Hey guys.
Just a brief update since it's been about two weeks since I last shared any sort of content. I have not abandoned this blog again. It's been...well you all know what's going on in the world right now.
https://www.google.com/covid19/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=hpp&utm_campaign=US-EN
I'm not going to go too much further in depth about this topic. We are living in such a depressing state of affairs right now. This month has felt like years have flown right by us and this year has felt like a decade in its own right. 2020 has not been a good year is an understatement. Someday we will go back to living a normal life, this much I know. But for now? Please take all the precautionary measures the CDC has recommended to us all and help the world get back to sense of normalcy again.
Anyway, I promise I'll get back to making posts in the very near future. I have an essential job where I can't work from home like most people I know. But I've got content in the works during my down time. I have a music review crossover in the works with another blogger that is on the way.
And in regards to film reviews, that will be a little more complicated. Due to movie theaters shutting down with lockdowns and quarantines taking place all over the world, I'm going to save up and try to stream some of these new releases that studios are going to be making available much different than they initially expected. These are the times we are living in right now folks. Just have to adapt with them.
So be on the lookout and most importantly, stay safe and healthy.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Review: The Invisible Man (2020)
Before we talk about The Invisible Man, let’s talk about Dark Universe.
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Dark Universe was Universal’s plans to make their own Marvel
Cinematic Universe. Because thanks to
the success of Marvel, everyone was trying to replicate what they did since
that is the current big trend. Have a
bunch of movies interconnect to tell a larger story. And honestly, I’m all for studios trying to
do this. It’s comparable to reading
comic books like I did growing up where all these characters interact with each
other and build to a greater payoff.
Anyway, Dark Universe was going to contain all the classic
Universal monsters of the past one hundred years of film. The difference being they have had these characters
interact previously. Hell, one could
argue that Universal started the cinematic universe trend long before anyone
else did with films like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man about eighty years
ago. Basically, what Universal decided
to do was try this trend out again for a newer audience. And why not?
Universal has made films about these characters plenty and there is
still an audience for them with Brendan Fraser’s Mummy trilogy making a lot of
money, the multiple incarnations of Dracula being successful, etc.
But all it took was one massive financial and critical
failure to put an end to Dark Universe before it ever really took off the
ground. Dark Universe relaunched with
The Mummy (2017) and my god what a massive failure of a film that was. The studio tried way too hard to cram in as
much as they possibly could within one movie to jumpstart their long term plans
quicker without focusing on making a good singular Mummy movie to launch their
brand. I could make a long blog entry on
its own about how massive a flop The Mummy (2017) was and it couldn’t contain every
single problem I had with this movie.
Easy to say, Dark Universe was done after how badly The Mummy (2017)
failed.
And Universal was really invested in making the Dark
Universe a thing. They casted Javier
Bardem and Johnny Depp in future roles as well as greenlit a bunch of other
movies to be made from another Wolf Man movie to the Bride of
Frankenstein. But as I previously
mentioned, a lot of those came to halt within the blink of an eye. Dark Universe was dead….or so we
thought.
After all these projects got cancelled, one of the leading
producers of modern horror, Jason Blum, swooped right in and picked up one
project from the scraps. That project
was The Invisible Man, which was supposed to be Johnny Depp’s character in the
Dark Universe. Here is the thing about
Jason Blum productions. These movies are
made on a miniscule budget and give their directors total creative
freedom. That’s why they are one of the
few studios left that can successfully make back their production budgets. So no more Johnny Depp. Get your cast for relatively less. And hand the reigns of this project to
someone who actually makes horror movies instead of being made by the guys who
wrote the Transformers movies (another reason why Dark Universe failed).
So enough preamble, what did we get here? Honestly, a pretty damn effective horror
movie.
For starters, let’s give kudos to the director’s
vision. Leigh Whannell has been working
in the horror genre for a while now going back to his first movie, the first
Saw. After writing MANY of the most well
known horror movies of the last fifteen years, he started to get behind the
camera more starting with Insidious 3 five years ago. He’s slowly started to develop a good
reputation for actually focusing on building up scares more so than going for
the easy jump scare. Which is a huge
plus for me because I’m fairly tired of easy jump scares. And that’s what works here. He focuses more so on his surroundings to
give off the vibe that this invisible man could be anywhere in the scenery. Really playing into that fear of the unknown
factor really helps this movie’s cause.
