This week, we have not just one but TWO music videos to kick off the work-week. Both are versions of "Mamma Said Knock You Out" (a song I like mostly due to a number of spoof versions a friend came up with, such as "Mamma's Gonna Bail You Out" and "Mamma's Gonna Whore About").
I feel like this is the first time where cover-version master Leo Moracchioli has missed the mark; he's made the song his own, but he hasn't made it any better nor more interesting. But why don't you take a listen to both and share YOUR opinions in comment section below?
I am not particularly religious, so that might be why I generally find rock bands that bill themselves as "Christian" to be underwhelming. That is NOT the case with Canadian band Thousand Foot Krutch.
"War of Change" is a fabulous, hard-rockin' song with a visually interesting video that takes full advantage of the black-and-white film. This is a solid Ten out of Ten Stars!
Well... sort of. It's Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" filtered through the stylings of 1940s western swing by There--I Ruined It. (It's a lotta fun, and it'll kick off your work-week in just the way you need!
As some of you out there might know, I began my professional life as an entertainment writer, focused mostly on music reviews. I did that for roughly four years, after which I was so burned out on music that my car radio stayed tuned to talk and news-stations from 1993 through 2000... and I hardly played any music on my system at home. To this day, I still have not been to a life concert, or even watched one on television.
Major exceptions to my time away from music were certain works by Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Beethoven, and/or Handel... and everything by one of the 20th century's great composers and guitar players, Mike Oldfield.
I have loved Mike Oldfield's music since I first heard "Ommadawn". I prefer his long-form instrumentals over his pop/rock songs, but everything he's done is good. Even his weakest releases are far, FAR better than the best that many other modern song-writers and musicians produce.
Mike Oldfield turns 70 years old today. I honor him on his birthday, and I thank for enriching my life, inspiring my creativity--characters and storylines have all sprung into my head while listening to Oldfield--and bringing light into my world during my darkest times.
This post also celebrates over five decades of brilliant music composed and performed by giving you a chance to listen to some of my favorite songs from him, along with a few videos. Only a few of them actually that fit the black-and-white format around here, starting with a fan-made one (which features a little nudity, so be careful where you watch it), but I hope you'll be inspired to check out more of his music and come to love his work the way I do.
Here's another fan-made video, mostly abstract and set to some very pretty Oldfield tunes.
"Five Miles Out"--the title track from the 1983 album that is Mike Oldfield's greatest masterpiece. "Taurus II" (a 27-minute long track that occupied most of Side 1 of the LP record when it was first released) is his very best work, containing some of his greatest themes and melodies.
Before they were Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman and his fellow bandmembers were known as the Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo and they performed covers of 1930s and 1940s songs while putting on bizarre and elaborate shows.
This music video featured in today's post was made as a proof-of-concept/test shoot for what eventually became the full-length movie "Forbidden Zone" (1979), directed by Richard Elfman.
Johnny (1977) Starring: Marie-Pascale Elfman and the Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo Director: Richard Elfman Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
Here's a little hard-rockin' weirdness to get your work-week off to a proper start! Ladies and gentlemen, we invite you to take a ride with Tardigrade Inferno, a Russian avant-garde metal band that we wish we had discovered sooner!
The video for "Arrival of a Train" is a fun mix of visual elements that span most of the main time periods covered by this blog. The song it supports is the title track from the band's new EP, which releases on May 17, 2023. Click here for more information, or to pre-order a copy from the band's official website. (But not until you watch the great video embedded below. Just don't be scared by the bits of color that are featured in it!)
I am not an expert in rap and hip-hop by any stretch of the imagination... but I can recognize talent when I see it and BOY were the Fu-Schnickens talented! Even better -- "Breakdown" has a hook that you will find yourself humming for the next few hours or even days.
I don't grasp the meaning of the video nor the lyrics of the rap (except for the most basic... I understand the words and each sentence, but I am puzzled as to the greater meaning of it all). It's all very fascinating to watch and listen to, and extremely well performed and crafted--and each shot of the video is expertly framed--but all I can ultimately say is, "This is art, and I know what I like. And THIS--I like."
Take a look and a listen. Let me know if you agree! (And if you know what it all means.)
If you'll been around these parts for a while (particularly on Musical Mondays), you've heard me say that I'm not a fan of music videos that are nothing more than jump-cuts and pan-shots of the band or solo artist performing. An exception is Norwegian rocker Leo Moracchioli. There's always enough antics or camera mugging to make even the most straight-forward performance video as fun as his energetic cover tunes.
Take this cover of Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" and music video for example...
Here at Shades of Gray, our typical content is generated from anywhere across 200 years of pop culture. If you took the stuff posted here, blended in all together, and added a hefty dose of Crazy, you'd probably end up with something very much like this spectacularly strange video for George Michael's "Spinning the Wheel". It's something you MUST see!
