Dear readers, it is a joy to find material to write reviews for. There’s also quite a bit that commands a review.

You and I know how many films and TV shows our country produces and “consumes”. Too much of it is not good, we know. But much of it is a joy.

You also know how important music is, as an integral element of the final motion picture. And, this expressive and emotive art brings words on paper, to rich visual and auditory experience.

I came upon a box with cassette tapes of mine this prior week. I had stowed them away a few years ago. With great pleasure, I found a few tapes that I really need to write reviews on. Some of them were mix tapes that I even created cover art for; some were project tapes for my college musicology class.

Believe it or not, yes, I still do have an analogue tape player to play them back for listening as we speak. For the young children… explain to them that the analogue cassette tape, preceded the compact disk.

And, I have LP’s (records) – a few that I inherited.

OK, anyway, I won’t review each song of every album I own. But, some of the upcoming reviews like this one, will be posted for you. This will comprise a few singles/tracks of a few of the tapes or CD’s. I won’t review most of them. And, I’ll try to find those tracks that most people don’t know about or hear on our radio.

As I do with some of the movie reviews, I may recommend a few of the bands that share their likeness. That can serve as “a branch” for you, to your similar interest; and, introduction for you to some group you may never have heard of before I made mention.

So, for this first song review, I listened to “Too Much Information” by “Duran Duran”. On the “EMI” label, this album is dated 1993.

In 1993, I was yet a sophomore/junior in high school (10th/11th grade). What an exciting time it was for us youth to begin to exert some independence, and, some rebellion (if that had not yet occurred). It was a good thing that sports kept me on the right path.

I had not heard this song since the 90’s. And wow, hearing it again in 2018, is such sweet candy.

So, what is this song about? Well, its title says a lot. “Too Much Information” elicits a phenomena that many people can relate to now. Too much bombardment, of information, is its center-piece.

Today, that can be in the form of too many TV ads, too many “pop-ups” in your I-Net browser, too many print publications, too many radio ads, too many political candidate fliers, too many of anything which solicit and commands your response; as opposed to your option to merely admire the art (as is true of silently walking through a museum).

We’re often prompted to buy, or do something, that we might not otherwise have even thought should be. It can truthfully be a distraction or a rude interruption to your day. Maybe you would prefer to talk with your wife or husband in private, or spend conversation time with your children?

This song is a perfect album opener. Up beat, with metallic string strums, driving back beat, synthetic overlay sounds, and punk echo-effect vocals – you might be reminded of the more recent band “Echosmith”. You also might think of a preceding punk-rocker, who made a subversive tune entitled “I am an anarchist”.

While I prefer the milder tones, “Duran Duran” might remind you (as it does me), of “INXS” or “U2”. This is the best kind of rock I’ve ever known.

So what else is special about “Duran Duran’s” “Too Much Information”? Well, to me in school, we just may have been exposed to “too much” information through our college prep studies, with some courses so advanced and study paces so rigorous. Perhaps so much so, that we were rather sedate to the messages on MTV additionally? Many of us probably found MTV to be a nice respite, from the academic rigors. I did. But, too much of anything can be harmful.

With so much information, we even received college credits before ever setting foot on the college campus (after potentially making the grades to get in to the college… in the aftermath of high school). But, learning in life, can be overwhelming. And, that is a fact for most students. Yet, education does enlighten, and is a lifelong pastime.

Now, 23 years later, “Duran Duran’s” lyrics could have been penned today! That’s how relevant the message still is! I read them today.

Does the information flow ever let up? We “use” radio, mail, billboards, TV, Internet, books, CDs, magazines – all to control message, to harness message delivery, and to set things and people in motion. As a publisher, I participate. We receive advertisements for everything from medical science, food, clothing, loans and credit, realty, make-up, electronics, news – just to name a few. We are tasked, with mastering and controlling the pace, all by “ourselves” [with paper mail: we have little recourse, except to throw it away in bin; and thereby adding paper mass or packaging to land-fills (or we must pay to have our trash collectors bill us for the recycle and repeat!)]

So the lyrics in this song are somewhat of a journal of the lyricist back in 1993; commenting on the advent of MTV, which influenced and changed the culture – through music delivered with artistic imagery. But, were “they” (MTV) really an enemy? Or, is the enemy junk information?

The song goes so far as to say that “he” (or she), “we”, were “Destroyed by MTV… I hate to bite the hand that feeds”… making the point perhaps, that an addiction to the lure of buying and doing, actually nurtures a dependency; a dependency in which one feels attached to the new, the latest, the slickest, the “best”, without ever having the power to stop, look backward, or tune out.

But, the lyrics truthfully suggest something else; namely, that as a record maker his band “sold out” to what MTV only represented. The bigger “dragon” was (and is still) commerce. Slavery to consumerism is actually “the drug” that the lyrics make mention of. Whether that was the intent, should be your investigation.

The lyrics also comment on the corporate control of messaging in cultivating a war; projecting a concept of subjective or perverse normalcy… through social influence. It even explains that so much of “things”, barely scratches the surface. For example, today, how many B-Sides of song albums do we actually hear, amidst the repetition of the solitary lead-marketed song? How many years do we have to hear the one song of the album that has 10 or more other songs on it? Those songs that are not played for you, unless you buy the album? Maybe this is changing. We can hope that we successfully forced this change.

There is even a reference in the song to “{MID8}” – lactose intolerance? Or, anaerobes… in British labs, followed by an apparent plea to the listener, [to expand “the mind”]. Keep in mind that this album was made in 1993! Upon looking up “MID8”, I found this: http://www.mastgrp.com/Identification%20strips%20discs%20and%20rings/InfoSheet/MID8%20Anaerobic%20Mastring.pdf (Not sure what to tell you more about this).

The song also tells us apologetically, in its own reflection, that they (“Duran Duran”) too are selling something; and that “they hate to bite the hand that feed’s them” as well. Who is “the hand that feeds them”? The persons buying the album of course. But, isn’t it nice when a band can open its album that way, and still sound good?

Stay tuned for the next review. There likely will be a few more this month, on a few songs from my private collection of cassettes.