Also really working into this movie’s favor is its
acting. Elizabeth Moss (best known for
her role in Mad Men) really gives one hell of an acting performance. She carries a lot of the emotional weight of
this movie as a woman with PTSD from being in a toxic relationship and having
her abusive ex coming back to torture and haunt her. But instead of making her out to be a normal
horror damsel in distress, she comes out looking like a badass in her attempts
to take down her threatening ex. That’s another
reason why this story works better in modern times than expected. This realistic take about abusive
relationships and how your abuser can mentally, emotionally, and physically
manipulate you in a way.
Honestly, the only real complaint I have about this movie is
there are some glaring details that can’t be ignored if you really pay
attention. And these details can single
handedly end the movie quicker than it needs to. I’m not going to really spoil the exact
instances because I am going to recommend everyone to see this movie in the
end, but I will say this one thing. In a
movie where they constantly reference security cameras, there is a surprising
lack of detail when it comes to where security cameras come into play. Because if they utilize security cameras at
restaurants, outside people’s houses, etc., then this movie would have ended a
lot quicker because there are scenes that the script wants you to defy actual
logic and just roll with movie logic.
Movie logic; where the filmmakers want you to turn off your brain and
just go with the flow. This is one of
those occasions where movie logic really bothers me because normal places like
restaurants and other public places should have security cameras, but they don’t
here. I keep referring to restaurants,
so I should stop there before I spoil it because that is the biggest instance
of how this shouldn’t have happened if actual logic came into play.
In the end though, I really liked this movie al lot. 2020 has not been off to the best of starts
when it comes to movies you must see.
But this one I actually do recommend as the first can’t miss mainstream
movie of the year. It’s well acted and
well made. A fresh take on a horror
classic that might lead to a new Dark Universe?
We’ll just have to wait and see there, but if Universal places these
properties in the hands of Blumhouse and get more great movies like this, then
Dark Universe will be in good hands.
A-
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 1974
So after reading that scathing worst list, one has to wonder....was there anything redeemable about this year?
And that answer is, of course yes. Look just because a year has so many levels of bad music doesn't necessarily mean that it was the worst year ever. I think that badge this year gets for music is a tad unwarranted. I'm nowhere near done with this project yet and I can already think of two years off the top of my head that deserve that honor more than 1974.
I think 1974 gets the amount of hate it gets due to how much good music the rest of the 1970's got throughout. But one title I will give this year is that it is the most disappointing year I've covered so far. Because when you have a best list that is indeed really good, it's disappointing to see how the rest of the songs that weren't covered on this year end list turned out.
But let's not waste any more time. This best list rocks and let me tell you why it rocks. Don't let the sun go down on this overly hated year as we count down....
THE TOP TEN BEST HIT SONGS OF 1974
----
Fucking Ringo….as you can see I still show some bitter
resentment towards his entry onto my worst list. Why couldn’t he have taken a page from his
other bandmates from this time period and release actual good music?
10. “Band on the Run” – Paul McCartney and Wings
Okay maybe good music is a stretch. Nothing against this song in particular
because I do love it. But I wasn’t
always the biggest fan of Paul McCartney’s other band here. They were definitely a lot less influential
than The Beatles, but that’s like calling diet soda not actual soda. I mean duh.
They are the god damn Beatles. The
most influential band in music history.
But I’ve always gotten the vibe going through their
discography that Paul McCartney & Wings was solely focused on only making
hits and getting hit records. And
nothing else. But you know what, that’s
perfectly fine by me. Nothing wrong with
focusing on racking up hits as long as the quality is there.
