bicycle Race. This prompted me to get Classic Queen and Queen’s Greatest Hits on cassette. So when we found out that One Night of Queen was coming to Springfield, we realized that a bromantic evening of dinner and music must be had.
Before the show, we went to Theodore’s Booze Blues and BBQ. We started with a heaping plate of nachos, and we each got a ribs combo dinner. I opted for the popcorn shrimp, while Matt went with the brisket. Don’t we look thrilled?
After dinner, we arrived at Springfield Symphony Hall. The smokers were stinking up the front steps as we saw the huge banner for One Night Of Queen. We took our seats (after a quick trip to restroom to drain our bladders of the 3 or 4 soda refills we had at Theodore’s) and anxiously awaited the start of the show. We had been curious about what kind of crowd this show would attract, and it was surprisingly diverse. The audience was comprised of a few middle-aged folks dragging their kids to the show (and most of these kids couldn’t look less enthused to be there, and likely have no idea who Queen was), quite a few people our age, lots of other guys out for a bromantic evening themselves, and quite a few older folks who were probably our age when Queen was in their prime. Matt even spotted a celebrity in attendance; the guy from the local Bertera Chevrolet commercials. We found it odd that they were playing Queen songs over the speakers before Gary Mullen and The Works took the stage.
And speaking of Gary Mullen, he really channelled his inner Freddie Mercury. He must have really studied old Queen concert footage in preparing for this role. He leapt fabulously, pranced flamingly, slapped his ass, spit water, used the mic stand as a guitar, swung it like a golf club, drop-kicked his bottled water (Matt was slightly mad that he was drinking bottled water, as it didn’t exist in the 70’s and ruined the illusion of the era we were supposed to be in), supplied plenty of innuendo, and walked through the crowd, looking to have sex with anything that moved. At one point, he left the stage for an extended period of time while the band played. We assumed it was a costume change, but the only change we noticed when he came back on stage was that he had no shirt on.
The setlist was as follows:
- One Vision
- Seven Seas Of Rhye
- A Kind of Magic
- Somebody To Love
- Under Pressure (no David Bowie lookalike was present, unfortunately)
- Another One Bites The Dust (featuring an interlude of the Sugar Hill Gang classic Rapper’s Delight)
- Save Me
- Killer Queen
- Now I’m Here (featuring an extended guitar solo)
- Don’t Stop Me Now
- Theme From Flash
- Tie Your Mother Down
- Keep Yourself Alive (featuring an extended drum solo)
- Fat Bottomed Girls
- Love Of My Life
- Jailhouse Rock (yes, the Elvis Presley song)
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Hammer To Fall
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Encore:
- We Will Rock You
- Friends Will Be Friends (WTF?)
- We Are The Champions
And here, my best friends, is choppy cellphone video for ya… (with annotations!)…
We were disappointed that Radio Ga Ga wasn’t performed. This was especially shocking considering Gary Mullen’s affinity for having the crowd put their arms in the air and clap to the beat. Of course, there’s Matt’s disdain for the presence of bottled water. We also weren’t thrilled that Gary Mullen forced us to stand for most of the show as he maintained that the seats were “redundant” and that we should be off of our asses dancing. We were also convinced that Gary Mullen was putting on a fake British accent to stay true to his Freddie Mercury character, only to find out that he’s actually British! And one of my personal favorite moments was near the beginning of the show, when he said, “How are you doing Springfield?” *crowd cheers* “Where’s Homer Simpson?” Who doesn’t love an antiquated Simpsons joke? It’s like having your grandmother forward you an email about how Bill Gates is going to pay everyone a bunch of money for forwarding said email. In other words, topical.
And good God, the guitar player sure did look like Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. But his name is really Davie Brockett, or so we’re told.
All in all, we had a great time, and it was much better than we thought it would be. Gary Mullen and The Works have been doing this for a number of years and are currently on tour. If you’re a Queen fan, you would be stone cold crazy to miss this show.
Tags: 70s music, 80s music, 90s music, bbq, bertera chevrolet, bicycle race, bill gates, booze blues and bbq, bottled water, brisket, bromance, bromantic, classic queen, dave mustaine, david bowie, davie brockett, elvis presley, freddie mercury, gary mullen, homer simpson, i'm going slightly mad, innuendo, massachusetts, megadeth, nachos, northampton high school, one night of queen, play the game, popcorn shrimp, queen, queen's greatest hits, radio ga ga, rapper's delight, ribs, simpsons, springfield, stone cold crazy, sugar hill gang, symphony hall, the works, theodore's, wayne's world, you're my best friend
comment?
-
songspeak
It’s a nice day for a white wedding under the bridge downtown
We posted two of Dust Films previous literal videos back in October, but I just discovered there are two more out there that are just as great.
The first one is for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Under the Bridge:
Under The Bridge: Literal Video Version – watch more funny videosAnd the second is for Billy Idol’s White Wedding:
White Wedding: Literal Video Version – watch more funny videosWhat won’t these guys think of next?
Tags: 80s music, 90s music, billy idol, dust films, dustball, dustin mclean, goth wedding, literal, literal videos, red hot chili peppers, song interpretations, under the bridge, white wedding
comment?
-
songspeak
We all got shitty on rum and coke
Who doesn’t love We Built This City by Starship? Well, probably lots of people. But we here at Songspeak do.
My co-worker has alternate lyrics for the chorus, though, that she sang either back in high school or college. Instead of “we built this city on rock and roll”, they used to sing, “we all got shitty on rum and coke“. And though we occupy different offices at work, we both typically have mix 93.1 playing throughout the day, and whenever the song comes on, she’ll usually send me an IM with her alternate lyrics.
