Election Thoughts and Observations

We made it!  We survived one of the craziest, most divisive election cycles in American history.  Regardless of your political viewpoints, the results probably aren’t what people expected or were hoping for.  While some of you reading this may protest and say that the presidential election isn’t over and is still up for grabs, I beg to differ.  They should count all the votes and determine those final counts, but I’m confident that the presidential race has been decided and a new president will be inaugurated in January.

Having said that, I wanted to share some of my observations, thoughts and analyses of what we all just witnessed and lived through.  I realize that some of you will likely disagree with some of my takes – perhaps even vehemently so – but that’s okay.  I have the right to speak my mind and you have the right to agree or disagree with me.  That’s one of the many things that makes this country so great.

 Here we go…

 

Increased turnout and participation in democracy is a beautiful thing!  Put aside your thoughts on who won the election and whether or not mail-in voting should be allowed (it absolutely should).  We’ll deal with some of those topics later.  But let’s start on a positive note by reveling in the fact that a record number of voters participated in this year’s election.  While I doubt there’s any way to truly count the number of ballots that were turned in for all of the various races, proposals and amendments up and down the ballots from sea to shining sea, we know that more than 150 million ballots were cast for president.  That is OUTSTANDING.  People of all political parties and persuasions and backgrounds took the time to exercise their right to vote.  Folks from both the left and right were successful in turning out their supporters, not to mention those of us independents participating as well.  Whether people voted by mail, by absentee, in person early or in person on election day, everybody should be happy that the populace was so engaged in this election and exercised their right to vote.

 

We are truly a nation divided.  150 million ballots for president and the overall results were 51/49 or close to 50/50.  The Senate will continue to be split almost 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats.  The House will still favor the Democrats, but only by one of the slimmest margins in years.  However you want to look at it, there’s roughly 50% of the country that leans or votes Democratic and there’s roughly 50% of the country that leans or votes Republican.  There’s always been a split, but it also seems like the pendulum has swung back and forth over the years.  For the past decade or so, however, it seems like the two sides have pushed outward from the middle and created a division as great as anything we’ve experienced in the last 150 years.  Outside of a handful of states – and if you’ve been paying attention at all over the past few weeks, you know which states I’m talking about – things are divided.  States are either ruby red or royal blue.  There seem to be very few exceptions.  My home state of Missouri is a perfect example.  For decades, Missouri was the consummate bellwether state – swinging back and forth between red and blue, voting for the winner of the presidential contest in all but one presidential election between 1904 and 2004.  Over the past 15-20 years, however, that has changed noticeably.  Every statewide office (governor, lieutenant governor, auditor, attorney general, etc.) is held by a Republican.  Both of our senators are Republicans, as are 6 of our 8 representatives in the House. It didn’t use to be like that, but now the few urban areas (St. Louis City and County, Kansas City area, Columbia) are pockets of blue in a sea of red.  There are frequent battles for funding between urban and rural interests and things sometimes get very hostile.  The recent gubernatorial election is a perfect example.  The Republican candidate was a high school graduate who is a farmer and former county sheriff.  He hails from a rural area and his campaign ads tried to make him seem down to earth.  (“It all started on a farm.”) The Democratic candidate was a female who has both a bachelor’s degree and an MBA and has been the state auditor.  She’s from the St. Louis area.  The end result was predictable.  The more educated, urban and suburban folks largely voted for the Democratic candidate, while the less educated, rural and small town folks overwhelmingly voted for the Republican candidate.

 

The much talked about “blue wave” didn’t really happen.  Yes, it appears that Trump got voted out of office and a Democrat will be back in the White House, but the races down ballot were a decidedly mixed bag for those clamoring for a blue wave.  The Democrats may have picked up a seat or two in the Senate, but they didn’t flip it like they’d hoped.  At the same time, the Democrats actually LOST seats in the House, something else that they did not anticipate.  So while the voters have ousted Trump from the Oval Office, the overall election results were more inconclusive.  Why is that?  For one, it goes to show how unpopular President Trump was.  Looking at the overall results of all contests, we have to assume many people voted for Biden as president while voting for other Republicans down ballot.  In other words, Trump himself was rejected more so than the Republican platforms in general.  This is a very important point.  For many years now, we’ve heard the media and talking heads telling us how the demographic changes in the country favor the Democrats and that Republicans need to adjust or else they will nearly become extinct.  On paper or in looking at demographic data, that may appear to be true.  But that has still not necessarily been the case in practice.  One could argue that these past two general elections have been more about the top of the ticket than anything else.  In 2016, Trump beat Hillary at least in part because a lot of people REALLY didn’t like her.  The argument could be made that potentially any other Democratic candidate besides Hillary would have beaten Trump.  By the same token, in 2020, Biden beat Trump likely largely in part because a lot of people REALLY didn’t like Trump.  It’s more a repudiation of Trump than an embrace of Biden.  Outside of the presidential race, I have to believe that some of the things advocated by Democratic candidates and campaigns – things like “defunding the police” and “Medicare for All” – are not as popular amongst the general electorate as Democrats would like.  As a result, that may have cost the Democrats some races at the Senate, House and Governor levels and Democrats need to circle the wagons and find better approaches or better messages if they want to country as a whole to embrace some of the items in their platform.

 

Republicans still have problems at the top of the ticket.  Going back to 1992, the Republican presidential candidate has lost the popular vote seven times in the last eight presidential contests.  They have won the electoral college on three occasions but they’ve only won the popular vote once.  That should be considered a concerning trend for Republicans, especially as there becomes more of a push to abolish the electoral college or more states are considering awarding their electoral votes to the winner of popular vote nationwide.  If a baseball player was only batting .125, he’d be benched and likely working very hard to find ways to increase his success at the plate.  I think the Republicans need to take the same approach.

 

If we’re going to talk about election shenanigans, let’s be holistic about it.  Much has been made over the past few weeks about election fraud.  Most of it has been levied by the Republicans claiming that the Democrats are trying to steal the election via mail-in voting, votes by dead people, etc.  Most of those accusations are unproven hogwash.  But if the Republicans are going to blast Democrats for those purported misdeeds, it’s only fair to point out some of the things Republicans have done to try to “steal” the election as well.  They’ve purged voter rolls.  They’ve advocated for and, in some places, instituted more stringent voter ID requirements.  They’ve done whatever they can to thwart mail-in voting, from restricting the number of locations where those ballots can be submitted (I’m looking at you, Texas) to brazenly trying to handicap the U.S. Postal Service to try to hamper mail-in voting.  These are all efforts at voter suppression – efforts to make it more difficult to vote.  Obviously, the Republicans have reached the conclusion that the more people that vote, the worse their chances are at winning, so they are trying to throw up obstacles to voting.  But isn’t that the wrong approach?  Instead of trying to suppress voters, wouldn’t it be better to modify your party’s platforms and policies to make them more attractive regardless of how many people vote?  While the Democrats need to take time to step back and look at their policies as noted above to determine why the “blue wave” didn’t come to fruition, the Republicans need to take time to step back at consider why they feel like they have to engage in voter suppression and disenfranchisement in order to win.  Mail-in ballots (which are used exclusively in a number of states) are not inherently bad.  Neither are absentee ballots.  Neither is in-person early voting.  These are all ways to make it easier for voters to participate in the election process, which is a WONDERFUL thing.  Instead of pushing back on them, Republicans should embrace them and try to make the system work as smoothly as possible.  If your party has reached the conclusion that more voters voting = us losing, the problem is the process of voting.  It’s your party and their policies.

