Afterwards I went to Jack's to do my karaoke. It wasn't busy so I sang four songs. The first song I did was one of those ones I like to sing about the state of my life. Except when I read the lyrics I realize how little I know the song's content. Honeymoon Suite's "New Girl Now" is one of those 80's semi-metal songs that emerged at the dawn of MTV. I thought the band were one of the ugly band types like Quiet Riot, Autograph and Motley Crue. Instead they were one of those Canadian Invasion soft metal acts that came out in the early 80's, like Glass Tiger, April Wine and Bryan Adams.
I have a habit of taking on songs I've never sang and finding out that although it seems like an easy song, it was a bit tougher than I thought. "New Girl Now" was not as liberating a song I thought. It's more of a kiss off to a girl to not bother him instead of a "I've Moved On" song.
Oh well. The video is typical mid 80's cheese. The special effects are crude, The hairstyles out of date and the woman in the video looked like Madonna circa 84 on crack. The lead singer is a pretty boy, that was unexpected as I was thinking he looked like Geddy Lee.
The lyrics say she's a lot like you but the other woman looks nothing like her. I kinda regret singing it. Watch the video.
the next song I sang was "Show and Tell" by Al Wilson. I love the song but never really sang it cuz I didn't know it well enough until I put it on my Ipod. Also, when I did karaoke at Vito's in Seattle, a great singer named Rob sang it often. I don't tread on other people's songs especially when they are better than me.
Anyway, Al Wilson just passed away the other day, so I felt like singing it and I thought I did well, some of the young girls thought so too. This surprised me because the song is from 1974, more than ten years before they were born. hmmmm.
Anyway this is a great clip from 1974. What a humble performer. I miss the soul songs from the 70's.
The next song I sang was T-Rex's "20th Century Boy"
Again...
Anyway here's a different clip from French TV.
Ahhh, the 80's and MTV was king. I was not into any of the 80's acts when I was in high school in those years. I liked the 70's songs from my early childhood much better . Especially when it comes to rock. Anyway, one of the better known was Deep Purple. They were a proto-metal band from the early 70's who are responsible for the most famous guitar riff of all time.
Deep Purple was one of those bands that changed its line-up more often than Law & Order changes its cast. They broke up in the mid 70's.
In 1984 the "classic" line up got together to record the album Perfect Strangers. The song "Perfect Strangers" was the first cut. It was good but not up to the 70's standards of "Smoke On The Water" and "Highway Star" but as dated as the song was in the era of cold guitars and even colder keyboards it has aged well. I was able to perform the song solidly. I got a good response despite the songs relative obscurity. I think it's because the song features long notes that I was able to hold. This is a crowd pleaser in the days of American Idol histrionics.
Here's the video from 1984. Standard band footage of them recording. The thing was when MTV had the World Premiere I was there planting my ass on the floor in awe and rapture.
Deep Purple was back!
!
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