photo by Jason Bergman
It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News.
As everyone knows by now, Seattle’s very own Seahawks are heading to the Super Bowl. The team’s mantra is to “take one game and one day at a time” and now here we all are with one more game to take on, and we must all take it one day at a time until February 2nd arrives. So in celebration, this week we’re looking at songs to help us all rejoice in our entire city’s pride and excitement.
And now here are songs that can serve as our soundtrack as we all rejoice. Go Seahawks!
The The - This Is the Day
Our first celebratory song choice is “This Is the Day” by Matt Johnson, aka, The The. This was the first single of his 1983 debut album, Soul Mining. In 1994, Johnson re-recorded this song and retitled it “That Was the Day”. That version can be found on his 1994 Dis-Infected EP.
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros - Better Day
“Better Days” is off of the most recent self-titled release from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The video uses clips from the movies Paris Is Burning, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, Beat Street, as well as a video clip of Nat Morris, who hosts the Detroit television dance program The Scene.
U2 - Beautiful Day
From U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, “Beautiful Day” is our third song choice. Bono has said that they wrote this song about finding joy in what you have when you lose everything. Ever since their Elevation World tour in 2001, U2 have played “Beautiful Day” at every one of their live concerts. Michael Stipe has been quoted as saying, “I love that song. I wish I’d written it, and they know I wish I’d written it. It makes me dance; it makes me angry that I didn’t write it.”
Honorable Mentions:
Jack Peñate - Tonight’s Today
From the 2009 album Everything is New, “Tonight’s Today” is our first honorable mention. The choreography featured in Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker” video was the inspiration for the dancing featured in this music video.
Smashing Pumpkins - Today
This Stéphane Sednaoui directed video for “Today” can be considered one of the many factors in the success of Smashing Pumpkins. Due to constant play on MTV, it made the band one of the darlings of 90’s Alternative music. The main idea of the music video was based around one of Corgan’s childhood memories of when his neighborhood ice cream man gave away all the ice cream in the truck to all the neighborhood kids during his last day on the job. Along with that idea, the video also pays homage to the 1970 film Zabriskie Point, which follows a couple of counterculture kids in love and they do a lot of running around and get into a lot of hippie, paint loving adventures.