 

Our election system needs some serious TLC.  It is unfathomable to me that I can receive phone calls on a watch that also tracks my steps, my heart rate and my sleep but we as a country can’t come up with a better way to count ballots.  There HAS to be a better way.  I have no problem with mail-in voting but I think it’s asinine that states can receive ballots in October but they can’t count them until Election Day.  I have no problem with in-person voting (that’s how I always do it), but I think we need to be more flexible with regard to early in-person voting, the number of polling places, etc.  Since free and fair elections are the hallmark of our democracy, we should do whatever we can to make it easier for every legal voter to vote and easier to count all of those votes in a timely manner.

 

Who are the political leaders and stars of the future for each party?  While Joe Biden will be the de-facto leader of the Democratic party for at least the next few years, I don’t think anyone views him as the star or leader of the party for the future.  However, the Democrats have several rising stars who project to be prominent figures in the party for years to come.  Kamala Harris.  Corey Booker.  Stacey Abrams.  Each are younger (well, at least for politicians) and charismatic people who have the potential to serve as the face of the party and excite and turn-out voters in future elections.  I may not agree with some or most of their positions on the issues, but there’s no denying their personal charisma in much the way that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama before them had a “cool factor” that drew people to like, follow and buy into what they were saying.  Who is that person for the Republicans?  Obviously, the GOP had that in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan, but they’ve never really had that superstar since.  Some of you may point to Donald Trump, but he was always as divisive as he was charismatic.  The other supposed leaders of GOP – Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz – don’t have the personality or charisma to inspire hope or devotion.  Is there someone else out there – perhaps a governor – who can assume that mantle?  Finding that person may be the key to solving the aforementioned issue regarding losing the popular election.

 

Trump is a very effective con man – perhaps the most effective con man in history.  I’ll admit that I don’t get it.  I don’t see how people can fawn all over Donald Trump and believe everything he says, even when there is ample evidence showing that what he is saying is, oftentimes, false.  I suppose I could understand a rural, small town person buying into his anti-immigrant, anti-big city rhetoric because he’s saying what they think and have said privately for years.  (And, no, I am NOT saying that all rural, small town folks are ignorant, racist rubes who are bad people.  That is certainly not the case.)  But what baffles me is how so-called Christians and evangelicals have bought into what he’s saying.  To me, that is the biggest con of all.  He’s gotten people who purport to love God and other people and who loathe abortion to pledge allegiance to a man who seldom goes to church, treats others with hatred and disdain and who is likely personally responsible for abortions.  (Come on, you don’t think he’s knocked up some women over the years and paid and/or arranged for them to get abortions?)  He has gotten people to believe he hates immigrants, even though two of his wives were immigrants.  He has gotten people to believe he is a successful businessman in spite of multiple failed businesses and casinos over the years.  He has gotten people to believe that our tax system is punitive and too costly while he himself has beaten that same system and paid less in taxes than he’d have you believe.  Trump cares about only one thing: Trump.  However, he somehow managed to fool millions of Americans into believe that he cares about them and that he fights for them.  Think about it: a guy born into a wealthy family from New York who has five known kids from three marriages has somehow fooled countless small town Baptists that he cares about them when you and I both know he wouldn’t even acknowledge them if he didn’t think they could help him get something he wants.  He has managed to get the little guy to believe that he knows their struggles when he’s never been a little guy ever in his life.  Like I said, I don’t understand how so many people have somehow fallen under his spell.  Trump is a genuinely bad person who has gotten millions of genuinely good people to support him.  I don’t get it, but it’s undeniable.  For that long, successful con, I have to begrudgingly tip my cap to him.

 

I was wrong in 2016, but I may still wind up being right.  In October 2016, in the run up to the 2016 Presidential Election, I wrote a blog that was an open letter to the GOP.  In it, I predicted doom for the party because they wound up with Trump as their nominee.  At the time, I figured that he would lose to Hillary and it would lead to the party attacking itself and potentially coming apart at the seams.  I was wrong about Trump losing, but I may still be right about the future of the party.  Trump was not and is not a conservative.  He has, for all his faults, a unique relationship with his followers.  Many of them aren’t Republicans per se but rather Trump loyalists.  With Trump out of the picture following January 20, what happens to those voters moving forward?  Do they stay with the Republicans?  Do they withhold their support from the Republicans because they feel like they did not do enough to defend Trump in the wake of his election loss?  If the Republicans dumb things down in order to appeal to Trump’s base of rural, white, less educated, less wealthy supporters, they risk losing even more of the well-educated, more diverse folks that make up more and more of the electorate in the suburbs and urban areas.  So, my prediction was wrong as it related to the 2016 presidential election, but my overall prediction of a reckoning for the Republican Party may still wind up being right.  We will just have to wait and see.

 

Patriots exist in all parties and political backgrounds.  One of the most annoying and infuriating political developments over the past several years has been the co-opting and bastardization of the word “patriot” by Republicans and Trump supporters.  They use it as a weapon and make the claim that only Republicans or Trump supports are true patriots.  This is absolute garbage.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “patriot” as “one who loves and supports his or her country.”  There are millions of people who are Democrats or who support Democratic politicians who are patriots.  Tammy Duckworth is a Democratic Senator from Illinois.  She is also military veteran who lost both of her legs during the Iraq War.  Are you telling me that she isn’t a “patriot” because she supports universal background checks, the Affordable Care Act and a pathway to citizenship?  Please.  She is more of a patriot than most people.  Pete Buttigieg is a military veteran who served in Afghanistan.  Are you telling me that he isn’t a “patriot” because he is gay, a Democrat and he supports the Green New Deal and a public option for health insurance? Give me a break.  People who love this country come in all religions, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and political views.  Just because they may have a different view on an issue than you do, that doesn’t mean they love this country any less than you do.  No one political party or political view owns patriotism and people who argue otherwise are wrong.  Driving around in a pick-up truck with an American flag or a Trump flag doesn’t make you a patriot.  It just makes you the butt of jokes and internet memes. We need to understand that people can absolutely love this country while also trying to curb climate change or make universal healthcare a reality.  You may not agree with their position on the issues and that is perfectly okay.  But we need to stop claiming that they aren’t “patriots” or that they hate this country just because you don’t see eye-to-eye with them on everything.

 

If we’re ever really going to fix Washington, we need term limits!  Once again, I continue to be mystified by the success of incumbent politicians.  Historically, incumbent senators and representatives win re-election upwards of 90% of the time.  Year after year, we hear about how Americans hate Washington and hate Congress but yet, election after election, we keep sending the same people back there to represent us.  It’s baffling.  The only way out of this conundrum is term limits – to force there to be some turnover.  I’ve written about this topic before, but it bears repeating.  If we voters can’t save ourselves on our own, then maybe we need to be forced to do so.  The idea of term limits is nothing new.  Currently, 15 states have term limits in place for their state legislatures and 38 states have term limits in place for their governors.  If we can make it work at the state levels, why can’t we make it work at the federal level?  The hard part is that is requires a constitutional amendment.  They have been proposed in the past but have never gotten very far because it is, obviously, not in Congress’s best interest to vote to pass legislation that will eventually remove themselves from office.  But wouldn’t it be great to never have to see the faces of Lindsey Graham or Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi again?  To have fresh faces, new leadership and, maybe, some new ideas?  I realize it’s a pipe dream, but every two years, as we watch incumbent after incumbent win re-election, I can’t help but yearn for it.