And “Band on the Run” is at least one of the most
experimental ways to obtain a hit record in this stage of McCartney’s career. It feels like three different songs meshed
into one great one and all three parts are very much interesting enough to hold
my attention. Hell John Lennon said it
best that all three distinct parts all still manage to feel anthemic in their
own rights without a real chorus. And
for a song about being able to escape from previous Beatles manager Allen
Klein’s control, then yeah. I’m all for
it. Do you Paulie.
I may have a bit of a mixed track record with this band, but
this song is still great.
I do genuinely love all these songs from the top ten. But if there was a song I would never want to
hear from again; it’s this one.
9. “Takin’ Care of Business” – Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Nothing against it.
It’s not this song’s fault that commercials, movies, television shows
have good taste.
Hell they made a movie
based off this song with the same title.
But god bless I’m so fucking sick of hearing it as the go to theme for
how hard somebody is working on their task at hand. Like come on.
There are plenty of songs about this topic. Why this one?
I’ll tell you why.
Because it rocks. It just
establishes the point of this song right from the get go about this hard
working white collar worker who wants to finish through the day so they can go
home. And that white collar workers
wish they were self-employed or a rockstar so they can do nothing. But instead they are taking care of business. And honestly.
I feel that vibe every day. I go
to work and bust my ass, but I wish I was writing for a living. That’s why this blog is back after all.
Look this song is relatable as all hell. I know I can’t be the only out there that
works hard all day to make a paycheck.
And if you don’t that’s okay too.
Because this song can apply to your workouts or doing household chores
or whatever else you can think of that requires labor of some sort. Frank Bachman honestly crafted one of the
most accurate working man songs of all time and any sort of royalties that
still goes his way after this song’s success is earned.
That being said, why did he make a Christmas song about
this?
Look out “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. You have a challenger for the next perfect
Christmas song.
So when it comes to years that are older than me, I’ll be
the first to admit, some of these songs I’ve never heard of.
Yeah I listen to plenty of music from older years. But I’m not going to be the first to tell you
at first glance I knew of the music of David Essex’s or your Al Wilson’s of the
world. And for these lists, I use specifically the year end because that's the universal judgment of the biggest hit songs of each year. That being said, every now and
then I do stumble across a song I’ve never heard of from an artist I’ve never
heard of and fall instantly in love with it.
8. “Midnight at the Oasis” – Maria Muldaur
Look I’m not going to sit here and ramble on about how big
of an impact this song had on this decade.
If anything, this song is an artifact of its time. It got nominated for multiple Grammys this
year and then this song and this artist completely disappeared from cultural
relevance. But I can only imagine during
the year 1974, this song absolutely hypnotized its listening audience. Because for those glorious four minutes, I
got completely lost in this song.
She sings about how we should get lost in the Oasis desert
and have a good time…and yes that good time is obviously sex. Like these double entendres are pretty damn
stupid.
You won’t need no camel when I take you for a ride
The cactus is our friend he’ll point out the way
The cactus is our friend he’ll point out the way
Yeah these are not even remotely clever. But Maria sings it in such a playful way that
I’m definitely willing to forgive how tacky these lines are. Plus she sings this song in such a siren-like
way that I can picture this song being one that you would turn the lights down
low to.
What a great find.
Just goes to show that not all surprises from 1974 are necessarily bad.
You know who had an awesome 1974 though? Stevie Wonder.
Scratch that. Stevie
Wonder had an awesome decade. The guy
was just unstoppable. He had so many
great hits. And with being the superstar
that he was, he was equally as influential behind the scenes. Take this song for example that he wrote and
produced.
7. “Tell Me Something Good” – Rufus & Chaka Khan
Fitting that the King of Funk himself used this song to
appoint a Queen. This was the song that
made Chaka Khan funk royalty. Chaka Khan
started off as the lead singer of the band Rufus, but you know that Stevie
Wonder decided to give Chaka Khan the spotlight when he highlighted her name
alongside her band. That’s when you know
much bigger things are in store for her career.
And my god, what a way to make a first impression as a
headliner. Chaka just sells the hell out
of this song. She really matches the
mood the band Rufus gives her with that slick funk production and those
guitars. She just sounds so sexy that
when she tells you to tell her something good, you damn should. Tell her anything she wants to hear just to
win her over.
