Not today.
In the comments on a recent thread on Duran Duran‘s As-It-Was-Meant-to-Sound cover of Lou Reed‘s “Perfect Day,” Townsman BigSteve suggested the following bold motion:
There really needs to be a worldwide moratorium on Perfect Day for a while. Good song, but enough, people.
We the Townspeople of Rock Town Hall—or at least yours truly—wholeheartedly support this motion. Musicians from around the world, please do your part today by not covering that song until further notice. Thank you.
We’re not going to speculate on why Townsman andyr was watching this clip in the first place, but at the 6:43 mark our friend Lou Reed bestows his highest honor on Duran Duran for their version of “Perfect Day.” Sweet!
(WARNING: This video contains multiple cuts to headless guitars.)
Hey, gang!
What’s the most boring, frustrating video game in the world? Lou Reed knows!
What if someone made a game that required players to drive from Tucson, AZ to Las Vegas, NV in a bus? What if they had to make the 400 mile, 8 hour journey in real time, and what if the bus really, really needed an alignment—so you couldn’t just hold down the accelerator pedal with a piece of tape while you went to sleep?
And what if your reward for all of this arduous, tedious work was exactly one point? What the hell kind of game would that be? And why the hell would anyone play it?
Such a “game” does in fact exist. It’s a sub-chapter of a never-released video game designed by magicians Penn & Teller, which also (in a different, “impossible-level” chapter, seen above) features Lou Reed in full 1980s Jheri Curl glory.
A group of incredibly generous masochists at LoadingReadyRun have decided to donate many, many miserable hours of their time to playing this game—but only if sadistic “sponsors” step up and pay them to do it. Last year, the group raised more than $140,000 for Child’s Play, a groovy charity that helps kids have as much fun as possible when they’re stuck in the hospital.
The more (tax-deductible!) donations viewers make to Child’s Play through DesertBus.org, the longer LoadingReadyRun must drive the desert bus.
I’m posting this because it’s a cool cause that a company I consult for is sponsoring—and because you might want to head out to http://www.desertbus.org to offer up a few dollars in support of a worthy cause.
Just remember: Difficult is wining the Nobel Prize. Impossible is eating the sun.
Thank you for your time.
HVB
What’s up with Lou’s Look in this poetry reading? And what’s going through the mind of the woman up front, in the bottom left corner of the screen when the camera is looking out into the audience? Other than the thoughtful hand placed at chin with forefinger pointed over the lips, what are the appropriate options for facial reactions by audience members while taking in a rocker’s poetry reading?
He’s gonna do it ’til he don’t like it.
I take it that Peter Gabriel covered this song on his recent album of cover songs, called I’ll Kiss Your Ass If You Kiss Mine, or something like that.
As one of the YouTube commentators said:
Please remember that Peter’s version would not EXIST without Lou’s vision and that Peter was INSPIRED by Lou to create his masterpiece.
However, that doesn’t mean you should disregard another commentator’s words:
This version sucks big time. I know he wrote it, so I give him credit. But seriously, this sounds horrible – like something William Shatner would sing. Peter Gabriel took it to a whole new level and Lou Reed’s version just sounds awful by comparison.
Whaddayaknow, here’s Peter performing the song live. Continue reading »
Make sure you get to the 37-second mark…and keep a barf bag or bucket within arm’s reach.
