All politics is not local
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I write about ESRI in this blog on occasion - most recently, in March 2016.
And ESRI just made the news again - not a local news outlet, and not a geo
news...
By day, I perform strategic marketing duties for...well, as of August 2020, for nobody. By night, I manage the Empoprises blogging empire, as well as various portals in Ingress and other games. Formerly known as Ontario Emperor (Ontario California, not Ontario Canada). LCMS Lutheran. Former member of Radio Shack Battery Club. Motorola Yellow Badge recipient. Top 10% of LinkedIn users.
The original video itself is of course a homage to the Quinn Martin productions and other television fare of the Beastie Boys' (and my) youth, and the literal version plays this up with references to Greg Brady (although Screech is technically outside of the period in question).
I recently wrote a post in my Empoprise-BI business blog that includes a lot of linktext. If you follow one of the links in the text, you ended up at a YouTube video of Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime."
While searching for that video, I happened to find another version of the song - the literal version.
Although in this case, Stay has half a right to post this one. After all, Stay calls his blog "Stay N' Alive." (He also takes Staycations, even when he leaves the house.)
So what musical stuff is Stay placing in one of his latest blog posts? In his case, a mashup - one that he refers to as the Best. Mashup. Ever. This one required one of the songs to be sped up a little, but when you do that, you end up with a mashup of two of the 1970s biggest songs - "Stayin' Alive" and "Another Brick in the Wall":
According to the Wax Audio website, "Stayin' Alive in The Wall" was originally released in 2007, as part of a collection called Mashopolos:
It's a pop, hard-rock, metal, disco, movie-soundtrack, hindi-pop, bhangra type album put together using other people's music. Each pairing was achieved by loving cajoling and violent contortion of the source materials and was produced here in Athens, Greece (hence the album title) throughout February and March 2007. I was supposed to be resting and recouperating after 15 months hard overland slog across Asia - but just couldn't resist getting my hands dirty again.
I definitely want to check out Kate Rogers Nelson and "Mashing Up That Hill."
I've written about Loren Feldman of 1938 Media many times in the past (here's an example and here's another, and here's a more recent example). For those of you who are not familiar with him, Feldman is a rare champion of realism in the world of social media - for example, in advocating that the social media tools should be used to provide a return on investment for the businesses who employ them. Feldman spreads his message through a variety of avenues, ranging from speeches at conferences to micromessages on Twitter to puppet shows on video.
In the past I've appreciated Feldman and his observations.
That is, until he started barging in on my territory.
You see, if there's one thing that I frequently do here in the Empoprise-MU music blog, it's the sharing of music videos that I find (primarily on YouTube). Some of them are original videos from the artists themselves, while others are fan videos - some creative, some not-so-creative.
OK, Feldman may be honing into my territory by sharing videos, but I'll tell you one thing that I do that Feldman doesn't do - I write about things even though I don't have the slightest clue about them.
Yes, I had to read up on this song, courtesy Wikipedia. To put it mildly, Adele isn't the only person who has performed this song. This Bob Dylan original has been performed by Adele, Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, Gamu Nhengu, Phil Keaggy, Trisha Yearwood, Neil Diamond, Joan Osborne, Timothy B. Schmit, Kelly Clarkson, Ronan Keating, Bryan Ferry, Taylor Hicks, Maria Muldaur, and many others.
Oh, and and if I'm going to be honest about things, Feldman has been sharing songs on his blog for YEARS - in fact, he was sharing songs before the Empoprise-MU blog even existed (this blog started in August 2008). For example, here's a March 27, 2008 video share of a song by the Shel Israel puppet. (Language warning.)
Over the weekend, while not researching The Famous Al Gunn, I heard Ready for the World's "Oh Sheila" on the radio. Now I was never really impressed with Ready for the World back in the day, since they appeared to have Prince's smuttiness without the talent. "(pant) (pant) (pant) Oh Sheila," indeed.
But that got me thinking about another Sheila (who is supposedly not the subject of the song) - Sheila E. Directly associated with Prince, she was popularly perceived as the one Prince female protege who actually had talent. She certainly had her hits, but like most pop stars, she faded from view a few years later.
Her biography fills in the missing years between her 80s stardom and today.
After taking several years off for health reasons, Sheila's next project, the E-Train, started in 1994. The band that played a mixture of soul, Latin jazz, funk, fusion and gospel toured in Europe in 1994, and finally released a CD, entitled "Writes of Passage" in 1998.
