Vintage Christian rocker Larry Norman died on Sunday morning, February 24, aged 60. What a loss! Larry was a statesman for Christian rock and folk music.
I remember picking up his records in a store back in 1977 (Upon This Rock, Only Visiting This Planet, and So Long Ago The Garden, In Another Land) and being encouraged that there was a bridge between the sacred music culture of my parents’ generation and the emerging popular culture of my own generation. Larry, with his colleagues, sang and talked about real things in their concerts and albums. I went to Larry’s concert in Dunedin as a teenager in the late 1970s. I was deeply impressed by Larry’s commitment to helping Christians improve their attitudes towards each other and the world. Larry was copping a lot of flack from the conservative wing of the church for his use of rock music. His perseverance gave courage to many of us who were struggling to perform in new musical genres as Christians.
Larry Norman Songs in my blood
I Wish We’d All Been Ready - a song for a rapture-obsessed generation
Why Should the Devil Have All The Good Music? - a response to criticism of Christian rock music
Why Don’t you Look Into Jesus? - evangelism meets rock music
The Rock That Doesn’t Roll - ditto
I am a servant - ego on the line for God
U.F.O. - thinking beyond this planet
Neil Finn, Nick Seymour and Mark Hart have joined up with drummer Matt Sherrod to reform Crowded House, almost two years after the death of former drummer Paul Hester, and over ten years since the band last played in concert. The new lineup is working on a new studio album is planning a world tour.
Talking about the decision Neil said “After spending most of last year making music and hanging out with my friend Nick Seymour we are now announcing our intention to reform Crowded House with a new record entitled Time On Earth. It feels right to us that the band should re-emerge at this time and together with Mark Hart we look forward to reconnecting with the audience that we established and for whom we still hold a deep respect. We aim to make the upcoming shows and the new music every bit as vital and spirited as what has come before. We are conscious that Paul Hester was above all a great drummer and we are currently auditioning to find someone special to take that role.”
The band is currently putting the finishing touches on the new album for release later in the year. Tour plans are yet to be announced but the band have confirmed they will play the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California USA along with Bjork, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Rage Against the Machine.
This Saturday 17th March, the band will be performing new tracks and old favorites for a special live interactive webcast at 10pm GMT (3.00pm Los Angeles, 9.00am Sunday Sydney, 10.00am Sunday NZ), through www.crowdedhouseofficial.com. The band will take time during the performance to read out comments and answer questions from you.
Crowded House is making it possible for a few people to attend the webcast, live in Bath, England. You must be able to make your own way there and back. No accommodation will be provided.
My favourite album came in first: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”. I first heard the album at high school in 1975. The music teacher was into jazz rock fusion and progressive rock. I was part of a team integrating classical, jazz and rock music with synthesized sounds and light shows. It wasn’t long before I knew every song from “Dark Side to the Moon” back to front. At the age of 16 I decided to ditch the album - I was becoming prone to depression and Pink Floyd’s cynical take on life wasn’t helping. I made up for that choice a few years later, when I was more emotionally stable, by purchasing the album in vinyl and again on CD. “Wish You Were Here” came in at number 11, “The Wall” at 14.
The second from the top in Australia was Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” album, which my kids bought me for Christmas last year. Buckley certainly has an amazing vocal range which makes his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” a masterpiece. Dicko, (Ian Dickson) as a member of ABC commentary panel, suggested that it was only Buckley’s covers that were attractive. His own music was fairly ordinary, Dicko said. Perhaps it was Buckley’s concert appearances in Australia (which I missed) that made him so popular here. Having listened to the album a few times I think I agree.
Radiohead’s “OK Computer” album was third from the top. Obviously the competition was pushed on Triple J Radio, leading to a high percentage of alternative music listeners in the poll. The album is a divisive force in this household. One member of the family is right into it. I enjoy the music in occasional doses. Others are becoming irritated by whining tone of the music. We won’t mention anything about Poms. “The Bends” came in at 15, “Kid A” at 35.
The Beatles two albums, “Abbey Road” and “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” made it to number four and five. I have to admit I’ve never owned “Abbey Road”, despite being in a Beatles cover band as a teenager. Listening to the album for the first time last week was a great experience. “White Album” came in at 12, “Revolver” at 13, “Rubber Soul” at 36.
U2’s “The Joshua Tree” came in at number 10. I bought the album on vinyl in 1987 while living in Katikati. It’s the album that introduced “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, a song used by critics as evidence that U2 had left Christianity behind. At a conference in the early 1990s I used the song with a Biblical passage, Romans 8:22, in which it is clear that we live in anticipation of our potential as God’s world. We haven’t made it yet. We don’t have the full picture, even if some Christians think they’ve got truth cornered. U2 also came in with “Achtung Baby” at 33, “Rattle and Hum” at 79. I was surprised that “War” didn’t make it in the top 100.
