When one discusses the 1980s, few groups elicit such polarizing opinions like Ambrosia.

Although they were actually a versatile rock band -- yes, I said rock -- this band comprised of L.A. studio musicians is pretty much only known for their smooth, slick pop tunes, which reflected the style of lead singer David Pack, who has one of the best pop voices in history and who now plays primarily smooth jazz music.

Ambrosia reminds me a lot of Styx in a sense. Dennis DeYoung clearly wanted to turn his band into an outlet for his theatrical sensibilities. Likewise, Ambrosia took on Pack's style, although I'm not well enough versed in the group to know if it was pronounced in them as it was in Styx.

Regardless, as part of my Top 10 for the year 1980, I chose to highlight a song that Quincy Jones called one of the greatest pop songs of all time: "Biggest Part of Me." And when Q speaks, I listen.

Even if I didn't revere Quincy Jones' work, I would absolutely believe this to be one of the best-crafted pop songs ever. It's substantive yet light, and it's a song that knows no cultural boundaries. It's been covered by many, including the great Gospel a capella group, Take 6.

However, if I can take a critical look at the group here and of this entire era of music, the 1980s were particularly guilty of putting out music from what I'd call "man bands," which were groups comprised of studio musicians and whose music was characterized mostly by production.

Ambrosia and Toto are the best examples.

However, what Toto lacks in terms of a signature song that can stand the test of time, Ambrosia has in "Biggest Part of Me." Few songs from the 1980s can be categorized as standards, but this is most certainly one of them.

And as a bonus video, I've picked out an obscure Ambrosia video from 1982, "How Can You Love Me," which features piano work from one of pop music's greatest players. Although he was never officially a member that I know of, see if you can pick him out.

Lastly, as a footnote, because I dedicated a blog entry to the work of Jack Wagner, which elicited groans, pain and some severe vomiting (but not by me), I need to note that music fans have David Pack to thank for his hit, "All I Need."

No. 8 for 1980: "Biggest Part Of Me," by Ambrosia.

Bonus video: "How Can You Love Me," by Ambrosia.

One of the few artists a kid of the 1980s and his parents could agree upon was George Benson. Not only is he one of if not the best jazz guitarist of our generation, he was a pop and R&B staple on American radio in the early part of the decade.

And in 1980, Benson made his mark with an international smash that not only resonated with young people, it featured one of the greatest guitar licks in history.

It's "Give Me The Night," and it comes in at No. 9 in my Top 10 songs for the year 1980. As a reminder, I'm using Billboard's year-end Hot 100 for 1980 as the set list, from which I pick eligible songs. Sure, I might be able to pick obscure, album-deep tunes for such a list, but this list is as much about pop culture as it is my own tastes.

At it's heart, this Top 5 smash was a disco tune. In the video, which I am posting below, Benson is on roller skates -- very disco. However, that little guitar riff at the beginning of the tune has been emulated about a billion different times.

It wasn't difficult, but it was effective.

According to songfacts.com, this song was written by the great Rod Temperton, who by the way has another song on my 1980 Top 10 list -- hint, hint.

It not only featured the incomparable Patti Austin on background vocals, but it earned Benson an R&B vocal Grammy for himself.

At some point, I'll expound on Benson's career in general, after I make my way through the 80s Top 10 lists. What's amazing is that he not only had some of the best R&B and disco tunes of the era, his straight-up jazz is brilliant, and he's even known for an easy listening masterpiece in "Breezin'".

The 64-year-old Pittsburgh native was and is versatile.

As an added bonus, I'm adding my personal favorite Benson tune, which won't be eligible for any of my lists for two reasons. First, it was originally released in 1978; however, it only became a hit in 1983, primarily on adult contemporary stations. If I remember right, "Lady Love Me (One More Time)" cracked the Top 40, peaking at about No. 33 or so.

While the video shows Benson sans guitar, focused solely on vocals, it's the man's guitar work that wins him adoration from the more serious music community. Heck, Miles Davis utilized his talents back in the 1960s, and many, many critics say he's the best jazz guitarist of all time.

So, enjoy "Give Me The Night," followed by "Lady Love Me (One More Time)."

No. 9 for 1980: "Give Me The Night," by George Benson.

Bonus video: "Lady Love Me (One More Time)," by George Benson.

I've noted before that the 1980s, musically, could be split into mini-eras including those for punk, urban country, new wave and the mainstream geneses of rap and hip-hop.

However, soft and mellow pop rock was a staple throughout the decade, a hangover from the 1970s, if you will.

And, as part of a project to count down my Top 10 from each year of the decade -- based on Billboard's year-end Hot 100 charts, meaning only those songs are eligible -- I kick things off with the poster child for late 1970s, early 1980s mellowness.