***Note: This is NOT my co-worker.
It’s nice to know that long before the term songspeak was conceived, people were songspeaking their hearts out.
Tags: 80s music, alternate lyrics, IM, instant message, mix 93.1, starship, we all got shitty, we all got shitty on rum and coke, we built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
comment?
-
songspeak
Seether covers Careless Whisper
Rock band Seether, known mainly for their songs Broken and Remedy, have released a cover of Wham!’s 80’s classic Careless Whisper. And it’s not half bad:Seether is already partway to becoming Wham! themselves. I mean, three-quarters of the band are already about as well known and recognizable as Andrew Ridgeley. All lead singer Shaun Morgan needs to do is get caught having sex with some dude in a public restroom or be stopped while driving high on the weed, and the transformation will be complete.
Tags: 00s music, 80s music, andrew ridgeley, broken, careless whisper, cover, Dale Stewart, george michael, John Humphrey, remedy, seether, shaun morgan, Troy McLawhorn, wham
1 comment
-
songspeak
I Always Feel Like, Geico’s Watchin’ Me
Geico’s done it again. They’ve put together yet another clever ad campaign that I get a kick out of. I can’t think of another company/product with so many simultaneous great ad campaigns, but it works for them. There’s the Geico gecko, the “so easy a caveman could do it“, the celebrities-assist-in-telling-an-accident story, and now the being-watched-by-the-money-you-could-be-saving campaign:
The best part about these commercials is that they utilize the 1984 Rockwell classic Somebody’s Watching Me. I used to love the video when I was a kid:
Chalk this up as another advertising win for Geico. I may not use them for my car insurance, but I sure do love their quirky out-there commercials. And any company that uses Rockwell in their commercials is gold, Jerry, gold.
Tags: 00s tv commercials, 80s music, car insurance, geico, geico commercial, geico gecko, gold jerry gold, jerry seinfeld, kash, kenny bania, money you could be saving with Geico, money you could save by switching to geico, rockwell, so easy a caveman could do it, somebody's watching me
3 comments
-
songspeak
The Prince of F*cking Darkness since 1979
Has anyone seen the new World of Warcraft commercial with Ozzy Osbourne?
It’s riddled with songspeaks. Most notably when he shouts, “All aboard! Ha ha ha ha!”, and then when he suggests the director has been riding a crazy train.
Who knew an octegenarian rocker like Ozzy played a MMORPG? One thing this commercial does prove, though, is that after all these years, Ozzy still rocks sweet balls and can do no wrong.
Tags: 00s tv commercials, 80s music, all aboard, crazy train, massively multiplayer online role-playing game, MMORPG, ozzy osbourne, prince of darkness, we rock sweet balls and can do no wrong, world of warcraft
1 comment
-
songspeak
Macy’s Rickrolls us all on Thanksgiving
You may have noticed we took a break for the holiday last week here at Songspeak. You know who didn’t take a break? Rick Astley.
I thought I was safe. You know, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC while we’re getting ready for the day. Waiting for Matt Lauer, Al Roker, or Meredith Vieira to tell me what float, performer, or balloon was passing by at any given moment.
Then a float came by for some new show on the Cartoon Network called Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. I wish I’d heard Matt Lauer’s warning that there would be a musical surprise when I initially watched it, maybe then I could have braced myself for something. But alas, I was vulnerable.
So these puppets start singing some cutesy song. Fair enough. What happened next made me feel violated beyond anything I could have ever imagined. In the middle of their song, a record scratch is heard, and then, well…see for yourself:
I was in my own home. It was Thanksgiving. I thought I was safe. How wrong I was. Rick Astley and those bastards at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade pulled one over on me. They pulled one over on all of us. I wonder now whether I should even watch TV or leave the house anymore.
The only saving graces were Rick Astley’s expression when he sings, “Never gonna run around and desert you!”, the fact that those kids dancing on the float were born well after that song was released and probably have no idea who Rick Astley is, and the fact that probably 80% of the people at the parade had absolutely no clue what was going on.
The kicker was the announcer at the end talking about how that was “Rick Astley singing the rickrolling phenom”. He may as well have said, “That was Rick Astley. And I’m such a square.”
So just be careful. You never know when it’s going to happen. If it can happen to Vince McMahon, it can happen to anyone.
As for me, I’ll be thankful when that God-awful fad goes away for good.
Tags: 80s music, al roker, cartoon network, foster's home for imaginary friends, macy's thanksgiving day parade, matt lauer, meredith vieira, nbc, never gonna give you up, puppets, rick astley, rick roll, rickroll, thanksgiving, vince mcmahon
2 comments
-
songspeak
She’s a Sheena Glover
Within the first year of Matt and I working together at Silver Screen Design, we discovered the joy of odd and unfortunately hilarious customer names. It’s bound to happen when you deal with as many people on a daily basis as we do.
Anyway, one of Matt’s customers was named Sheena Glover, who at the time worked for Georgia Southern University. I remember when he first got off the phone with her, he started singing, “She’s a Sheena Glover…” to the tune of Easy Lover by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey. Whenever he talked to her, he’d sing this afterwards.
We still sing it, to this day. Even though we haven’t heard from Sheena Glover in years, she’s still in our hearts.
Tags: 80s music, chinese wall, danny glover, easy lover, funny names, georgia southern university, odd names, phil collins, philip bailey, she's an easy lover, sheena easton, sheena glover, silver screen design
2 comments
Recent Comments