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Usually I try to find reasonably off-the-beaten track videos for LNMC -- and I usually prefer live stuff -- but every now and then it's fun to dust off the ol' faves.

At one time this video was considered the best studio vid ever made. I expect that's no longer true, but I'd like to know what you all think would be the videos that surpass it. Post some nominees in the comments, I'll sift through them, and run some of the better ones. Obvious and well-known ones like this are welcome too.

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(Telephone - huge in Europe. Over here? Well . . . )

I recently ran across a French Radio station online (Oui FM, which you should check out) that plays some fascinating stuff - old and new - French and non-French. During one of their sets they slipped in Dure Limite by the French punk/post-punk/new wave/hard rock group Telephone. They were enormous in France and throughout Europe in the late 1970s up to 1986, when they disbanded and went separate ways. They hardly made a dent in the States (again, that language thing), but I remembered the band pretty well, having been familiar with them since their first album, but I really hadn't played anything by them, or heard anything about them until the other day when Dure Limite came on. Not a massive seller at the time, it was produced by Bob Ezrin, who was responsible for a lot of memorable albums in the 70s - Doctor John and Peter Gabriel are two that come to mind. According to a website, the band did reunite in 2003. But what has happened since then is a mystery.

Still, it's nice to be reminded of the not-so-obvious 80s every once in a while.

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(From the Secret World Live disc.) In the '80s and '90s I did a fair amount of music writing as a freelancer, and in that time I saw probably over a hundred concerts, including a lot of great grunge shows in the '90s. Still, seeing Peter Gabriel on the '93 Secret World Tour -- he played locally at the Tacoma Dome, but the show looked identical to the one captured here, in Italy -- remains probably my favorite. Gabriel's songs mean a lot to me personally ("In Your Eyes" was "our song" when my wife and I were dating), but the show was just riveting, and the talent (Youssou N'dor, Paula Cole, Tony Levin) was awesome. I also have a cool big-disc 45 of this song, which included an extended version that included the line poem at the end ("Accepting all I've done and said ..."), which does not appear on the album version, but is included here. Of course, on this song, even in the live performance, you can't help being reminded of Lloyd Dobler standing outside Diane Court's window with his music blaster.

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(Split Enz - There was an audible gasp when they first played The Roxy)

There are certain moments in musical history I shall always cherish - Syd Barrett with Pink Floyd, Soft Machine opening for Hendrix in 1968, Peter Gabriel exploding into Santa Claus during a Genesis Tour in 1974 and seeing Split Enz play The Roxy in 1975.

The band you see pictured above is exactly the way they looked during their first tour of the U.S. just as the "Second Thoughts"(released here as Mental Notes) album came out. We went through Glam, went through all the "Hair/sweat bands", went through matching stage suits and haircuts bands - but we never went through anything like this!

When the curtain opened for their first set, there was something of an audible gasp coming from this jaundiced, jaded, somewhat calcified crowd of press types who stopped stuffing Roxy ashtrays in their pockets long enough to be suitably blown away by the sheer outrageousness of this group. They spoke my language and I became a life long fan from that minute on.

This version of Lovey Dovey first appeared on "Mental Notes", their initial release for Mushroom Records in Australia. The version of "Lovey Dovey" we know is the one from the UK/US version of "Mental Notes" which was actually issued in Australia as "Second Thoughts", but it was re-recorded and produced by Phil Manzanera. I know - confusing, and I had a hard time figuring it out what was going on until their A&M period came along later.

But, all that said - this is the first version of that track and one probably not heard all that much this side of the Pacific Rim.

Rolling Stone:

This year’s Academy Awards took a big risk by only nominating three songs in the Best Original Song category, and it looks as though it has backfired: Peter Gabriel, who was nominated for “Down To Earth” from Wall-E, will not perform at the ceremony. Gabriel is protesting the producers’ decision to only allow him to perform 65 seconds of the track as part of a medley.

Since Gabriel's song is one of only three nominated, and the other two are both from Slumdog Millionaire, he'll almost definitely win. As you can see above, it's hard for Gabriel to whittle his show down to 65 seconds.

The real reason to protest the Best Original Song category? The fact that the Academy dissed Bruce Springsteen and didn't nominate "The Wrestler".

I really loved Pixar's new movie, "Wall-E," and I was really happy to hear the voice that screams "humanity," sing to us during the end credits. Peter Gabriel wrote the lyrics to the very cool song "Down to the Earth"