Rupert Holmes was an in-demand session player for much of the 1970s, and he became a big pop star even though he looked like a librarian. As I was reviewing the top 100 songs from 1980, I was struck by how "Escape" at once annoyed the snot out of me and yet satisfied the part of me who hopes to one day be an accomplished songwriter.

I'll tell you why.

"Escape," or as it's better known, "The Pina Colada Song," is the type of tune that drunk thirtysomethings wail to on karaoke night. It's lyrics about "getting caught in the rain," and "having half a brain," and its period references to things like "yoga" were the stuff of pain to many hipsters of the day.

However, from a songwriter's perspective, this tune was an achievement. No, it has no lasting legacy. It's not a vital song for your collection. However, in terms of the "craft," as some writers will call it, "Escape" was pretty much craft perfection.

It told a story. It was clever. It was relevant to the time, kind of like a novelty song. It was tight.

Musically, I think it was merely adequate. The notes and the chords and the musical structure never got in the way of the lyrics. Again, we're not talking about Bob Dylan here, although according to Holmes' wikipedia entry, Rolling Stone magazine once compared him to Dylan insomuch as he was original and "commanded attention."

Perhaps that command of attention was in his everyman look, and I suspect I'm not giving his musical chops nearly enough credit. Likewise, my hope is that you'll review the entire Top 10, as I write about them each night, to get a feel for just how vast they variety was back in 1980.

YouTube didn't have a Rupert Holmes video for this tune, but a studio put together a computer animation that was pretty good. So, enjoy "Escape," and then listen to his follow-up, "Him," which frankly is way more in my musical wheelhouse.

1980 Top 10 Countdown, No. 10: "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," by Rupert Holmes

Bonus video: "Him," by Rupert Holmes

Some of you, no doubt, are wondering: Where in the heck did your brilliant Mike Gundy columns go?

The rest of you supplanted the superlative "brilliant" with "terrible" or "crappy," I'm sure. However, the one thing this blog has been over the years is a hobby, a means of Web experimentation, a cathartic release from a workday spent in a newsroom and fun.

When I first started at KOCO.com two years ago, I was pretty much resigned to the notion that I would have to quit blogging. The possibility for a conflict of interest, professionally, was too much, I thought.

But, then I realized that, heck, nobody visits my site.

Relatively, that is. I got about 1,000 page views on Tuesday, and my best month has been around 10,000. So, friends, acquaintances, perhaps some co-workers and a few loyal, intelligent, beautiful and sexy RSS-feed subscribers visit each day, or at least a couple times per week.

At first, I spent most of my time writing about sports -- the big game, the NCAA tourney, predictions, etc. However, the internal reflection that came of that made me understand that I just don't love sports like I used to.

I love the Sooners and all Dallas pro teams. That's it.

I merely follow a few other teams and sports, and I do it passively. However, I have grown growingly weary of what I'd call our "Friday Night Lights" mentality.

If I could ever recommend a sports drama to you, one that realistically and accurately portrays the sociology of sports in America, this should would be it. It's brilliantly written, and even listening to the Bob Stoops call-in show on the way home tonight, I was struck by how much it matched a plausible "Friday Night Lights" episode.

Even for a sports fan, it might make one cringe.

Well, then I decided to blog about politics -- elections, issues, activists, etc. However, the internal reflection that came of that made me understand that I am not a political animal compared to those writers who really know their stuff.

Besides, I'm all over the place on issues, meaning I could never galvanize a consistent readership. I'm definitely not a xenophobic conservative, and I'm not an across-the-board bleeding-heart. On the other hand, I will talk issues over a beer or two, the problem being that in this forum, there is no beer.

Hmm. At one point, I decided to focus on promoting my music -- songwriting, smooth jazz, etc. However, the part of this process that I use to figure out what works and what doesn't online made me realize that YouTube is a much better place to promote my craft.

For awhile earlier this year, I spent most of my time writing about television, pop culture and current events as if I were the literate, straight second-coming of Perez Hilton. The practical problems here were that I was neither consistently passionate about most television or pop culture nor was I very good with gossip, relative to better sites.

Most recently, I wrote about reality television -- shows like American Idol and America's Got Talent and Big Brother. However, thanks to an online acquaintance, I mustered a modestly profitable gig writing about Big Brother this summer, still for me the guiltiest of all pop culture pleasures.

However, my personal passion for Idol waned big time this season, and while I'll always watch it, my intuition (which is never wrong) tells me that without some twists and turns, the show is already on its downward spiral. We'll see.

Another component of keeping a blog is in trying to separate work from pleasure. For me, in my opinion, keeping this blog has to be fun -- and my past three columns, one about the Jena 6 and the other two about the Gundy situation, were much more aligned with how I would have maintained my blog two years ago.