 

Whew.  That was a lot of thoughts and opinions on this election, wasn’t it?  Like the never-ending campaign and the longer than expected election counting, I’m worn out.  So, until next time, be kind to one another, regardless of for whom you voted. 

 

Thanks for reading.

Best and Worst City Flags - USA edition

A few years back, I did a blog post on my picks for the best and worst state flags. To refresh your memory, here is a link to that particular list: http://thegoldenrules92.blogspot.com/2017/10/best-worst-state-flags.html Now, I thought I'd follow that list up with my picks for the best and worst city flags. This was, quite frankly, much more difficult because there are so many more cities and city flags than they are states and state flags. And while most state flags are boring, there are actually quite a few cool city flags. So, in order to try to make it a little easier, I limited the choices to flags from major cities that have a population of at least 100,000 people. I've also upped the ante by giving you 10 best and 10 worst rather than 5 and 5 like I did with the state flags. Let's start with the 10 (err...11) best city flags... 

BEST CITY FLAGS

10 (tie). Pittsburgh, PA (adopted 1899) - First of all, I have to be honest. I've always been a sucker for black and gold. Maybe it's because those were my high school colors or maybe it's because those are Mizzou's colors. Regardless, I've always liked the combination of black and gold.

Pittsburgh's flag, which is black and gold, features a portion of the city's seal - which, itself features a nod to the coat of arms of the city's namesake, William Pitt - at the center. It helped established black and gold as the official color's of Pittsburgh, which has, in turn, influenced all of the city's sports teams (Pirates, Penguins and Steelers) to utilize black and gold as their color schemes.  Whereas most U.S. cities rely on some combination of red, white and blue on their flags, Pittsburgh's choice of black and gold makes it stand out from the crowd and helps tie the whole city color scheme together unlike any other city in the country.

10 (tie). Baltimore, MD (adopted 1915) - Yes, another black and gold entry.  The flag features

the Battle Monument at the center on the Calvert family colors, which also make up half of the Maryland state flag.  As that state flag made my list of the top 5 best, it stands to reason that a city flag that borrows from it would like rate highly as well.  It's different from any other city flag and its combination of a symbol that represents the city and a pattern that pays homage to the state flag gives it high marks.

9. Orlando, FL (adopted 2017) - The newest entry on our list, Orlando's flag gets points for both its symbolism and simplicity.  The prominent "O" obviously stands for Orlando, but it also doubles as the

sun and sunlight over waves, a nice nod to the copious amounts of water in and around Orlando.  The O surrounds a representation of the Lake Eola fountain, a prominent local symbol.  It also gets kudos for replacing Orlando's previous hideous, too busy city flag.  That flag, shown at right, was first introduced in 1980 and its designs screams early 1980s computer graphics.  Seriously, it's as if some guy 

designed it on his Commodore 64.  The people who decided to dump that tacky old flag in favor of something much cleaner and simple yet symbolic deserves an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World which, thankfully, is nowhere to be found on either flag.

8. Indianapolis, IN (adopted 1963) - I'll be honest.  Before starting this project, I was familiar with    very few of these city flags.  As I did my research, I was disappointed by some of the lousy flags that some really cool cities had, while I was pleasantly surprised by others.  And, in other cases, I was pleasantly surprised by both the city AND the flag.  When most people think of Indiana, they likely think of the movie "Hoosiers" - small towns, corn fields and basketball.  While that is certainly a big

part of the mythology of Indiana, did you know it is also the 17th most populous state with more than 6.7 million residents?  Likewise, did you know that Indianapolis - the state capital and largest city - is the 17th largest city in the country, with a population of more than 875,000?  The last time I visited Indy, I was quite impressed with its downtown, which included multiple sports facilities, some cool neighborhoods and quite a bit of shopping, including a mall that spans multiple downtown buildings via skywalks.  The heart of Indy is the Soldiers' and Sailors' monument and Monument Circle in the middle of downtown.  And the Indianapolis flag plays tribute to that by representing the monument and the circle with the star and circle in the middle of the flag.  In addition, the four white stripes leading up to the circle represent the four main thoroughfares (East and West Market Streets and North and South Meridian Streets) that radiate outward from Monument Circle.  It's a simple but effective and neat tribute to a city that's a lot more cosmopolitan than many folks think or expect. 

7. Portland, OR (adopted 1969) - When you think of the Pacific Northwest, what colors pop into your

head?  Probably green for the lush hills and forests and blue for the numerous bodies of water and copious amounts of rain that cause the hills to be so lush.  As such, it makes perfect sense for those colors to be featured so prominently on Portland's flag.  Officially, the green background represents the forests of the city, the blue represents the Willamette and Columbia Rivers come together near Portland.  They threw in some yellow to represent the agriculture and commerce present in the area with a white, four pointed star to represent the city itself and its location amidst all of it.  All together, the green, blue, yellow and white make an appealing twist on the prototypical Nordic cross that appears on many flags.  The flags are frequently featured and waved at Portland Timbers MLS games and the teams colors are a nod to the flag's colors as well.

6. Chicago, IL (initially adopted 1917; additional stars added in 1933 and 1939) - The Windy City's flag is, at first glance, very simple and straightforward.  However, like all good flags, there is some

symbolism hidden within that simplicity.  The four red six-pointed stars represent historic events that have occurred during Chicago's history: its establishment as Fort Dearborn; the Great Fire of 1871; the first World's Fair to be held in Chicago (1893); and the second World's Fair to be held in Chicago (1933-34).  The two light blue lines above and below the stars represent the two branches of the Chicago River.  Bonus points for using a lighter shade of blue than is seen on most red, white and blue flags in the U.S. While some city flags are never seen or beyond being on a flag pole outside city hall, a bank or school, you see Chicago's flag often whenever you visit the city.  It's sold at gift shops and hawked by street vendors and used by Chicago natives all over the country to represent their home town.  A classic, simple yet symbolic flag, Chicago's flag is also less offensive than any Cubs or Blackhawks gear.  (I kid!)

5. Corpus Christi, TX (adopted 1955) - Texas is a big state with a huge population and a lot of big cities.  Whereas the state flag is one of the best in the country (as evidenced by its #3 ranking on my aforementioned state flag list), most of the city flags in Texas are lame.  Some red, some white, some

blue and a star in the middle.  Seriously, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Lubbock, Arlington, Plano and El Paso all have at least three of the four listed items in their flags.  One big Texas city, though, decided to mix it up and do something a little different: Corpus Christi.  While there's some blue on the flag, it's a lighter shade of blue, representing the waters of Corpus Christi Bay.  While there are stars on the flag, there are eight of them, all representing the city's eight major industries.  Best of all, there's a large seagull at the center of the flag, likewise paying tribute to the local beaches and shoreline.  It's a unique flag that stands out from the boring, boilerplate flags waving over most large cities in the Lone Star State. 

