Pat Benatar is one of the best artists to emerge from the MTV era of rock & roll: the 60s-90s. Among such heavyweights as Journey, the lovely ladies of Heart, Fleetwood Mac, and even the Buggles, Benatar holds her own with her powerhouse
vocals. This what has made her an icon. However, as with all great artists, they are meant to be heard live. Benatar proves she’s worthy of this with her 1983 live album, Live From Earth.
However, with all great artists, they are meant to be heard live and Benatar proves that she’s worthy of the “must-see” concert label.
She opens the show with the haunting classic “Fire and Ice.” However, things get really amazing when she breaks into the gritty “I Want Out” followed by the awesomeness that is “We Live For Love” and the grisly, sad, and controversial “Hell Is For Children.” That track is literally one that leaps out of the speakers and grabs you instantly. Clearly, this is Pat Benatar at her “tough-girl” persona best. One which she would abandon for another persona, a bit more personal one if you will – motherhood, with her 1984 album Tropico. The two studio tracks, the ever-popular “Love Is A Battlefield” and “Lipstick Lies” (both containing very memorable videos – such as Benatar herself doing Michael Jackson-style dance sequences) serve as a great transition into this new era for Benatar.
What Pat Benatar live album would not be complete without her performing her swan song, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot?” None! However, this is probably the weaker track of this album because you can barely hear her vocals. Since the album was recorded in many places, wherever they recorded it, the acoustics are TERRIBLE!
Benatar and her husband Neil Geraldo quickly redeem themselves on “Promises In the Dark.” The live version of “Promises In The Dark” actually sounds better than the recording as heard on 1983’s Precious Timealbum.
This album is okay, however it seems more or less like a greatest hits collection thrown in with a few new tracks. But its a good live album overall from what sounds like one exciting tour. B+
The Wild Heart is quite possibly one that loves stuff from the late 70’s and 80’s. Why? Because it was a time when rock n’ roll was starting to become more accepting of women. That’s important to the Wild Heart because the Wild Heart is a WOMAN!Also, it brought about one of the best things to ever hit music initially (but has since become a bad promo tool) and that is none other than MTV.
Pat Benatar was an integral part of that. She, along with others like Fleetwood Mac‘s Stevie Nicks, the late Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship’s Grace Slick, as well as Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, would become the trailblazers for female rockers. She showed women that it’s okay to be as tough as the boys. Just listen to the lyrics to songs like “Heartbreaker,” “Fight It Out,” “No You Don’t,” “You Better Run” and the ever-popular “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” Get the point?
Benatar also showed us that classical musicians CAN become rockers. She was originally going to study opera at Juliard, but decided to not do so. The two worlds, in spite of their differences, are essentially the same if you look at them very closely. This is something I always try to tell a music teacher friend of mine. She has [in my opinion] a somewhat limited knowledge
Cherry Crimson
of rock music.
“I knew the sound wasn’t right.As I sat there, listening to the playback from my first-ever recording session, I knew that something was off. It wasn’t that the speakers were bad or the mics were low. It wasn’t that my voice sounded wrong or the drummer was off the beat. It was more subtle than all that, but also much worse — not something that could be fixed by a simple equipment change. The problem was that I sounded like Julie Andrews trying to sing hard rock.” – Pat Benatar on her first recording session (Between A Heart & A Rock Place)
Also, she had a pretty good eye for fashion. When it comes to music, unless you are the terrible Lady Gaga, you cannot go wrong with that.
In 1980, Pat Benatar was at the top of her game. She had a couple of hit singles from her first album, In the Heat of the Night including We Live For Love and the now-classic Heartbreaker. Her second album, Crimes of Passion, was to be released in August of that year and one of the forthcoming singles from the album, You Better Run, was about to be chosen to be the second video to be played on a brand new all-music channel called MTV. To top it all off, she was dating (and later married) the guy she had always had eyes for in the band: Neil “Spyder James” Girarldo. She was on the verge of success and fame.
Among the tracks is the little gem, Never Wanna Leave You. One of the greatest aspects of this track is not only Benatar’s surprisingly softer vocals, but the driving bassline. It almost sounds like a sequel to We Live For Love, which, according to both Benatar and her husband, chronicles their then-budding romance.
Either way it’s a crime that it wasn’t a hit single. However, it is still a winner.
Happy 30th birthday. I wish I could say that you’ve come along way baby. Who knows, maybe you have but is that a good thing?
Please play some videos!
When you started out, you were a burst of sheer amazingness. I wasn’t even born in 1981 and watching all the classic MTV stuff on YouTube & VH1 Classic is still amazing. Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, & Mark Goodman introduced everyone to the greatest pop/rock & R&B to ever grace a television set: Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, the late Michael Jackson, Stray Cats, Dire Straits, all those amazing other new wave & rock bands. Better yet, there were also the legends like the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart, Heart, Van Halen, and Yes that had innovative videos that made them cooler and bigger than they were already.
