The very first episode of MTV’s Unplugged featured British pop band Squeeze along with a pair of American singer-songwriters, Syd Straw and Elliott Easton.
Through some cosmic coincidence, that debut episode aired exactly 28 years ago today, on Halloween of 1989. I’d love to say I planned it this way, but alas, it was fate.
Back when MTV played actual music rather than Teen Mom: Roanoke or whatever, my favorite series was MTV Unplugged. These were the Tiny Desk Concerts of the 90s, presenting acoustic sets in an intimate environment. The artists had to be pretty good to pull that off, so you got a wide range of talented acts.
Well, apparently MTV Unplugged is still kind of a thing, at least online and at least in Norway. I know that because I happened upon a viral clip of A-Ha performing a gloriously stripped-down version of their classic ‘Take On Me’ in Giske Harbor Hall, against a beautiful backdrop of mountains and sea.
Bob Dylan’s closed out the 60s with Nashville Skyline (1969), a short, sweet, straight-up country album featuring a drastically different singing voice.
In the midst of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war, just after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, this was viewed as a puzzling move by an artist who just five years earlier was soundtracking the protest era with The Times They Are a’Changin’.
The Random iTunes Fairy must still be in a tribute mood after this week’s Tom Petty retrospective. Here’s Prince with his classic ‘Purple Rain.’
I was surprised this song hasn’t shown up on the blog before now. In fact, only two songs from the Purple Rain soundtrack (‘Computer Blue’ and ‘The Beautiful Ones’) have been given the Song of the Day treatment, and both of those were on Random Weekends as well.
On the final day of my Tom Petty tribute week, I reveal my favorite of his albums.
#1 – Damn the Torpedoes – 1979
It felt right to go with a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album in my top spot, and Lord knows there is no better Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album than Damn the Torpedoes.
This was the band’s third album and the first where they sound like they have truly mastered their craft. Songwriting, performance and production come together in way that makes Damn the Torpedoes not just the best Tom Petty album but one of the best rock albums of all-time, period.
