Contrary to popular belief, there were music videos made for quite a long time before MTV went on the air. Bands were making them to promote songs (the same reason as the MTV era, of course) and they would get played in clubs or on variety TV shows. Top of the Pops in the UK was a place that played videos. The difference that the 24/7 MTV made was that acts would make videos for pretty much ALL of their singles and not just maybe one off the album. The Bohemian Rapsody video was made when the song came out in 1975, for example, not made retroactively when MTV started. And Procol Harum had a video (or "promotional film") for A Whiter Shade of Pale in 1967. So I'm betting Rod Stewart really just already had that many videos and since MTV was fairly narrow in the scope type of the music they were playing - just like any radio station - they didn't have a ton of videos to choose from. They were pretty much a rock format station, so there were no country acts and no R&B, for example.
This is awesome info! Not having any real TV, I kind of always assumed the videos came because of the channel. But the growing existence of videos necessitated the channel, seems like? Wow! I did see that Rod had something like 11 videos on the first DAY of MTV, which just reinforces your point, they were already there!
People shouldn’t pile on Rod Stewart. He’s had a huge career…but it’s the hair. It’s definitely the hair. It’s silly on a man his age. And what the hell is a Turk? It wasn’t a slang term we used in the 80’s. You, me, and Jen did dance around and sing this. In the basement, I think. But, do you remember “Black Leather Monster,” the song we wrote ourselves? Lmao
Joseph Ray, I didn’t put it on repeat. I didn’t have the album. And, it was only the Todd break up. Lol. Actually saw the movie with him. Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward steamed up the screen! The video is just clips from the movie. JB plays a washed up football player who gets paid to find/watch her for her evil boyfriend James Woods (who is evil IRL). At some point, RW and JB have sex in the hot steamy like Mayan cave or whatever.
On the rare occasion this song comes on the radio, I still tear up. And desperately sing my head off. How something like that can still affect you 40 years later is insane.
Wow, can't say I care for either of these two. I was surprised to see Phil at such a high seed, but then even more surprised to hear how many hits he had in the 80s. I knew he was there, but he sort of slid under the radar. I guess the same applies to Rod Stewart. They are to the 80s like the fungus that took over your loaf of bread when you weren't looking.
Since we have to vote for somebody, I guess it will be Phil. He did have some passable stuff in the decade, and I can't get past the way overplayed "Forever Young". How the f*ck did it not chart higher given that it was played so often - did the radio stations get a discount on it or something?
YOU are exactly why we are doing these Legends biographies, because it's easy to forget some of these songs!
I liked a little more than half of Phil's output in the 80s, liked about 10% of Rod's stuff. In Rod's case, I would have traded away the 2 songs I liked to make the other 18 go away. Not true with Phil.
I went with Rod here, because he is just so over the top he's almost a parody of the 80s. And he's a legend before becoming kind of a joke because of being in The Faces and, well shit even if Maggie May was the only song he did he would be a goddamn legend.
And Phil Collins is a legendary....drummer. One of the best ever. As a solo artist and as the leader of Genesis he is at best mediocre and at worst he did unforgivable shit like Groovy Kind of Love.
This song just bores me silly.
And Rod is even more of an 80s legend because of the totally homophobic schoolyard urban legend about him having to have his stomach pumped of semen after he serviced a bunch of sailors. Juvenile homophobic rumors are so totally 80s.
I wish it had been Forever Young that got picked just so you could have talked about it being such a complete ripoff of the Bob Dylan song that they had to retroactively credit Dylan as one of the songwriters on later pressings of the record. And the weird video of Rod in the back of a pickup truck smothering a young boy that he had apparently just abducted.
I like a few of Phil's hits a lot, like In the Air, Easy Lover, and this song, BUT, I now recognize, the further I got away from top-40 radio, the less I liked his new stuff. I think I was fully on board the Collins/Genesis train from 84-87 (minus a couple clunkers), but then did he change or did I? 🤔 (Probably both.)
And I agree that Rod is over the top, kind of an older, more gravelly David Lee Roth! 😂
I had not heard ANY of these rumors back in the 80s!
Dylan song credits?
Pickup truck abduction?
This post of yours is about to spawn a dozen different Google searches! 😂
The thing with this matchup is, I do like both Phil Collins and Rod Stewart, but I don´t really care for the song selections. I guess I'll vote for "Young Turks" , based on two things: -The "Fame" cast dancing their asses off in the video 😂 - The album cover for "Blondes have more fun". I know it has nothing to with with the song, but man, that animal print catsuit surely left a mark on me when I was 12!
