MTV's first 24 hours

I liked the video better myself. David Byrne on stage is just too goofy and distracting. But in the videos, it seems to work well.

 

Anyone been by Byrne's art gallery at MassMoCa?

 

First hour of MTV airs today at 1 (ET) on VH1 Classic.

 

Trust me, it's not as easy as it looks.

 

I love Hall & Oates.

You know what their best song might be? I Can't Go For That. It's one of the best white-soul songs ever. Honestly. Great groove.

But I agree with Oz, they began to lose it around '85 or so, though as BYH noted, they've had some songs later that were decent.

And I'll throw one clunker out from their peak period -- Adult Education. Really bad.

 

That was my theme song when I edited the stories of one former reporter, who eventually was demoted to news clerk. The official line was he wanted fewer hours, but the reality was he was fact-challenged far too often.

 

For my money, "Ashes To Ashes" was the best video I'd seen until Weezer's "Buddy Holly". PCLL, your list was spot-on. I was going to come out swinging in the defence of the awesome "History Never Repeats".

 

The song's not that good, but the video freakin rocked. Soft core 80s video porn gold, I tell you!

Hall & Oates were blue-eyed soul for the 70s and early 80s. Things kinda went down after Big Bam Boom (especially with Darryl Hall's lame-ass rap at the end of Method of Modern Love. If you don't know, here it goes:

I gotta way with words
I gotta way with rhymes
I do be-lieve that I'm inclined
To look a-head and not be-hind
I got the method baby and it's right on time

Those five lines set white people's acceptance of rap back at least a couple years until Aerosmith and Run DMC collaborated.)

Anywho, as was mentioned BBB had some decent songs (most notably Dance on Your Knees/Out of Touch), and I think there was a live album that featured a My Girl cover with the Temptations that was decent. After that "Change of Season" was good for about three or four songs. That was it.

Hall and Oates peaked really around 82-83, when Rock n Soul came out. A very, very good greatest hits album. Not inclusive of everything they did (for instance -- "Family Man" is not on there), but it represents most of their best work.

As far as MTV goes, I'll Tivo at least the first hour of programming. It's something to show the kids later in life so they can laugh at us and the things we did and then try to emulate them behind our backs.

 

Holy fuck! Thanks a lot Freelance, I thought I had wiped that tripe out of my memory banks forever.

But in the White Group/Artist Pathetic Stab At Street-Cred Department, nothing tops Rush's Roll The Bones rap from '90 or so ...

Whats the deal? Spin the wheel.
If the dice are hot -- take a shot.
Play your cards. show us what you got --
What you're holding.
If the cards are cold,
Dont go folding.
Lady luck is golden;
She favors the bold. thats cold.
Stop throwing stones --
The night has a thousand saxophones.
So get out there and rock,
And roll the bones.
Get busy!

MUHAHAHAHAHA! God does Rush suck hard.

 

Paging SportsJournalists.com's Canadian music apologists.

 

Don't look at me. I loves me some Rush but that bit sucked some serious shit. As did "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" and "The Trees".

 

Did any band capitalize more on the creation of MTV than REO Speedwagon? Look at how many songs were in the first day rotation.

Hi Infidelity came out the year MTV debuted and I think REO had a video for every single song on that album. It seemed like they got heavy, heavy play the first year or two MTV was on.

Cruel To Be Kind and Hold on Loosely were two other songs that always seemed to be on a lot.