4. St. Petersburg, FL (adopted 1983) - The Tampa Bay metropolitan area is made up of a number of cities, the two largest of which are Tampa and St. Petersburg.  While those two cities are side-by-side and serve as anchors to the 18th largest metropolitan area in the U.S., they are light years apart in the

quality of their city flags.  While Tampa's flag is atrocious (more on that later), St. Pete's is terrific.  Full disclosure: I'm a sucker for pelicans.  When we take vacations to the beach, I love watching the pelicans glide just above the surface of the water and then fly and dive for food.  St. Pete's flag prominently displays a pelican at the center of its flag.  Behind the pelican are an array of horizontal color stripes, each representing  different aspects of life in St. Pete: red and orange for the sunshine and sunsets, green for land, blue for the waters of Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  It's different, colorful and catchy, yet simple.  And, like I said, it has a pelican on it and pelicans are awesome and a great representation of the area where pelicans are endemic and where they often congregate.

3. Denver, CO (adopted 1926) - Colorado is a beautiful state and they've smartly stayed with one of the best license plates in the country: green and white outlines of mountains.  In the same vein, Denver's flag is a simple but very effective nod to the Rocky Mountains that rise just to the west of the city.  The

red and white zig zags represent the Rockies, while the blue and yellow represent the sun high in those brilliant blue Colorado skies.  Is it pretty basic? Yes.  It is kind of obvious?  Also yes.  However, the simple symbolism is what makes it so good.  My only beef is the use of red and white for the mountains rather than, say, green and white.  Nevertheless, Denver's flag is simple, clean and symbolic.  Everybody can tell at first glance what the graphic represents, which sets it apart from most city flags.

2. Phoenix, AZ (adopted 1990) - Prior to beginning this project, I had no idea that Phoenix had such a great flag.  There's not a lot to it and the flag is better for it.  It is simply a white phoenix on a maroon

background.  But the use of maroon sets it apart from most flags that stick with primary colors.  The stylized phoenix comes from the city's seal but rather than taking the whole seal and slapping it on the flag with the words "City of Phoenix" included, they wisely just took the graphic and reversed the colors.  One more bit of trivia on the choice of maroon for the color of the flag (and the city seal): in Greek, "phoenix" means purple.  So by using both the phoenix graphic and the maroon color, they are doubly playing tribute to the city's name and the legends surrounding the mythological bird. 

1. St. Louis, MO (adopted 1964) - Yeah, yeah, yeah.  This is a homer pick, right?  Maybe a little bit.  But considering that St. Louis's flag won the 2020 March Madness of Flags contest on Twitter as the best city flag in the world (beating out flags from Barbados, Stuttgart, and Yaroslavl Oblast in the Final Four), it makes sense that it tops our list of best city flags in the U.S.  The blue and while squiggly lines represent the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers that occurs at St. Louis.  The yellow

bezant with the fleur-de-lis on it is a nod to St. Louis's French heritage and background of the city.  Over the past decade or so, the St. Louis flag has become a more prominent part of the St. Louis area landscape, appearing on hats and shirts available at stores all across the metro area.  It was also a prominent part of the symbolism used by the MLS-to-STL efforts to get St. Louis a new MLS expansion soccer team.  The flag is even included on the back inside collar of the jerseys worn by the St. Louis Blues.  St. Louis as a community suffers from a long and storied history of poor self esteem and self loathing, so its nice to know that we can at least boast that we have a great city flag.  (On the other hand, please don't bring up our unfortunate #1 rankings in the homicides and STDs.)

So, there you have our top city flags.  Now that we've seen the cities that have done a good job of developing top notch flags, now it is time to turn our attention to the cities the dropped the metaphorical ball and have lousy flags.  

WORST CITY FLAGS

10. Springfield, IL (adopted 1917) - Let's face it, Springfield is about as generic of a city name as you can get.  Virtually every state has one; there's a reason why "Springfield" was the city name used in The Simpsons.  So, if you're going to have a boring, too common city name, you should at least have a

unique flag.  Instead, Springfield, IL has this generic flag that looks like something designed by a middle schooler in an "Intro to Computer Design" class.  The stars aren't too bad, but what is up with including their generic font used for "Springfield Illinois" and why is there no comma between those two words?  Seriously, Springfield is the state capital and home to the Abraham Lincoln museum and library, as well as his tomb.  There are a variety of things unique to the city that COULD have been placed on their flag, instead of this rudimentary design.  The best possible design, though, would have been a line of mug shots of all of the Illinois governors who have subsequently done time in prison.

9. Springfield, MO (adopted 1938) - One state over - and about 4.5 hours to the southwest - is another Springfield that has another bad city flag.  Red, white and blue?  Check. Stars? Check? Needlessly including the city's name? Check.  And, like Springfield, Illinois, they elected to leave off the

comma between the city and the state.  Springfield has some cool nicknames ("Queen City of the Ozarks," "Birthplace of Route 66") so you'd think they could have come up with something better than this incredibly dull flag.  However, there may be hope on the horizon!  There has been a recent movement among Springfield residents to dump their current flag in place of something more unique.  Here's hoping that more creative minds prevail and they do just that!

8. New Haven, CT - The easiest and laziest way to design a city or a state flag is to take the seal of the city or state and slap it on a solid colored flag.  As discussed in my state flag blog post, a majority of states have taken that lazy - and boring - route.  Many cities have done the same.  But of all of the cities

to have done so, few have been so lazy as to do that along with an absence of colors.  That's right - New Haven's flag is just the city seal in black on a white flag.  It's the most basic and boring thing you can do.  From a distance, you probably wouldn't be able to tell if the replaced the flag with a Fruit of the Loom undershirt, label side out.  Even worse, the seal has a bunch of Latin words on it that have absolutely no meaning to anyone anymore.  As the home of Yale University and a city that's a stone's throw from Long Island Sound, you'd think some bright Ivy League minds could come up with something better than this.

7. Kansas City, MO (adopted 1992) - Over the past few years, I've spent a lot of time in Kansas City for work.  KCMO - yes it's in Missouri, despite what President Trump apparently thought after the Chief won the Super Bowl - has some very neat areas.  Country Club Plaza is a picturesque shopping and entertainment area while the Power & Light District has helped revive Kansas City's once sagging

downtown.  The city is known as the "City of Fountains" and rightly so, as it features an array of fountains all over the city.  So, incorporating said fountains on the city flag makes perfect sense.  And if they had just done that on some sort of colored background, they wouldn't be on this list.  But instead of sticking with something simple and classy, they had to junk it up with a bunch of words and the oh so predictable inclusion of red, white and blue.  Even worse, they couldn't even decide on which city slogan to use, so they threw "Heart of the Nation" on there in addition to "City of Fountains."  And then, because I guess they feared that people couldn't discern the city based upon those two hints, they went ahead and added "Kansas City Missouri" to the flag as well.  The result is a muddled mess instead of what could have been a great flag.  