In 1998, Sheila became the first female bandleader on late night television on Magic Johnson's variety show "The Magic Hour," and she co-wrote and co-produced the late night show's theme song.
Sheila has played on countless albums, including the soundtrack to "Prince of Egypt," featuring Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, successful Japanese artist Namie Amuro (whom she also toured with in 1996 and 2002) and Gloria Estefan's hugely successful "Mi Tierra."
The complete biography is here. No word on whether Sheila officially played the conga when playing with Estefan. But the most interesting part of the bio was a cross-musical production with which I was not familiar.
Sheila E. participated in the third season of CMT's hit show, "Gone Country." With the goal of creating a hit country music single, each "Gone Country" cast member is uprooted to Nashville for an intense two-week challenge. Justin Guarini, Taylor Dayne, George Clinton, Tara Conner, Richard Grieco, and Micky Dolenz competed on the third season along with Sheila E. Each celebrity was paired with two of Nashville's finest songwriters with whom they wrote a country single. In addition to meeting with songwriters, the cast competed in challenges that tested them musically and physically to adapt to a life in country music, both on and off the stage. Sheila E. was the Grand Prize Winner of the third season and has gone on to release her first country single & video for her song, "Glorious Train.
When reading the cast list, all I can say is "wow." I still have to find George Clinton's country musings, but I did find "Glorious Train."
I was reading a comment from my good Facebook friend Peter Frampton - oh, you've heard of him? - and he offered a comment about a website for a radio show entitled "Nights With Alice Cooper," found at http://nightswithalicecooper.com/.
The show isn't carried by any Los Angeles radio stations, but you can listen on selected radio stations that carry the show on their websites. (Including Canadian radio stations, allowing The Famous Al Gunn to listen.)
The website is jam-packed with pictures, video, trivia, and other information. And if you are scratching your head and wondering who this Alice is that I'm talking about, here's his (yes, his) bio.
Without Alice Cooper, there might never have been the NY Dolls, KISS, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue, Slipknot or Rob Zombie ... maybe not even David Bowie, or at least not Ziggy Stardust. The iconic hard rocker...literally invented the concept of the rock concert as theater....
With a schedule that includes six months of every year on the road, Alice Cooper is bringing his own brand of rock psycho-drama to fans both old and new, and enjoying it as much as the audience does.
Known as the architect of shock-rock, Alice (in both the original Alice Cooper band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn, like a great horror movie, even in an era where CNN can present real life shocking images.
The "bio" above is extremely edited, since 90% of it is devoted to Alice's 25th album, "Along Came a Spider." You know, one of THOSE bios.
I couldn't sleep, so I woke up, and I had a mad urge to listen to this song:
Now when you see a guy, a short guy, and a woman, you can be forgiven for thinking that you're watching an ABC video. This is, of course, Men Without Hats, doing the Safety Dance. This, incidentally, is one of the songs by this band which includes a French interlude just to prove that they're from Quebec.
But "The Safety Dance" is not my favorite Men Without Hats song. That designation belongs to "Living in China," with the best line in all rock. Speaking of the then-current changes in China, Ivan and his cohorts talked about "the Gang of Four, trying to make it as a western band." Here's an unofficial video with images from the country itself.
So where are Men Without Hats today? This page offers the rundown on just about every person ever associated with the band:
Ivan lives in Montreal, Stefan lives in a small town in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec about an hour north of Montreal, Colin lives in Victoria on Vancouver island, teaches voice and sings with the Victoria Opera Company, Lenny lives in Montreal and works in computers, Marika lives in southern California, Heidi lives in New Jersey, Allan died of AIDS about 6 years ago, Jerry Arrobas is in telemarketing and living in Mtl, John Gurin is a university professor, Jean-Marc writes jingles in Mtl, the still Famous Al Gunn hasn't left the island of Montreal since the tour in 1985, Bruce Murphy's a dentist in Ottawa, and Tracy Howe lives in Ontario and recently retired from music.
Not too long ago, I wrote a blog post that contained the following introduction:
As a lyricist, Jimi Hendrix was with peer.
I went on to say:
His hippie 60's lyrical musings are not on a par with Dylan, Lennon, McCartney, Simon, or others of that decade.
I was curious to see if anyone ranked Hendrix highly as a lyricist, and I found someone who not only praised his prowess, but also chose to discuss the song that I had implicitly derided. Matt Coleman, the floor is yours.
