Great moments in Rock Hall history - Talking Heads induction, 2002: Can we get this over with already?

So I was watching VH1 Classic's "120 Minutes" the other day, which for those who haven't seen it is a bastardization of the early '90s juggernaut of alternative rock videos. The Classic incarnation of the

show was actually pretty decent until pinhead Matt Pinfield, a former host of the original show, reappeared in the form of self-indulgent animated shorts that tell of his experiences rubbing elbows with rock royalty (for my take on it, visit www.whogivesashit.com). I can't find any evidence to suggest that Pinfield is involved in the selection of the videos, but since the shorts started airing, the selection of videos has been stale, repetitive, lacking in variety and not representative of the era or bands that influenced it (or came after, for that matter). It's Soundgarden, The Smiths, Pearl Jam, Blur, R.E.M., Alice In Chains, wash, rinse, repeat. There were other bands in the '80s, you know.

Anyway, a Talking Heads video came on - in fact it was the clip for "Nothing But Flowers," an OK
song but insipid clip featuring inane ultra-left wing factoids, artsy fartsy scenes and a taking-himself-too-seriously David Byrne striking all kinds of ridiculous poses with his now-40 piece Talking Heads unit.

The video got me thinking about the band, and whether the Heads are talking and over the early 1990s legal spat over Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz using the name The Heads, which led to a lawsuit from Byrne.

They aren't talking, and they aren't over it.

And that got me thinking well, if that's the case, were they over it in 2002, when they went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was that an utterly awkward event?

No, they weren't, and yes, it was.

A few things to look out for:

1) Jerry Harrison giving CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal the cross-arm stance and not sticking his hand out for a shake. Really? Who the f*ck are you Jerry Harrison? If Byrne can be on the stage with you and Franz and Weymouth, you can shake the hand of the dude who made your crappy band famous.


2) Red Hot Chili Pepper's frontman Anthony Kiedis comparing his discovery of Talking Heads to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. It's not really offensive, just indicative of the fact that whatever brains were rolling around in his skull have been melted into something resembling Flea's scrotum.

3) Weymouth's visible rack.

4) Byrne's inability to face the microphone, as if he's worried Franz is gonna jump him.

5) The sleepy, soulless, pointless performance of "Psycho Killer" and the slightly better but still limp run through "Burning Down The House." (Both not in the video below).

There's plenty of awkward to savor, so without further ado, dig in and enjoy:

Ban this creepy video! "Fire," by Arthur Brown

"Poltergeist." The trailer for the nuke flick "The Day After." "Just Say No To Drugs" commercials. The Dominos Noid.

None of these things scared me as much as a kid growing up in the '80s as the video for Arthur Brown's "Fire," which they'd play on MTV far too often with no regard for time of day. The black-and-white vid is a "live" (read: lip synced) performance by Brown on "Top of the Pops" - they didn't really make videos back then, and for that I am grateful, because imagine the sick shit he would have dumped on poor innocent brains all over the world.

This is truly frightening. It makes Devo's "Peek-a-Boo" look like a Richard Marx clip. Even the old guy who yells "Science!" in Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" would be horrified by Brown's acid-induced devil dance, complete with makeup that's Alice Cooper x5 and a crown of fire on his head.

Apparently, Pete Townshend produced a lot of this dude's early stuff, which is hailed as some kind of amazing music, although it just sounds like bullshit British psych to me. This explains a lot about the limp flower-power tuneage that Townshend was peddling at the time, stuff like the preposterously overrated "The Who Sell Out."

Seriously, never play this again on TV, never let it show up in any On Demand video lineups, take it off You Tube. Please. Before someone gets hurt.

Kickin' em out: 1995

This was a tough one. Who do you kick out of a class that includes Led Zep, Joplin, Neil Young, Zappa, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Allman Brothers Band and Al Green?

This is an impenetrable block on VH1 Classic's "Rockfest." It's one-quarter of a juke box at the Charcoal Pit.

But when you get past the names, and think about the actual music, the decision becomes easy.

I don’t get the Allman Brothers Band. Never have, never will. They possess exactly zero songs that I would leave on if they came on the radio. 