Unfortunately Mtv you disgust me. You don’t air videos. Sure, you air that crap you call the Jersey Shore or those whiny rich kids that dominate The Hills. All I can say is that you no longer deserve that “M” in your title, but rather an “S” – SuckTV because you are terrible. You don’t air videos anymore and when you do – they suck. Lady GaGa is horrible and a ripoff artist – remember Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons? Does her style not remind you of Lady Gaga? You have traded your originality for unoriginal, mindless, uninspiring entertainment. The last decent video you had in this century was a Taylor Swift video in which Kanye West interrupted her VMA speech for said video. Gone are the days of “You Better Run,” “Big Love,” “Money For Nothing,” “Take On Me,” and “Thriller.” Do the math.
So MTV I have some advice for you and I want you to listen very well: PLAY SOME VIDEOS! Do not play the Jersey Shore. I know thousands of people that would love you to do this.
If you know the Wild Heart well, you know that there is a few musical things that are important to her……..or at least she thinks is pretty interesting:
Stevie Nicks – heck she named the blog after her album The Wild Heart because, after all, it is a pretty good album.
all things classic rock/pop
God – well that one goes without saying
all things related to the 80’s – all inclusive on this one
record stores
Grooveshark – pretty groovy little music service introduced to me by my ex-boyfriend.
And lastly, the early days of a certain network that no longer lives up to its own name: MTV. Since it’s inception in 1981, one thing has changed vastly: technology. Remember the days where you would wait around the radio or the television to listen to your favorite song. I know I did it with pretty much any song by either LeAnn Rimes, Avalon (christian band), Point of Grace (another Christian band – think the christian equivalent of the Spice Girls), etc.
Well now no thanks to technology, iTunes and some amazing web developers who probably love music as much as I do, you can now listen to whatever song whenever you want.
Since I (and hopefully you) are a big fan of old skool MTV, I decided to make a playlist out of the 1st 24 hours of MTV. However, there are a few songs that we couldn’t find on Grooveshark right now. Songs like Iron Maiden by Iron Maiden, Little Suzi’s on the Up by PHD, In the Air Tonite by Phil Collins, Lucille, by Rockestra, Remote Control/Illegal by the Silencers, Hold On To The Night by Boot Camp, Victim by Boot Camp, Oh God I Wish I Was Home Tonite by Rod Stewart, Cruel You by the Shoes, Calling All Girls by Hilly Michaels, Let’s Go by the Cars, Riding Out the Storm by REO Speedwagon, I Don’t Want To Know by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, Kid Blue by Louise Goffin, In My Arms Again by the Shoes, and finally Victim by Bootcamp.
Good art stands the test of time. The 1980 version of Fame is one of those films that, as long as their are teenagers with dreams, will always stand the test of time. Couple that with the pre-MTV disco-tinged soundtrack, you have one excellent film.
The film follows a unique group of students at the New York Highschool for the Performing arts (currently known as LaGuardia Highschool) in the areas of drama, dance, and music. Starting with their auditions, we are introduced to these endearing characters. Little do we know, we are in for a rollercoaster of a time.
One of the best things about this film is that it is meant to be edgy. It was released in 1980 and covered such current hot-button issues like abortion, drug usage, and even GLBT issues. A scene that exemplifies this is when Ralph Garci wows the audience at Catch A Rising Star, but then is caught up in the downside of fame including drugs and alcohol.
It’s a cast of virtual unknowns but somehow it works.
This is perhaps the best representation of what it is like to go to a performing arts highschool.
Some days you just need to stick it to the man! This is a day that is like that for the Wild Heart for reasons unspecified.
So here it is folks: the 10 best songs that bring out the rebel in the wild heart – or at least the angry side! Even more funnier is the fact that some of these have been used in film!
1) We’re Not Gonna Take It – Twisted Sister. One thing that Twisted Sister did best was portraying rebellion of any kind. However their specialty was teenage rebellion. This rang true in their classic videos on MTV when they cast Mark Metcalf (best known for his role as the sadistic asshole that is ROTC leader Lt. Doug Niedermeyer in the John Landis classic National Lampoon’s Animal House. I must say this has to be a sequel to Animal House – even though it says at the end that Niedermeyer was shot by his own troops in Vietnam. Sadly I guess he survived.
2) Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears. If you have ever seen the film Real Genius with a very young (and handsome) Val Kilmer, you will know that this is the song that’s played at the end of the film. The film itself is about a group of Pacific Tech student scientists who are tricked into building a tracking device for a weapon. When they find out they were tricked, they exact a little revenge on the dean of students, Dr. Jerry Hathaway. Needless to say that due to his misdeeds (and felonies), he got what he deserved! On a more personal note, I had two of these in college. One was (I kid you not) a campus minister with the Baptist Student Ministry. Anyways, she would always act extremely rude to me and some of my friends. When I finally got the nerve to leave her group because of her sorry ass, she basically went from bad to worse: I joined another Christian group on campus and she tried to kick them out of the room (which the BSM owned) in the chapel at UH. She also asked friends of mine to leave the free lunch (which was open to the entire campus) that the BSM hosted just because my friend wanted another piece of pizza which they were throwing in the trash – why waste it? Thankfully she is no longer at that campus (they moved her to the UH Downtown campus) so its safe to say “good riddance” to her. The other one tried to falsely accuse me of something just to have me removed.
