Gayle Fedele, who authors the always entertaining snapshot-of-life blog mom 3 crazy girls, has been a very good friend since our days as undergrads at the University of Richmond, where we became "big brother" and "little sister" to one another through my fraternity, KA. One of Gayle's most endearing qualities is her sometimes dry but often mischievous sense of humor, which is apparent in the exchange we had on Facebook regarding her *ahem* request:
As you can see by my closing admonition, I knew immediately that I would have to figure a way to appropriately respond to this request. I determined there to be only three possible ways to do so:
1. Do a completely straight NW4NW entry, completely ignoring the fact that neither band she asked for have anything remotely to do with New Wave or Punk. Now - confession time - I could do that for ABBA because I actually do like some of their songs: "S.O.S." is one of the catchiest songs ever written. Also, Agnetha and Frida's tendency towards miniskirts is a major plus for the band in my book. But, there is no way I could bring myself to write about Air Supply without tasting bile. Their wimpy soft-rock is, to me, the very antithesis of what music should be. I also imagined the backlash from other readers if I were to write a straightforward post about either band, and quickly decided this was not going to be an option.
2. Write up what appeared to be a straightforward NW4NW entry, but was actually a "rickroll." Don't ask me why, but I always thought the whole rickrolling meme was funny - you expect one thing, but instead get this awful, cheesy '80s video of one of the more insipid songs ever written, and hilarity ensues. But, rickrolling had its moment in the sun and is now kind of passé. If this were 2007, maybe I'd go with this option; since it's almost 2010, I voted against it.
3. Find appropriate cover versions of each band's songs to post, thereby filling Gayle's request while maintaining the integrity of the NW4NW series. Aha! Here was my out of this jam! I knew that there were plenty of excellent covers of ABBA tunes, but I didn't know if I'd be able to find any for Air Supply. As luck would have it, I did find an exceedingly rare Air Supply cover!
So, for my little sister, Gayle, I present the newest entries in NW4NW All Request Month: First, psychedelic power-pop punks Redd Kross covering ABBA's "Dancing Queen;" and then, very rare footage of Blondie performing Air Supply's "All Out of Love!" Hope you enjoy these, Gayle, and thanks for your request!