6. Boston, MA (adopted 1917) - You could make the argument that this one is not a bad at New Haven's - since it at least has SOME color - and that they should be flipped.  However, I'm rating this one as WORSE than New Haven's because it's friggin' BOSTON, people!  Boston is one of the neatest,

most historic cities in the country.  It played an integral part in the early years of the country.  But instead of a flag that pays tribute to that legacy, we get the lazy "seal on a bedsheet" approach.  Even worse, it includes a bunch of Latin words that I'm pretty sure that no one from Southie understands.  I mean, you've got Paul Revere and Old North Church.  You've got Bunker Hill.  You've got the Boston Tea Party.  The U.S.S. Constitution.  The Charles River. You've got so many historic and important possibilities and this is the best they came up with? I do NOT like them apples!

5. Detroit, MI (adopted 1948; last modified 2000) - This is an example of a flag trying to do too much.  It has the city seal in the center.  The lower left panel (white with gold fleur-de-lis) is supposed to represent France, from where the city's original settlers hailed.  The upper right panel (red with gold

lions) is supposed to represent England, which controlled the city during the latter part of the 18th century.  I'm actually okay with those.  But then the other two quarter panels (upper left and lower right) and the thirteen stars and stripes representing the thirteen original colonies.  Of which Detroit wasn't a part.  So, that part doesn't make much sense.  Throw it all together and it just seems like a jumbled mess - like they put a bunch of symbols in a blender, hit start and then removed the lid.  The symbols flew out an hit the ceiling and that's what they ran with.

4. Cleveland, OH (adopted 1896) - Another rust belt city with a lousy flag.  As we've already established words, dates and slogans do not belong on flags.  Cleveland's flag unfortunately has all three, along with some random symbols that are supposed to represent the city's industry but the are

largely indiscernible without an explanation.  From a distance, it just looks like a red, white and blue flag with a bunch of jumbled gibberish in the middle. Similar to Kansas City's flag, it's too predictable and too cluttered.  Considering this is one of the oldest flags on our list, it's a little surprising that some enterprising mind or designer hasn't tried to come up with something better.  I'm not suggesting Chief Wahoo and the Cuyahoga River on fire, but pretty much anything else would be an upgrade over what they have now.

3. Tucson, AZ  (adopted 1953) - Whereas Phoenix did a city flag the right way - clean and simple, using a color not usually found on flags- Tucson, the second largest city in Arizona - went the opposite way.  Their flag is the oh so predictable city seal on a white flag...or the Southwest version of New Haven.  However, what makes this one worse is that the city seal is very busy.  On a stationary seal, it may work.  But on a flag, from a distance, it just looks like a muddled mess.  It's supposed to be a

contrast between the modern city with its skyscrapers and office buildings and the historic mission that served as the original foundation of the city.  But one half is black and white, while the other half is in color.  The two representations of the city or contained within the outline of a sun, which - for some reason has different rays on the "modern" part of the seal than on the "historic" part of the seal. Then they throw in a random rope that I guess is supposed to tie it altogether but just serves to throw another color and additional muddling to the logo in the center of the flag.  What the should have done is something simple but significant: a green Saguaro cactus next to a yellow or orange sun - a nod to nearby Saguaro National Park and the copious amounts of sun the area receives.  Put that on crimson flag and you'd have one of the best city flags out there, instead of this eyesore.

2. Milwaukee, WI (adopted 1954) - Holy cow, this flag is bad.  It has everything you DON'T want on a flag.  Words. Check.  Date. Check.  A whole bunch of symbols and pictures of random things. Check.  To make matters even worse, some of the items on the flag don't even exist anymore - like County

Stadium.  The designer tried to do waaaaay too much with the flag - pay tribute to Lake Michigan, the brewing industry, skyline, sports facilities, churches, and it ends up being a cluttered, muddled, mess.   To illustrate how ridiculous Milwaukee's flag is, here is the description of the flag on Wikipedia: "It displays symbols of Milwaukee on a medium blue background, with the city name below all the elements in Copperplate Gothic. In the center, a gear, representing industry, bears symbols of Milwaukee's identity and history. An Indian head, resembling the Milwaukee Braves logo at the time,^[1] represents Native American origins. A flag with two stars, said to be a Civil War-era flag, may also represent a service flag.^[3][4] A lamp symbol in the upper right was once associated with the Milwaukee City Library.^[1] Below this is Milwaukee City Hall, representing government, which is flanked by abstract outlines of a church, housing, a factory, the Milwaukee Arena, and the former County Stadium (demolished in 2001) along a straight shoreline with waves representing Lake Michigan. The golden barley stalk on the left represents Milwaukee's brewing history, and the red ship with water symbolizes Milwaukee's status as a port city, with the 1846 date of city incorporation from the merger with Byron Kilbourn's Kilbourntown and Solomon Juneau's Juneautown on the flag's right vertically." Whew.  That's just a lot of mumbo jumbo explanation and when it takes that long to describe the supposed symbolism of your flag, it's easier just to admit that your flag blows.  Thankfully, many Milwaukeeans have realized their flag stinks and there has been a recent push to replace it with something simpler.  Here's hoping those more creative minds prevail.  In the interim, might I suggest the Brewers' MB ball-in-glove logo, the Bucks' deer head logo and a beer stein?  What would be a better representation of Milwaukee than that?  Although, let's be honest, almost ANYTHING is better than what they have now.

1. Tampa, FL (adopted 1930) - Those of you who were paying attention to my comments on St. Petersburg's flag were probably able to deduce that the flag of their neighbor, Tampa, would be ranked as the worst city flag. This flag is so terrible, I don't know where to start.  First of all, it's not a quadrilateral flag; it's almost more a pennant than a flag.  But that's not the bad part.  Just look at it!  It is supposed to hold all kinds of symbolism when, in reality, it looks more like a subway system map

than anything else.  Or, as one website put it, "this flag would make a great beach towel or a colorful cape for a Floridian super hero."  The red and gold section is supposed to represent Spain, while the green, white and red portion at the end is supposed to represent Italy.  The red, white and blue sections - and there are a bunch of them - are supposed to represent some combination of France, England and the USA.  It's like the vexillogical version of a DNA test that tells most of us that we're mutts that are a result of repeated crossbreeding over the centuries.  And, to top it off, they took the oh-so-predictable step of slapping the city seal in the middle, which features a random boat about which there is disagreement as to whether is represents a pirate ship or a tribute to one of its early pioneers, Henry Plant.  As I stated earlier, it looks more like a public transit map than anything else.  Compare the flag posted above with the diagrams below: the first is a map of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The second is a

map of the MBTA subway system in Boston.  Tell me there aren't some similarities between these and Tampa's flag!  Whereas St. Petersburg makes the Tampa Bay area proud with a great, flag symbolism a bird native to the area, Tampa's flag is just a garish, colorful mess.  Going back to the earlier analysis that the flag would 

make a great cape for a Floridia super hero and given the penchant for crazy, oddball internet stories to inevitably begin with "Florida Man...", just think of the possibilities!  It

could be an adult version of Captain Underpants!  Given how terrible this flag is, it's not surprising that many Tampa residents don't even realize they have a flag and when they do, they hate it.  A 2019 article in the Tampa Bay Times reported that many longtime Tampa residents state that they "couldn't pick our flag out of a lineup" and that a whopping 92% of people who participated in a survey about the flag said they supported changing it.  When your flag is so bad that locals don't even know it exists and, once they do, they overwhelmingly want to change it, you know you have the very definition of a terrible flag.  As such, it should be no surprise that Tampa's flag ranks as my worst city flag.

