Matthew Rutledge » 1979

Far beyond our halloween

Matthew Rutledge — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:13:39 +0000

Oooh, oooh, somebody waits for me…

Japan — Halloween (1979)

Here Comes A Saturday

Matthew Rutledge — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:29:30 +0000

For the first Saturday of a new year (and new decade, as well), I give you a song from 3 decades prior, in 1979. Yet it is just as relevant and just as lovely as ever.

Cowboys International — Here Comes A Saturday (1979)

Direct connection

Matthew Rutledge — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:44:25 +0000

While the previous video was more of an internal self-promotion video for WFAA in Dallas, this video was a major ad campaign used during junctions and station breaks for Philadelphia’s KYW-TV. It is simply stunning — these promos have a futuristic, whimsical, avant-garde tenor paired with a bit of psychedelia. It might be the closest TV ever came to producing something obviously influenced by cocaine.

Click to play:

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Trudy Haynes is my favorite. “I’m your direct connection… to the grapevine.” But I love it all — the weird sunny/rainy/lightning bolts over Philadelphia City Hall, the dramatic electronics from the stock ticker and meterological equipment, the “Whoo!‘s” from the electro-disco sound track, it’s all fantastic.

PS: I have written a blog post about this before, but the clip keeps on disappearing from Youtube. This time, I snagged a copy of my own so that it won’t happen again. (All copyrights respective of their owners, this is for educational purposes only.)

Dumb waiters

Matthew Rutledge — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:10:11 +0000

Isn’t this album cover pop art at its finest?

And while I wouldn’t say the album’s contents itself are perfect, it has a brilliant production value that is something akin to the Beatles and Spector in the synthpop age. Listen to “Perfect Hostess”, for example:

The Korgis — Perfect Hostess

Greg Vandike

Matthew Rutledge — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:13:54 +0000

One of my few ‘hipster cred’ indulgences is courtesy of last.fm, when you find that your very own screen name is listed as one of the ‘top listeners’. And I’m not talking some mainstream band, I’m talking about something or someone like Greg Vandike, who is all but forgotten by almost everyone.

See! Here I am!

Greg Vandike only released a few singles, and none of them went anywhere (the only one that even kind of went somewhere was “Clone” from 1979, and all it seems to do is appear on equally obscure compilations of new wave music.) However, they rank in my own assessment as some of the finest undiscovered pop gems — Mr. Vandike simply must have not been well connected, because I think they beat the pants off of the comtemporary efforts of a shrill, angry Gary Numan. The lyrics are quite inventive and at times extremely endearing, especially in his song “Marie Celeste”. The lyrics are a series of metaphors related to boats and the sea in general, as it relates to a relationship with a girl. It feels like an inspired mix of John Foxx and Squeeze. When the “water water everywhere” stanza of “Marie Celeste” kicks in, the song reaches a level of greatness that makes you wonder why this wasn’t a hit.

click to play: Greg Vandike — Marie Celeste

Or why anything else he released wasn’t a hit. After a few more singles (some of which I own, some of which I am still trying to find), his success in releasing music commercially ceased. Little else is known about him other than that he’s from Plymouth in Devon and is related to a musical family which included his mother June Marlow, who sang the jingle for a “Fry’s Turkish Delight” advert.

He died unexpectedly in March 2007, too, just a few months before I had discovered his music. His Myspace profile remains stuck in time and a reminder of how the internet, and recorded media in general, leaves behind a fairly haunting reminder of past existence. I am not much of a believer in heaven or hell, but I wonder if Greg would have thought in a million years that people from across the world would still be enjoying what he made even after his death, singles seemingly left to rot in obscurity?

Obscurity, thankfully, does not mean total oblivion. He will be remembered, even if by a few.

Oh Kato b/w holiday in the middle of the week

Matthew Rutledge — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:45:29 +0000

Boys keep swinging

Matthew Rutledge — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:30:07 +0000

When you’re a boy
you can wear uniforms
When you’re a boy
other boys check you out

I’m your direct connection … to the boob tube.

Matthew Rutledge — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:46:52 +0000

What I am about to show you is brilliant, in and of itself. It manages to make Philadelphia seem like one gigantic fire hydrant set loose, this weird combination of hip, informed, dramatic and coy at the same time.

However, this is just the song KYW-TV used for their Direct Connection promo spots, which aired from 1979–1980. The background images are the same ones used during the actual commercials, but the footage of the commercials themselves have been taken off of Youtube. So I snagged this for myself, in case it were to be removed like the promos themselves. I am keeping it for cultural exposure if nothing else.

Imagine the following mixed with news reporters stating such directly connected, cocaine-fueled promises as: “I’m your direct connection — to the I-TEAM.” Or: “I’m your direct connection … to the grapevine.” (The best line of all.)

This may be one of the only TV promo jingles that would have been considered hip and par for the course in a 1979 dance club. It has the pulsing Moroder-esque beat that never gets old, with only occasional interludes of strings, interrupted by a whimsical “Whoo!”

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