Coexistence was one of the highlights of the U2 Vertigo concert I attended in Brisbane. Bono wore a headband with the word “Coexist”, and the word “Coexist” appeared in the light show, during songs such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday”.
The “Coexist” symbol incorporates the crescent of Islam as the C, the cross of Christianity as the T, and the Jewish Star of David as the X in the middle. Bono referred to this symbol as he sang, “Jesus, Jew, Muhammad, it’s true…All sons of Abraham. Father Abraham, speak to your sons. Tell them, No more!”
Bono first saw the “Coexist” symbol painted as grafitti on a wall in Chicago. The origins of the icon come from Poland in 2001 where graphic designer Piotr Mlodozeniec entered it in an international art competion run by the Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem. The symbol was registered as a trademark by an Indiana-based t-shirt company in 2005, unaware of its origins. See the lifestyle brand at coexistonline.com
Apparently U2 still have the challenge of working out an agreement that will acknowledge Mlodozeniec as the artist and Museum on the Seam as the copyright holder. I wonder if Coexist still believe they have a strong foothold on the financial gains associated with the symbol.
[eminimall products="coexist"]
The Project Abraham forum on peacemaking on the Gold Coast back on the 12th of November. It became a powerful carrier of meaning for the Jews, Muslims and Christians searching together for a way to live out a life of positive engagement in life, together.
Auckland - was March 17 - now November 24
Auckland - was March 18 - now November 25
Brisbane - was March 21 - now November 7
Melbourne - was March 24 - now November 18
Melbourne - was March 25 - now November 19
Adelaide - was March 28 - now November 16
Sydney - was March 31 - now November 10
Sydney - was April 1 - now November 11
Forever Young, covered by Sydney band, Youth Group, is an intergenerational text that provides opportunities to explore faith in everyday language of popular culture.
The music video, released this year, shows teenage skateboarders taking part in a contest at the Coca Cola factory at Frenches Forest, Sydney Australia, footage originally shown on Australian youth show GTK (Get To Know) in 1975.
You can see the music video on RAGE, the Australian ABC’s equivalent of MTV on Saturday and Sunday mornings. More people see the video on YouTube.
What’s made the track so popular? The Youth Group recorded “Forever Young” for the third series of The O.C., a music-saturated teen US television drama series, and suddenly found themselves with an international hit, published around the world on The O.C. Mix 5 and now as an EP, Forever Young.
The original song, written by Marian Gold, performed by German synth band Alphaville in 1982 and re-released on the 1989 CD, Forever Young, picked up the uncertainty experienced by Gen X teenagers as they faced a world in danger of nuclear holocaust.
Let’s dance in style,
let’s dance for a while.
Heaven can wait,
we’re only watching the sky,
Hoping for the best
but expecting the worst.
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Let us die young
or let us live forever.
Forever young,
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever,
forever, forever?
As I watch this video and listen to the song with my family and friends, I’ll be exploring questions relating to youth, aging and hopes for the future. I’ll be inviting Gen Xers to talk about their experiences of youth in the 1970s and 1980s, along with the realities of their lives now. In turn, teenagers will have their unique perspectives on the world of the twenty first century and what it might mean to become adults with a future.
The conversation could be rounded out with a reference to Bob Dylan’s 1973 song, “Forever Young”, first recorded on Planet Waves. It would be good to hear from people who despite their physical limitations can look back at their lives saying they’ve grown up to be true, courageous, upright and strong, living with joyful hearts, forever young.
Having explored the songs and video, it’s time to introduce a new intergenerational text for conversation, Ecclesiastes 12:1-2, paraphrased here in The Message.
Honour and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young,
Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes,
Before your vision dims and the world blurs
And the winter years keep you close to the fire.
I’ve just sent out an update for Duncan’s TV Ad Land. It’s a monthly post of what should have been four weekly posts. Never mind.
Duncans TV Site Development
Posts now have words rather than numbers in the permalinks. It took a few days to get this right. I discovered that I really do need to have a date in the title to avoid mucking up RSS feeds.
All RSS subscriptions now are channeled through my Feedburner account, which gives users capacity to email, add to del.icio.us and submit to Digg. At last count there are 133 RSS subscribers.
I’ve added a favicon to the site - which means that in most browsers there’s a little television beside the title of each page.
I’ve started adding Technorati tags - though they’re invisible in the posts.
I’ve added a page of links to advertising agencies, under ‘About This Site’. More to come on production, edting, post production and sound/music companies.
You’ll notice that more recently every third ad has been connected with the FIFA World Cup. I’ve placed an asterisk beside those spots. The top search engine on Duncan’s TV works perfectly if you want to find these spots.
