Monthly Archives: October 2008

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Song of the Day #80: ‘Broken Arrow’ by Robbie Robertson

It’s funny how there are some songs that sort of take over your listening life for a time and mean a whole lot to you, but then a few years later they drop completely off the map.

I think this happens to me somewhat often because I’m an album guy. I don’t really listen to individual songs, even in the age of the iPod. I play full albums, start to finish, almost without exception.

So take an album like Robbie Robertson’s self-titled solo debut… it’s ok, maybe a little better than ok, but it wasn’t something I found myself playing very often. Or at all, really. So when I did a massive review of my CD collection a few years ago, I sold that album back.

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Song of the Day #77: ‘Cradle of Love’ – Billy Idol

Ah, the ‘Cradle of Love’ video.

This was one of the formative experiences of my youth (at least I remember it that way… it turns out the video got most of its airplay in 1990, when I was 18). I must have watched this video a hundred times when it was popular, eating up every piece of eye candy.

The story is essentially a PG-rated porn plot. Jailbait vixen knocks on her uptight neighbor’s door and asks to use his stereo. Caught up in the music, she lets loose, performing an elaborate striptease, kicking her shoe into the fish tank (how rude!) and treating herself to a glass of wine (which conveniently spills on her blouse).

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Song of the Day #76: ‘Addicted to Love’ – Robert Palmer

Four of the five videos I picked for this week’s theme have a storyline of one sort or another. This one is the exception.

I’d like to know who the genius was who said to Robert Palmer: “Why don’t you just sing the song in front of five hot chicks in black dresses and mime makeup?” It’s the simplest idea yet one of the indelible images of the early MTV era.

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