Asymmetric Music

This song selection is inspired by this act of heroism:

A 26-year old Greek woman has become an overnight national hero after setting fire to the genitals of a 23-year old drunken Briton who allegedly tried to sexually assault her in a crowded bar.

Here.

Jerry Lee Lewis, along with a couple dozen others is one of the pillars of Rock and Roll. He's a colorful performer (some would say "nuts" with his penchant for pyrotechnics) and a genuinely talented musician and singer, both his style and musicianship being unique and inimitable.

Singing "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" on the Steve Allen Show. I thought the commercials might be interesting.

Besides the scandal surrounding his penchant for young girls, Lewis' downfall resulted from a lack of musical variety. After his piano-pounding steamrollers like "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," the pickings became slimmer, if not altogether poor (impossible, considering his talent).

Lewis' decline saw his increased reliance on music derivative of his great hits and covers of contemporary Rockers Little Richard ("Good Golly, Miss Molly"), Chuck Berry ("Sweet Little Sixteen" and others), and Ray Charles ("What'd I Say"), all of whom, ironically, suffered from a lack of musical variety to some extent or another.

Later, Jerry Lee Lewis turned to Country. I have a two-disc set which includes much of his country singles. Again, talented, but nothing absolutely necessary as far as I can tell (yes, I like Country). "Another Place, Another Time" is his most famous Country song. It's written by Jerry Chestnut.

From the Corner:

You can not have a broad discussion of sellouts in America without discussing the band Metallica.

While they claim "the only thing they've ever sold out was every seat in every venue they've ever played in" they recorded, released, and filmed a music video of an Irish Drinking Song.

Compare that to their earlier work and it is clear that they sold out like no other

A person who thinks that a band has "sold out" because it ran out of ideas and wanted to keep making money is somebody with a total lack of perspective. At which point was Metallica working for a living wage?

The whole idea of Rockers "selling out" reminds me of how people attacked Gospel singers who replaced "lord" with "baby" to bring their talent to millions more people, like Sam Cooke or Ray Charles. Or, the calling of Rock entertainers "sell outs" can be another mis-placed religious impulse, this time having to do with the concept of doctrinal purity or unblemished intentions.

The music's the thing, guys. Some sincere people make crappy music and some cads rock.

Proviso: Insincerity is "selling out."

I don't like Heavy Metal, but the song below, to which the dude in the email referred, isn't too bad as far as these things go. It's a funny video too.

Not that I don't find Metallica's "death talk" silly and immature.

Being a big music fan, I sometimes associate major events or people in the news with certain songs.

So it happened that as the country briefly became entranced with the phony flight of the Falcon, I wondered what music would accompany such an occasion.

I fired up my Media Center and searched for "Balloon," which took me for a nice ride lasting a couple of hours (the search).

I started with Al Bowlly, a British singer popular in the thirties who sang many Latin-themed songs including "Balloon," based on the Cuban song "Manisero." It's the podcast.

The other balloon song I found in my collection was "Up, Up, and Away" by the Fifth Dimension.

Marilyn McCoo was certainly one of the most attractive singers of the era.

"Hey! Wasn't she on that music-dance show"?

I have a distinct memory of watching Solid Gold 79, although I can't remember exactly what year it was- late seventies or early eighties, I guess. (That program, along with Soul Train is where I learned about the facts of life.) I dug up this video of the Solid Gold Dancers:

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Lou Albano, RIP.

Cindi Lauper was definitely one of the most talented singers from the eighties. She had a much stronger, more "unusual" voice than Madonna and some very fine songs including one of the best, most original upbeat songs of the decade, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"; and one of the prettiest ballads, "Time After Time" (podcast). The videos for each one are very good as well.

She constructed for herself a rule-breaking girly-girl image that appealed to rule-following girly-girls who wanted to break the rules.

I remember thinking at the time how strange it was for Cindi Lauper to latch onto what she must have known to not be a respectable entertainment, pro wrestling. I think it hurt her career.

Below is "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" video. The only objectionable part of that phrase is "just."

[Gentlemen, you're going to have to cooperate with me on this post, as I will by necessity only hint at certain details.]

It's not long after wading into the swamp that's modern popular music that one gets bitten by something that shocks mainstream sensibilities. One must then choose to depart and disinfect (after a particularly gruesome encounter, Bach is the best choice) or stay and deteriorate.

Healthy versus prurient interest:

Along with Kanye West, I too appreciate Beyonce's song "Single Ladies" and accompanying video. It's sexy without stirring the prurient [this is where you come in, guys- we all have a line where the aesthetic turns into the physical. Yes, that one. That's "prurient"].

Now, women are different from men in that men never ever admire other men for their sexiness while women often esteem other women for their sexual energy. That must be part of the reason my wife told me that her new favorite video is "She Wolf" by Shakira. "She Wolf" moves from encouraging the admiration of beauty, like in "Single Ladies," to engendering those feelings and actions associated with soft-core porn: A man must change appreciation modes for this one from the previous. I didn't like the video for this reason (really).

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