Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

"Aggregation of music videos (mostly youtube) that appeared on 120 Minutes durings [sic] its heyday."

Ah, memories...

My near-obsession with Brenda Dickson's Welcome to My Home began here:



But it didn't stop there, oh no. Glory Hallelujah, YouTube is the source of all good in the world. In 2 parts, here's the entire video:





Oh good GOD this is brilliant. Thank you, YouTuber MandyKimper! (Also: Rich, I'm shocked that you've not blogged about this - I mean, this shit seems right up your alley...) I'll leave the analysis on this to the likes of Rich, cuz he's much cooler than I am.

This spent seven weeks at #1, which boggles my mind. (Rust-belt rock was very big in the early '80s.) Frankly, it sounds nearly as fresh today as it did 25 years ago.

Why is it that I find these singles, from artists I typically loathe, somehow (cough cough) moving and meaningful?
-Glenn Frey, "The One You Love" (1982)
-Chicago, "If She Would've Been Faithful" (1987)
-Richard Marx, "Angelia" (1989)

Also related (kinda) is this: it either took huge balls or a hell of a lot of hubris on the part of Lionel Richie to release "Se La" (1987) as a single. This faux-reggae track, the 4th single from Dancing on the Ceiling, was the single which broke Richie's streak of 13 consecutive top 10 pop singles as a solo artist (starting with 1981's Diana Ross duet "Endless Love") - and c'mon, did anyone really think this easy-grooving piece of malarky (which sounds oddly appealling now) was a chartbuster? It peaked at #20, in case you're wondering.

My first published review in three months (!), of DMX's Definition of X.

I'm writing again (forcing it when necessary), in case you're interested. There may even soon be something fresh posted here. (The writing I refer to is currently for Stylus; I'll alert you as to when it's published, but suffice it to say I've got a backlog, and it's about damned time for the dam to burst.) Also upcoming: I'll tell you why you should care about Juice Newton. Yes, of course I mean it.

Alfred's finally reached the age where he's ready to leave the nest and start his own blog: because he's such a massive Spoon fan, it's titled Humanizing the Vacuum.