OK I get it

It's been way too long I know - and I'm kind of ashamed of it.  September?  What's the point Todd.

But I've decided that I need a creative outlet and this already exists as a space so I'm going to start exploring it more.

The first thing I need to talk about is this:

Heat

A few things - Glenn Frey is pretty awesome - I have always enjoyed The Eagles (even got to see them live once).  I think they have a songwriting style that just plain works and makes me feel good  And they are an extremely popular band: everyone knows the song "Hotel California" and one of their greatest hits albums has sold almost 30 millions copies in the USA.  The only other album to sell that many copies in the US?  Thriller.*


But so Glenn Frey is one of the lead singers and songwriters of The Eagles but in 1985 The Eagles were split up (presumably forever, which is why their reunion tour was called "Hell Freezes Over:).  So Frey was on his own, trying to have a solo career and in 1985 "The Heat is On" got released as part of the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack and it, like the movie, was a very popular song - it reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985.  It is also part of my childhood - we had this VHS tape of videos that, for some reason my parents recorded off of MTV and VH1** and this video was one of the videos.  We used to play this VHS when we would like clean the house or have chores to do.  My memory of this video is certainly reinforced by the fact that I can watch it on YouTube now but I know I remember listening to it. 

Watching it now it stuns me in several ways.  One, Glenn Frey has stubble, which seems like an awesome 80s thing to have - didn't Don Johnson invent stubble on Miami Vice?***  But I am not used to seeing Glenn Frey with facial hair (I only know him from my Eagles DVD and Jerry Maguire) and I like it here.  I also like the extreme closeups and him singing with his eyes closed...then he pounds the mic and then spikes the lens.  Two, the sax player always intrigued me, they seem to really like her in the video - and of the course the song is definitely driven in part by the sax.  But I never understood why, at the end of the video, she kind of sidles up to Glenn Frey and sings with him - she looks so unconcerned and uncommitted to the song, especially compared to the eyes closed, mic pounding Frey.  Thanks to Wikipedia I know the answer to this: apparently the saxophonist in the video is one Beverly Dahlke-Smith and she did not play on the actual recording of the song.  She only plays fake sax in a music video - I wouldn't care either.  Although I would dance like her.

The more I watch this video the more I realize how brilliant it is.  It opens with a man sitting at a monitor with huge rolls of film that are apparently beginning to play to this bespectacled gentleman.  I guess we are supposed to think he is the editor of the movie or something - this becomes clearer when they open the blinds onto the sax player and then they start playing clips from the movie.  Literally we are getting a look into the mind of the editor (into the window of his mind if you extend the metaphor) as he is looking at the finished cut of the movie.  And the rhythm and the lyrics of the song are what motivated him in his editing of the film.  Again if you actually listen to the lyrics this becomes clear: "Tell me can you feel it?" "Inside your head, on every beat" "Caught up in the action".  The editor (or whoever this guy is) is asking and answering these questions as he is watching the movie and singing the lyrics to himself (they show several shots of this).  I should also mention that Glenn Frey didn't write this song, it was written by the same guys who wrote the whole soundtrack for the movie.  All of these things make a brilliant concept and a perfect execution of that concept.

Which is certainly something to strive for in life - concept/execution of concept.  We all want to accomplish something with our lives (at least I hope we do) and I know I struggle sometimes with even the most basic tenets of this idea - i.e. what do I want to accomplish?  I do better with the day to day stuff: I'm going to make rice for dinner, I'm going to watch Hot Fuzz, etc. are all tiny examples of concept/execution of concept.  Execution of concept is obviously more important than just the concept; think about abstract artists that put out this art that is just brightly colored squares and lines - it looks so simple and easy and like anybody could have done it - but they (anybody) didn't do it, the artist did.  The concept is not really all that complex, but the execution is.  (Trying painting a perfect square sometime.)  I guess that is a good way to end this post - with the hope of brilliant concepts and perfect execution.

More soon,
_Todd

*I know that album sales probably don't mean as much as they used to but they used to be everything - this album was released on February 17, 1976 (and only covers 1971-5) and back then buying the album was the only way to hear the music - unlike now when people just get it from somewhere/one.  If you were a fan, you bought the album.  And it hit platinum in 1976 (first album to receive this award because it was the first year it, the award, existed) and then hit 29x platinum on January 30, 2006 (Which means, by the way, that it sold, on average, 2,648 copies A DAY FOR THIRTY YEARS).  So they have been popular for a long time.

**I just now realized that I have no idea why my parents recorded these videos - I don't think they really liked this type of music, they certainly don't listen to 80s music now.  I have to ask them about this because it is suddenly baffling - this tape is two hours long and we have another about half full of random music videos - maybe my mom had them to work out too or something?  I have sudden images in my head of my mom wearing 80s workout clothes...moving on.  Also - remember when MTV and VH1 actually played videos?

***This makes more sense when you think about how Glenn Frey also recorded "You Belong to the City" which was his only other solo hit and was on the Miami Vice soundtrack.