Happy Music Monday! Today Scott celebrates the sound of the montage. Set your eyes on your goal and get ready to jump forward weeks at a time as you become a better person... thanks to the power of THE MONTAGE! Here we go...
Frank Stallone - Far From Over
Staying Alive didn't really go down in history as a great movie, but it DID spawn one of the best montage songs the world has ever seen. A string of non-committal cliches, ribbons of synth explosions, a reasonably fast-paced guitar solo and music that feels complex while still remaining unchallenging to the listener. When you're done it feels like you've progressed somehow. And yet, you've never moved. MONTAGE!
We got four more! If they take some time to load maybe montage your way through the wait.
Here's a great example of a montage. Why? Because you almost certainly knew this song but had no idea who was actually singing it. Maybe it had something to do with how this song hit the charts just as MTV was being born... and this is not really a band that's made for visuals. Sleeveless shirts were not made for hairy shoulders, Michael Sembello.
Glen Frye - You Belong To The City
I remember listening to this song in a car with my best friend, both of us wearing sunglasses as we drove around at night. This wasn't really atypical for that year. We were dumb kids in a small town, but for that one moment, we were sure we were super super cool, because we had the right music in the cassette player. Not quite sure how we didn't die. Possibly we just montaged right around it.
What you're looking at here is the granddaddy of montage songs. If you're at the mall and this song starts playing, look around and you'll see a few tough guys pretending they're in a montage. If you're watching a comedy and they need to skip ahead, this will be what inspires their song. This song montages so hard it inspired a reference that continues TO THIS DAY in every English speaking country. Except for one, this is the king of all montages. What's better, you ask? Oh, baby. Here it comes.
Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out
FACT: this song is for a Stallone movie. FACT: it's a high-energy proto-goth beat under some serious guitars that was kind of ahead of it's time. FACT: a few times you can't actually understand what Robert Tepper is singing because he's so into the rock. FACT: the video looks a bit like a drunk guy broke onto a sound stage to make his own demo reel. FACT: by the end of it he might as well be yelling YAA YAA YAA YAA YAA YAA while playing guitar because it's just descended into utter brilliant madness. And you're so busy being amazed you don't even know that four minutes have passed. See? THE IDEAL MONTAGE!
Let us just remind you: some images come from the corresponding Wikipedia page and are here under fair use. See you next week.