But yeah, kudos to Stevie Wonder. He could have simply just made this song
himself and it would have been a smash hit because he’s Stevie Wonder. But I can’t hear this song without thinking
of Chaka Khan so that’s the sign of knowing that this woman was going to become
a funk superstar. Now that’s the sign of
something good.
One thing you guys are going to hear a lot about with these
year-end retrospectives is how much of my life has been influenced by
music. And one of the true tidbits about
my life is that I grew up in a country music listening household. My father tried to get in a lot of 70s and
80s music in there as well, but true and true, country was the genre that
dominated my household. My mom is just
that true and true a country girl even though she lived in the suburbs of New
Jersey.
And one of her favorite artists and one of the first real
country musicians I grew up listening to is John Denver.
6. “Sunshine on My Shoulders” – John Denver
I don’t know why his music stuck out to me more than any
other from around this time period, but there is just something relaxing and
assuring about this guy’s music that really relaxes me. And while “Annie’s Song” is also a good song,
“Sunshine on My Shoulders” is just an absolutely calm and relaxing song that
really mellows out my mood. Whenever I
was stressed out as a kid, I would just play this song and it helped calm down
any nerves I had.
And don’t we all need such pleasant reminders to just relax
every now and then? I mean this song
isn’t a lyrical masterpiece or anything.
John Denver has even admitted as such since he was inspired to write
this song after multiple rainy days.
Which honestly, I can vibe with that too. Especially after Virginia going through one
of the RAINIEST YEARS EVER RECORDED LAST YEAR…I’m very bitter about that since
our apartment complex has such a nice pool.
But yeah, this is such nice relaxing vibe music. Nothing wrong with that. Next.
-----
So last time we talked about how streaking was a huge fad
during the 70s. You know what else was a
big fad?
It always amazes me revisiting years where smoking was so
glamorized. Because we are now living in
a time period where the anti-tobacco movement is huge. It was around this time period where people
slowly started to realize the dangers of smoking. And it took another couple for it too really
kick in. But to many, smoking was still
a sign of how cool you are. Much so that
there was an
admittedly really cool song about it.
5. “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” – Brownsville Station
Simply put, this song is cool. Like it really gives me some James Dean
“Rebel Without a Cause” type of vibe.
Just this against the establishment levels of not caring about what your
superiors tell you to do. And honestly,
that’s what this song is to me. It’s not
about solely smoking a pack of cigarettes in the bathroom. It’s more about defying the rules. And defying the rules can make you cool.
But yeah this song just gives off so many chill vibes. It really reminds me of how awesome blues
rock was back around this time period.
It’s so insanely catchy as the rhythm and melody simply gets stuck in
your head all day after listening to it.
And as someone who smokes the occasional cigar, this the type of song
that plays in my head while doing so.
Okay it’s more like one cigar every couple years. But I still listen to this song way more than
I smoke and I listen to this song a lot.
However you truly feel about smoking, I’m here to tell you that this
song is cool as hell.
So to understand this next entry’s placement being so high,
here’s a fact about me. One of my
favorite vacation past times is going on cruises.
I’ve been on nine cruises now. All nine with Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean is a fantastic cruise
line. Not knocking Carnival, Princess,
and all the other cruise lines out there, but Royal Caribbean just goes out of
their way to make sure you are being treated like royalty and pamper the hell
out of their guests.
Anyway, one tradition of Royal Caribbean cruises is that
they have a 70s night. Where the staff
goes out of their way to decorate the ship, get all dressed up, and just make
the night an all-out party to one of the best decades for music. And on that tracklist, the cruise director
gets on the mic and tells the party people to rock our bodies along to the
waves of the sea and….if you don’t know where this is going, it’s Rock the
Boat.
4. “Rock the Boat” – The Hues Corporation
The disco backlash is always interesting to me. Especially when it’s a sound that people are
pleasantly nostalgic for in the pop music of today. Granted too much of a good thing is not
always a good thing. Hence why the
backlash ended up being one of the biggest stories of 1979 for music.