Frankly, I can't quite get passionate about the Jena 6 because those kids still beat the hell out of another human being, which doesn't exact a ton of sympathy in me. In the case of Mike Gundy's tirade, while I was passionate about the subject matter, I felt a tad uncomfortable about espousing such strong opinions about the OSU coach's behavior given that my daytime work has centered so much on it.

It is imperative that I'm able to separate personal opinions from professional thoughts. Nobody asked me to remove it, and if you really want to read my thoughts on the matter, e-mail me, and I'll send you a copy. However, by nature, I am a very moral creature, not that I end up on the right side of the equation each time.

However, I constantly deliberate personal right and wrong.

Furthermore, I am in constant flux about the nature of this blog, this Web site in general. Its purpose. How to grow its readership. What I want from it. So, I'll spell it out.

Beyond anything else, I want to identify subject matter about which I am truly passionate and truly knowledgeable and write about it regularly. This is the most certain way for this medium to be a fun release from a long day at work.

Plus, savvy Web visitors will be able to spot dispassion, ignorance, etc., quite quickly. If we follow this to its logical conclusion, the most certain way for me to garner tangible success (views, dollars, etc.), is to focus, focus, focus on those aforementioned topics.

What are those you might ask?

Primarily pornography.

Kidding. Totally kidding. I might be passionate, but I'm just not that knowledgeable. Again, I leave it to the savvy Web reader to be able to infer sarcasm.

No, I'm an expert on pop culture of the 1980s, period, particularly music. Because of the era in which I grew up, I also have a pretty strong background in the 1970s and 1990s, and the beauty about writing about yesteryear is that it will never conflict with today.

And I don't use the term "expert" lightly although I wouldn't say "top expert" or "the best." There's always somebody better or smarter.

Alas, writing strictly about these things won't draw me too many readers, too quickly, so I plan to dabble in some pop culture topics when appropriate. Where they don't present a conflict with what I do during the day. And if I can tie them to the theme of the site in general. For example, come Idol season, I'll definitely be able to tie some performances to the theme of the site.

Relative to my day to day life in a newsroom, though, focusing on something like this means less stress, no possibility of a conflict of interest, and if I'm able to demonstrate my passion and knowledge for the subject matter, I should be able to grow a large audience.

Plus, by utilizing the latest pop culture tools online, like YouTube, I'm able to experiment with devices that help to grow Web audiences, which could benefit me both professionally and personally.

Anyhoo.

So, I guess this is like a mission statement for the blog. Something to keep me focused. And, even if I were to get all worked up about a news topic down the road, I might have to refer back to this in order to center myself -- meaning it might not be the last time I pull something down from the site.

But, it was gratifying to get phone calls and e-mails from people wondering whether I was forced to remove the posts or why I did it or whether I thought people would firebomb my house, etc. It's good to have readers, but -- nope -- it was just me being overly introspective, anal and controlling.

On the other hand, the long-term potential for this site, measured by growing a consistent readership while maintaining my interest and passion, requires that I stick with the plan. That I pay attention. That I focus.

And that means those last three "brilliant" columns had to go.

However, if you had plans to frame them, we can make that happen, too.

Wow, is our plate full tonight. Thankfully, I just had a big bowl of ham and bean soup, some saltines and a big glass of Red Diamond Sugar Free iced tea.

So, physically I'm satisfied, but we have to touch on several pop cultural and political points from Monday's headlines. First and foremost, Sally Field.

She's just won an Emmy for her role on "Brothers & Sisters," an ABC show that's apparently pretty good but that interests me none. Now, I love Sally Field, particularly the late 1970s model. However, this version of Field decided to dedicate her award to mothers in general.

Fair enough.

However, after some stumbling, she then raised her trophy and said something about there never being any "God damned wars" if mothers were in charge in the first place. America's FOX television network censored it, but Canada's CTV aired it.

And the United States is the home of the FREE?

While I understand the community standards issue and how Janet Jackson's boob changed everything, the real problem here is that it was FOX that did the censoring. Given that it was a curse word associated with a negative comment about war and recognizing that the FOX Noise Channel is a propaganda machine for President George W. Bush, this was a real conflict of interest for the network.

Now, I actually agree with Sally's statement but not because of all the wonderful characteristics that mothers possess. In fact, if mothers were in charge of everything, accepting a definite patriarchal role in government and society and even business, there would be no war because there would be no men interested in fighting it.

We'd be off watching sports, drinking beer, smoking cigars, scratching ourselves and farting. That's in no particular order.

In all sincerity, I am an anti-war American by nature, like Sally. However, we started the mess in Iraq, and we are absolutely morally obligated not so much to "finish the job" as to "clean it up and minimize the global damage," and that means ensuring they have a stable government and helping to physically rebuild the country.

