So I just saw this video for the first time in… hmm… 35 years? Hard to believe it’s been that long since the golden age of MTV, but that’s what the math says.
I never forgot this song, which is a four-minute blast of relentless forward momentum that always gets me hyped. But I had forgotten about the video, which is a perfect visual analog: The camera never stops moving, the people never stop running. Ah, all that youthful energy…. Watching it makes me feel 17 again for a minute. Or four.
Of course after seeing this I had to run out and buy the album, which was not that good. It had one other catchy track and the rest was filler. After that Belfegore disappeared into the crevices of history, never to be seen again.
But they had four glorious minutes, which is enough.
Today’s song of the week comes in six parts, the first of which dates to 1969, when a Belgian pop-rock group called the Wallace Collection recorded a song called “Daydream” (not to be confused with the contemporaneous Lovin’ Spoonful hit of the same name):
According to Ye Olde Wikipedia,
The song was a hit in mainland Europe, though popularity didn’t make it to English speaking countries, despite its use of English lyrics.
Apparently some of the melody was lifted from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which would take this history all the way back to 1876. But Philistine that I am, I will leave the classical stuff to those with longer attention spans. (more…)
Tony Joe White, the king of Swamp Rock, passed away this week. I must admit I didn’t really know his music, aside from “Polk [not Pork] Salad Annie,” which was famous for being covered by Elvis. But as it happens, just the other day, I heard this song on the radio as I was driving home from the Bay Area. It’s a good ’un.
