Still sane... You may think you're crossing the line... Still sane... You may think you're losing your mind

Well Worth a Listen

“Still Sane”, by Carolyn Mas (1979)

In the same vein as “Hold Your Head Up” by Argent or “Don’t Let is Show” by the Alan Parsons Project, “Still Sane” is one of those ‘self-help’ songs. It, like the other songs on her debut album of the same name, has an undertone of defiance, yet vulnerability. It always puzzled me why Carolyn Mas did not have better commercial success.

Born in NY, Carolyn’s father invented the battery charger. I didn’t know that when her debut self-penned album “Carolyn Mas” came out in 1979, but that is a good enough reason for me to listen if I had not already. Classically trained in voice, piano and guitar, in her early years she listened to Cole Porter, the Beatles, Dylan, and all kinds of classical and folk music.

I said, what are ya tryin' a do to my head? Said, whatcha' tryin' a do to my head?

MTV and the Decline of Music, Part II

“You Better Run”, Pat Benatar, 1981

The second song ever aired on MTV was “You Better Run”. Pat Benatar had already established herself as a powerhouse. She had released the albums In “The Heat of the Night”, and “Crimes of Passion” that had sold millions of copies and had been awarded a number of Grammy’s and the American Music Awards. Pretty safe choice for song number 2 really...

A Toronto based company called CHUM Ltd. launched the Canadian equivalent to MTV, ‘ Much Music’  in 1984, noting the success of MTV in the United States, and wanting a piece of the action. The CRTC, which is the governing legal body in Canada, prevented MTV from either bringing its U.S. channel directly into Canada or setting up a home-grown competitor. As a result, MTV was initially content to sell Canadian rights to its programming for rebroadcast on Much Music. Before this happened we had really only seen MTV in bars on satellite. Not really thinking about whether it was legal or not.

And now we meet in an abandoned studio, we hear the playback and it seems so long ago...

MTV and the decline of Music, Part I

“Video Killed the Radio Star”, the Buggles, 1979

“Video Killed the Radio Star” was appropriately the first song to air on the brand new TV station ‘MTV’ in 1981, running 24/7 music videos. It is interesting to note that it was released in 1979. (Yes, I have the original 45!)

It would seem the origins of MTV could date back to 1966 when New Zealand record companies would provide the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation music videos to play on the air at no fee. The problem was few bands could or would pay their own way to be recorded. This concept though, was likely one of the seeds from which the ideas of MTV grew, although as we have seen there was considerable footage of music that was being created between 1966 and 1981when it happened...