Kansas City Playlist: Songs For The Darkness

A bit of hope for our late night readers . . . Today is the solstice and the darkest day of the year which means that tomorrow there will be just a tiny bit more sunshine in the world. 

Reality check . . .

In about 7 BILLION years our Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel and die. Eventually, in about 100 TRILLION years, every star in the Universe will fade and at some point the last light in the heavens will be extinguished. That either sounds like a bummer OR something VERY peaceful wherein every struggle, debt & conflict is ultimately settled, equaled and rendered ultimately meaningless. True rest resolution at long last.  

Just a fun fact to consider on the toilet or whilst running up EPIC credit card debt for holiday gifts that nobody really wants or needs.

Of course, in order to keep this conversation light & breezy . . . 

We share an even more flowery description of existential entropy and consideration of non-Mexican aliens from the top ranking faith blogger in Kansas City . . .

Here's some of what he has to say . .  .

That whole discussion, of course, raises difficult questions about the nature of God and about the purpose of creating something that slowly, over billions of years, collapses in disorder as sun after sun burns out and the cosmos finally goes silent, obviating a need for keeping or telling time -- and, thus, a need for alarm clocks.

Again, we disagree . . . The end of time actually necessitates a consideration of the clock and all of the precious moments we have left no matter how cringe or corny that might seem.

Accordingly, tonight in order to provide respite from oppressive holiday music we're going to share songs dedicated to the darkness or our KICK-ASS TKC READERS who eternally rage against the dying of the light. 

And so here are a few tunes we're sharing with our www.TonysKansasCity.com blog community tonight . . .

A favorite from 1971 when TKC wasn't even a glimmer . . . An apt description from music journalists: Slipping Into Darkness by WAR "is an unusual blues form with the first lines being repeated in an African and Latin rhythm. The song is from the perspective of someone whose friend's life was taken away, who withdraws from reality, having to pay the consequences."

Our Saturday night is always for nostalgia nowadays, which is much safer and more rewarding than F-ing around with strangers and finding out . . . And so we share this 1980s classic that proved "META" before the term was popularized.  Bruce Springsteen wrote "Dancing In The Dark" about his difficulty trying to write a hit single. The iconic music video features Bruce singing and dancing with Courtney Cox. It earned a top 5 ranking when it was released in May of 1984 but, ironically, never hit #1 thanks to "When Doves Cry" by Prince & "The Reflex" by Duran, Duran.

"Shot In The Dark" by by Ozzy Ozborne was rare hit for the Brit rocker who had to wear some kind of lame sequined cape and a ton of makeup to garner attention from American audiences. The song proved to be a top-ten hit on mainstream rock radio, it also became his first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The official music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan. Old school TKC readers might also spot a very young Dweezil Zappa in a few of the shots form the clip.

What we liked as a youngster watching this track on MTV . . . The video imagines the journey of a young lady fan as she's transformed by the music into the vixen creature featured in Borris Vallejo's spectacular cover art for Ozzy's "The Ultimate Sin" album.

Apropos for this blog and the bridge of our playlist . . . A worthwhile song in service of a garbage movie. Here's the backstory: 

"On the Dark Side" is a song by fictional American rock band Eddie and the Cruisers, released as a tie-in to the 1983 film of the same name. When initially released in September 1983, the song peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard, while the film itself was pulled after three weeks in the theaters. John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band served as the real-life, officially uncredited stand-ins for the fictional Cruisers on the recording (as they did for the rest of the soundtrack album); only one member of the band, saxophonist Michael Antunes, appeared in the film, and none of the other actors playing Eddie and the Cruisers were musicians.

Finally. we finish with a hipster mashup that speaks to 90s-era nostalgia and hip-hop influence across the globe. Credit to these Spanish rockers for playing 1977's eternal R&B classic "Footsteps In The Dark" by The Isley Brothers before reciting their version of Ice Cube's 1992 rap cover "It Was A Good Day" which brought the iconic tune to the attention of GenX.

Close watchers might even notice Barcelona's impressive Sagrada Família in the background.  Take a look:

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a save & fun Saturday night.