And that means this liberal does not in any way support a retreat right now. Nevertheless, censoring Sally's "GD" remark might have been acceptable given that FOX is a free-air network, but given their associations, I don't believe their censorship had a thing to do with cussing.

***

Another good liberal, Barry Manilow, decides he's not going to appear on "The View" because show producers won't let him appear without Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Well, suit himself.

He said her political views are "offensive and dangerous," and I am thinking to myself: Barry, are you crazy? This show represents your primary demographic -- women over 30.

However, let's examine Barry's beef. He says Elisabeth's views are offensive. Well, she's conservative, pro-war, socially right wing, but she's really no different than any other conservative. In fact, Elisabeth is pretty moderate compared to many right wingers.

So, I'll have to ix-nay him on the notion that her ideas are offensive or even dangerous. The latter is pretty ridiculous, actually. Adolf Hitler's ideas were dangerous because he had the power to execute his ideologies. David Duke's ideas are dangerous because he had a vote in his state House at one point.

However, Mel Gibson's ramblings are offensive. They serve no real danger because there was never a class of authority figures or decision-makers ready to make law with the actor's drunken rants.

Poor little Elisabeth Hasselbeck? Offensive?

She's conservative, and I don't agree with much of anything she says, but I don't find people I disagree with offensive just because I disagree with them. This is a business mistake on Barry's part, and I would go so far as to say the crooner needs to grow up a bit.

Quick break from the world of 1970s and 80s pop culture for a little something from 2007. When I got home tonight, I fixed some dinner and turned on the tube, hoping for an hour of Big Brother 8.

The finale is Tuesday. My vote is steadfastly with Dick. Better player. Better game. This should be a cakewalk.

However, Sunday football forced 60 Minutes to come on late, late enough that it spilled over into my 7 to 8 p.m. scheduled DVR recording. Well, color me lucky because I got to see one of 60 Minutes' most intriguing profiles in years -- on Alan Greenspan.

I had always known how influential the former Federal Reserve Chairman was, but I never realized how much of a geek he was. When he first started dating NBC's Andrea Mitchell in 1984, their first date consisted of READING.

The man loved Clinton as president, and he's a lifelong Republican.

And, Greenspan faithfully follows baseball, even scoring games when he goes.

Sure, this profile was part of a promotion for his new book, called The Age of Turbulence, but I have to admit that I kinda have a man crush on this dude.

He's a total geek and revels in his geekdom. He loves baseball. He plays jazz, and seriously, he's pretty much the most important political figure of our lifetime. If nothing else, he is one of the three most influential economists of all time, likely joining Smith and Keynes.

Greenspan revealed that he wrote this book originally in longhand while relaxing in his bathtub.

Sorry, but I'm glad I missed Big Brother in this case, and as soon as I can find a cheaper version of this book, I am most certainly, 100 percent buying it. It'll take me three years to read, but I'm just not up to Alan's level yet.

***

Another quick side note. As I've been writing tunes this past week, I've mentally positioned myself to explain a new tune as not being country because I "don't really consider myself a big country fan."

I'm not sure why I lie to myself there when there is quite a bit of country I like, and I particularly like songs from country music's female set. To me, there's nothing sexier than a small town country girl. Period. End of story.

So, I leave you with a song from a CD that rates about as high on metacritic as I've ever seen from a country artist. Miranda Lambert's "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" will be a serious contender for Grammy's "Album of the Year," come Feb. 2008.

And this song should get some consideration for Song of the Year. It's called "Famous In A Small Town."

When I think of how to categorize the 1980s, musically, I think of it chronologically. The earliest part of the decade was punk-influenced, but that faded quickly. In America at least, the years 1980-81 were big years for country crossovers, the Urban Cowboy movement.

But then came New Wave.

The effect of this musical era can't really be overestimated. Not only did it lead to the second British Invasion (Duran Duran, Culture Club), its influence is heavier than ever today in terms of the global popularity of electronic music.

One of the pioneers of the movement was a group called The Human League, and their most recognizable hit was a global smash called, "Don't You Want Me."

Much of the music from the 1980s is said to not stand up to time well. However, this song sounds just as great today as it did 25 years ago, and the intro riff is among the best musically of all time.

At some point, I'll delve into the mid-1980s Human League era, if you will, in which the group strangely collaborated with hip-hop producers and churned out another No. 1 hit, "Human." While I always liked the song, its influence is nonexistent. It was one of the many disposable hits of the 1980s that get virtually no airplay anywhere now.

In the meantime, enjoy this influential, class video from 1981 (UK), 1982 (US) ...

Editor's Note: This is a long post. I highly, strongly encourage you to stick around for all three videos.

One of my favorite pasttimes is sitting around with Toad and Joey and surfing the Web. We'll watch the big game (Sooners) together and then immediately trade in the boob tube for the YouTube.

