Broadcast of Broken Dreams

The winner of the Invade Rage competition has been announced and, surprise surprise, it's not me. I didn't even come in as a runner-up. Dang.

Apparently they're going to have an evening where they'll play a selection of the songs that everyone submitted (apparently, there were around 4,000 entries). Maybe, just maybe, a song of mine will get on there, but I doubt it.

When Rage was running the 20-year retrospective specials (where they played music video highlights from the past 20-years over the course of a few weeks) I noticed how many of my song choices overlapped with theirs. At first I thought this might be a good sign, as it meant I'd picked Rage-centric songs. But then it occured to me that my choices might have been too obvious, and that everyone would be listing them.

I'll be very curious to see what the winner's list consists of.

But, in the meantime, here's the playlist I submitted, along with the required five rationales. They're as tragically unfunny as they are because I can never do "funny" on cue. You might have noticed ...

Anyways;

UNDERGROUND – Ben Folds Five
DO THE EVOLUTION – Pearl Jam
LIAR – Rollins Band
BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE – New Order
MAPS – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
FORGET HER – Jeff Buckley
DRY YOUR EYES – The Streets
RISE – Public Image Limited
TOUCHED – Vast
EXPRESS YOURSELF – NWA
SEXY MOTHERFUCKER – Prince
MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME – Nina Simone
GOIN’ OUT WEST – Tom Waits
UNDER THE MILKY WAY – The Church
ENTER SPACE CAPSULE – Gerling
SCIENCE IS GOLDEN – The Grates
JUDITH – A Perfect Circle
GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN – Johnny Cash
TRY TRY TRY – Smashing Pumpkins
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE – The Beatles

TOUCHED
Vast is a favourite band of mine, which makes it a bit unfortunate for me that the only song anyone seems to know them for is this one. I don’t mind too much, however, because as far as songs go, this is a really, really good one. With its belting acoustic guitar and memorable vocal sample, it’s a song that gets stuck in your head and lays its eggs there. I can’t remember much of the video beyond a bunch of hazy figures running around, so it’d be interesting to see it again and refresh the memory, which has been slipping ever since the aforementioned Vast egg infestation.

MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME
How can you not completely love a music video made by Aardman Animation for one of the best songs of all time? Horny claymation cats are the funniest thing ever! Period!

GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN
I didn’t think you could find a more perfect song or music video for an artist to leave his fans with than “Hurt” by Johnny Cash. With its powerful lyrics and heartbreaking video looking back over a massive career, it seemed the ultimate note to go out on. Then this song came out. Like “Forget Her” by Jeff Buckley (also on my list) this video serves as a loving tribute to an immensely talented and influential artist. It’s also got a blink-and-you-miss-it cavalcade of celebrity cameos, which leads to fun name-listing games. No, I’m not above trivial distraction.

TRY TRY TRY
I’m a huge fan of the Smashing Pumpkins; they’re the band that really solidified my love of music. People more or less stopped caring for them around the time “Adore” was released, but being an obsessive geek means you can’t give up on your favourite band, no matter how obscure or irrelevant or mixed-with-too-much-distortion they may become. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this video played on Rage, so I figured I’d take a shot and see if I could get it aired. Wish me luck!

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
It might be a bit of a cliché, or a little obvious, but I thought the song the Beatles wrote for the first live international transmission would be a great note to leave things on. It’s amazing how, in under four minutes, this song has more emotional and musical depth to it than most bands manage to produce in their entire careers. The video is especially cool not just for its historic significance, but also because you can spot Mick Jagger singing along in the audience.

I’d just finally like to say a big thanks for running this competition. I imagine just about everyone has said how programming Rage has been a dream of theirs for a long time, and I’d just like to completely fall in line by saying the same. Given that I have absolutely no musical talent, however, meant that I pretty much had to give up the dream. With this chance, though, I hope to propel myself into the welcoming breast of music video programming history, to be remembered amongst all the greats in the field whose names completely escape me now.

And that's the end of that chapter ...