Let’s look at one of my favorite Hendrix compositions, “The Wind Cries Mary.” Supposedly, Hendrix wrote this song after he and his then girlfriend Kathy Etchingham had an argument over her cooking. Kathy, I am so very happy your cooking did not please Jimi. Kathy, whose middle name is Mary, stormed out of the house and Jimi was left with a decision, eat the unpleasant food or write the song. Just kidding of course. Maybe Jimi was just not very hungry....
Hendrix demonstrates a great adroitness for metaphor and sensitive repetition. I, obviously am partial to the court references, but, they work quite well in the song. “Somewhere a queen is weeping, Somewhere a king has no wife.” These two lines in the second verse are by far the best in the song. The words elevate the song to an ethereal level and help represent Hendrix’s situation mystically.
Now I just have to find someone who thinks that Eddie Van Halen is a good guitarist - whoops, I forgot that some people actually think he IS a good guitarist.
I only personally know of two people who ever talk about the Zune - someone who goes to my church and works for Microsoft, and Steven Hodson, who writes the WinExtra blog (among other things). But the Zune apparently offers a whole range of services, including its own store (which you can visit at http://www.zune.net/).
Steven Hodson talks about the Zune in a recent post:
While most of the tech blogosphere either ignores or makes fun of Zune, and its marketplace as well as its streaming services, the fact is that it has been around for quite awhile and people like using it.
Well, at least in the U.S. it has, but that is about to change as different parts of the Zune ecosphere starts spreading beyond the U.S.
But wait a minute, you ask yourself. Isn't Hodson like Canadian and stuff? So how can he expertly talk about the Zune?
Very easily, as it turns out. Despite the best efforts of the Cabal TINC (an old Usenet joke), it is possible to get around any geographically based restriction (or geotarding). In Hodson's case, he just created a Microsoft account with a United States address, and he had access to all of the wonderful Zune stuff that we Americans take for granted.
But now that the Zune is officially offered in Canada, Hodson has a bit of a problem.
You see once Zune, and Xbox Live, are legally available in your country, and in my case it would be Canada, you are going to want to go into your profile and switch your setting to show your real country of origin – except you can’t.
I’m serious. There is no way possible for you to go to your Zune account, or your Xbox Live account and change your country.
Hodson then details all of the attempts he made to change his account to a Canadian account, and the frustrations that he's facing in his current US-Canada limbo.
And yes, Hodson admits that this is a problem of his own making. He was so eager to get Microsoft projects (in this case Zune and Xbox) that he gamed the system in order to get it.
And, Hodson admits, there IS a solution to his predicament.
You have to create a whole new Zune profile and Xbox Live account. This means new gamer tags and Zune tags. It means that all your achievements in Xbox Live are history. All your purchases – if you managed to make any – on Zune or Xbox are toast.
But wait – it gets even worse.
Because both your Zune profile and Xbox account are now tied in with your Windows Live ID (your Hotmail account) you will also have to kiss your email account good-bye.
I did some more reading, and learned that the Zune had actually been launched in Canada over two years ago WITHOUT an online store. In a May 7, 2008 article, the CBC explained some of the thorny issues at the time:
Microsoft Corp. is bringing the Zune, its answer to the iPod, to Canada, but the media player's initial launch will be hamstrung by the lack of an accompanying download store.
The company on Tuesday announced the Zune player will be available in stores here on June 13, making Canada the first country outside the United States to get the device. The online Zune marketplace, where device owners can purchase music and video content, however, won't be available on launch....
There are a number of factors that need to be sorted out before the online store can be made available here, said Elana Zur, product manager for Zune in Canada.
Or perhaps I should correct myself, since Canadians don't have to deal with this yet. In its September 20 announcement, Microsoft named a bunch of countries that are getting access to the Zune Marketplace and related services. Canada wasn't in the list.
Zune Marketplace will extend services to several markets in Europe and beyond.
Zune Pass (U.K., France, Italy and Spain). The monthly music subscription service will be available for 9.99 euros /8.99 pounds per month for unlimited download and streaming access to the Zune music catalog and will be accessible on Windows-based PCs, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox LIVE. The offer in the U.S. will remain at $14.99 per month for unlimited downloads and streaming access, with the ability to keep 10 MP3s per month.
