Webster

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)


Monday, July 23, 2018

Monday Music "Danger Zone" By Kenny Loggins

I wanted to do Caddyshack this week but Work got away from me.  So I am dusting off one that I did back in 2014.  I normally don't repeat one except for "Christmas Songs". 

This song screams "80's"  and it was sung by the soundtrack king for the 80's "Kenny Loggins" who did other soundtracks during this decade. decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, "King of the Movie Soundtrack". It began with "I'm Alright" from Caddyshack. Hits followed with "Footloose" and "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" from Footloose; "Meet Me Halfway" from Over the Top; and "Danger Zone" and "Playing With the Boys" from Top Gun. Loggins also performed "Nobody's Fool" from the film Caddyshack II. He also performed as a member of USA for Africa on the famine-relief fundraising single "We Are the World", which led to an appearance performing "Footloose" at the Philadelphia leg of the July 13, 1985 Live Aid famine relief dual-venue charity concert and global television broadcast.  The U.S. Navy got a lot of free publicity on this movie, I heard of recruiters hanging around theaters and picking up prospects after they walked out from seeing this movie.  The U.S. Army tried with the Apache Helicopter and Nickolaus Cage with mixed results and I think the Air Force tried with "Red Flag" or something like that.  The U.S. Marines had HeartBreak Ridge and it did well and gave the Corp a good publicity involving the mission to Grenada.




 This scene with the "AK-47 as the preferred weapon of our adversary and it makes a distinctive sound when fired at you." is a classic especially with us military guys.
    Now back to "Top Gun", "Danger Zone" is a song, with music composed by Giorgio Moroder and lyrics written by Tom Whitlock, which American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins recorded and released in 1986. The song appeared on the soundtrack to the 1986 American motion picture Top Gun.

The band Toto were originally intended to perform the track but legal conflicts between the producers of Top Gun and the band's lawyers prevented this.
Bryan Adams was approached to allow his song "Only the Strong Survive" on the soundtrack and perform "Danger Zone". But Adams refused any involvement, feeling that the film glorified war and he did not want any of his work linked to it.
REO Speedwagon were also approached to perform "Danger Zone", but the group declined due to not being allowed to contribute any of their own compositions to the soundtrack.
Eventually, the film producers agreed that "Danger Zone" would be recorded and performed by Kenny Loggins.


Dann Huff, lead vocalist and guitarist from '80s hard rock group Giant, performed guitar on the selection. The bass line is a classic 1980s sound comprised in the main of a plucked bass sound from the ubiquitous Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, with the drums being provided by the LinnDrum (a drum machine designed by Roger Linn) which also appears on hundreds of other 1980s pop hits. A tenor saxophone joins in near the end of the song.


Music video

A music video was released in May of 1986 to promote the single. The video was directed by Tony Scott and featured footage of Loggins singing, as well as clips from the film Top Gun, which Scott also directed.

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hey Momma Fargo;

      "Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full.......*SWOOSH*

      Delete
  2. Monday Music "Danger Zone" By Kenny Rogers"

    When I saw that as your header, my first thought was "What? I thought it was Kenny Loggins". You did have it correct in the body text, though...........

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    Replies
    1. Hey Bob;

      Dangit, that is what I get for being in a hurry....Will be fixed in a minute

      Delete
  3. How crazy is this. I just reconnected with a high school friend, who I have not seen since 1978. He was a Marine, and just had a surgery to put a plate in his back, to keep his spine from collapsing onto his spinal cord and causing paralysis. He had been in pain for awhile.
    He is now on complete disability, but had been on 25% disability due to wounds suffered during the fighting in Grenada.
    It is easy to forget that our nation has been involved with many small battles for much of our history, especially in the last 50-75 years. That we forget about those who serve our country in the military, and go to fight for us, is unfortunate. But it is telling that we are not always even aware of just how many diverse places our country has soldiers actually shooting at, and having return fire, from hostiles. No matter how good our military becomes, at some point, we have to ask if this is the kind of nation we want to be, and the policies we should be pursuing.
    As to Kenny Loggins, and his music, he is one of my wife's favorite singers. I believe that he lives in Colorado, and still tours. She also liked Dan Fogelberg, a similar singer, who has passed away now.
    I am a musician, and used to like to go to concerts, but I can't justify the awful price of tickets now days. The last concert we went to was B.J. Thomas, in Florida at Ruth Eckert hall, a couple years back, but tickets were only like 15$ each. A concert for one of the big names now is at least 50-75$. For someone like Diana Krall, it is 125$. For that much, she would need to spend the night and give me a massage, and share a cigarette afterwards.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Pigpen;

      Kudo's in meeting your friend, People forget that there were casualties from Grenada and Beirut. Grenada had issues but still went far better than "Desert One" did. The reforms to the military continued and worked well in Panama and paid off in spades for Desert Storm. I haven't bee to a concert in many years, the ticket prices are too high for me and I can't mentally justify the expense. I love music and love listening to it, but I can't do concerts anymore.

      Delete

I had to change the comment format on this blog due to spammers, I will open it back up again in a bit.