Chaka contacts his local cable company · Sep 1, 04:58 AM by Chaka
I wholeheartedly agree with the ban on Freddie Mercury parties, albeit for very different reasons.
Whoever set this up must have never worked in the business again. DLR just trying to keep it off the floor, New Years Eve 1983. Martha Quinn tosses off a pretty great line here as well.
I’ve been accused by many in the past of wearing green-and-gold glasses, but I might not accept a bet that the Pack won’t get shut out against the Bears opening day.
Let’s remember something here – that fucking animal John Bolton was a recess appointment.
This may be old news, but the fabulous Blogs for Dogs site gets a gold star from me for posting not one, not two, but all 200 of Pitchfork’s 200 Best Songs of the Sixties. I think Pitchfork’s time has come and gone for the most part; their indie news releases have been well coopted by the better blogs, and the writing in their record reviews has always been embarrassingly high-school-newspapery. Their best of the 60s list is no exception, but Blogs for Dogs’ work in posting every track on the list is both a killer companion piece and a wonderful way to hip yourself to dozens of amazing tracks not readily available in the blogosphere.
More old news. I finally got around to watching the entire 24 hours of MTV’s first day on the air, broadcast by VH1 Classic the weekend of Lollapalooza. I didn’t get MTV the day it first launched, but it was available in my town very shortly thereafter, and I watched a hell of a lot of it back then as a wee lad. It was quite a trip seeing some of these videos again, and it was interesting to note that the songs that grabbed me when I was in grade school still stick out from the crowd today (Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Specials, Bowie, Who).
It was also interesting to see MTV’s early flirtation with easy listening (Leo Sayer, Andrew Gold, Michael Johnson), which was almost completely gone by the time I started watching MTV a few months after the launch date. Ditto the shitty fusion jazz of Lee Ritenour and the cringeworthy nepotism rock of Lani Hall and Louise Goffin – those videos were wiped clean from the rotation by the time Chaka started tuning in. And how about the out-of-nowhere (just gotta be Long Island) Bootcamp, whose presence might be mysterious if they weren’t so inconceivably boring. I can’t even muster up enough interest to google them.
A few more random observations after watching the first 24 hours of MTV (which only took about four hours via the magic of Tivo): Chrissie Hynde is a superstar, and was so straight out of the gate. Even if I were Canadian, I’d think April Wine fucking stunk. How in the name of Sean Cronin was REO Speedwagon’s rancid High Infidelity the biggest record of 1981? What does it say about MTV’s programming director circa 1981 that he chose 11 different Rod Stewart videos to show during the first 24 hours of his project, nearly 10% of the unique titles shown that day? I can’t decide which member of Styx’s head I want to flush down the toilet first. It’s probably between Dennis DeYoung and the rhythm guitar player, who looks like Kim Carnes with a beard. Best outfit: there were plenty of great ones on display, but the prize would have to go to Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell’s “All Night Long” ensemble of a full track suit with a white button down oxford shirt underneath, accessorized with two huge metal studded black leather wristbands. The best video (not song) I saw during the entire inaugural 24 hours of MTV was, bar none, Liza Minnelli relative Hilly Michaels’ “Calling All Girls”.
I thought maybe I’d transcribe the entire first day of MTV for posterity’s sake. We get a lot of searches on our site for set lists, which is pretty happening – I dig reading them too. Here’s the entire first day’s playlist, with duplicates (and in the case of a handful of tracks like “You Better You Bet”, octoplicates(?)) omitted, and a few choice tracks brought to you simulcast in stereo.