Music purchase (U.K., France, Italy, Spain and Germany). Expansion to these markets will enable consumers to purchase MP3s and listen on their Windows-based PC, Windows Phone 7 or any other device that supports MP3 format. Users will also be able to purchase music videos to enjoy on Windows-based PC, Windows Phone 7 and Zune on Xbox LIVE.
Video purchase (U.K., France, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). Consumers will now be able to purchase movies to download and watch anywhere — on the big screen in the living room with Xbox LIVE or their Windows-based PC as well as sync it to their Windows Phone 7 to enjoy on the go.
Movie rental (U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). In addition to Zune video on Xbox LIVE, consumers in these countries will now be able to rent movies for viewing on their Windows-based PC or choose to sync the rental to their Windows Phone 7.
So if you live in Canada and want Zune stuff, you might as well keep on using that 90210 zip code.
I ran across this post by accident (I was doing an ego search and landed on a page that linked to Wendy Bredehoft's former website, which has now been taken over by others), but it definitely looked interesting, so I thought I'd share it here.
Punch Brothers, a band with a style that has been described as introducing bluegrass instrumentation and spontaneity in the structures of modern classical, will perform a free concert Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. in the University of Wyoming College of Arts and Sciences auditorium.
As I previously noted, I was not at Oracle OpenWorld this year and, other than monitoring a few tweets, I didn't get the full picture of the Appreciation Event at Treasure Island.
In a sense, I didn't miss much, because one of the big attractions at the appreciation event was the ability to read your own tweets on a big screen. Hey, it was a techie crowd.
On the main stage, Berlin opened with their hits from the 80s plus some modern-sounding new releases. Midway through their set, tiny Terri Nunn hopped onto a roadie's shoulders and took a tour of the audience, happily greeting fans and leading a sing-along.
"Can you believe this?" she asked the crowd. "What a company party ...!"
Berlin was followed by the Black Eyed Peas and Steve Miller, and apparently Miller and Terri Nunn performed a duet.
The alternate stage also had good music, including the English Beat, Montgomery Gentry, and Don Henley. However, apparently there was no Ranking Roger-Don Henley duet.
As I mentioned, I was monitoring tweets during part of the evening, and one of the tweets I saw was a tweet from Larry Wake:
Don Henley opening with 20 minute preso on The Eagles' cloud strategy. #oow10ti
@larrywake but i heard that glenn frey was insisting on an ibm cloud solution #oow10ti #oow10
Meanwhile, Accenture is apparently without a celebrity endorser at the moment (or at least a human one), since they dropped the (human) endorser that they had. Obviously Oracle and Accenture are in different worlds when it comes to celebrity endorsements.
As a lyricist, Jimi Hendrix was with peer. His hippie 60's lyrical musings are not on a par with Dylan, Lennon, McCartney, Simon, or others of that decade.
But couple those lyrics with the musical performance, and you have something magical.
According to variousdiversesources, this was recorded at a Swedish TV show called "Popside." But according to this book, the band had other things to worry about - namely, the fact that Stockholm hotels didn't want people looking like them staying in the hotel.
Back when I was in college radio, one of the deejays (I've forgotten his last name, but I believe his first name was Paul) would occasionally talk about O.P.M., or Over Produced Music. I don't know if I've really encountered over-produced music (outside of Jeff Lynne's post-ELO work), but I've certainly encountered some HEAVILY-produced songs in my day. Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" comes to mind here.
But then there are some bands that are consistently heavily produced, so that the heavy production becomes associated with the band itself. For example, I was recently listening to the Madness song "Primrose Hill."
If you listen to the song, the most distinctive element of the song, especially toward the end, is the horn arrangement.
Now let me distinguish between horn arrangements that include the band, and horn arrangements that include people outside the band. Chicago's horns were self-contained within the band. Oingo Boingo's horns were self-contained within the band. But when Fleetwood Mac played "Tusk," and Madness played "Primrose Hill," these were peopled who were added to the band.
Now "Tusk" was pretty much a one-off - there's no marching band on "Albatross" - but horns pop up elsewhere in Madness, such as the song "Keep Moving" (brief mention here). It turns out that Madness' producers, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, kinda sorta liked lots of horns. When discussing a Nitcaps album, this comment was offered.
Sire spent the money where it mattered: top-notch production from Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Madness) and the full-time assistance of the Uptown Horns. (Langer and Winstanley never met a horn they didn’t like.)