3) I Wanna Rock – Twisted Sister. If you ever had a mean teacher like this in highschool you can totally relate to this!! I did. She was my highschool algebra teacher
4) Invincible – Pat Benatar. According to Pat Benatar’s autobiography Between A Heart & A Rock Place, this was filmed shortly after the birth of her first child. In other words, her record label back then, Chrysalis, didn’t give her any sort of maternity leave because they were absolutely against her and her husband/guitarist Neil Giraldo having a baby. They thought it would ruin her sexy-rocker persona. One can only imagine that the bite in her vocals maybe was aimed at those snakes at Chrysalis.
5) You Better Run – Pat Benatar.
6) Land of Confusion – Genesis. Probably one of the most creative yet creepiest music videos ever made. The video drew much criticism for showing then-US president Ronald Reagan as stupid and out of touch with the rest of the world. The video came from the hit British television show Spitting Image. The funny thing is that some of the stuff rings true today especially when it comes to how the US dollar is pretty much in the toilet, the terrible state of the US economy
7) Volunteers – Jefferson Airplane. Lead singer Grace Slick definetly lived up to this song. She was friends with the likes of Abbie Hoffman and once tried to spike then-President Richard Nixon’s tea with 600 micrograms of LSD.
8) Crazy On You – Heart. Suprisingly enough, this is actually a protest song! According to the Wilson sisters, this is a song that was written in response to the war in Vietnam. At the time of writing, their boyfriends were draft-dogers living in Canada.
9) Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who. This was probably one of the best performances the Who ever did. It was after the horrible events of September 11, 2001 where 3 hijacked commercial airlines hit Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and a field in Shanksville, PA – the latter was thought to be headed towards the White House. This was part of the Concert For New York City at Madison Square Garden. In some ways, this was the Who, as British citizens, were maybe saying “we are with you. Kill those terrorist bastards!” The Who themselves have said that this was one of their best performances to date. 10 years later we caught and killed the mastermind behind all of the terror: Osama Bin Ladin.
10) Kerosene – Miranda Lambert. Word to the wise: don’t mess with Miranda Lambert!
This, to me is a bit of a mixed bag. Though I live in the US where we have free speech, I at the same time do not like for others to be hurt via hate speech. Period.
Now I will say this: I love the song Money For Nothing by Dire Straits. I am glad it is back on Canadian radio because I believe it is an overall good song that sort of mocks MTV. I am glad they are airing the censored version.
On the other hand, I am a bit anti-censorship. I maybe one of the few Christians that actually is this. I see it as this: censorship is a double-edged sword. If you give them one inch they will run a yard with it. They can use that double edged sword against anyone they want. Clear Channel did something like this shortly after 9/11 where they put out a list of songs that were suggested to not be played after the attacks.
Ultimately I think it should be up to the listener. If you don’t want to hear that song, turn off the radio.
That’s right everyone, Houston’s own Beyonce announced at the MTV VMA’s that she and husband Jay-Z are expecting their first child.
Exciting!
With that said I would like to make a song dedication to Beyonce and her husband. It’s from one of my favorite singers, who, upon recording this song and the subsequent album, found out she was pregnant.
Happy 30th birthday. I wish I could say that you’ve come along way baby. Who knows, maybe you have but is that a good thing?
Please play some videos!
When you started out, you were a burst of sheer amazingness. I wasn’t even born in 1981 and watching all the classic MTV stuff on YouTube & VH1 Classic is still amazing. Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, JJ Jackson, Martha Quinn, & Mark Goodman introduced everyone to the greatest pop/rock & R&B to ever grace a television set: Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, the late Michael Jackson, Stray Cats, Dire Straits, all those amazing other new wave & rock bands. Better yet, there were also the legends like the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart, Heart, Van Halen, and Yes that had innovative videos that made them cooler and bigger than they were already.
Unfortunately Mtv you disgust me. You don’t air videos. Sure, you air that crap you call the Jersey Shore or those whiny rich kids that dominate The Hills. All I can say is that you no longer deserve that “M” in your title, but rather an “S” – SuckTV because you are terrible. You don’t air videos anymore and when you do – they suck. Lady GaGa is horrible and a ripoff artist – remember Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons? Does her style not remind you of Lady Gaga? You have traded your originality for unoriginal, mindless, uninspiring entertainment. The last decent video you had in this century was a Taylor Swift video in which Kanye West interrupted her VMA speech for said video. Gone are the days of “You Better Run,” “Big Love,” “Money For Nothing,” “Take On Me,” and “Thriller.” Do the math.
So MTV I have some advice for you and I want you to listen very well: PLAY SOME VIDEOS! Do not play the Jersey Shore. I know thousands of people that would love you to do this.
the wildheart 