Always in the Mood For This

Sometimes at night, my mind runs back to when my life was simpler. When all I ever wanted to do was be on the cover of Musician Magazine. That magazine was the best American music magazine, ever.

I would stay up late and read the magazine with MTV on as my companion. This was when MTV always played videos. Videos started getting very interesting and kinda strange. MTV start August of 1981. Initially, there weren't enough videos (they didn't really start playing videos from black artists until Michael Jackson's Thriller took over the world in 1983. Then Prince had Purple Rain in 1984, but I digress). To fill the gap, older artists were making videos for their new albums. The 80's are littered with awkward videos from established stars like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie (well, the videos from Let's Dance were pretty cool), The Rolling Stones (Harlem Shuffle, anyone? Yet Undercover is one of the greatest videos ever), Glenn Frey as a dope dealer?

One video that I always loved was Robert Plant's In The Mood. The song always let me drift into a simple state of listening to something beautiful. The video is like a dream. Even though Plant has bad 80's hair, I like the dream of the scenes. Break dancers boppin' to a melody guitar & keyboard solo? The watery guitarlick, the flash of "Mad Men" chicks lip syncing the backgrounds, the fun Plant has when he join the band lip syncing the backgrounds, the horse running to the damsel in the empty house in some latino paradise, the oil on the plastic wire simulating running water, the mirrored sheets, the close-ups of Plant...

I could go on, but this is why You Tube was invented.