The reason I mention that is that between this and “Love’s
Theme”; these were the two first number one charting hits classified as
disco. But to me, “Love’s Theme” is not
an actual song. More like an overlong
boring as hell instrumental that never kicks it into high gear to be much of
anything. So with that being said, I
hereby decree “Rock the Boat” as the true first number one disco song.
“Rock the Boat” just has so much soul, so much passion. I just love how much these guys sell these
absolutely ridiculous yet fun lines. It
immediately makes you turn off your brain and just flat out dance. And as someone who is admittedly a pretty bad
dancer, this is one of the exceptions for songs that I overthink the dance
moves to. I just rock along to the beat
every time.
Well we can’t talk about yesteryear without talking about
the Groot sized hole in the room.
If there is one huge thing I’m thankful for with the
Guardians of the Galaxy franchise; it’s reintroducing the younger generation to
their Awesome Mixes. Because for the
most part, they are indeed…awesome.
I said for the most part!
They all can’t be winners, but I am genuinely appreciative for these
mixes. Because otherwise, the youth of
today are more than likely to miss out on gems like this:
3. “Come and Get Your Love” – Redbone
And thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy, I can’t not listen to
this song without thinking of Star-Lord singing and dancing his way to finding
one of the infinity stones. Thanks
Marvel.
Oh yeah and this show was a thing to. Thanks Netflix.
I really hope Hollywood doesn’t bastardize this song for me
moving forward. But even then, my
thoughts won’t ever change on this. It’s
a funk rock masterpiece. And while there
are many and I mean many favorite moments in this song, you know what will
never be topped? That electric
sitar. Sure it’s only within the opening
seconds, but it always hooks me in every time.
I will never grow tired of that moment.
And the band Redbone is one of the bands I always go back to
when it comes to funk rock. Sure their
biggest hit was their best, as sometimes is the case. But they really do have a great discography. After all, Childish Gambino got one of his
biggest hits from listening to a lot of their funk music.
That is indeed a true statement. Need I say more? Stay woke.
These next two songs.
Miles above the rest when it came to the truly exceptional songs from
this year. And the only reason this next
song isn’t my number one is because my number one has three times more the
replay value for me than this. But that
doesn’t deny the fact that this song is amazing on its own merits.
Like I previously stated, the year is 1974. And the biggest star of this decade released
his magnum opus onto the city.
2. “Living For The City” – Stevie Wonder
This is one of those rare occasions where I feel like that I
should seriously shut my mouth because the music speaks for itself. This is an artist honing his craft and making
a song that speaks volumes about the world that he is a part of.
Stevie Wonder’s music has done a lot for this world where he
talks about the problems of the world.
And this topic is a very daring one to talk about in 1974. That topic is systematic racism. And it is
absolutely direct about it. The story he is singing about is a young black
man looking to escape to New York City in hopes of finding a new life because
he is experiencing discrimination in Mississippi. And as soon as the young black man reaches
New York, he is immediately framed for a crime he didn’t commit and is
sentenced to ten years in prison.
I’ll be damned if that didn’t feel like a gut punch the
first time I ever heard it. Especially
in today’s society where there is still racial prejudice pretty prevalent
today. Stevie Wonder just absolutely
sells this song with every last ounce of his soul and I admire the hell out of
him for making a song this impactful, this on the nose, and this excellent. If it was any other year, this would be a
shoe-in for number one. It’s one of the
best songs I’ve ever heard. And yet…
A few years ago on a forum I regulared, we had this short
lived trend where we had users listing off top ten lists per requests by other
people. One of the top ten lists that
was requested by me was my top ten best songs of all time. Now to many people, that would be an easy
request. But to me? I don’t have a singular favorite song. I have multiple.
That’s the thing about me.
Music has always been so second nature to me that if you catch me in any
mood, any song could be my favorite song of all time. So to follow through with this request, I
just did my top ten most played songs on my iPod/iPhone according to
Apple. And that’s where my number one on
this comes into play. It was and
honestly still is, my most played song on Apple Music.