There you have The Golden Rules's list of the best and worst city flags.  I hope you found it entertaining - and maybe even a little educational.

Thanks for reading!

A Fortunate Son Looking Out My Back Door in Lodi to See Proud Mary

When people talk about the "Golden Age" of rock-n-roll, they are probably talking about the ten year span between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s. Ask people to name bands from that era and you're likely to hear names like The Beatles and The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and The Who, Led Zeppelin and Eagles. But there's one influential and hugely successful band from that era that seems to have fallen out of the conversation of the iconic artists of the time. It's a band that performed at the iconic Woodstock Festival and holds the dubious distinction of having the most #2 singles (5) without ever having a #1 hit. In four short years - between 1968 and 1972 - this band sold more than 30 million copies of their albums and singles. In a span of just 3 years (1968-71), they had 10 Top 20 hits, including 9 that made it into the Top 10, with 7 of those reaching the Top 5. The band I'm referring to, of course, is Creedence Clearwater Revival. CCR, primarily the brainchild and outlet of lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter John Fogerty, is a band that sounded different from everything else released in that era. Despite the fact that they hailed from California, they pioneered "swamp rock" and "Southern rock," singing songs about bayous and the Mississippi River. They produced searing political rockers like "Fortunate Son" while also producing introspective ballads like "Have You Ever Seen The Rain." They produced successful covers of songs by others ("Suzie Q" and "Heard It Through The Grapevine") while also producing hit songs that spawned successful covers of their own by others ("Proud Mary".) While they lacked the screaming fans of The Beatles or the longevity of The Rolling Stones, they still produced an incredible catalog of music that undoubtedly stands the test of time 50 years later. In honor of this underappreciated, uniquely American rock band, here is my list of the top 5 CCR songs: 

 5.) "Lookin' Out My Back Door" - Released in the summer of 1970, this trippy, country rock jammer features prominent Dobro amongst lyrics describing colorful, dream-like imagery. Similar to The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," some surmised that the song was either about drugs or a product of their use. Fogerty, however, says that he wrote it for his then 3-year-old son and was partly inspired by a Dr. Seuss book. The song peaked at #2 in October 1970. Bonus points for name dropping Buck Owens, another trail blazing singer based in California. 

4.) "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" - The  release right after our #5 selection in January 1971, it's a ballad that asks "have you ever seen the rain coming down on a sunny day?" Taken at face value, it's a song about rain and weather. But its actually a metaphor for the dysfunction in the band and how the band's members were sad and depressed despite being hugely successful, wealthy and famous. Fogerty's aching vocals in the chorus are backed by a Rhodes piano that helps to emphasize the downcast nature of the song. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard charts in the spring of 1971. It's lyrics proved prescient as guitarist Tom Fogerty left the band shortly after the song's release and the band itself disbanded the following year. 

3.) "Lodi" - Of all of the songs CCR released, this wasn't one of their biggest hits, peaking at only #52 on the charts. It's certainly less well known than the band's other big hits, but it's always been a favorite of mine, as I've previously mentioned in other blog posts regarding my favorite lyrics. Whereas the meaning of the first two songs on this list can be open to interpretation, "Lodi" is a straightforward story song. Its lyrics tell of a singer stuck in a boring, middle-of-nowhere town, singing songs in bars in front of drunk people and unable to raise enough money to afford a bus or train fare to leave town. Hence the chorus "Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again." But it's the little things that elevate this song above the typical, run-of-the-mill "life on the road" songs - two little things, back-to-back, heading into the last verse. The first is a key change, adjusting it up a half note. The second is the searing lines "If I only had a dollar for every song I've sung/Every time I had to play while people sat there drunk..." It pulls the whole lyric and the whole visual picture they paint together. While John Fogerty escaped the fate of the character in the song, that lyric has always stuck with me and is one of the reasons this song makes the list ahead of some of their more well known tunes. Ironically - given the name dropping done in our #5 song above - this song has been covered by many other musicians, not the least of whom was none other than Buck Owens. 

2.) "Proud Mary" - Probably the band's most widely recognized song, "Proud Mary" peaked at #2 on the charts in March 1969. Fogerty's lyrics channel Mark Twain in describing life on a river boat and escaping from the dredge of a steady but boring job. The music, meanwhile, creates the chugging, train-like feel that propels the song forward. The driving tempo of the song is a perfect match for a song about life on a river. It's an amalgamation of rock and the blues and Southern music that is catchy and instantly recognizable. Even people who are unfamiliar with CCR can still probably sing along with the chorus of "Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river." The song was famously covered by Ike and Tina Turner in the early '70s, once again become a Top 5 hit, though this time as a soulful, funk classic. 

1.) "Fortunate Son" - Our top pick is a searing protest song that is every bit as relevant in the year 2020 as it was when it first hit the airwaves more than 50 years ago in the fall of 1969. While the song was obviously written and released in the shadow of Vietnam, the lyrics are incisive and broad enough to apply not just to that conflict but to any other situation in which people of wealth and privilege are able to avoid unpleasant things to which less fortunate people are subjected. The song has been featured in countless films, commercials, and video games, most famously in "Forrest Gump" when Forrest and Bubba arrive via helicopter to a war zone in South Vietnam. It's also been covered numerous times, by everyone from Bob Seger and U2 to Wyclef Jean to the Foo Fighters and Death Cab for Cutie. The most ironic use of the song, however, was during a Donald Trump campaign rally. Apparently, Trump and his minions (not surprisingly) misinterpreted the point of the song, seeing as how Trump is the very epitome of the titular character against which Fogerty rails. While many protest songs and songs written during the Vietnam era have not aged well, "Fortunate Son" is still as powerful today as it was the day it was written.

There you have it - my tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band established their own, unique sound and niche. Their music didn't sound like anything else at the time and, even decades later, it still has an unmistakably distinctive feel. Thanks for reading!

Song Lyrics for These Times

There have been a lot of things going on in the world these past 3 or 4 months, from the Coronavirus pandemic and related quarantines and restrictions on activities, to the recent protests over racism and violence by police.  Rather than enthrall you with my take on these issues (which will probably come via another blog post soon), I thought I'd take a step back and some share song lyrics that I think are apropros to the situations we face these days.  Most of these are serious, but I've thrown a few humorous lyrics in as well.  I've always admired songwriters and lyricists who are so adept at saying what we oftentimes struggle to say, so consider this a tribute of sorts to these folks.  Here we go...

 

"The load is heavy and the road is long

And we've only begun to fight

We just can't give in, we just can't give up

We must go boldly into the darkness and be the light

...

When did the land of the free

Become the home of the afraid?

Afraid of the world, afraid of the truth

Afraid of each other

...

This ain't the country my grandfather fought for

But I still see the hate he fought against

Give rest to the tired, give mercy to the poor

Give warmth to the huddled masses

And I'll show you freedom"

- American Aquarium, "The World is on Fire"

 

"Don't stand so close to me"

- The Police, "Don't Stand So Close to Me"

 

"Why is there a rebel flag hanging from the state house walls?