Contrary to popular belief, there were music videos made for quite a long time before MTV went on the air. Bands were making them to promote songs (the same reason as the MTV era, of course) and they would get played in clubs or on variety TV shows. Top of the Pops in the UK was a place that played videos. The difference that the 24/7 MTV made was that acts would make videos for pretty much ALL of their singles and not just maybe one off the album. The Bohemian Rapsody video was made when the song came out in 1975, for example, not made retroactively when MTV started. And Procol Harum had a video (or "promotional film") for A Whiter Shade of Pale in 1967. So I'm betting Rod Stewart really just already had that many videos and since MTV was fairly narrow in the scope type of the music they were playing - just like any radio station - they didn't have a ton of videos to choose from. They were pretty much a rock format station, so there were no country acts and no R&B, for example.
This is awesome info! Not having any real TV, I kind of always assumed the videos came because of the channel. But the growing existence of videos necessitated the channel, seems like? Wow! I did see that Rod had something like 11 videos on the first DAY of MTV, which just reinforces your point, they were already there!
People shouldn’t pile on Rod Stewart. He’s had a huge career…but it’s the hair. It’s definitely the hair. It’s silly on a man his age. And what the hell is a Turk? It wasn’t a slang term we used in the 80’s. You, me, and Jen did dance around and sing this. In the basement, I think. But, do you remember “Black Leather Monster,” the song we wrote ourselves? Lmao
Joseph Ray, I didn’t put it on repeat. I didn’t have the album. And, it was only the Todd break up. Lol. Actually saw the movie with him. Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward steamed up the screen! The video is just clips from the movie. JB plays a washed up football player who gets paid to find/watch her for her evil boyfriend James Woods (who is evil IRL). At some point, RW and JB have sex in the hot steamy like Mayan cave or whatever.
On the rare occasion this song comes on the radio, I still tear up. And desperately sing my head off. How something like that can still affect you 40 years later is insane.
Wow, can't say I care for either of these two. I was surprised to see Phil at such a high seed, but then even more surprised to hear how many hits he had in the 80s. I knew he was there, but he sort of slid under the radar. I guess the same applies to Rod Stewart. They are to the 80s like the fungus that took over your loaf of bread when you weren't looking.
Since we have to vote for somebody, I guess it will be Phil. He did have some passable stuff in the decade, and I can't get past the way overplayed "Forever Young". How the f*ck did it not chart higher given that it was played so often - did the radio stations get a discount on it or something?
YOU are exactly why we are doing these Legends biographies, because it's easy to forget some of these songs!
I liked a little more than half of Phil's output in the 80s, liked about 10% of Rod's stuff. In Rod's case, I would have traded away the 2 songs I liked to make the other 18 go away. Not true with Phil.
I went with Rod here, because he is just so over the top he's almost a parody of the 80s. And he's a legend before becoming kind of a joke because of being in The Faces and, well shit even if Maggie May was the only song he did he would be a goddamn legend.
And Phil Collins is a legendary....drummer. One of the best ever. As a solo artist and as the leader of Genesis he is at best mediocre and at worst he did unforgivable shit like Groovy Kind of Love.
This song just bores me silly.
And Rod is even more of an 80s legend because of the totally homophobic schoolyard urban legend about him having to have his stomach pumped of semen after he serviced a bunch of sailors. Juvenile homophobic rumors are so totally 80s.
I wish it had been Forever Young that got picked just so you could have talked about it being such a complete ripoff of the Bob Dylan song that they had to retroactively credit Dylan as one of the songwriters on later pressings of the record. And the weird video of Rod in the back of a pickup truck smothering a young boy that he had apparently just abducted.
Groovy Kind of Love is... awful.
I like a few of Phil's hits a lot, like In the Air, Easy Lover, and this song, BUT, I now recognize, the further I got away from top-40 radio, the less I liked his new stuff. I think I was fully on board the Collins/Genesis train from 84-87 (minus a couple clunkers), but then did he change or did I? 🤔 (Probably both.)
And I agree that Rod is over the top, kind of an older, more gravelly David Lee Roth! 😂
I had not heard ANY of these rumors back in the 80s!
Dylan song credits?
Pickup truck abduction?
This post of yours is about to spawn a dozen different Google searches! 😂
Thanks for ALL of this!
The thing with this matchup is, I do like both Phil Collins and Rod Stewart, but I don´t really care for the song selections. I guess I'll vote for "Young Turks" , based on two things: -The "Fame" cast dancing their asses off in the video 😂 - The album cover for "Blondes have more fun". I know it has nothing to with with the song, but man, that animal print catsuit surely left a mark on me when I was 12!
I had to go look up this album, had not seen it before! 😂
And so here we go, Young Turks IS getting votes! Can it pull off the upset??
We did not mention, during the show, that Phil Collins rhymes "...when all I can do is watch you leave" with "we even shared the tears."
"leave"
"tears"
He said this song "made [him] a lyricist." I don't know that it did that good a job of it.
It's a perfect example of the kind of song that teachers of English as a second language would use in their classes.
So it's slower, has easier to understand lyrics, and then doesn't rhyme 😂?? Does the lack of rhyme help teach it?
I guess it's the chorus! You can belt your ass off while singing it 🤪