But if you want to talk about an artist whose entire sound was shaped by heavy production, take a listen to (most of) the early records of Elton John. That little piano player had a much broader sound on songs like "Your Song," "Levon," "Tiny Dancer," and others, courtesy of the orchestral arrangements of Paul Buckmaster. In fact, in a review of the Elton John self-titled album, John Mendelsohn said that the album succeeded DESPITE Buckmaster.
The major problem with Elton John [the album] is that one has to wade through so much damn fluff to get to Elton John. Here, by the sound of it, arranger Paul Buckmaster's rather pompous orchestra was spliced in as an afterthought to flesh out music that had sufficient muscle to begin with, their choirs and Moogs and strings threaten to obscure Elton's voice and piano, everywhere that they appear at least momentarily diverting the listener's attention therefrom.
Buckmaster's review was dated November 12, 1970. Just five days later, Elton John recorded an absolutely fantastic live album. Forget Buckmaster and everybody else - just three people - Elton on piano, Dee Murray on bass, and Nigel Olsson on drums - put on an incredible performance. The album, called either 17-11-70 or 11-17-70 depending upon what side of the pond you live on, shows the musical skills of the three-man band, especially the piano player. If you've never heard any of the album, take a listen to this version of "Get Back."
True story - after an incredible and exhausting run of several years, Elton burned out, retreated, occasionally retired, and worked to get his bearings. For a while, the over-the-top piano player seemed to have disappeared. (Luckily, he came back later.) In fact, when I first heard the Double song "The Captain of Her Heart," with its extremely simple piano solo, for some reason (Captain?) I thought it was a new Elton John song, and I thought to myself, "Boy, Elton's hit rock bottom now."
I just wrote two (count 'em) posts that were derived from a single video - a post in this Empoprise-MU music blog called People they fall apart, and a post in my Empoprise-BI business blog called People they come together. Both posts are based upon an AT&T Blackberry commercial that included both Herman Melville's Moby Dick and the Moby (Richard Melville Hall) song "We Are All Made of Stars."
But what if you don't like AT&T? (Some people don't.) And what if you don't like Herman Melville? (Some people don't.)
Well, here's an AT&T/Herman-free version of Moby's song. You have to click through to see it; embedding disabled by request, probably because it wasn't posted by a record label.
But the person who did post it, perry8999, provided some helpful information.
("Stars" in order of appearance): 0:10 Moby 0:27 Kato Kaelin 0:44 Verne Troyer 0:51 Corey Feldman 0:59 Todd Bridges & Gary Coleman 1:13 J.C. Chasez 1:17 Dave Navarro 1:25 Sean Bean 1:31 Dominique Swain 1:52 Ron Jeremy 1:57 Thora Birch 2:04 Tommy Lee 2:10 Molly Sims 2:19 Angelyne 2:27 The Toxic Avenger 3:13 Robert Evans
At the time of the video release, MTV posted an article, the meaning of the video, and the celebrities involved. Sadly, one of the two celebrities named below is no longer with us.
All the locations are classic, iconic Hollywood venues: Hollywood Boulevard, seedy strip clubs, bars, tattoo parlors, and, of course, Kinko's. "Places," Moby said, "where normally you'd have debauchery and degeneracy and hedonism happening, but there's a banal side to it. My hope is, through showing the banal side of degenerate Hollywood, there's a sense of humanity to it as well, and we reveal endearing qualities in these iconic figures."
And what better way to illustrate that than with a "Diff'rent Strokes" reunion? "To see Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges together is a fantasy that we've had for a long time," Moby said. "I hope the rest of the world appreciates it just as much as we did. Sitting in Del Taco, watching the two of them sing lyrics to one of my songs, it was really special."
After Gary Coleman's death, Coleman's appearance in this video (and others) was cited as the number one of ten reasons Gary Coleman was cool.
P.S. For those who get confused, it was Corey HAIM who passed away earlier this year, not Corey FELDMAN.
I'm watching the Bears-Cowboys game right now, and I just saw a commercial that made me put the game on mute (the hated Cowboys are losing anyway, pleasing this Redskins fan), search for the commercial on YouTube, find it, and share it with you.
Now technically I could have put this in my Empoprise-BI business blog and taken one of several angles with it. I could have talked about television, and how companies need to make commercials that are so good that people will put up with bad programs just to see the commercials. I could have talked about the product itself, and how AT&T is emphasizing that they can offer multiple types of phones - perhaps I could have gone into the multi-tasking angle also. Or I could have talked about mashups, the connections between Herman and Richard. Or I could have taken the social media angle, and noted how multiple information sources can be brought together to serve a single purpose.