Tired of hearing this shit about heritage not hate

Time to make the world a better place

Why must we hate one another?

Well, no matter what we gotta live together

Just that you don't look like me, tell me what do you see?

When we pass on the street, what do you want to see?"

- Hootie and the Blowfish, "Drowning"

 

"You lie so much you believe yourself

...

Arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand"

- Metallica, "Holier Than Thou"

 

"Down here we're still fighting for all the wrong reasons

Old men still defend these monuments to treason

To the right side of history we're always late

Still arguing the difference between heritage and hate"

- American Aquarium, "A Better South"

 

"I exploit you, still you love me."

- Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"

 

"When the last thing we notice is the color of skin,

And the first thing we look for is the beauty within

...

When we're free to love anyone we choose,

When this world's big enough for all different views"

-Garth Brooks, "We Shall Be Free"

 

"There's battle lines being drawn

Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

Young people speaking their minds

Getting so much resistance from behind"

-Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"

 

"Mind is a battlefield

All hope is gone

Trouble to the right and left

Whose side you're on?"

- Foo Fighters, "The Sky is a Neighborhood"

 

"And then a politician shows up promising that

He'll return the jobs that God himself could not bring back

...

Neither the left nor the right

Are gonna fight for folks stuck in between

The way things really are

In the American dream"

- American Aquarium, "Me + Mine (Lamentations)"

 

"Don't wanna be an American idiot

One nation controlled by the media

Information age of hysteria

It's calling out to idiot America"

- Green Day, "American Idiot"

 

"America Street it's right nearby

Land of the free and the brave

And if we can't work and make some change

There won't be much of this land left to save"

- Edwin McCain, "America Street"

 

"There's too many men, too many people

Making too many problems

And not much love to go 'round

...

This is the world we live in

And these are the hands we're given

Use them and let's start trying

To make it a place worth living in"

- Genesis, "Land of Confusion"

 

 

Top 20 Music Videos

As difficult as it is to believe now - considering the dearth of music videos on TV these days - there was a 15 or 20 year span when music videos were HUGE business and an integral part of music.  There were many artists who may never have been as popular as they were without music videos. While some videos were nothing more than glorified concert clips, other videos were big budget, motion picture quality affairs that may or may not have had anything to do with the song lyrics.  Seeing as how music videos are essentially now an relic of days gone by, I figure it's a good time for my list of the Top 20 Music Videos of all time.

While the list is understandably focused on videos from the 1980s, I've sprinkled in a few gems from the 1990s as well.  Here we go...

20. "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran (1983) - Filmed in Sri Lanka, the video has an Indiana Jones-type vibe with the band running about in a crowded town and then in the jungle. Few bands took advantage of the music video to greater effect than Duran Duran and this video is a perfect example of why.  Combining exotic locations with the movie star looks of the band, the video helped propel the song into the Top 5 on the Billboard charts. https://youtu.be/oJL-lCzEXgI

19. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by The Police (1983) - A maze of candlesticks in a dark room with Sting dancing around them in slow motion.  Directed by Godley & Crème (who also directed their two previous videos, "Every Breath You Take" and "Synchronicity II"), the video was actually filmed and performed at a faster speed and then slowed down for playback, resulting in the slow motion action in the film.  It matches the ethereal vibe of the song, making it particularly memorable. https://youtu.be/svWINSRhQU0

18. "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley (1984) - Shot in black-and-white, it's a French New Wave-inspired gem that features the main character at the video at three different ages (boy, adult, middle-aged man) reminiscing about past relationships. To this day, whenever I hear this song, I mentally picture the black-and-white video.  The video won "Video of the Year" at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards. https://youtu.be/672F2t5dVeY

17. "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday (1985) - A perfect example of how a music video can reinforce the story of a song and help increase that song's popularity.  The video, which visually told the story in support of the lyrics about an abusive relationship, was a perfect example of what made MTV great back in its nascent years.  A well-made, creative video that helps to bring more exposure to a terrific song.  Who can forget when Aimee Mann takes of her hat during a performance at Carnegie Hall, revealing spiky hair and a rat tail when she slowly sings louder and louder? https://youtu.be/uejh-bHa4To

16. "Big Me" by Foo Fighters (1996) - A spoof of the corny Mentos commercials of the mid-1990s - they were "Footos" in the video- it's a funny, tongue-in-cheek video that probably hasn't aged as well as one would think, since those Mentos commercials have vanished from TV.  Part of the charm of the video relies upon the viewer being familiar with the aforementioned Mentos commercials.  Still, it was definitely memorable at the time and showed the creative attitude of the band toward music videos, something that will lead to another Foo Fighters entry later on in this countdown.  The video was nominated for "Video of the Year" at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, but it didn't win. 

https://youtu.be/pLdJQFTnZfA

15. "Right Now" by Van Halen (1992) - A well executed idea that supported the content of the lyrics, the video features a number of phrases on the screen that reference both issues within the band and the lyrics as well as social issues going on at the time.  It was one of those videos you had to actually watch a couple of times to fully catch everything.  While that Sammy Hagar years of Van Halen are sometimes maligned by critics and hard rock devotees, this video was the best one the band ever did.  It won "Video of the Year" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. https://youtu.be/SeJfcW03hF0

14. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (1991) - A high school pep rally concert that devolves into chaos and anarchy, the video was a perfect match for the song and it helped introduce grunge music in general and Nirvana in particular to the music world at large.  In 4 and a half minutes, the band blew up the music world and put a fork in the hair bands that were so prevalent in the late 1980s, both with their sound and the gritty, cathartic video that accompanied it. It was nominated for "Video of the Year" at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, but it lost out to the #15 video on this list. https://youtu.be/hTWKbfoikeg

13. "Beat It" by Michael Jackson (1983) - Few artists mastered the art of the music video better than Michael Jackson and this is the first of his three entries on this list.  This was the video that introduced the mass choreography that became a hallmark of Jackson's later videos.  A sort of "West Side Story" street fight scenario that doubles as a plea that violence is not the answer.  This song and video helped establish Jackson as the "King of Pop" and blur the lines between pop, R&B and rock. https://youtu.be/oRdxUFDoQe0

12. "Buddy Holly" by Weezer (1994) - One of the great videos from my college years, this one uses computer animation and camera trickery to insert the band into a scene from "Happy Days", where they are playing at Arnold's Drive-In.  The band is dressed in '50s garb to fit in and it even features Fonzie dancing to the band's music.  Given the song's lyrics referencing 1950s stars Buddy Holly and Mary Tyler Moore, it ties everything together. It was unique and different and helped make the song a huge hit. https://youtu.be/kemivUKb4f4

11. "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel (1986) - A chaotic mixture of Claymation, pixilation and stop-motion animation (not to mention some certain bodily fluids under a microscope), it was a unique combination of animation and life action shots of Gabriel singing.  The award-winning video (it was Video of the Year at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards) was part of the reason that the song became Gabriel's biggest U.S. hit.  Always known for strange videos ("Big Time" and "Shock the Monkey" are other examples), this was his most successful and most enduring. https://youtu.be/OJWJE0x7T4Q

 

