Interactive Poll # 666 - GUILTY!

George:  Great idea for a poll!  Congrats!  Plasmatics, gets lots of points for a wild gal with a Mohawk haircut, riding on top of a (school)bus, crashing through a bunch of TVs.  😊  Donna Lewis:  There are songs that I can recall that really bring back a specific time and place (a Foreigner song comes to mind, for me here, “Waiting for a Girl Like You”, which played constantly in the FEMA office I worked in, in 1982 after the big mudslides in Santa Cruz.  Can’t say I liked it, but it takes me right back there and to the nice people I worked with.  FEMA was a different animal then).  Batang’s “Thunderstruck,” was a lot of fun, I like novelty songs, too, and takes on other’s material.  BTW, when I heard “The Raging Horse,” you beat me to posting that Mr Ed clip.  Priceless.  😊  Kiss, thank you for summing them up for me. 😊  Of course I know of Kiss, not really a fan.  Gene Simmons was at every. single. KNAC metal show backstage.  Never could take them seriously, although it’s certainly straight ahead, formulaic, no apologies rock.

Micky:  Graham Parsons ~ In My Hour of Darkness ~ Gram of course is legend .  I also loved The Byrds “Sweethearts of the Rodeo,” LP, which this echoes (with good reason).  Also, I had no clue you would be such a fan of The Wiggles.  😊  Hatebeak, kind of a “Lark’s Tongues,” on speed.  New Kids on the Block, another boy band of another generation than The Monkees.  Lotsa of staging, dancing, cute boys in costumes, what’s a young girl not got to love there? 

Raff:  Bronski Beat ~ Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy,” (also an old fave of mine, and their version of “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”  Living in LA at the time this was played on KROQ a lot, also hits nostalgic notes for me.   I also know Foreigner and “Urgent,” even though I am not a fan of Arena Rock per se, it’s still a great song in it’s genre.  David Lee Roth, what a ham!  Not a fan of them, but what a perfect band for it’s type.

Shadowyzard:  Eyüp Hamiş - Gel Gör Beni  I just love Turkish and other Middle Eastern music, so this is a strong contender for being a winner from the get-go, if I’m using songs I like in this , (for whatever reason) with which I was previously unfamiliar.  Not as crazy about the other Turkish song, but the rhythms are good, which should be expected. 

Who would have thought the same person presenting the Turkish piece would also bring Baby Shark and Construction Vehicles for Kids to the table?  Cute as heck.  Loved The Raging Horse, too.  And I am also familiar with the Mr Ed song, one of my faves for novelty songs, ever.  Extra points to George, for knowing it!  😊

And then you had to add the piece de resistance,  “Yes, I Am A Barbie,” by Nanowar of Steel.  I am consumed by hysterics.  Just a wonderful bit of I’m not sure what, but I love it!  Nothing exists after this brilliance.  :D  Gregorian Christmas, very beautiful, and I too, loved the story of The Little Match Girl.   Not sure if you know of Edward Gorey, but you might enjoy his takes on tragic Victorian children’s lit (warning, very dark humour).

Easy Money:  Aha ~ Take On Me….of course I know this one….When I worked at a Whole Foods in Nashville for 3 years every time this came on the house music, you could hear everybody in the place, joining in the chorus.  Most were godawful, but there are some good pipes in Nashville and sometimes you could hear some people hitting those high notes.  I had to attend  a Lynyrd Skynyrd show while carrying them on our buses when I lived outside of Denver, once.  Scary.  Journey, another one that is Arena Rock that I don’t mind hearing, but never owned anything by, who had to, with radio?  Great voice, Steve Perry, and I understand he’s a nice guy.  Conway Twitty….brings me back to my Mendocino days when I’d befriended my neighbour’s daughter of an ex rodeo rider.  I was 10 at the time.  We rode horses all over the dunes and beaches and back into some of the most magical forested dirt roads, imaginable.  One of them led to a truly iconically Western ranch, several thousand acres with large sparkling creek and sprawling ranch home tucked up in the valley just under redwood forested hills.

I introduced my friend and her brothers to The Beatles, and they introduced me to country music.  Excellent choice.

Grumpyprogfan:  Fan already of Joe Jackson and They Might Be Giants here.  The Dogs Die In Hot Cars is kind of an earworm.  Had me laughing, too    Way familiar with Weird Al, in fact, just love his song parodies, one of my favourite odd subgenres (and awakened in me from MAD Magazine, which used to do these, but in cartoon panels).  He’s just a wonderful parodist and a fine musician.