But instead, I put this in my Empoprise-MU music blog because the music's so cool. And because it has nothing to do with Oracle. (OK, Larry has a yacht...)
I just confirmed via IMDB something that I had read elsewhere regarding a certain person who shared billing with the Beatles.
No, not Tony Sheridan or Billy Preston.
Davy Jones.
Well, technically Jones didn't share billing, since his appearance on episode 17.19 of the Ed Sullivan show was uncredited. You see, Ed Sullivan's show was first and foremost a variety show, and when the Beatles first appeared on the show, they were just one of several acts. For those who have never seen a true variety show before, check out David Bassler's description of that particular episode. In addition to the Beatles:
Dutch comic magician Fred Kaps performs card tricks and a salt shaker stunt, the cast of the Broadway musical "Oliver" performs several numbers and Frank Gorshin does his impression of an imagined committee meeting of the U.S. Senate with its members all famous movie actors. British singer Tessie O'Shea performs three songs, including her hit, "Two-Ton Tessie from Tennessee", the comic team of Mitzi McCall and Charley Brill perform a comic sketch concerning the travails of a Hollywood producer trying to find the right woman for a part in a major motion picture and the comic acrobat team of Wells and the Four Fays perform a number of tumbling stunts.
No, you didn't see Jones' name in that description, but he was there - as part of the cast of "Oliver" (Jones played the Artful Dodger).
And you know what happened next. After his appearance on Sullivan, Jones was signed to Colpix Records...as a solo artist. A few months after the "David Jones" album was released without charting, Jones secured the TV job which would bring him fame...as a member of the Monkees, a show heavily based upon another of the guests on that February 1964 Ed Sullivan show.
In a 2010 inteview, Jones discussed his impressions of that night, and his time as a 16 year old in New York:
I sang with [Judy Garland] at Carnegie Hall and that was cool. It was all about the time that I was on the Ed Sullivan Show in ’64 – the night the Beatles were on. I did a song from Oliver. That was when I first thought, ‘Ah! Music! It’s good, all these girls! I think I’ll have a piece of that (fame), actually!’ That’s why I got into what I got into.
...Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones was all part of that click and it was like, ‘Goodness gracious, me!’ Years later, David shows up on the lot at Columbia Pictures, he’s in a TV series and his mum there. And he’s like, ‘Oh, my goodness gracious!’
But, as Jones notes, it's been a long time since the Beatles and the Monkees and the Partridge Family and the rest were teen idols.
He (Cassidy) sings, ‘I think I love me, what am so I afraid of?’ Tony Orlando sings, ‘Knock three times on the ceiling if you hear me fall”. Peter Noone singings, ‘Mrs. Brown, you have a lovely walker’. Roberta Flack sings, ‘The first time I ever forgot your face.’ And Willie Nelson’s on the throne again. All this stuff is, like, ridiculous. Ringo Starr sings, ‘I get a little help from Depends.’ It gets crazy. Paul Simon sings, ’50 ways to lose your liver’ and Abba is singing ‘Denture Queen’.
Ever since then, I haven't been able to get the song out of my head.
However, my preferred version of the song is the one that appeared on the record, not the re-sequenced one that appeared on the video. Let me explain the differences.
The version that hit the charts followed a traditional verse-chorus-verse-structure, and then closed with the rap by Vincent Price. The song builds toward this ending rap, with an interjected vocal interlude by Jackson, then the close of Price's rap, which concludes with a horrible (as in horror) laugh.
The video, of course, is arranged a little differently.
In this case, the song had to be re-arranged to fit the story and the dance routine. Because of this, the verses are placed toward the beginning of the performance of the song, with the chorus excluded. Price's rap, which was the ending highlight of the audio song, was instead moved (with Jackson's interlude) to an earlier portion of the video. For the video, the highlight is reserved for the chorus, which is withheld toward the end of the song and serves as the musical background for the famous dance sequence. The VERY last part of the song - Price's laugh - is reserved for the very ending of the video.
One other note about the video version - because of the length of the video, and because of some of the story material (especially the movie-like horror scenes), Jackson's song isn't the only music in the video. Elmer Bernstein "scary music" sequences are also incorporated.
All in all, two different versions of the song, serving two different purposes. But I still like the non-video version better.
