Hear It Online

Your Heart - Donavon Frankenreiter

What is this? Strange sound, doesn’t fit any particular genre. It got a good swingy beat that might actually take a two step.

Frankenreiter is signed up with Lost Highway Records so he is a rebellious trouble maker no doubt.

Frankenreiter has more tunes, something of a beach bum surfer doing a 60’s throwback thing. To early to tell. I seriously doubt Donovan will see a lot of top 20 radio airplay, he’s just to risky.

Suzy Bogguss - 1991

1991 was a good year. You don’t hear a lot of Suzy on the radio now days, which is such a shame. Few singers measure up to Suzy Bogguss, what a voice. Nope, it’s not 1991. I’ve embedded this link here so people who haven’t had a chance to listen to Suzy have a chance. You’re welcome.

The music industry is pretty rough, just read Suzy’s Wikipedia entry and see what I mean.

Suzy does seem to be alive, take a look at her website.

Love Lockdown - Kanye West

Just a great song, I’m not to sure what kind of shelf-life it will have. You hear that Auto-Tune and have to wonder if there is a future, but it works in the here and now.

Kanye West seems to be, unfortunately, caught up in the Katrina BDS think. Sad. No Ronald Reagan did NOT create AIDS and no George Bush didn’t invent Hurricane Katrina.

I like the music but his lack of education is sad. Racism is always ugly, but what do I know I’m just a middle aged white Republican.

Too Cold at Home - Mark Chesnutt

This is such a great song. Takes me back to 1991 or there abouts.

The Problem with Music Videos

This is a little something that has been bothering me for years. Granted, on the list of things affecting the planet this isn’t a big deal but I still feel the need to get it out in the open.

Music Videos are great, but they get in the way of real memories.

The first cassette tape I ever bought was AC-DC’s ‘Back in Black’. When I hear ‘Have a Drink On Me’ or ‘Shook Me All Night Long’ on the radio I am instantly transported back to high school. I can remember what cars my friends had and the ‘adventures’ we were getting into like it only happened yesterday.

Same thing when I hear anything from the Eagles, Waylon Jennings or Van Halen that I listened to before the advent of MTV or CMT.

Van Halen is a great example of the problem of the Music Video.

When I hear anything from Van Halen’s first album ‘Van Halen’ I think of things that were happening and the people I was hanging out with back in High school.

What do I think of when I hear Van Halen’s ‘Hot for Teacher’? I think of the video for ‘Hot for Teacher’. Great looking gal for sure, but that’s about all I can remember.

I also experience ‘real life’ amnesia when I hear REM’s ‘Stand’ or Tom Petty’s ‘Free Falling’, the videos are all I really remember.

When I see a Music Video that’s what I think of when I hear the song on the radio. Music Video’s are thieves of associated memories. Music Videos replace real emotions and experiences seen and felt at the time you were experiencing a song with false images.

Sometimes I can hear a song on the radio and it will effect me emotionally, then I see the Music Video for the song and the mini-movie sours the experience.

Now I love the Music Video that Little Texas made for ‘God Bless Texas’, don’t get me wrong; I like hot women in bikinis as much as the next guy.

At the same time I think of the real memories I have with songs by Styx, John Melencamp or Hank Williams Jr. and the tragedy of Music Videos couldn’t be more uncomfortably clear. Real memories have real value, memories of Music Videos are plastic images that cloud the life I wish I could remember back when I was younger.

When you watch Music Videos you are trading real memories and associations for Hollywood fakery. Listen to the radio and remember what was happening when you heard that song for the first time, skip the Music Videos.

You deserve to remember your life 10 or 20 years from now.

That’s off my chest. Tell me what you think.