Toad has a laptop set up to work on a beautiful flat screen HDTV, and on the big soundsystem, we can listen to Rhapsody, Real Networks' subscription-based music service. For $13 a month, I can listen to anything I want when I want.

Honestly, between YouTube and Rhapsody, combined with regular Internet, I could pretty much live without conventional television.

So, this past weekend, we discussed some pop culture musical oddities. Specifically, there is a 2003 CD called "When Pigs Fly (Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear)," on which singers, conventional and unconventional alike, recorded tunes dissonant to their style.

For example, Ani Difranco and Jackie Chan sing Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable."

Devo sings "Ohio," made popular by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

And Don Ho sings "Shock the Monkey."

This was a wildly enjoyable CD.

Well, as I was doing a little home research this week for my newest online venture, blogging about what I know best -- pop culture from the 1970s and 1980s -- I stumbled upon some old Barney Miller clips. If you are unfamiliar with this 1970s television sitcom gem, it was a police comedy based in New York, centered on officers of the 12th Precinct.

Personally, I think it's the best police comedy ever made and one of the five or six best and smartest sitcoms ever done. And, it has THE coolest theme song of all time. Listen:

I remember vividly that my dad's favorite character on Barney Miller was the intellectual Det. Dietrich, played by Steve Landesberg. Well, I was doing a little research on my favorite character from the show -- Nick Yemana, played by Jack Soo.

Soo's schtick on the show was that he made the coffee for the boys. And, his coffee sucked. Thick, brown, foul. Nick Yemana and Jack Soo were so alike in that their humor was so dry.

Unfortunately, Soo lost a brief battle with esophageal cancer in 1979, three years before the show ended.

True story: Hal Linden was at the hospital where Soo was when he was being taken to an operating room, literally hours or days before his death, and from a wheelchair, Soo quipped to Linden, "It must've been the coffee."

During my online research, I learned that Soo had been interned with other Japanese people during World War II and was actually somewhat of a comedian in his camp. I am not making light of what must have been a terrible experience, but Soo honed his comedic skills there.

He also starred in a film version of "Flower Drum Song," a 1961 adaptation of a play by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joseph Fields. According to this site, the play was about "the generation gap between the old world Chinese who cling to traditional values, and the new world Chinese who see themselves as Americans who should adopt Western values and lifestyles. The ending, in the tradition of all comedies, is happy with all the protagonists finding their true loves."

In it, Soo sings a standard called "Don't Marry Me," and dare I say that, like most of the tunes on the Pigs Fly CD, I was pretty well stunned by Soo's performance.

Alas, that bit of research led me to the greatness of comedian Ron Carey, who played the only uniformed cop in the joint: Carl Leavitt. His character was sycophantic. His goal in life was to become one of those detectives, even though he was really but a wee tike at 5 feet 6 ... and a half (as he'd say).

Actually, in real life, Carey was about 5 feet 4 inches tall. But the men on Barney Miller were also very tall. Carey originally considered priesthood but became a comedian, focusing a ton of his stand-up routine on being a small Catholic kid.

He got a huge break in Mel Brooks' 1978 classic, "High Anxiety," playing Brooks' chauffer and sidekick. In fact, at about the 6:10 mark of this clip, Carey utters one of the most famous lines in the movie when he tries to pick up a giant locker.

"I got it. I got it. I got it. ... I ain't got it."

Enjoy this second clip:

Unfortunately, Carey died of a stroke this year at the age of 71.

As I continued perusing YouTube though, I stumbled upon a vignette from an obscure early 1970s movie called "Dynamite Chicken," a series of pieces featuring Richard Pryor, John Lennon, Lenny Bruce, Allen Ginsburg, etc. etc.

I've never seen it, so I don't claim to know much about it except for having found Ron Carey's contribution to the movie. In it, filmed with nobody around in front of New York's famous St. Patrick's Cathedral, Carey steps out of a limo and sidesteps Fred Astaire style to a bluesy tune from Lionel Goldbart called "God Loves Rock & Roll."

Carey's wearing a priest's outfit with Blues Brothers shades and a smoke in his mouth.

Dare I say this is one of THE singular coolest finds I've made on YouTube. It lasts about two minutes, but it's thoroughly enjoyable. Enjoy.

That gem comes courtesy of sonofclipophilic, and he's got some other obscure 1970s gems on his YouTube channel.

OK, since we got a good response to the Rick Springfield post, I wanted to stay on the soap-opera actor turned singer vibe. While I could devote a month's worth of blogs to Springfield's hits, there's a lot of ground to cover in the 1980s, so I'll mention this next man once and only once.

Jack Wagner.

The 47-year-old got his start playing Frisco Jones for the better part of 12 years from 1983-95 on General Hospital, and at the same time had a Top 40 hit with a ballad called "All I Need."