1. “Bennie and the Jets” – Elton John
I know what some of you are thinking. This song over Stevie Wonder? Well to put it simply, when it comes to the
1970s, there are many great artists from this decade. Stevie Wonder is one of my personal top five. But you know who my favorite artist from this
decade is?
…well the real answer is Queen. But you know who would be number two? Sir Elton John.
Elton John has always been such an inspiration for trying to
teach myself music. When I was a kid, I
wanted to learn how to play the piano because I heard “Tiny Dancer” and was
like, I wanted to learn how to play music.
I never really learned how to play the piano, but I still do to this day
just so I can play some of Elton John’s music.
This guy is just a multi-talented musical genius.
That being said, this is Elton John stepping more out of his
comfort zone. Elton John is at his most
comfortable performing amazing piano ballads.
And in all honesty, this is more of a song you would hear at a karaoke
bar. But hey, what’s wrong with
that? I mean I use to go to karaoke
nights quite often. And you know what my
favorite song to sing karaoke to was?
This.
This is just such a fun song to sing along to. But when you peal all the layers back, you’ll
discover there is more to it than just singing offbeat. It’s a satire about the 1970’s music scene
and how you had to do things to really stand out and get noticed by major labels. And who stood out more when performing than
the man who wore thousands upon thousands of weird outfits? So when Bennie had to put on electric boots
and a mohair suit that she read in a magazine…you can’t help put picture Elton
John being Bennie.
Guitarist Davey Johnson stated that this is the weirdest
song he ever recorded and you know what? I’m thankful that he did such
that. What a weird and wonderful song to
top this list. Obligatory pun out of the
way, I absolutely love the hell out of this song and maybe someday, I’ll record
myself singing this at a karaoke night.
But until then…
BENNIE
BENNIE
BENNIE….
….AND THE JJJEEETTTSSS
------
And that is my best list. For those of you who are curious as to how all one hundred songs on the 1974 year end list would be ranked, well here you go:
1. “Bennie and the Jets” – Elton John
2. “Living For The City” – Stevie Wonder
3. “Come and Get Your Love” – Redbone
4. “Rock the Boat” – The Hues Corporation
5. “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” – Brownsville Station
6. “Sunshine on My Shoulders” – John Denver
7. “Tell Me Something Good” – Rufus & Chaka Khan
8. “Midnight at the Oasis” – Maria Muldaur
9. “Takin’ Care of Business” – Bachman-Turner Overdrive
10. “Band on the Run” – Paul McCartney and Wings
11. “Jungle Boogie” – Kool & The Gang
12. “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” – MFSB
13. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” – Elton John
14. “Radar Love” – Golden Earring
15. “The Joker” – Steve Miller Band
16. “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” –
Aretha Franklin
17. “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination” – Gladys Knight &
The Pips
18. “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” – Steely Dan
19. “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” – Elton John
20. “Dancing Machine” – The Jackson 5
21. “Tubular Bells” – Mike Oakfield
22. “Nothing From Nothing” – Billy Preston
23. “For The Love of Money” – The O’Jays
24. “Never Never Gonna Give You Up” – Barry White
25. “Hollywood Swinging” – Kool & The Gang
26. “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing” – Stevie Wonder
27. “The Loco-Motion” – Grand Funk Railroad
28. “Help Me” – Joni Mitchell
29. “Then Came You” – The Spinners & Dionne Warwick
30. “Rock and Roll Heaven” – The Righteous Brothers
31. “Time in a Bottle” – Jim Croce
32. “Annie’s Song” – John Denver
33. “Jet” – Paul McCartney & Wings
34. “On and On” – Gladys Knight & The Pips
35. “Helen Wheels” – Paul McCartney & Wings
36. “Keep On Smilin’” – Wet Willie
37. “Hello Its Me” – Todd Rundgren
