{"id":23949,"date":"2014-01-26T03:23:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-26T08:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=23949"},"modified":"2014-01-26T03:38:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-26T08:38:44","slug":"for-grammy-night-six-degrees-of-ringo-starr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/for-grammy-night-six-degrees-of-ringo-starr\/","title":{"rendered":"For Grammy Night: Six Degrees of Ringo Starr"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Grammys are tonight and Eminem’s “Berzerk<\/a>” is nominated for Best Rap Performance. I hope rocker Billy Squier has been making mad money from that song, which samples Squier’s 1981 hit, “The Stroke<\/a>.” Billy deserves it! <\/p>\n

I have been meaning to write about Billy for years. I didn’t see him perform live in his heyday, but I’ve caught him twice more recently when he toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band<\/a>. The last time I saw him — in 2008<\/a> — Billy kicked ass on stage. I loved his performance, which reminded me I loved his videos in the ’80s, so I jumped on the computer as soon as I got home to download his music. “The Stroke” is a great song, but my favorite has always been 1984’s “Rock Me Tonite.” Never heard much of Billy after that one, and I didn’t know why at the time. But, when I looked it up, I found it was the video for “Rock Me Tonight” that caused Billy’s skyrocketing career to crash and burn<\/a>. Where did it go wrong? The blame has been cast on satin sheets, Billy’s sex kitten-ish dancing, his pink tank top, and that majorly awesome matching pink guitar. Basically, it was “too gay” for some uptight folks.<\/a><\/p>\n