How big was this hit?

It was a bigger chart hit than every single Rick Springfield song except for "Jessie's Girl," and "Don't Talk To Strangers," which I'll catalogue at some other point when I discuss '80s songs that my church hated.

That's right. "All I Need" was a No. 2 smash, and it was a radio staple in 1985. However, in terms of staying power, neither this song nor its singer had any. Wagner was no rock star, and he really was never a capable pop star.

Where I'll give the guy credit is in his choice of ballads. Within the scope of big, fluffy pop love songs, "All I Need" was among the most satisfying, like a giant marshmallow cookie when all you needed was a wafer.

Furthermore, Wagner's follow-up, "Too Young," was a lesson in vocal disaster. Hey, I'm not saying that Wagner couldn't sing, but I am saying that it was as if the producers couldn't decide whether Jack would sing in his upper or lower register.

That song never charted on the Top 40, but again I thought it was a competent 80s ballad, just nothing with any staying power. Total fluff, like a gargantuan bowl of pudding when you merely needed a spoonful of tapioca.

Thanks to YouTube and all those folks who post old "Solid Gold" clips, enjoy both hits from Wagner -- oh, and check out his poofy mullet.

It's hard to believe Richard Lewis Springthorpe is 58 years old.

Those of us over 30 know him as Rick Springfield, but most who are younger don't know him at all. Heck, they might only know him as that guy on General Hospital, playing Dr. Noah Drake, a role that he made famous from 1981 to 1983 but reprised in 2005.

So far, in my God Bless the 80s posts, I haven't exactly gone in order. I haven't established a pattern. Heck, I've just picked who I felt like listening to at the time, but after a couple of weeks to ruminate on the matter, I understand the significance of each pick to this point.

Olivia Newton-John was a heartthrob, but her music was always big and fat on the hooks. Lyrically, she could have been singing about deep-sea fishing, but structurally, there was no better pop music for a period of a couple years in the 80s.

Donald Fagen is smart 80s music, jazz fusion way beyond his years, way beyond my years, way beyond his era. In fact, the hit IGY really is probably the only evidence of that scientific phenomenon anybody under 50 remembers.

Billy Joel was a singer-songwriter pioneer who, frankly, erred a bit in the 1980s. While I liked "Tell Her About It," "Leave A Tender Moment Alone," and "Keeping The Faith," I could have done without the 50s concept album. When paired with Joel's work in the 1970s, it's clear that he was on a downward spiral.

So, where does that leave Rick Springfield?

Springfield was a musical and pop culture anomaly in that his pop work pleased pop fans, and his rock 'n roll was legitimately respected by fans and peers alike. There was always the story that while Sammy Hagar wrote "I've Done Everything For You," he always acknowledged that the Aussie really owned the song.

There's no doubt that Springfield was pop, but his early work in the 1980s (his music career spans back to the 1960s) actually carried an edge.

His career has been topped and forever will be by one song: "Jessie's Girl."

The 1981 No. 1 hit is really great for two reasons. First, the guitar riff at the beginning. It's unmistakable, and it was the first thing many male guitar-playing teens learned in the 1980s.

Second, the opening verse of "Jessie's Girl" is -- in my opinion -- pretty much unmatched lyrically in modern pop writing.

Jessie is a friend,

yeah, I know he's been

a good friend of mine

But lately something's changed

that ain't hard to define

Jessie's got himself a girl

and I want to make her mine

If I had to catalog 100 songs I wished I had written, that I think are truly brilliant, this would be one of them. Enjoy ...

I've preached the musical gospel of singer-songwriter Josh Rouse for probably five years now, ever since his CD "1972" introduced America to his folky, pop vibe. At this point, Josh is 35 years old, and he hasn't exactly exploded onto the mainstream scene.

However, he's so talented that John Mayer pretty much insisted that he be brought along to tour with him. Anyway, so Rouse has a new CD called "Country Mouse, City House," and as I expected, the songwriting is super tight, particularly melodically.

Give a listen to this live rendition of "Sweetie" ...

Rouse takes me back to a 1970s style of song that I literally never tire of. This weekend, Toad and I listened to 10cc's "I'm Mandy, Fly Me," and I noted just how much that whole 1970s style of Fender Rhodes pop is up my alley. Michael Franks and Art Garfunkel also have CDs from the mid-1970s that fit the bill.

However, I stumbled upon on of my absolute favorite 1970s tunes, and it reminds me a lot of Rouse melodically although not necessarily stylistically. The great, great George Harrison's "Crackerbox Palace" ... Enjoy.

I told anybody who would listen at the start of the year and will repeat it until I'm blue in the face. The 2007 edition of the Oklahoma Sooners, even with an inexperienced quarterback and without A.D., is way better than the 2006 team.