38. “Hang On There Baby” – Johnny Bristol
39. “Show and Tell” – Al Wilson
40. “Put Your Hands Together” – The O’Jays
41. “Just Don’t Want to be Lonely” – The Main Ingredient
42. “Boogie Down” – Eddie Kendricks
43. “Sundown” – Gordon Lightfoot
44. “The Show Must Go On” – Three Dog Night
45. “Rock Your Baby” – George McCrae
46. “Lookin For a Love” – Bobby Womack
47. “Rock Me Gently” – Andy Kim
48. “Me and Baby Brother” – War
49. “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” – Gladys Knight
& The Pips
50. “I’ll Have To Say I Love You in a Song” – Jim Croce
51. “Mighty Love” – The Spinners
52. “Be Thankful For What You Got” – William DeVaughn
53. “Trying To Hold On To My Woman” – Lamont Dozier
54. “You Won’t See Me” – Anne Murray
55. “My Mistake Was to Love You” – Diana Ross & Marvin
Gaye
56. “Rockin Roll Baby” – The Stylistics
57. “Feel Like Makin Love” – Roberta Flack
58. “Eres Tu” – Mocedades
59. “A Very Special Love Song” – Charlie Rich
60. “The Most Beautiful Girl” – Charlie Rich
61. “Wildwood Weed” – Jim Stafford
62. “The Entertainer” – Marvin Hamlisch
63. “My Girl Bill” – Jim Stafford
64. “Clap for the Wolfman” – The Guess Who (featuring
Wolfman Jack)
65. “Rock On” – David Essex
66. “You Make Me Feel Brand New” – The Stylistics
67. “Call on Me” – Chicago
68. “(I’ve Been) Searching So Long” – Chicago
69. “One Hell of a Woman” – Mac Davis
70. “Sideshow” – Blue Magic
71. “Beach Baby” – The First Class
72. “Oh My My” – Ringo Starr
73. “A Love Song” – Anne Murray
74. “Dark Lady” – Cher
75. “Oh Very Young” – Cat Stevens
76. “Hooked on a Feeling” – Blue Swede
77. “The Air That I Breathe” – The Hollies
78. “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)” – Helen Reddy
79. “I Honestly Love You” – Olivia Newton-John
80. “Love’s Theme” – Love Unlimited Orchestra
81. “Wild Thing” – Fancy
82. “Top of the World” – Carpenters
83. “The Way We Were” – Barbra Streisand
84. “Let Me Be There” – Olivia Newton-John
85. “Spiders and Snakes” – Jim Stafford
86. “Please Come To Boston” – Dave Loggins
87. “You and Me Against the World” – Helen Reddy
88. “Waterloo” – ABBA
89. “I’m Leaving It Up To You” – Donny and Marie Osmond
90. “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” – Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods
91. “The Night Chicago Died” – Paper Lace
92. “I Shot the Sherriff” – Eric Clapton
93. “The Lord’s Prayer” – Sister Janet Mead
94. “I Love” – Tom T. Hall
95. “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” – Olivia Newton-John
96. “Mockingbird” – Carly Simon & James Taylor
97. “Seasons In The Sun” – Terry Jacks
98. “The Streak” – Ray Stevens
99. “You’re Sixteen” – Ringo Starr
100. “(You’re) Having My Baby” – Paul Anka---------
If anyone has any songs they would like to see my two cents on, please comment in the comment section below. Or if you have any changes you would like to suggest, gladly let me know. I'm always looking for ways to improve my writing if it is needed. I know I'm not perfect at this and I want to get as close as I possibly can be.
Thank you all for reading. Be on the lookout for more content coming soon.
Monday, March 2, 2020
Trailer Talk: February 2020
Hey guys, welcome back.
The Best Hit Songs of 1974 is still in the works, but I didn't want to leave you guys without new content for too long. That's another thing about this second edition of this blog. I don't have an exact release schedule. Trying too force out too much content each day of the week led to said burnout as well. So keep turning up for more content on the way whenever I can get to it.
With that being said, time to introduce another new update to this blog. I briefly mentioned this in that welcome back post, but here is the first version of Trailer Talk. Why does the title say February 2020 when it's now March? Because I'll be talking about the buzzworthy trailers of last month as my first post. So if you want to hear my thoughts on that new awful Artemis Fowl trailer this morning...well, you'll have to wait a few more weeks for that. So let's get started with...