Buggles – “Video Killed the Radio Star”
Pat Benatar – “You Better Run”
Rod Stewart – “She Won’t Dance”
The Who – “You Better You Bet”
PhD – “Little Susie’s On The Up”
Cliff Richard – “We Don’t Talk Anymore”
Pretenders – “Brass in Pocket”
mp3: Todd Rundgren – Time Heals
REO Speedwagon – “Take It On the Run”
Styx – “Rockin’ the Paradise”
Robin Lane & the Chartbusters – “When Things Go Wrong”
Split Enz – “History Never Repeats”
.38 Special – “Hold On Loosely”
April Wine “Just Between You and Me”
Rod Stewart – “Sailin’”
Iron Maiden – “Iron Maiden”
REO Speedwagon – “Keep On Loving You”
Michael Johnson – “Bluer than Blue”
Pretenders – “Message of Love”
Lee Ritenour – “Mr. Briefcase”
Cars – “Double Life”
Phil Collins – “In The Air Tonight”
Robert Palmer – “Looking For Clues”
Shoes – “Too Late”
Stevie Nicks – “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”
Rod Stewart – “D’ya Think I’m Sexy”
Rupert Hine – “Surface Tension”
Gerry Rafferty – “Baker Street”
Split Enz – “One Step Ahead”
Pat Benatar – “I’m Gonna Follow You”
Tom Johnson – “Savannah Nights”
Rockestra – “Lucille”
Styx – “The Best of Times”
Carly Simon – “Vengeance”
Iron Maiden – “Wrathchild”
Blotto – “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard”
Rod Stewart – “Passion”
Elvis Costello & the Attractions – “Oliver’s Army”
REO Speedwagon – “Don’t Let Him Go”
The Silencers – “Remote Control”
mp3: Pretenders – Tattooed Love Boys
Rockpile – “Little Sister”
Bootcamp – “Hold On to the Night”
Cliff Richard – “Dreaming”
Lee Ritenour – “Is It You”
Fleetwood Mac – “Tusk”
Michael Stanley Band – “He Can’t Love You”
Blondie – “Rapture”
REO Speedwagon – “Tough Guys”
The Who – “Don’t Let Go The Coat”
Rod Stewart – “Ain’t Love a Bitch”
Pretenders – “Talk of the Town”
mp3: Rainbow – Can’t Happen Here
Andrew Gold – “Thank You For Being a Friend”
Gerry Rafferty – “Bring It All Home”
April Wine – “Sign of the Gypsy Queen”
Kate Bush – “Man With the Child in His Eyes”
Rainbow – “All Night Long”
David Bowie – “Boys Keep Swinging”
The Specials – “Rat Race”
mp3: The Specials – Rat Race
Talking Heads – “Once In A Lifetime”
Bootcamp – “Victim”
Rod Stewart – “Tonight’s the Night”
Nick Lowe – “Cruel To Be Kind”
Cliff Richard – “A Little In Love”
.38 Special – “Wild Eyed Southern Boys”
Kate Bush – “Wuthering Heights”
The Selecter – “Celebrate the Bullet”
Leo Sayer – “More Than I Can Say”
The Specials – “A Message To You, Rudy”
Blondie – “Heart of Glass”
Rod Stewart – “Oh, God”
Pretenders – “Kid”
Lani Hall – “Come What May”
Split Enz – “I Got You”
mp3: Split Enz – I Got You
Who – “Sister Disco”
David Bowie – “Fashion”
J. Geils Band – “Love Stinks”
Robert Palmer – “The Ballad of John and Mary”
Shoes – “Tomorrow Night”
Tubes – “Primetime”
Shoes – “Cruel You”
mp3: Hilly Michaels – Calling All Girls
Rod Stewart – “I Was Only Joking”
Cars – “Let’s Go”
Ramones – “Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio?”
REO Speedwagon – “Riding the Storm Out”
Rod Stewart – “You’re In My Heart”
Fischer Z – “So Long”
Robin Lane & the Chartbusters – “I Don’t Want to Know”
Andrew Gold – “Go Back Home Again”
REO Speedwagon – “Time For Me To Fly”
Pete Townshend – “Rough Boys”
Cars – “Dangerous Type”
Genesis – “Turn It On”
Carly Simon – “We’re So Close”
Louise Goffin – “Kid Blue”
Ultravox – “Vienna”
Elvis Costello & the Attractions – “What’s So Funny About…”
PhD – “I Won’t Let You Down”
mp3: Nazareth – Holiday
Shoes – “In My Arms Again”
Ultravox – “Passing Strangers”
The Vapors – “Turning Japanese”
REO Speedwagon – “Roll With the Changes”
Split Enz – “I Hope I Never”
Rod Stewart – “Blondes Have More Fun”
Andrew Gold – “Never Let Her Slip Away”
REO Speedwagon – “Only The Strong Survive”
REO Speedwagon – “Back on the Road Again”
The Vapors – “Waiting for the Weekend”
Rod Stewart – “You’re Insane”
Hall & Oates – “Kiss On My List”
Buggles – “Living in the Plastic Age”
mp3: David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes
Andrew Gold – “Lonely Boy”
Commenting is closed for this article.
I remember watching (as a 10 year old) the first month of MTV and thinking it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. David Byrne had me rolling on the floor and I figured Elvis Costello to be retarded. For some reason, I thought Robert Palmer holding a magnifying glass up to his mouth in “Clues” was hysterical.
— Liz Panzee Sep 1, 01:21 PM #
I thought “Time Heals” was the second video ever played on MTV? Not so?
— Robert Sep 10, 01:02 AM #