The Lennon Sisters are a group of musically talented sisters whose professional singing career (together and occassionally seperately) spanned seven decades. We're kicking off the final week of Women's History Month 2023, with them being all traditional and stuff on "The Lawrence Welk Show" in the late 1950s while performing a song that is best known for its association with Doris Day and the Hitchcock's remake of "The Man Who Knew Too Much".
"Round Whippin'" is a song from the Peruvian DJ/singer known as A.Chal. It's a pretty chill tune that starts to feel a little repetative as it closes out, but the video remains absolutely engrossing, and more than a little spooky, throughout.
While I don't know what message the artist was trying to convey, I think it all adds up to, "Drugs are bad. Don't do drugs."
Part crime drama about small-time British crooks and part music video, "For He's a Jolly Good Felon" is the first chapter of a story about Simon (Sie Haworth) and a few other hapless men trying to get out from under the thumb of a vicious gangster/fight promoter, Harry (Alan Ford). It closes on a cliffhanger, and if I ever find Part Two, it will be featured in a future post here... because I liked both the music and film portions of this neat video--which is something of a throwback to the Golden Age of Music Videos during the 1980s and 1990s.
By the way, if you liked Alan Ford in "Snatch" (2000), you may like this one, too: He essentially plays the same character here as he did in that movie.
For He's a Jolly Good Felon (2010)
Starring: Alan Ford, Sie Haworth, Richard Sharpe, and Ian Watkins
Start your week off with something a little creepy from an artist I've just discovered. I THINK this a love song? Maybe it's about obsession? about drug use? Whatever it is, it's equal parts pretty and spooky and completely excellent.
But the video... don't watch it with the lights off!
We try to mix a little education with the entertainment these parts. So, on this Musical Monday, we bring you a rap video from the early 1990s that answers a question you didn't even know you wanted answered: What is a True Fuschnick?
Click below, sit back, and prepare to be schooled!
Um... okay. Maybe we over-sold the educational value to that video... but it IS a very entertaining bit of rap from the early 1990s. (1992 to be exact, and the third single from what would prove to be their biggest album -- their debut album, "F.U.: Don't Take It Personal.")
You can read about the group's history at Wikipedia by clicking here. (Among the groundbreaking they can be credited with was defining a trail that the longer-lasting Wu-Tang Clan would soon follow.)
Singer/songwriter Jessica Weiss, who has been the face and voice of UK-based band Fear of Men since 2011, recently unveiled a solo project. Check out the first video released in support of it below... and enjoy the ethereal spookiness! (I don't think I've enjoyed a song of this genre as much as this one since C'est la Mort in the early 1990s.)
With Valentine's Day coming up, we thought we'd bring you a romantic song... well, a sort-of romantic song. It's more of a break-up-and-moving-on song, especially when taken in context of the mini-movie music video that goes with it. (And we really like this music video, because we like the ones that tell stories rather than just show musicians standing around playing instruments and singing.)
Plus, it's always good to be reminded that it's okay to play Mariah Carey songs when it's not Christmas time.
In 2015, British actress and rapper and photographer released the first single for her debut album "A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons". That sentence represents the sum total of what I know about her and her work, but based on what you'll find if you click on the video below, I think you'll probably be looking her up to see what else she might have to offer. (I know I'm going to see if she's made more videos suitable for a future Musical Monday!)
"Everytime We Touch" is a beautiful song with a trippy, mildly creepy video. When I first heard the song, I thought it was another team-up of Reilly and the great Mike Oldfield. When I saw the video a short time later, I WAS certain it was another team-up between Oldfield and Reilly... why else would that guitarist be in shadow like thet? I took it as confirmation of my assumption, because it felt obvious that Oldfield didn't want to steal the spotlight from her. Additionally, I made up a story about the weirdness going on in the video; maybe I'll relay it some day.
Of course, I was WRONG about this song being a team-up between Reilly and Oldfield. That's NOT him on guitar, and this is not a song from his pen, which became obvious to me as I grew up and my ear became more refined. I still like my little fantasy about Oldfield making an anonymous cameo appearance this video.
If you've never heard this song (which was a huge hit across Europe in 1992 and 1993), I hope you'll fall in love with it as I did and that you, too, will come to think of it as "the greatest Mike Oldfield song he never wrote".
By the way, I'm not the only person who made wrong assumptions about this song and who performed it. Adults and even musicians have made the same mistake, as you'll learn from looking at the comments on this video... or from just watching this really well-done cover of "Everytime we Touch" at YouTube.
A good cover tune is one where the performer captures the essence of the song. A great cover tune is one where the artist captures the essence of the song and makes it their own in every way.
Singer Zella Day has recorded a cover of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" that is not only great, it's FANTASTIC. What's more, it is supported by a great video that is equally effective in capturing the essence of "Crazy Train." (The only, very nitpicky complaint that I can even think to mount is that maybe it should have taken place in a train car rather than the back of an open-topped car.)
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