As a child of the eighties, I lived for MTV.
I came of age during MTV’s heyday, when the station was known for actually airing music videos and well before the powers-that-be at corporate headquarters got drunk on really bad reality TV.
At the heart of the MTV experience was a video world premiere. After the announcement was made that a new video was forthcoming, my friends and I would all be buzzing over the countdown to the newest video from The Cure, U2, or The Beastie Boys. These were celebratory moments, the artistic melding of the auditory and visual, a hallmark for those of between 35 and 50 years of age.
For me, on MTV, there was nothing cooler than that moment when Martha Quinn or Alan Hunter or any of the other 80s veejays introduced that first time airing.
I felt a little bit of that spirit today here on the blog as, for the first time ever, Trail Mix gets to debut a music video from one of our artists. That’s a pretty cool thing.
For the first time anywhere, Trail Mix listeners can check out the video for Sid Griffin’s “Get Together.”
Sid Griffin is a native Kentuckian who now calls Great Britain home. Griffin’s music career began in the late 1970s and has included time in both The Long Ryders and The Coal Porters, with whom he has released multiple records. Griffin also has four solo releases to his credit.
Recently, Griffin released The Trick Is To Breathe, from which “Blue Yodel No. 12 & 35,” which is featured on this month’s Trail Mix, and “Get Together” come.
“Get Together” should be a song well known to many. It is a tune well covered by bands like Jefferson Airplane, The Stone Poneys, which featured Linda Ronstadt, The Association, and The Youngbloods.
“To my mind, it is probably the finest lyric I have ever heard, the most poetic yet readily digestible song lyric ever,” says Griffin, “and I only wish the world would abide by the words of this marvelous composition.”
After watching the video, I challenge any of you out there to not have the chorus bouncing around in your head for the rest of the day. And, as Griffin suggests, that chorus is great advice:
“C’mon, people . . . smile on your brother.”