Lorenzo:  Fun, silly song, DARIO FO & ENZO JANNACCI: HO VISTO UN RE Makes me think of Sid Caesar, the classic comedian, if you’re familiar.The second, CORO DEI POMPIERI FROM THE MOTION PICTURE "ALTRIMENTI CI ARRABBIAMO",  had me laughing, too, kind of like Alvin and the Chipmunks with some deep voices thrown in. I Gufi - La Balilla  Even though I can’t understand the words, the humour is there.  Both of the Amanda Lear pieces, pure cheese and kinda kitchy.  😊  Goran Bregovich: O Bella Ciao.  I liked this one more than the rest in these selections, especially the slow parts.

Greg:  Clouds Across The Moon ~ RAH Band:  You hit the nail on the head, cheesy yet charming.  And Subway to Sally, “Das Messer,” this could almost have been in the catchy poll, I liked the sort of bombarde sound going on during the piece (bombardes being those horn thingies [my ultra technical term] in Alan Stivell’s music).  Reading the lyrics, interesting that it is a piece about a love/hate relationship (at least to my understanding).  The Karat piece, I don’t understand the language, but it Is a pretty ballad sounding thing to my ears. 

Mike, love Squirrel Nut Zippers!  Such a fun novelty act.  Completely had forgotten about them.  Might give Barbie a run for her money.  Particle Man, so funny!  And SoaD……Those guys have too much energy!  Good thing they have this outlet 😊 (my friend that I live with adores this band).  Can we have a Top 6?

RushFan4 ~ I remember Samantha Fox, but not this song.  And also the Paula Abdul and Twisted Sister selections.   All three are kind of cartoon-y, teen-boy-centric to me (which is how hair bands appear to me), and very MTV-friendly, of course.  Maybe it was because I was living near the Hollywood area at that time.  Which is not to denigrate your taste, they actually fit into the idea, for me, of guilty pleasures. 

Dr Wu ~  Very familiar with all three of these, I often see music from you that I enjoy and that was part of what was being played about.  The Go Gos were fun, I kind of preferred The Bangles (they might have worked as a guilty pleasure, these days, for me).  All those women bands were being stalked by Kim Fowley when I was shopping a female-fronted synth-rock band, including “my” singer, back in the 80’s.  Robert Palmer….really nice guy and what a fantastic video that was, and song.  And I loved that Dr Hook really DID finally get on the cover of The Rolling Stone, after all.  Poetic justice.

I prophesy disaster ~ The Osmonds….I just can’t…..Too squeaky-clean for me, even though my own entrant is The Monkees.  Nik Kershaw, I remember from KROQ, 80’s rock radio in LA.  I liked a fair amount of this kind of music, even had a synth band that I represented. 

Meltdowner ~ lena d’Agua & atlantida Reminds me of Nena, poppy and upbeat, but in a kind of quirky way.  I could see this becoming an earworm.  Let’s see if it does in the next couple of days here.

Logan ~ The Shaggs.  Definitely wonderful comedic act.  The infamous “Barbarella!”  Absolutely a treasure to keep forever.  This one could certainly be in a Top 3, kinda cheesy.  The visuals go along with all of the Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass LP covers.  I certainly remember Bauhaus, another played on KROQ in LA.  Always reminded me of Lou Reed/Velvet Underground vibe.  The Cure one is wonderful, actually like the band from back in the day and had no idea either, that these Shreds are a “thing.” The A-ha one is also intriguing, but I am not really fan, so perhaps less enjoyable to my ears. 

The Anders ~ Pot Band.   Definitely a strange one, maybe they’ve indulged a bit too much and have entered what my old friend, Andy, used to call “The Balloon Stage,” of cannabis high.  Not sure what to call it, but it sounds like they had fun.

Gentle and Giant ~ Sique Sique Sputnik, another KROQ radio daze memory.  Too familiar to enter into my potentials to vote, but it sure did get a heckuva lot of airplay back in the 80’s.

Cristi ~ Lana Del Rey, sort of current singer/songwriter sound to me.  I actually also kind of liked this, I could see the appeal.  A bit melancholy. The only complaint I have with it is that she has that tremolo and a baby-ish affectation to her voice that so many current singers do.  I liked the production for the piece, there was a harp.  😊