Saturday's 51-13 shellacking of the U. of Miami Hurricanes left no doubt.

You can say this wasn't the same Miami team of past years, and you would be right. However, remember that Miami beat the Marshall Thundering Herd by a bigger margin than did Top 5 West Virginia.

The only team that has looked more impressive is LSU, and they look great. Heck, USC hasn't even looked this good so far.

Our guys (Jay Beauchamp) were on the sidelines for Saturday's Miami romp, and here are the highlights. Enjoy ...

Finally, if you didn't see Adrian Peterson's NFL debut, you missed out on a performance that I think only touches the surface of what this guy will do in the NFL. Another bold prediction: Not only will he run away with Rookie of the Year honors, he will get mentioned in MVP conversations.

Peterson's breakaway speed is so good that teams will have to consider playing nickel and dime packages on running downs. He was always a great pass catcher out of the backfield, and while OU never utilized those abilities well, the Vikings will. He scored on a 60-yard pass-n-go on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons.

Here are some preseason highlights I found for A.D. against the New York Jets. Now, I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan for sure, but I have to admit, I could be swayed into being a Minnesota Vikings fan for a year or two while Peterson becomes a star.

Anybody who listens to The Ticket in Dallas knew who Carter was by name even though he had nothing to do with the local sports scene. On the other hand, everybody in the Dallas music community knew that the guy was one hell of a songwriter and musician.

But Carter Albrecht, 34, died over the Labor Day holiday, the result of terrible misfortune.

Now, I didn't know the guy personally, but I talked with and even played with Ticket host Mike Rhyner a couple times, part of an audition process for his Tom Petty cover band. So, indirectly, I always kind of felt an indirect kinship to both the world of the little Ticket and his niche within the music community.

Albrecht was never known as violent -- anything but. However, over the holiday, he got drunk, hit his girlfriend and wandered over to another home in east Dallas, banging on a window and yelling. Did he know it was not the house he was supposed to be at?

Didn't matter. A wife awakened her husband, letting him know of an intruder. He reached for a weapon and fired a "warning shot" through a back door that was supposed to go over the intruder's head.

It killed the "intruder," a man who stood 6 feet 5 inches. It killed a local music icon.

The tragedy has raised national concern about a drug called Chantix, which Albrecht was taking to help him quit smoking. Apparently, the instructions warn about possible behaviorial changes, particularly when the drug is taken in concert with alcohol.

The violence toward the girlfriend, in this case, was truly a first-time, one-time thing, and very likely was a case of psychotic behavior. Whether it was caused by the drug or something else, everybody who knows the guy said it was so unlike him that they literally didn't recognize the soul inhabiting Albrecht's body.

Likewise, a lot is being said about gun ownership, gun use and gun laws, including Dallas' castle doctrine, which basically covered the homeowner in this shooting. I'll be honest. I'm not a gun person. Not at all; however, I firmly believe in a homeowner's right to protect himself, and in this case, it was completely justified.

However, a couple points if I may. Despite Gordon Keith's wish that we focus on the loss of a good person instead of focusing on issues central to this misfortune, I'd suggest this is the perfect time to address some tough topics.

By having that weapon in the house, by its very existence, it eliminated more effective, more creative and less deadly options for the homeowner in determining whether somebody was trying to break into his home.

First, why not reach for a baseball bat or a can of mace to start with before deciding on lethal force? Why would it not have been reasonable, except on some machismo-based principle, for the homeowner and his wife to escape through the front door until police could scour the house and the neighborhood.

I completely understand that the law is in place for homeowners to protect themselves, and I completely understand the concept that a man's home is his castle, and that he should not have to leave it in any circumstance as it's related to a violation of that property.

However, I am willing to bet, 100 percent, that this homeowner, who sounded very distraught in a 911 call, would gladly have opted for a less lethal form of protection if given the chance right now.

And that's fine. I understand gun advocates will rip me for not "getting it," but I totally get it. Having the lethal weapon at your fingertips, regardless of training, makes it too easy to eliminate fight-or-flight reasoning.

In my final month in Dallas, I heard somebody trying to break into my apartment. I called 911, and it took them two hours to get there because they couldn't find an apartment complex that is literally next to Central Expressway. The sheer incompetence in an emergency situation was befuddling.

Believe me, I understand why a weapon is needed for protection.

Why it must be a gun first as opposed to something else, however, is the question. The facts are clear as spring water: You're much more likely to kill a friend, a loved one or an acquaintance with a personal weapon than an actual attacker.

You're even more likely to be killed with your weapon.

My condolences certainly go out to his buddies and the local indie community there in Dallas, but it is our responsibility as good citizens to question whether this situation could have been handled better by the homeowner, and not for the sake of punishing him.

He committed no crime.

He did what most other homeowners would have done given the same situation.

