Showing posts with label 1970s pop music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1970s pop music. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Worst dance I've ever seen





This is a terrible dance number, not only for its inane and monotonous tune (if you could call it that) but for the dreadful camera work, which keeps focusing on the young women's chests. 




I was surprised to find there are at least a dozen versions of Pop Corn (or Popcorn, as it is sometimes known) by different "pop" groups in Europe. But this is the one that caught on. It's been called the first electronic pop song, but that discounts Dick Hyman's Moog, a classic album which I still listen to because I like how unsophisticated the electronic effects are. There is still a sense of discovery, whereas now that vein has been mined and is completely empty.




Back then, it was common to depict the Masters of Moog sitting in front of consoles that looked exactly like telephone switchboards from the 1930s. I'm not sure how they did it, but right now I don't care much because this thing is staring me in the face and I'm just about done with it. I couldn't even watch all of the video. I guess it's a period piece.




Meantime, this might be my favorite pop dance number (until I think of another one). Me and the blondie grandgirls used to dance to this, until they really began to dance and realized Nanny couldn't do it. It still kicks ass, in my books.


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Sweet America






Well I think it's time I'm leaving Oklahoma
There's 49 more ways to live my life
America, I'm sure that I don't know you
And I do believe you're worth another try

Sweet America, eulogize America
Then fall down on your knees and cry
Sweet America, sing about America
Then fall down on your knees and cry

Some of you say you're fourth generation
Some of you say you're part Cherokee
America, to me I see you naked
While others see just what they want to see

Sweet America, eulogize America
Then fall down on your knees and cry
Sweet America, sing about America
Then fall down on your knees and cry




I love California
But I'm watching it die
I'm watching it die

Sweet America, eulogize America
Then fall down on your knees and cry
Sweet America, sing about America
Then fall down on your knees and cry

Sweet America, eulogize America
Sing about America, sweet America
Sweet America, eulogize America
Sing about America, sweet America




This isn't the version I wanted to post, but the one I heard in my head simply wasn't available. It was by Barry Greenfield, but a much more luxe version with the first few notes of the American national anthem played on chimes. I woke up this morning with these lines in my head:

I love California
But I'm watching it die
I'm watching it die

Then I realized that, like Save the Country by Laura Nyro/The Fifth Dimension, it was a perfect anthem for these times. These melancholy, frightening times. This was written by an Englishman, I think - haven't had time to research it, there are so many miseries to attend to! So much trauma. This morning I asked myself, why do I feel this weird elation, almost euphoria sometimes? Then it came to me: I'm in crisis mode. I do great in a crisis, lousy all the rest of the time. Adrenaline mobilizes, "fight" supercedes "flight" - but only for a while. Those resources are only to be pulled out and used when they absolutely must.

I've never loved America, but I AM watching it die. And there does not seem to be one damn thing I can do about it.