10. "Hot for Teacher" by Van Halen (1984) - The last single (and, consequently, last video) by Van Halen's original lineup, it's probably what you'd expect for a song about having a crush on your teacher.  It introduces the nerdy kid Waldo as well as the "band members" as school kids and as adults.  It involves attractive "teachers" parading around beauty pageant style in swimsuits, complete with the sashes that, instead of featuring their state or country, feature the subjects they teach.  It also features the band members dancing around in matching suits under a disco ball.  It's funny - albeit certainly misogynistic - and it ended the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen with a bang.  Seeing as how I'm married to a teacher, I sometimes think of this as my theme song.  :)   https://youtu.be/6M4_Ommfvv0

 

9. "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam (1992) - One of the hallmarks of grunge music and the so-called "Seattle Sound" of the early 1990s was downcast lyrics and subject matter.  This song, which is about a boy who was picked on in at school and ultimately gets his "revenge" by killing himself with a gun in front of the class and his teacher.  It was inspired by a real life incident and the video, which includes a montage of insults hurled, still frame pictures and live action to create a collage of images in support of the lyrics and meaning of the song.  MTV's editing of the gun from the climactic image led to the frequent misinterpretation that Jeremy had killed his classmates rather than himself.  Regardless, it was a very powerful statement where the video deftly reinforces the content of the lyrics.  The controversy surrounding the video was one of the reasons Pearl Jam stopped making music videos after this one.  "Try to erase this from the blackboard..." https://youtu.be/MS91knuzoOA

 

8. "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters (1999) - The second entry for Foo Fighters - and the third entry overall for Dave Grohl - this is the most recent video to make the list.  Directed by the same team that did the #16 video, this one is another humorous spoof, this time of those cheesy 1970s-era disaster movies.  It features the band members each playing several roles, with Grohl appearing in no fewer than 6 roles (as a pilot, as a flight attendant, as an overweight middle-aged woman, as a teenage girl, an FBI agent and as himself). It's a madcap, slapstick feast that ends with Grohl and fellow band members having to "learn to fly" and land an airplane after the actual pilots pass out from spiked coffee.  The video also features Tenacious D (including Jack Black) in cameo appearances as the mechanics who spike the coffee.  The video even won a Grammy for "Best Short Form Music Video." https://youtu.be/1VQ_3sBZEm0

 

7. "Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (1985) - The video is themed around Alice in Wonderland, with Petty filling the role of The Mad Hatter.  Toward the end of the video, Alice is turned into a cake that is eaten by the other characters in the video.  It's all a little weird, but it's also very well done to the point where I can't hear the song today without thinking of the video.  https://youtu.be/h0JvF9vpqx8

 

6. "Land of Confusion" by Genesis (1986) - A scathing criticism of the Cold War and some of the world leaders at the time, this video features caricature puppets to back up the lyrics and help convey the story they tell.  In addition to caricature puppets of the three band members, it also features caricature puppet versions of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and Moamar Khaddafi, among other world leaders, as well as a number of celebrities who were newsworthy in the 1980s, including Pope John Paul II, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Michael Jackson and Madonna.  While young people watching the video may be lost because they may not be familiar with the real life people of whom the puppets are caricatures, it was definitely a timely skewer back in the 1980s.  It was unique and very well executed - no other video looked quite like it before or after. https://youtu.be/Yq7FKO5DlV0

5. "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson (1983) - This is the music video that put MTV on the map and helped propel the still relatively new cable channel into the stratosphere while also propelling Jackson's Thriller album to be the best selling album of all time.  While the song's lyrics deal with an overzealous fan who claims to have given birth to Jackson's child, the video is more about paparazzi following Jackson around.  Who can forget the tiles lighting up as Jackson walks on them?  Or the freeze frame of Jackson on his toes?  Or the inexplicable (and soon to be oft imitated) single white glove?  The video was groundbreaking both for the technology and artistry involved but also because it was the first video by an African American artist to be played regularly on MTV.  This is Jackson's 2nd appearance on this list but (spoiler alert) it won't be his last. https://youtu.be/Zi_XLOBDo_Y

 

4. "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits (1985) - One of the first music videos to use computer animation, it probably seems primitive and cheesy to your kids if they watched it today.  However, when it was released in 1985, it was cutting edge.  The animation in the video essentially supports the lyrics telling the story of an appliance repairman complaining about musicians who get "money for nothing, chicks for free."  The video won "Video of the Year" at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.  The song became Dire Straits' biggest hit due, in large part, to the memorable video. Kudos to the band for working the early '80s MTV slogan "I want my MTV" into the song and video. https://youtu.be/wTP2RUD_cL0

 

3. "You Might Think" by The Cars (1984) - Another of the first music videos to use computer animation, one could argue that this video set the stage for some of the catchy videos to follow, such as the #4 and #11 videos on this list.  It features miniature versions of the band members performing on a bar of soap and in a medicine cabinet, while versions of lead singer Ric Ocasek appear as everything from King Kong to lipstick to a bee to a insect drilling on a girl's teeth.  This video won the first ever "Video of the Year" at the MTV Video Music Awards and, helped in large part by the video, it became the band's first ever #1 hit. https://youtu.be/3dOx510kyOs

 

2. "Take On Me" by a-ha (1985) - Arguably the most innovative short form music video ever made, it uses rotoscoping - a combination of pencil sketch animation and live action clips.  The two are combined to create surreal scenes in which the characters are pulled between real life and scenes from a comic book.  The story of the video is a sort of romantic/fantasy/action movie involving racing motorcycles, bad guys and, of course, the budding romance between the singer and a pretty girl.  After pulling her into the comic book world, he eventually escapes and comes to join her in the real, human world.  To this day, the video is a huge hit, reaching more than one billion views on YouTube after it was re-mastered and re-released earlier this year.  While a-ha has had numerous hit songs in Europe, this was their only top 10 hit in the U.S. (it hit #1) and the incredible video is undoubtedly a large reason for that. https://youtu.be/djV11Xbc914

 

1. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson (1983) - Admit it.  You just KNEW this was going to be #1, right?  It's certainly no surprise as it is the most famous music video of all time.  It's actually more of a mini horror film that just a simple music video.  Regardless, so much about is iconic, from the choreographed zombie dance to the famed red leather jacket that Jackson wears.  The video was such a big deal that MTV would announce in advance the next time they would play it, which resulted in record-breaking viewership.  In an age where DVR didn't exist and VCRs were not yet in vogue, every airing of "Thriller" became appointment viewing and the video became a sensation. It was such a sensation that a "making of" documentary was created and MTV and Showtime collectively paid more than $500,000 (the equivalent of $1.4 million in today's dollars) for the rights to broadcast it.  Decades after the video was released, the choreography has become a pop culture trend, appearing in several movies and TV shows over the years.  It is - quite simply - the biggest music video of all time. https://youtu.be/sOnqjkJTMaA

 

Honorable Mention: "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel (1986); "The Red Strokes" by Garth Brooks (1994); "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes (1983); "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden (1994)

 

 I have to say that this was one of the more enjoyable lists I've done yet.  I enjoyed going back and watching these old videos and recalling how much I liked them growing up.  Hopefully, some of you will experience the same feeling as you peruse this list.

 

As always, thanks for reading!