And that's the problem. Solutions won't come easy.

Just two months ago, my friends and I bemoaned the cringe-worthy start to TNT's "Saving Grace," a police drama set in Oklahoma City featuring Holly Hunter playing a very worldly Grace Hanadarko.

The writing was terrible. The Oklahoma metaphors unbearable.

My friends bailed on the series. They had seen enough, but I was a glutton for punishment -- and, now, here comes the kicker.

This show is good. Better than TNT's "The Closer," which is good in its own right. As good as "Dead Like Me," a show I basically revere given that Showtime was silly enough to pull it after two years.

Not only is the show the biggest hit on cable this year, there is talk of multiple Emmy nominations, including speculation that Hunter is a shoo-in for an Emmy.

So, what happened?

Well, it's simple. Episodes subsequent to the pilot were simply superior. Way better. The second was better than the first, the third better than the second, and creator Nancy Miller is riding a wave of momentum headed into the Season 1 finale on Sept. 17.

Originality doesn't hurt either, and this show is as quirky as they come. With endless references to Oklahoma's obsession with football, the newly hired black female police chief is so rabid an OU fan, she threatens to kick the ass of her Texas-loving detective every chance she gets. When somebody mentioned watching Bob Stoops on ESPN in last Monday's episode, she said, "Yeah, Stoops. I LOVE that guy."

Frankly, this show turned around when the original police chief was killed in the second episode and this woman was hired. She's a gem, and she reminds me a ton of the tough-talking Jasmine Guy from the aforementioned "Dead Like Me."

The secondary characters have developed well, including the one played by Kenny Johnson. Hunter's detective counterparts were so generic in the beginning; we're finally getting to see them breathe. Johnson plays a sensitive but fun-loving adulterous half-wit.

And Leon Rippy. If Hunter is worthy of an Emmy, so is this guy as Earl the tobacco-chewing angel. What I've loved about how Miller has maneuvered his character is that she has him involved with everyone even though nobody else can see him within the context of his angelicness.

What's turned off a lot of folks is the cussing, the drinking, the smoking and the sex. Grace is so loose, she gave pity sex to a co-worker whose cat just died.

However, if it was the writing and the plot that had you turning away, you officially have my permission to come back. Either the pilot was a massive aberration, or the writers took heed of many critics and pulled it together.

Either way, I'm hooked. And, what's best is that paired with Kyra Sedgwick's delightful "The Closer," TNT pretty much has the two best "quirky" police dramas happening right now.

When it comes to the genre of piano rock, it seems most folks are divided between Elton John and Billy Joel. I'm not divided at all. While I like Elton, I think he pales in comparison to Joel.

Actually, it's a discussion for another time, but I think Ben Folds is every bit as good as Joel, perhaps not at the height of Joel's career but certainly in general.

However, when you talk about Billy Joel, you have to examine his work in ages.

He had the singer-songwriter phase of the early 1970s. He had the 50s troubadour thing goin' in the mid-1980s, and in the early 1990s, he had much of an album-oriented adult contemporary vibe happening.

But in the early 1980s, he was a synth-pop master. Hell, he even had kind of a punk edge in songs like "It's Still Rock & Roll To Me," and the song I'm blogging about today, "Pressure."

In my musical rearing, The Nylon Curtain was a seminal album. Every song was great, and the composition was sophisticated, even "Allentown," which is widely reviled among music critics. I love that song, this album and everything about this part of Joel's career.

Believe it or not, "Allentown" was by far the bigger chart hit for Joel, landing at No. 17 for a record six consecutive weeks. "Pressure" peaked at No. 28, but even if "Allentown" meant more to me growing up, this song means more to me as a musician.

And what's more, the video is brilliant, too.

I'll agree with lots of folks that the 1980s sucked musically compared to the 1960s or 1970s. It depends on the context of the discussion; however, "Pressure" was absolutely a gold-star for the decade musically.

While it wasn't unique to the 80s, I suppose, the decade was rife with songs that made obscure references. And no better example of an obscure reference existed in the early 80s than Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y."

It peaked at No. 26, and it not only referenced a sort of sci-fi phenomenon, it was freakin' named after it. The International Geophysical Year was a scientific effort between the United States and Russia devoted to discovery, lasting from mid-July of 1957 to the end of 1958.

I'm not a science geek, though, so as a kid, I didn't get it. However, the progressions are unbeatable. The jazz influence is undeniable. Fagen's musical genius is unparalleled.

In my previous post regarding the 80's, I celebrated the sexiness of Olivia Newton-John. And while I "like" her music, I revere Fagen. As far as I am concerned, he has produced the smartest pop music of the latter half of the 20th Century.

The great thing for me, the music fan, is that he continues to produce great stuff in the 21st. Enjoy "I.G.Y" ...