WATP - Oozebear

 

Oozebear is a "user-generated improv podcast." I don't know exactly what that means but... wow.

Voices That Care

 I fully lived through the era of music where large groups of musicians were getting together to Make A Difference... Live Aid, We Are the World, Do They Know It's Christmas?, etc. but I wasn't aware enough to really keep track and not having MTV was also a big factor. Case in point, I had never heard of "Voices That Care". Do you know what that is?

"Voices That Care" is the song (and the group) which was released for the Gulf War. With everyone from Celine Dion to Garth Brooks to Kenny G and Michael Bolton, it really underscores the low point that music hit in the early 90s. That's not even getting into the assemblage of non-singing actors and celebrities that is too long to reproduce.

"Hey we're putting together a song."

"OK, who you got?"

"I have Janet Gretzky, Nell Carter, Don King, Jon Lovitz and Mike Tyson."

"I'll tell you what you have there,,, you have a hit."

The song was not meant to be pro-war or anti-war or political in any way, the point was merely to support the troops. It's hard to criticize such a benign stance but I also can't help but laugh at the generic "Sending Our Love Down the Well" nature of it. Perhaps it's the final straw that gave us Famous Helping People. Who knows. "We're sending love and care to all the troops" Uh, okay...?

To round off the topic, there was also a Heavy Metal assembly to help famine in Africa (Hear 'n Aid) and another Heavy Metal group that was limited to just Swedish artists (Swedish Metal Aid) that helped... something. Uh, it was for charity...

And SNL mocked this trend with "Musicians for Free-Range Chickens," "Recurring Characters for Unity" and, a nostalgic favorite, "Rockers to Help Explain Whitewater." 

Bob Dylan in We Are The World...

 

Weird News: Scorch's PFG TV is Coming Back

 Scorch's PFG TV is filming new episodes this year. The first episode will air 2/29 (and yes, that's a real date, although it would be like Scorch to advertise one that isn't).

All Simpsons Segments from The Tracey Ullman Show

 

To be honest, they're pretty rough but worth checking out as a historical artifact.

I remember The Simpsons being my favorite part of The Tracey Ullman Show and saw many of these when they aired. I liked The Simpsons before it was cool, blah, blah, blah.

A interesting facet of this era is that Maggie actually talks, though incoherently.

The Charismatic Voice - The Hook

 

Weird bit of synchronicity here, I was just thinking of "The Hook" by Blues Traveler recently.

I don't remember Paul Shaffer being in this video.

It's such a great, perhaps a perfect pop melody. It would be the perfect pop song except for the lyrics. Writing lyrics to say that lyrics don't matter is a waste of time. Hate that.

The harmonica brings me back though.