When Popular Musicians Go Off The Rails, It's Time To Boogie

Every once in awhile, a musician, band or recording artist wants to get away from their comfort zone and try something different.

Karen Carpenter gets lost in space in 1977
as she gets totally weird in "Calling Occupants..."  

Often, it works. Sometimes, though, it turns into hilarity that's either genius or sick or both. Usually both.  Which I love.

I'll offer three examples from the 1970s and 1980s. that will make you cringe, laugh, and maybe hate me for getting these tunes into your head.

But I'm only doing this because I'm in a weird mood. Won't you join me?

Before we go on, please feel free to nominate any weird songs by somewhat normal artists that you want to add to this list.

The first piece of insanity I'll offier is the late, great  Karen Carpenter. She was a staple of early 1970s soft rock and love ballads. That's not a diss against her. She was awesome at it, she and brother Richard put out wonderful records and her voice was stunning.

Then stunningly, the Carpenters came out with this gem: Here's "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft," from 1977  Just see if you can get through the whole video without laughing or cringing yourself to death.

Richard Carpenter begins the segment as the World's Most Obnoxious Radio DJ, Karen Carpenter spends the video looking like a Scientology guru strung out on acid, and the space aliens who make guest appearances look like they want to flee this song, or bomb earth into dust to rid the universe of this laff riot:






The next example is a song I actually like: It's "Lawyers In Love" by Jackson Browne. He's the renowned king  of thoughtful takes on love and hate affairs, liberal political statements and a couple fun songs.

Part of the charm of "Lawyers In Love" is I don't really get it. I don't know if anybody gets it. Including Jackson Browne. But that's OK.

In this video, Jackson Browne sings the song in a bare apartment, watching seemingly in a trance as space aliens in the form of children land. (Why do all these weird songs involve space alients and people who appear to be on sedatives?)

Then we have him rowing a car across a harbor and lawyers gleefully marching on Moscow.  I still don't get it. But amaze yourself at this weirdness from Jackson Browne:





Finally, let's go to that 1970s and 1980s cultural scold Don Henley, who has a bad day as a teacher in "Johnny Can't Read."

I love the crude computers all the kids in the class have, and the fact that Johnny can't read seems to be the least of Johnny's problems. How much caffeine, coke and Valium did he take anyway?  And judging from the video, it looks like Henley could use some of the same substances.

Big Fun: Impressionist Sings "Total Eclipse of The Heart" As Cher, Adele, Streisand, Piaf And Many More!

Several web sites, including Gawker, today discovered and brought us the genius of Christina Bianco, who in the video in this post sings the 1980s staple "Total Eclipse Of The Heart."

Christina Bianco does some awesome impressions
in a rendition of "Total Eclipse Of The Heart."  

The over the top, over produced, over sung and overly dramatic but still oddly great song by Bonnie Tyler was a huge hit. And it has been parodied and spoofed ever since.

The song is made incredibly entertaining as Bianco sings the song in the voices of 19 famous divas.   

My favorites in her repertoire are Edith Piaf and Christina Aguilera, but all of them are awesome.

I bet you'll be like me, and laugh out loud at some of the divas doing "Total Eclipse Of The Heart."

More 80s Video Fun: Godley and Creme's "Cry"

In my continuing series dredging up some 1980s music videos that I at least find intriguing, artistic and cool,  I give you Godley and Creme's "Cry"

A still from Godley and Creme's "Cry"
music video from the 1980s

It's a simple video, but mesmerizing. In it, against a plain black backdrop, you see the faces of various people, one morphing into another, then another, then another, on and on.  All of the people are singing the song.

Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, the two singers, appear repeatedly interspersed with the rest of the people that appear in the video.

The morphing technique in the video was considered incredibly innovative and a major filming breakthrough when the video came out in the mid 1980s.

What I love is the wide variety of people in the video, as if the makers randomly picked people off the street as the rather mournful song plods along.

There's a lot of archeotypes, like a guy who looks like Mr T., another who looks like Freddie Mercury. And I like the progression. For instance, at one point, a glamorous blonde woman fades, replaced by the face of a grumpy, jowly old man.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Godley and Creme were members of the group 10cc. That group is probably best known for its song "I'm Not in Love," a hypnotically moody song from 1975 that I absolutely love.

Other installments of my recent 80s music video series in this blog are here and here.

Here's Godley and Creme's "Cry" video:

A First: Fun From North Korea

I never thought I'd seen the day where I would post something about fun in North Korea. Yes, I did have something goofy on the recent death of their dictator, Kim Jong Il,but that was us reacting to their awfulness, not something awfully funny from North Korea. There is a difference.

North Korea has to be the worst place in the world. The family-run dictatorship government is a closed off cult of personality. Not only do the people who live there have no freedoms, they're basically starving and freezing because the government is so isolationist, evil, selfish and just horrible.

But, we have the video you will see at the bottom of this post. I don't know if it's North Korean propoganda about how wonderful they are, or if a sense of  humor bloomed somehow in that rocky, dictatorial soil, (This performance is in Norway)  but we have of all things, accordian players playing a hit from the 1980s.

Mexican Radio: Blast From The Past

Most radio stations play the same three songs over and over again, so I'm delighted when one breaks the rules and plays something that I haven't heard in a great while.

I know, I know, in this day in age, I can seek out these songs on line or anywhere else digitally.

The '80s band Wall of Voodoo

Problem is, you don't realize you've forgotten the joy of some forgotten, bizarre song until somebody plays it for you.

The other day, cruising the highway between Swanton and St. Albans, Vermont, the radio station crackled with this 1980s gem, "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo. Just a happily bizarre little song. As you see in the video it's done by a band whose lead singer is a twitchy guy who looks like he's really about to lose it.

That lead singer, Stan Ridgway, is still around and continues to have a successful career.

Anyway, here's the fun, insane video. A 1983 blast from the past. (You might have to endure an ad first)