In 1995, a nifty little compilation CD was released called Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits.  Nineteen rocking versions of (mostly) old TV cartoon themes.  You've got the Ramones doing "Spider-Man", Helmet busting out "Gigantor", Butthole Surfers rocking the "Underdog" theme, Liz Phair does that Banana Splits song, and many more.

For all of its strong tracks, I have an easy favorite:  Horton Heat does the most absolutely badassed version of Jonny Quest you will ever hear.  And he throws in that "Stop the Pigeon" song from Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines for good measure.

Did I say badassed?  Yeah, damn right I did.  BAD!!

Watch a YouTube fanvid for "Jonny Quest/Stop the Pigeon"

Watch the original Jonny Quest opening.

Watch the original Dastardly and Muttley opening.

Full track listing for Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits

This is post #400.  This makes my article-to-reader ratio about... 100/1.  Woo-hoo!

Anyway, chalk another one up for the Fred channel (XM 44... wait, is this officially a Sirius channel now, after the whole satellite radio Frankenstein's Monster merger dealie?  My head hurts...).  Before 9:15 this morning I had never heard this track from King Crimson's 1981 album Discipline.  But now that I have, um, well OK it was hardly a life-altering experience.  But I thought the song was cool, and now I have a song to post today.  Yeah!

King Crimson is often mentioned during discussions of "prog."  They've existed off and on over a near-40 year period, with about 25 years of combined activity.  So here's to another 25 years of irritating the hell out of music critics.

Hear "Frame By Frame" on YouTube.

Watch a live performance.

After trashing one of Bruce Springsteen's songs a few weeks ago, I think it's only fair to the Boss that I post a song of his I actually like.

He's just so much more effective when he seems less concerned about how he looks in his jeans.

Watch the video for "Tunnel of Love" on YouTube.

I've talked before about my favorite Big Country album, 1986's The Seer.  And of course, we've all heard the song they were best known for, their 1983 hit "In a Big Country."

Well, between that song and that album they released Steeltown in 1984.  I'm not nearly as high on that record, mainly due to its subpar sound quality.  Perhaps the version I have is simply a poor mastering job, but it just does not sound good at all.

But still, its opening track, "Flame of the West", quite simply rocks so amazingly hard it totally transcends its production flaws.

YouTube fanvid for "Flame of the West"

I posted that Damned cover of a Love song a while back, but I am concluding this numbers thingamacallit with an actual Love recording.

Some people may think I'm stuck in the 80s.  Fine.  Here's a song that's two decades older.  Nyaah.

A YouTube fan-made video for "Seven and Seven Is", featuring some of the worst white person dance moves you will ever see.

A live performance

Read the Wikipedia article.  The B-side of this single was called "No. Fourteen."  Hee-hee. 

Oh, Rush did a pretty cool cover.

This is part of a week-long series on "numbers."

If nothing else, songs like "Six Pack" helped establish a market for playing redundant bass guitar notes.  Really fast.

No, I am not saying it like it's a bad thing.

Hear "Six Pack" on YouTube.

Watch a live performance.

This is part of a week-long series on "numbers."

I was first exposed to this 1959 Dave Brubeck Quartet piece at a fairly young age, because - you guessed it - Dad had it.  Or maybe it was my brother?  I can't remember which.

Later on, I would play it in my school's jazz band, either junior high or high school, I can't remember which.

Damn, is my memory fading that badly?  I'm old.  Where the hell did I put my shoes?

YouTube live performance of "Take Five"

Wikipedia blurb

This is part of a week-long series on "numbers."

The numbers dealie continues with a song from OMG OMG OMG LEDD ZEPLIN IV GRAETEST ALBUM EVAR OMG WTF PLAY IT FOURTY MORE TIMES MISTER CLASIC ROCK DJ PLEASE PLAESE PLEASE!!!!1111

I'm still trying to come up with my own "symbol":



Man, I'm bad at this.

YouTube fanvid for "Four Sticks"

This is part of a week-long series on "numbers."