http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iP17undSOek
how did they screw up this song while possessing a puppet with such a technically good voice. and what are all the theatrical hand gestures about... and when it kicks in with the hollow metallic backing the less said the better and then when you thought it couldn't grate any more the "judges" - who are they by the way?- chime in with the real perfomance, but the crew cut van dam wannabe got it right "unbelievable.." i agree, and so here it is, hallelejah for the shopping mall generation. perhaps a nice spin off from this competition could be credit cards that spontaneously burst into scratchy renditions of this song every time the card is swiped in a shop cash register, at which point streamers could explode from behind the till where upon the shop assistant bursts into tears flinging her arms up in the air yes you've done it, you are a customer. the satisfied customer leaves, the process only to be repeated with the next customer though it won't take away from the effect of it all. shopping malls as government approved rock n roll... bring it on.
... i guess the only good that can have come out of this is that leonard will be living it up for a while to come on the royalties... have a good one leonard, for us all...
*
i guess it's only fair to include a decent cover of the song for the sake of comparison and to restore some kind of hope in our fellow man... so here it is, a beauty, and you even get the feeling that he really does mean it, one guy and his guitar, beating out the notes of his heart, r.i.p. dream brother... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0wxj0B7vsss .
that x factor sl*t to sales has the same dazed look of incomprehension that a lottery winner has, a millionaire on who wants to be a millionaire (see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HsW_WfJCYy8 , it's hard not to be drawn in as she takes her bows, the hysteria, the insane justice handed out by, in fact of a number of clips that could have been chosen this one topped the list because the ritual makes more sense in a foreign language, we all secretly want to be a millionare, don't we? and here's another in english equally absurd when you consider it in reality, http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tAmCYTvfJjU&feature=related)... but seriously, why even write these things, why even bring them back into the mind, these more than obvious comparisons, why, well, so that we don't forget what is what.
someone else said it better :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRkA6zugNMQ&feature=related .