....whatever the fuck this saga is now. Seriously, does anyone still remember when this franchise was about stealing televisions and street racing? Now it's about espionage and superhumans and cars jumping off planes and a bunch of other inexplicable bullshit while Vin Diesel hams it up about family. This series never ceases to amaze me on how many sharks it can jump. This time, we are now suppose to believe that John Cena is Dom's brother that this series completely forgot about for twenty years. I guess you could say, they couldn't see him...
In all seriousness, this franchise lost me after the eighth movie and the spin-off wasn't really anything to brag home about either. I think people are FINALLY starting to grow tired of the oversaturation that is this franchise. Hence why there are only two more movies on the way and maybe another Hobbs & Shaw and other spin-offs. Who knows. Either way, F7 should have been the stopping point. I'll probably end up seeing this at some point, but probably through streaming. I'm not mad at there being a ninth movie. I'm just tired man.
And speaking of growing tired, are we tired of Sony trying to get every last cent they can possibly get from the Spider-Man property rights? I know I sure am. I'll give it to them that Venom was too hilariously stupid to outright hate, but that's it. We don't need that Venom sequel that's in the works and we sure as hell don't need a Morbius movie. I was never the biggest Morbius fan and really didn't know that he had such a dedicated following to give him his own movie. But Sony REALLY wants to squeeze that Sony/Marvel Universe for everything they can possibly get; just so Disney doesn't get full custody of everything that is Spider-Man. Which I don't want Disney to become any more of a monopoly than it already is, but this is one of those rare exceptions where I want them to get the full rights to Spider-Man because I'll be damned that what Sony is doing to this property is even worse. Nobody wants a full movie dedicated to Black Cat or Silver Sable or even worse, Aunt May. That's stretching it.
Oh I guess I should talk about the trailer. It's boring. Jared Leto seems to not be hamming it up for a change...except for that one scene. And I guess Michael Keaton showing up at the end is teasing a Sinister Six movie that Sony has so badly wanted to make for at least the last ten years. Who cares. Please put an end to this cinematic universe that nobody except Sony wants.
And speaking of movies that nobody wants...who asked for this? This is one of the least impressive animated movie trailers I've seen in quite some time. From all the pop culture references to the not impressive in the slightest animation to Will Arnett sounding absolutely bored to be a part of this. I mean this voice cast outside of him doesn't even sound the slightest bit impressive. I mean I can tell because this is a WWE Studios film, which means some of their wrestlers are going to be in this. Aren't those saved for direct to DVD though? Why is this getting a theatrical release?
I know that John Lasseter is now running Paramount Animation after he got #MeToo'd right out of a job at Disney and I have a lot I would like to say about how he should not be working behind the scenes any more just like the rest of the big names out there who rightfully do not have jobs due to their sexual misconduct allegations. But I'm going to focus more on the art and not the artist.
And this basically looks like an incredibly poor man's Shrek with wrestling. Need to see much more before I make any more rash judgments, but as of now, hard pass. Very hard pass.
Time to end this post on some positivity. Any sort of fears and qualms I had about the existence of A Quiet Place 2 was quickly resolved by this trailer. For those of you who don't know, I loved the first movie. It was one of my best movies of 2018. John Krasinski proved to me that he is more than an underrated actor. He's a fantastic director. I love how two of the best horror movies of the last three years were directed by comedic television actors.
What I love about this trailer in particular is that I am getting The Walking Dead vibes. Not modern Walking Dead vibes, which the show went downhill about four years ago there. But it reminds me of what The Walking Dead used to be good at. Showing that the threats just aren't the creatures at hand. It's also other groups of survivors that can impose any sort of challenge to survive. I am honestly ecstatic to see how they handle this sequel and hope that all sorts of goodwill the first movie had carries over here too.
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And that's all for this month's version of Trailer Talk. I know I didn't cover all the trailers of the past month, but these were the four that stuck out to me the most. Any others that you all want to see me talk about? Suggest in the comments below and I'll get around to it next time. Thank you all for reading and be on the lookout for more content coming soon.
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