Category: Music

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God Music

Monday Night Countdown

In a wink and a nod to an over 30-year weekly passion of mine (tracking and compiling hit music charts) I present to you my current TOP 5 favourite songs – for the week ending Sunday October 05TH 2008:

5.  Sleeping In – Nevertheless
It’s pure sugary pop like only these 5 cats from Chattanooga Tennessee can deliver. I’ve liked every single radio song that they’ve released ever since I’ve been on this fantastic journey with them.

4.  Undercover – Deas Vail
I like the cool sound and the mellow feel of this power pop band out of northwestern Arkansas. They almost sound European. ‘Deas Vail’ means ‘humble servant of God’. Truly so. Amen.

3.  Stop It – The Almost
It’s the 4TH hit single in a row from Aaron Gillespie (the drummer from Underoath), and it’s his follow-up to “Say This Sooner”, “Amazing (Because It Is)”, and “Southern Weather”.

2.  Put Your Lips To The TV – Project 86
These hard rockin’ dudes have been together for over a decade of destruction, and this runaway track is one of their hardest to date. Listen to the lyrics. The devil wants their ‘head in a basket’ and ‘on a platter’, but it ain’t gonna happen my friend. ‘You can kiss me goodbye’. You ain’t reaching me no more.

1.  The Sky – Showbread
DUDE !  I totally dig this hardcore smash !  It totally rocks my face off, and although it would so totally frighten anyone at Life Pointe Church over the age of 40 45 I’m still playing it as part of my eclectic playlist out in the main lobby on Youth Service Sundays !  HECKZZZ YEAHZZZ !

Categories
Animals History Music Television

Saturday Night Retro

The year was 1973, and you were there (unless of course you weren’t born yet). I was a 6-year-old kid living with my Mom and Dad in the Washington D.C. suburb of Bowie Maryland on Peach Walker Drive. In September I began attending Catholic school 5 days a week as a first-grader at Saint Matthias The Apostle in Lanham Maryland near my grandparents’ house.

I had two dogs at the time – Brandy – a German Shepherd – and Girlie – a miniature sheepdog. Brandy barked a lot and dug holes out in the backyard. I didn’t really like him very much. In fact I was scared of him. We wouldn’t have him for very long. Girlie lasted a few years longer. She was lovable and squeezeable with an adorable personality. She had a tiny bony tail.

On Saturday nights America stayed home and watched this amazing lineup of TV shows on CBS – “All in the Family” (8 PM), “M*A*S*H” (8:30 PM), “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (9 PM), “The Bob Newhart Show” (9:30 PM), and “The Carol Burnett Show” (10 PM). It may just be the greatest primetime lineup on a single night – on a single network – in television history.

A few hours before that three-hour block of Emmy-award-winning laughs on Saturday nights this hot music and dance show was breaking new ground on the tube, and I was paying attention to it – even as a 6-year-old. It was seen locally at the time on WTTG Channel 5 out of Washington D.C. It lasted for an incredible 35 years in first-run syndication nationwide, but this was clearly its hey day.

Ladies and Gentlemen – I present to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review – some LOVE, PEACE, and SOUL !  GET DOWN & BOOGIE !

Did anyone spot their young parents (or even grandparents) in that vintage clip ?

Categories
History Life Movies Music Radio Television

Saturday Night Retro

The year was 1995 and I was 28-years-old. I moved from a house in Naranja to my current home in Homestead. I’ve been here ever since then. Homestead was still a sleepy small town back then with mostly narrow two-lane roads. It was struggling to recover from the overwhelming destruction of Hurricane Andrew just 3 years earlier. U.S. gas prices remained rather steady (between $1.10 and $1.20 per gallon). The entire nation stayed home on Thursday nights to watch Friends, Seinfeld, and ER on NBC-TV. I enjoyed listening to ‘Bobby & Footy’ in the morning on Y-100. I only saw two movies at the box office during the entire year – “The Brady Bunch Movie” and “Tommy Boy”.

This song and video was all of the rage on television, on the radio, and at the clubs. It would go on to become a runaway International sensation – and one of the most successful singles in the entire history of the modern rock era. It spent a record-shattering 14 months on the Billboard HOT 100. It’s what I was doing every few months up in Orlando’s nightclub scene:

Categories
Music

Saturday Night Retro

LAST WEEK on the ‘Retro’ I got my Disco groove on with Patrick Hernandez and “Born To Be Alive”. It’s one of my all-time favourite hits from the “Studio 54” era.

THIS WEEK we keep it ‘Retro’, but we fast-forward in time by exactly a decade. It’s 1989, and America is prosperous, peaceful, and happy. President George H.W. Bush is following the legacy of President Ronald W. Reagan and staying the course. The Cold War is done and over with. The Berlin Wall is crumbling to pieces. We’re watching “The Cosby Show” and “Cheers” on TV on Thursday nights. We’re listening to Fine Young Cannibals, Milli Vanilli, New Kids On The Block, Paula Abdul, and Roxette on the radio. Me – I’m dancing like a total maniac to this # 1 club smash at Cafe Iguana in Kendall and Confetti’s in North Miami Beach: