Posts Tagged ‘Rick Springfield’

One Day in Your Life: November 18, 1984

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November 18, 1984, is a Sunday. By Congressional resolution, it’s the first day of National Family Week. The New York Times publishes several articles about Baby Fae, the anonymous child who died last Thursday after living 20 days with the transplanted heart of a baboon. The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub tops the Times bestseller list for fiction; Iacocca: An Autobiography, by former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca ,leads the nonfiction list. Future Avenged Sevenfold bassist Johnny Christ is born, although his parents name him Jonathan Lewis Seward. The Chuck Norris film Missing in Action tops the weekend box office. The New York City Opera’s production of Sweeney Todd closes after 13 performances.

In the National Football League, the Miami Dolphins suffer their first loss of the season to San Diego, 34-28. The San Francisco 49ers are also 11-and-1 after a 24-17 win over Tampa Bay. Tim Lewis of the Green Bay Packers sets a team record with a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown in a 31-6 win over the Los Angeles Rams. Geoff Bodine wins the final NASCAR race of the season, but Terry Labonte wins the Winston Cup championship. (more…)

Sugar Water: Adieu, “Water” Lou

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A nation mourned Wednesday night, as CNN’s Lou Dobbs, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration, announced his retirement from the network. Though it’s still unclear which nation is in mourning, experts have conclusively ruled out Mexico.

According to the Associated Press, the controversial newsman “angered CNN management this summer by pressing questions about President Obama’s birth site after CNN reporters determined there was no issue.”

I myself was skeptical of the president’s birthplace until he drank a domestic beer — Bud Light — at the July 30 “beer summit.” Then I remembered that Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Bud Light, sold their company last year to InBev, a Belgian company. Thanks to CNN’s shortsightedness, we may never find out if InBev is secretly run by Kenyan expatriates.

This isn’t the first time Dobbs has left CNN. He was one of its original anchors back in 1980 when it debuted, overseeing financial news and hosting Moneyline. But in April of ‘99, after being reprimanded by the network’s then-president, Rick Kaplan, for cutting away from a speech by President Bill Clinton on the Columbine shootings, Dobbs announced that he was departing CNN, saying he wanted to focus on a new website he’d founded, Space.com, because in space no one can hear you call your boss an idiot.

(I was working at CNN in a bottom-rung position back in 1999, and I would bet money that Kaplan’s voice, which combined the omnipotence of God with the volume of a T. Rex, can be heard in space. If I remember correctly, he was also nine feet tall.)

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Song-Off Jr.: Mail-Order Products

Pufferfish – “Decoder Ring”

Guster – “X-Ray Eyes”

Fred Wilhelm – “Sea Monkeys”

Harry Chapin – “Mail Order Annie (Live)”

Rick Springfield – “What’s Victoria’s Secret?”

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What did you send away for?

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Last week Catherine Wheel spilled the guts of Iron Maiden as “Show Me Mary” took home 70 percent of the votes. Curiously, as commenter Andrew T pointed out, Catherine Wheel’s frontman, Rob Dickinson, is the cousin of Iron Maiden’s frontman, Bruce Dickinson. Join us again next week as we celebrate the arrival of summer with songs about ice cream flavors of limited availability.

Popdose Interview: Rick Springfield

Rick Springfield looks like this at age 57Rick Springfield is getting something of a career re-boot this week. Twenty-seven years after “Jessie’s Girl” and the Working Class Dog album made him one of the ’80s’ first superstars, Springfield is ubiquitous once again – if only for a few days: Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kelly, Fox and Friends, Nightline on Friday evening. He even returned to his old haunting grounds on the General Hospital set, singing his new single “What’s Victoria’s Secret?” in the guise of aging rocker Eli Love. (See, Love is a doppelganger for Springfield’s classic character, Dr. Noah Drake, who one time had to fill in when Eli … oh, never mind.)

All this renewed attention accompanies Springfield’s fine new album, Venus in Overdrive. It’s his first for the New Door label, which has built a roster of “heritage” artists that’s beginning to look like a Behind the Music episode guide. In Springfield’s case, New Door has exhibited a knack for exploiting pre-existing name recognition and for coaxing familiar-yet-fresh music from an artist who has seemingly done it all before. The title track is a song Chris Daughtry might wish he’d written, while “What’s Victoria’s Secret?” feels like 1981 again, but in a good way, reminding us why “I’ve Done Everything for You” and “I Get Excited” were such terrific power-pop (while not-so-subtly echoing the guitar riff that helped drive “Jessie’s Girl” to the top).

Popdose caught up with Springfield on Tuesday, shortly after his appearance with Reege.

Did the show go well this morning?
I don’t know! I’m the last person to ask. I never have any idea how I come off on TV. They tell me it was fine, so I just take their word for it and go on to the next thing.

So, listen, Rick: Some screaming girl I didn’t even know dug her fingernails into my forearm during one of your concerts in 1982. I still have the scar.
Oh, man. (Laughing) You’re not gonna sue me, are you?

No, but I would like an apology.
Oh, I don’t know. I think there’s a statute of limitations on those sorts of things, isn’t there? So… (assuming voice of Nelson from The Simpsons) Ha-ha! (more…)