Starting at 5am this morning, VH1Classic is playing an entire weekend of “Women In Video.” I have no idea if every single video will be original or if they’ll be played in “blocks” and repeated. Not surprisingly, the VH1 website is totally content-free regarding information. God forbid they should actually TELL you anything the slightest bit informative about what they’ve played and are going to play. I have my Tivo set to get all of them, and then I’m deleting them as I fast-forward through each show, after dubbing off what I want (so far only Altered Images and Katydids. I already have some of the other ones, such as Mari Wilson and Marianne Faithful, from my long-ago MTV-watching days).
I started writing them down, first so I’d know immediately if they were doing blocks, then because, um, I’m a masochist, I suppose. As with anything, these shows are 90% crap/boring/mediocre/ok, 9% decent/pretty good, and 1% great/brilliant (such as Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting!!). I haven’t yet detected any sort of pattern, such as alphabetical by artist or song. They seem to be roughly chronological, at least, most of them seem to be from the 1980’s or earlier so far, though they’re not playing many of the “big hits” this early in the morning.
It looks like this will be going on until 4:00am Monday morning.
Here’s what they’ve played so far:
Women In Video (VH1 Classic)
“Sisters Doin’ It For Themselves Weekend” hosted by Ann and Nancy Wilson
12-28-02
5am-6am
Carole King - Up On the Roof
Rita Cooledge - All Time High
Tina Turner - What’s Love Got To Do With It
Holly Beth Vincent - For What It’s Worth
Madonna - Like A Prayer
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam and Full Force - All Cried Out
T’Pau - Heart and Soul
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Circle
Heart - What About Love
Joan Jett - Cherry Bomb
Pat Benetar - We Belong
Go-Gos - Vacation
Toni Basil - Mickey
Mari Wilson - Just What I’ve Always Wanted
The Human League - Human
6am-7am
Carly Simon - You’re So Vain
Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
Kylie Minogue - Locomotion
Kim Carnes - Crazy In the Night
Donna Summer - Last Dance
Chic - Good Times
Evelyn Champagne King - Out of Control
Cyndi Lauper - True Colors
Berlin - Take My Breath Away
Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart
Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter
Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like
Altered Images - Happy Birthday
Katydids - The Boy Who’s Never Found
(mention of Kate Bush coming up in next hour)
7am-8am
Heart - Nothing At All
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock’n’Roll
Lita Ford & Ozzy Osbourne - Close My Eyes Forever
Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi (Painting with Words and Music)
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
Juice Newton - Angel of the Morning
Bette Midler - The Wind Beneath My Wings
Aretha Franklin - Freeway of Love
Patti Labelle - New Attitude
Vanessa Williams - The Look
Romeo Void - Never Say Never
Martha and the Muffins - Dansparc
Kate Bush - Cloudbusting
8am-9am
Marianne Faithful - As Tears Go By
Roberta Flack - The Closer I Get To You
Laura Branigan - Shattered Glass
Stevie Nicks - Talk To Me
Nu Shooz - I Can’t Wait
Blondie - The Tide Is High
Debbie Gibson - Only In My Dreams
Tiffany - I Think We’re Alone Now
Madonna - Express Yourself
The Pointer Sisters - Jump
Chaka Khan - I Feel For You
B-52’s - Roam
Cher - Main Man
Janet Jackson - What Have You Done For Me Lately
9am-10am
Melanie - Brand New Key (live performance)
Linda Rondstat - Blue Bayou
Martika - Toy Soldiers (playing as I type this)
I’m leaving now, so my Tivo will be chugging away.