Many have called them the most influential band of the early 1970s. I can’t agree more: This means the Allman Brothers are responsible for loads and loads of steaming sonic bullshit, 8-minute wankfests boasting solos that wander aimlessly, big mustaches, bigger beards, countless babies conceived in the back of huge gas-guzzlers mere seconds after their parents-to-be polished off another doobie and the rise of 7-11. I can’t explain the last one but it’s a fact.

East Stroudsburg's finest.

Look, I’m not a fan, so I don’t know all the albums. But if you’re a nut for the Allman Brothers, and you’re raging mad because of what I’m about to do, then you should be able to list their classic tunes one after the other and impress me into thinking I shouldn’t do what I’m about to do.

But…

     -- "Melissa” holds a special place in my heart because it was a mainstay on the juke at Rudy’s, the finest bar in the Poconos, but outside of those incredibly friendly confines, that song is more mediocre than the Montreal Expos' Tim Wallach.

-         -- I swear to the rock gods, I never knew that knife-to-the-skull-annoying song that plays over all of the hippie crap and terrible retro 70s TV movies was called “Jessica.” I didn’t even know it had words, I thought it was just a 12-minute instrumental featuring that riff and piano run over and over and over again.

-- “Midnight Rider” is not a tough, gritty rock gem.

-- “Whipping Post” is not a bluesy tour-de-force.
-- “Ramblin’ Man” is not a timeless classic.

Allman Brothers with no Allmans? Major violation.

What makes these songs so amazing? What separates these guys from the cornball cover band at the corner bar? Why are there 15 people in the band at different times? Why does the current lineup, and the one that's been around for the last decade or so, have neither Allman Brother and is instead run by Dickey Betts? 

If you want to argue that the Allmans have a lot of decent songs, I’ll just agree with you to end the argument. If you want to say they’re the equivalent of a one-time NBA all-star, but not an upper-echelon great, superstar or perennial all-star, then fine.

Look, I'm sorry Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident. I respect their longevity, I guess. But they are not worthy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Certainly not with the 1995 class. 

21 members. 44 years. 18 albums. Hey Allman Bros. - Cleveland Does Not Rock bucket go BOOM.

 

Most underrated moments in Music Video History, Vol. 3: I love rock and roll, so eff off

A little birdie.

Most people know Joan Jett’s vintage 1981 single and video "I Love Rock and Roll" as one of the early heavy rotation clips in MTV history.

Most people also probably know Britney Spears delivered a version of the tune in 2002, and while the single is pretty lame, the video ain't too shabby. 

And geeks everywhere will remember Weird Al Yankovic's amazing parody in 1983, during his wheelhouse era.

But not too many people know that the tune is actually a cover of the song that was originally recorded and released by the band Arrows in 1975 - and, as you might have guessed, that version of the song is far lamer than Jett's cover (and a lot creepier, written and sung from a dude's perspective).

And we here at Cleveland Does Not Rock are betting that almost no one ever noticed that Joan flips the bird in this gritty clip watched by bazillions of little kids throughout the ’80s, entering it as Vol. 3 in our vault of Underrated Moments in Music Video History.

By the way, what the hell is up with this guy?

No wonder scientists in Peru recently discovered that the middle fingers of both males and females between the ages of 35 and 45 are .8 inches longer than those outside that range (I completely made that up but it might be true.

I happened upon this moment, which occurs around 1:23, while “researching” old ‘80s clips during a DVR-ed chunk of VH1 Classic (You’ll notice, however, that this video was taken from MTV2, which I think now houses a continuous loop of the show “I Am 16 and I Have Babies And You Love Watching This Show To Feel Better About Yourself”). Maybe I noticed it now, as an adult, because I'm aware of the fact that Jett, as of the recording of that video, had already cemented her status as a badass during her time in The Runaways.

Still swarthy after all these years.

Not only does this moment make me love this song 50 times more, it also makes me hate Faith Hill’s awful bastardization of Jett’s 1988 hit, “I Hate Myself For Loving You,” which is used as the theme for “Sunday Night Football,” featuring the equally awful bastardization of sports announcing known as Al Michaels.

Much fun: During the chorus of “I Hate Myself,” start singing some variation of the rotating “SNF” theme. 

And, now, we present the full-length video of the most incredible "I Love Rock and Roll: