Jukebox Playlist

[bayonetbrant]

Well Dick, I'll give it a 6-1/2.  It's pretty basic and the lead singer could be hotter, but it's definitely got a beat you can dance to just like all those awkward 7th-grade dances back in the '80s.  They don't go out on a limb, and they color within their lines, but they do it well.

So the lead singer thinks he's David Coverdale, and the rest of the band can't decide if they want to be Nelson or Hurricane.  It's a catchy chorus and the production is solid.  But honestly, you've heard this same song 30 times under another name from 30 bands with different names - Rail, Law & Order, War Babies, Jeff Paris, White Tiger, Autograph, Giuffria, Icon, Keel - and you can't tell them apart.  You won't change the station when it comes on, but you have no idea who the artist is, and pretty much forget it when someone cranks up AC/DC.

Admit it, you have no idea what, if anything, this band ever did other than this one song, but you know this one by heart.

It's 1981 at Seaside High.  There's an awkward glance exchanged across the dance floor, and she's pretty cute and your friends are telling you to go over and ask her to dance.  But you don't have the guts to ask her for a slow dance.  So then this song comes on, and it seems safe, and you manage to get onto the dance floor by the time the second verse starts.  And afterwards you dance a few more times before you have the guts to ask her for a slow dance.  And you'd completely forget this song, except that you keep hearing it on the radio every other day, and it keeps sticking in your head as your 'first dance' song with her, until it finally grows on you and you can't help but hum along and bop your head as every time you're in the car with her cruising between McDonald's on Abrego Street and Dennis The Menace Park downtown where you go to sit on the hill and people watch.

You just like being able to say "sex" in his last name...

[Staggerwing]

I could be wrong but I swear that Charlie Sexton played lead on several songs during David Bowie's Glass spider tour in the late 80's, though Peter Frampton was the lead guitarist of record for the tour. I saw the show in what was then the Hartford Civic Center. BTW, I caught the Serious Moonlight tour there as well. Good times. O0

[bayonetbrant]

I could be wrong but I swear that Charlie Sexton played lead on several songs during David Bowie's Glass spider tour in the late 80's, though Peter Frampton was the lead guitarist of record for the tour. I saw the show in what was then the Hartford Civic Center. BTW, I caught the Serious Moonlight tour there as well. Good times. O0

per wikipedia

In 1985, Sexton released his debut full-length album, Pictures for Pleasure. Recorded in Los Angeles when he was 16 years old, it yielded the Top 20 hit single, "Beat's So Lonely". Pareles of the New York Times described him as a teen idol singing David Bowie-style rock during the years he was promoted by MTV.
In 1987, Sexton was an occasional opening act for David Bowie on his Glass Spider Tour. Sexton appears on the Glass Spider home video playing guitar on Iggy Pop's "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat".

[Staggerwing]

Though confused I may be about many things, guess just not about that.  8)

[MetalDog]

I could be wrong but I swear that Charlie Sexton played lead on several songs during David Bowie's Glass spider tour in the late 80's, though Peter Frampton was the lead guitarist of record for the tour. I saw the show in what was then the Hartford Civic Center. BTW, I caught the Serious Moonlight tour there as well. Good times. O0

In a six degrees of Grogheads kind of moment, my step mom was at that show.  You might have seen her.  She was on crutches.  And if it's not the Civic Center any more, what do they call it?

[Staggerwing]

It's called the XL Center now.

Also, the entire Civic Center Mall that was the shopping half of the building was torn down about a decade ago. Now there is some kind of Office/Luxury Apartment/light retail complex located in it's place. I worked across the street from the Mall some 20 years ago but have not set foot in downtown Hartford since.


EDIT: One clarification- the actual sports/entertainment arena inside the XL Center is still called the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

I don't recall anyone in crutches but then everyone could have been on crutches at the show and I'd likely not remember now.  :))

[Skwerl]

And now for something completely different (not a man with a stoat through his head):

[bayonetbrant]

MD - tell me you were at this show!

[MetalDog]

Never saw TSO, but, I've seen Styx four or five times.  All in the last twenty years.

[bayonetbrant]

This one just screams "80s!" - and not in a bad way...

[bayonetbrant]

this one screams "80s!" in every bad way possible...

:-\

What's funny is that the lead singer reappeared in 12 years ago with the fantastic "American Hair Band" parody tune, when he should've been making fun of himself on this track.

[bayonetbrant]

and you thought this was a Tesla song...

(well, it was, but years later)

[endfire79]

Any Muse fans here?  Map of the Problematique is one of my favorite tracks

[Arctic Blast]

^^I'm a big fan of them as well. If you ever get a chance to see them live, go. They're fantastic live.

[Staggerwing]

Muse  O0