25 Years Ago Today...

[Baak]

Video Killed the Radio Star aired on MTV as the very first music video.

Yowza.

[vinylrake]

Video Killed the Radio Star aired on MTV as the very first music video.

Yowza. 8)

Ah yes, the good old days - The Buggles - who would have ever thought a novelty "new wave" band like them would later join Yes?

[Baak]

What was weird for me was hearing a Yes song shortly after getting heavily into The Buggles that was the same song from their second album - with Trevor Horn singing!

I shook hands with Geoff Downes at an Asia concert back in the day too (was the only reason I was there actually) - dang, that was a long time ago. Weirder still: on my recent road trip I heard *two* Asia songs while shopping for groceries at different times. Wonder if it was a warm-up for their so-called reunion tour or whatever. Pretty basic pop rock fluff, which is what it was designed to be.

In contrast, The Buggles had some very interesting production work on their albums, especially the first. Also really enjoyed Lexicon of Love by ABC, which Trevor Horn produced - amazing stuff. Saw on Wikipedia that LoL (lol!) was considered one of the top 100 albums of all-time for production. Must agree there.

Still have my 12" single of The Buggles' Blue Nylon which I see was added to a 1997 re-release of The Age of Plastic. That was the funkiest song.

Man, those were the days...

[Frumius]

There are Beatles music videos that of course pre-date that. But there was no real delivery method for them.

Somewhere I have one for Strawberry Fields Forever, a really psychedelic "video" (not a video at all, of course, I'm sure it was film--reasonably sure...)

[vinylrake]

There are Beatles music videos that of course pre-date that. But there was no real delivery method for them.

Somewhere I have one for Strawberry Fields Forever, a really psychedelic "video" (not a video at all, of course, I'm sure it was film--reasonably sure...)

Probably a clip from their short film "Magical Mystery Tour".

ps. "music video" is a bizarre concept and odd that it gets pegged to MTV as if they were something new. Short clips of musicians performing their songs had been seen previously, so had clips from movies that included the musicians - the only real 'innovation' was MTV providing a venue to show clips that were not part of a larger product so MTV basically started a music advertising channel so artists could have a place to advertise their wares - which resulted in elevating the advertisement to the level of it's own medium. e.g. The advertisement became a meta-product.

ps. Technically the STF clip you saw COULD have been on video (video recorders were created back in the early 50's) but unlikely since Sony didn't sell it's first VCR until 1971 - Video recorders weren't afaik commonly used in video production at least in the US until the hmmmm...I want to say late 70's-early 80's (guessing here) - daytime soaps and some other low budget television shows started using video instead of film.

[Two Saks]

The advertisement became a meta-product.

You nailed it VR.

Btw, think it was 25 years ago

Lol..if I had a dollar everytime I heard Baak playing a Buggle song...

Frum - I remember the Strawberry Fields "video"/promo. Man, it was *very* psychedelic! That is one of my all time personal favorite songs, an absolutetly beautiful and bizarre piece. The evolution of that song is interesting. They recorded two versions - the first with Lennon singing to the orchestra arrangement only. The second with rock guitars, percusion etc. They ended up slowing down the orchestra version to match the key of the rock take, then mixing the two together. Totally gives it that "bent-reality-memory" feel. Flip side of that single was "Penny Lane". Pretty awesome B-side.

Back to the blue suburban skies...

[Baak]

Btw, think it was 25 years ago

Holy crap - you're absolutely right!

I swear I've lost 10 years somewhere along the way... Actually I was thinking it was 25 years because I know some of our players were either wee tikes or not even an idea at that point, but then wrote 15. Think it's because it feels like 15.


I remember seeing the "Magical Mystery Tour" movie years ago at a late night Beatles movie fest of sorts. Was funny, my brother and I went to this thinking it was a 2-hour movie and we ended up leaving early after 4 hours something. It was across town and needless to say we arrived home a tad late. Was amazed we didn't get in trouble for it (I was only about 12 or so).

I still remember John Lennon shoveling (literally with a shovel) huge mounds of spaghetti onto a fat tourist's plate in a dream sequence - very bizarre. Never quite looked at a big plate of spaghetti the same way after that. Wonder if that was the inspiration for the "Wafer Theen Meent" restaurant sequence in Meaning of Life?


One of the classic things on The Buggles' album The Age of Plastic was the fact that there were no credits for female singers on the album. At one point I decided to find out if they had produced it such that they were modified male voices. If you take Video Killed the Radio Star and slow it down just right, you'll hear that it's them (Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, maybe Bruce Wooley too?) signing. Tricky stuff because you have to sing at a slower pace and enunciate properly to make it sound female when sped up and tweaked. This is especially true in Johnny on the Monorail (another great song) - the one song where I could never figure out a background chorus at the end - where the female singing sounds amazing (it's Trevor Horn).

What amazed me is that even on Wikipedia - after all these years - they still talk about the "female chorus" on The Age of Plastic.


But nothing compares (imo) to the production on The Beatles' albums, especially Magical Mystery Tour and Abbey Road. Amazing stuff. Pink Floyd had some cool stuff too, as I recall from many listenings in TS' pad.

Although I did find some weird stuff when reverse playing some Devo songs...

[vinylrake]

The advertisement became a meta-product.

You nailed it VR.

Btw, think it was 25 years ago ;)

I wondered about that. That would make more sense, AND have the advantage of being a direct Beatles quote.

Lol..if I had a dollar everytime I heard Baak playing a Buggle song...

]
Hah! You think YOU'd have a lot? Well if I had a dollar for everytime I heard someone say "If I had a dollar..."

The evolution of that song is interesting. They recorded two versions - the first with Lennon singing to the orchestra arrangement only. The second with rock guitars, percusion etc. They ended up slowing down the orchestra version to match the key of the rock take, then mixing the two together. Totally gives it that "bent-reality-memory" feel. ...

I heard an oddity the other day about another Beatles recording trick. Seems they REGULARLY recorded Ringo's drum tracks at greatly increased speed then slowed them down to match the speed of the songs when the rest of the band recorded their parts - so he basically had to drum ReALLY fast while recording even mid-tempo songs. Supposedly the slowed down drums gave a fatter more filling sound on playback.

[vinylrake]

...If you take Video Killed the Radio Star and slow it down just right, you'll hear that it's them (Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, maybe Bruce Wooley too?) ...

Oddly enough, I actually heard the Bruce Woolley and Camera Club version of the song before I heard or saw the Buggles version. I didn't know at the time that Horn/Downes/Woolley had been in a band together and had co-written the song before either version was released. I was kind of confused to hear a new hit by a new band which I thought was a "remake" of an obscure british synthpop band only a few months after the original version came out.

Trivia I didn't know until just now - Thomas Dolby was in BW's Camera Club.

Although I did find some weird stuff when reverse playing some Devo songs...

Speaking of Devo I was dissapointed to see that none of their videos made the reent top 100 videos of all time list that some online music site recently released.

Ok, their music isn't everyone's cup of tea and I don't recall any of their videos being likely to be mistaken for academy award winning french art films, but how can you omit something as bizarre and paradigm smashing as "Are we not men?".