There come times in the pop culture universe where an item is so solidly packed with cheese, befuddlement, and WTF? moments that it falls in upon itself, spiraling into a wormhole in the space-time continuum, and emerging out the other side as something incredibly awesome. It is hard to define: like pornography, you (a) know it when you see it, and (b) may feel the need to wantonly pleasure yourself because of it. This new series gives examples of these mind-blowing moments. And who better kick off this series than….country legend Ronnie Milsap?
As previously mentioned in Part 60 of Dave Steed’s awesome Popdose series “Bottom Feeders: the Ass End of the ’80s,” Ronnie Milsap’s “She Loves My Car” was an excellent little 1984 ditty that was his only single not promoted to country radio in his career. A blatant attempt at crossover chart success, the song only peaked at #84 on Billboard’s Hot 100, but I couldn’t tell in Los Angeles: they played the HELL out of this song on local Top 40 station KIIS FM, probably because the video was set in Los Angeles. And the video…oh man! That’s the reason why we’re here today. This is a big slab of shameless 1980s cheese, slathered in dated pop culture references and blended until insane. And yet, somehow the end result is much, much more than just the sum of its parts — so much more that I told the head of our little consortium (Jeff Giles, y’all) that we needed more than just Captain Video to deconstruct its magnificence: We needed a whole new series. And like a funky Picard, the man said “make it so.” And with that, we commence: (more…)
