American Top 40, May, 1977

It's a very-rare 4-day weekend for me, so I actually had time to listen to some Casey (recorded via Dar.fm).  It's strange listening to this stuff, mostly because the bulk of this music never really left the radio. But there's always a song or two that I distinctly remember not remembering. And it's interesting for me to see what my now-refined musical palate thinks of the stuff I listened to as a teen. I didn't make note of exactly what week this show was from (but it was the week that Barry Manilow had his "third Number One hit," "Looks Like We Made It").  As usual, I skipped over about half the songs, including the aforementioned. The few notable songs from the playlist:

Slave, "Slide". Slave was a funk band from Ohio that I had never heard of. Their hit from that week, "Slide," sounds as solid as any funk song from that seminal period, and I can't believe that it was not more of a crossover. I don't remember hearing this song, ever.  I've added it to my Amazon Prime funk playlist. Thank you, Casey, for that one.

Another song that caught my ear was the one-hit wonder, "Ariel," by Dean Friedman. There's a sort of Billy Joel vibe going with this hippy-dippy song that could only have come from this decade. (Billy Joel has lately been critically reevaluated, though not entirely redeemed.)

My recording of this show included the "musical extra" of "Boogie Nights," by Heatwave, one of my fav tracks of the decade. (In the '80s or '90s I bought a white-label promo 45 with an extended mix.)

Honorary mention: "Smoke From A Distant Fire" from the Sanford-Townsend Band. I was too young to truly appreciate the lyrical nuance of that song in 1977, though it perfectly resonates now.

(There was also a Helen Reddy song in the countdown. I don't remember the name of it, and I mention it solely because I mistakenly thought that it was a Toni Tennille song that I'd never heard, which would indeed be a surprise. I've always quite liked Toni Tennille, for reasons I can't fully articulate.)

Insomnia compels me to offer an opinion of Nicki Minaj's video Only

First, I don't really know who Nicki Minaj is, aside from a few photographs I've seen of her in the celebrity news sections, wearing various outfits. But I'll go out on a limb and guess that she's a hip-hop artist. Contemporary hip-hop isn't my bag, and not for want of trying to make it so. I sampled Kanye's "Yeesus" a while back and found it unlistenable--noise, really.  (To be perfectly fair, I'm not hip to Taylor Swift, either.)  I keep wanting it to be like the golden-age stuff that turned my ears around in the early '90's, but, like trying to bring back the Beatles like we did in the '70s, it ain't happening.

So I'm biased. Still, I was prepared to be impressed with "Only."  I can somewhat dig that Minaj is trying to make a provocative statement by donning Nazi-esque imagery in her video (assuming that she's the one behind such a novel artistic move). On a strictly visual level, she succeeds. By evoking scratchy newsreel footage that pans through a mechanistic landscape of washed-out reds and grays, I can almost see it. Visually, it's quite impressive.

It's when her "lyrics" start rolling across the screen that she loses me. I'd quote them, but I'd have to up the safety level of my blog. And since they're plastered across the screen, I can't just turn off the sound and dig her freaky scene. They are a grotesque parody of the lowest hip-hop stereotypes that we've fallen to in--whatever this wasteland of a decade is called. (The Teens?) No narrative flow, no "story"-- just rants about activities that, in earlier days, would likely get you arrested in Boise and a number of other jurisdictions.

I can only recommend that Nicki dig out some Leni Riefenstahl next time (preferably in the original German) to get this done right. There's art, potentially, there, but I'm not feeling it.  (I'm tempted to recommend that she put on some Tribe to hear some REAL hip-hop, but I know that ain't happening, either.)

Update: Minaj disclaims any credit for the video's composition. The video's director, Jeff Osbourne, explains (Billboard):

First, I'm not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism.

But a majority of the recognizable models/symbols are American: MQ9 Reaper Drone, F22 Raptor, Sidewinder missile, security cameras, M60, SWAT uniform, General's uniform, the Supreme court, and the Lincoln Memorial. What's also American is the 1st Amendment, which I've unexpectedly succeeded in showing how we willfully squeeze ourselves out of that right every day.

I think that what Osbourne is trying to say is that he drew a deliberate analogy between symbols of Nazism and American militarism, as a way of highlighting the abuse of power in the latter, in a way that would not be automatically assumed by many Americans, particularly here (where I live, in a deep red state). Certainly something to ponder today, Veterans Day.

It still don't match the lyrics, tho.