April
Mercedes Sound of Summer
Adidas Hello Tomorrow
Nicorette No Gary No (AU)
Subaru Impreza Numbers (AU)
Budweiser Stadium Wave
May
Duncan Yo Yos - Throw Duncan
Global Warming - Tick, Train
Inghams Chicken - Swearing Mum (AU)
Carlsberg - Old Lions *
Ford Courier -� Barbecue (AU)
Virgin Mobile Russell (AU)
Finnish Finishing Sauce (AU & NZ)
Starburst - Party (AU & NZ)
Assistance Dogs - Pick up the Phone (AU)
TLC - Life Lessons
Toyota Prado - Ice Sculptures (AU)
Quit Smoking - Gangrene Amputation (AU)
Amoisonic Mobile - Phone Reincarnation
Red Meat - Evolution with Sam Neill (AU)
Adidas Adicolor Pink
Lamb Fragrance (AU)
Adidas Adicolor Green
Jaguar - Gorgeous
Bud Light - Secret Fridge
Nike Football - Joga Bonito *
Sydney Anglicans - Challenging the Da Vinci Code (AU)
Honda Fit
Virgin Mobile Exciting Ad with Russell (AU)
Squeezy Marmite - Man with broken Arm & Mother with Baby sick of Marmite-flavoured milk
Adidas +50 TUNIT Modular Man *
Suncorp Bank/Insurance sponsors Skin Cancer research with Aint No Sunshine (AU)
BNZ - Piggy Banks (NZ)
Adidas -� Football Recruitment *
Peugeot 207 - Ladybird and Firefly
March of the Penguins and too spoofs
Coca Cola Argentina Football stop motion ads *
Libra Tampon - The Comparison (AU)
Burger King - Kiwis Love Eggs (NZ)
Sure Deodorant - Wild Animals *
Apple - Get a Mac with John Hodgson and Justin Long
IKEA - Moo Cow Milker
ESPN World Cup Soccer - C�te d’Ivoire, Tartan Army, Sick Days, Anthem *
Pineapple Lumps - Sweet As (NZ)
Absolut - Cut the Crap (AU)
BBC - FIFA World Cup Imagination *
Boots Sun Shop - Summer Rush
June
American Express - Kate Winslet
Nike - Juggle Chain *
Geico Gecko - New Voiceover
National Bank Student Life (AU)
Christ Jesus - What A Ripper combination (AU)
Subaru Impreza Accelerated (AU)
Carlton Draught - Worth It and Deep Cleansing Formula (AU)
Dictators Wearing Fur
Adidas Oliver Kahn Bridge
Please excuse the lack of recent posts. I’ve set up my own domain, duncans.tv to host Duncan’s TV Adland and Music Videos. Transferring material from Blogspot.com to Wordpress was a breeze with the right plugin. However there’s a bit of time involved in resetting the images (adding class=”alignright” to the code and putting in alternative text) and setting the categories for each post. On top of that I’ve been resetting the indexes.
I’ve put posts from the Adland and Music Video blogs into the one site, separating them with categories. There are 283 posts in total. I’ve got 102 left to adjust.
Recently I purchased Singstar Party for the birthday of one of my daughters. That was to supplement Singstar Pop that she’d bought for her brother’s birthday! It’s been a noisy weekend here as we’ve had a pre-teen girl’s get together, supplemented by late teenagers and adults trying out for the karaoke high scores. I must admit I’m not that crash hot at the Playstation game. Perhaps with a bit of practice…
Playstation News came through today with the announcement of Singstar Rocks! - coming out in April.
The thirty songs include material by Blur, Bowling for Soup, The Cardigans, The Church, Coldplay, Deep Purple, Dragon, End of Fashion, The Exponents, Franz Ferdinand, GANGgajang, Grinspoon, Gwen Stefani, Hole, INXS, Jet, The Killers, Killing Heidi, Men At Work, Nirvana, The Offspring, Powderfinger, Rolling Stones, Scorpions, The Screaming Jets, Stereophonics, The Swingers, Thin Lizzy, and The Veronicas.
Bono appeared in an interview with Andrew Denton on ‘Enough Rope’ last night, giving us a glimpse into the agony behind the postponement of the Australia/NZ leg of the Vertigo Tour. He gave us an indication that the band is likely to return in November. An announcement is due from Michael Coppel today.
In the meantime Michael Coppel has an announcement on deals with airlines in the wake of the concert cancellations. Yesterday was the deadline for waived cancellation fees with Qantas and Virgin Blue.
The transcript from the Andrew Denton interview is available here. TVNZ has a 2 minute clip of the interview here.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
The music video, released this year, shows teenage skateboarders taking part in a contest at the Coca Cola factory at Frenches Forest, Sydney Australia, footage originally shown on Australian youth show GTK (Get To Know) in 1975.
Let’s dance in style,
