Soda > Slander & Lies
April 12, 2011 5:49 PM Subscribe
1980SLYT: Kim Mitchell* - "Go For a Soda" (1984). In whiche our protagonist experiences his favorite rock singer (1) step out of the television, (2) do a little dance on the table, and (3) join his band in the refrigerator. All while singing a Hard Rock Anthem about the joys of S-O-D-A. [ *wiki • via the voice of great antiquity's great blog post about being a contestant on Jeopardy. via jessamyn ]
I watched this video again after hearing the song on an episode of American Dad on adult swim or TBS or somewhere.
posted by birdherder at 5:53 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by birdherder at 5:53 PM on April 12, 2011
Sarnia represent!
And no link to "Patio Lanterns"?
posted by GuyZero at 5:56 PM on April 12, 2011 [3 favorites]
And no link to "Patio Lanterns"?
posted by GuyZero at 5:56 PM on April 12, 2011 [3 favorites]
Wait, the rest of you didn't go to Kim Mitchell concerts as a kid? Oh.
posted by GuyZero at 5:57 PM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 5:57 PM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
Sweet Fancy Moses. I did go to Kim Mitchell concerts as a kid. Wow. Forgot all about this video.
posted by Blake at 5:58 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by Blake at 5:58 PM on April 12, 2011
I actually first heard the song on Montreal radio from my grandparents house in Vermont.
posted by jonmc at 5:59 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by jonmc at 5:59 PM on April 12, 2011
I had never seen this video nor heard this song before. The whole crew gets to hang out in the fridge during the closing credits.
posted by not_on_display at 6:01 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by not_on_display at 6:01 PM on April 12, 2011
Wow, the Wikipedia page has a picture of Mitchell at the m-f'ing Fergus Truck Show. Fergus' great contribution to Wikipedia.
posted by GuyZero at 6:02 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by GuyZero at 6:02 PM on April 12, 2011
This video is certainly one of the weirder things I remember from 80s pop culture which is a good thing and this would be my favourite Kim Mitchell moment. And you can't tell this wasn't based on Kim Mitchell.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 6:04 PM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 6:04 PM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
Two things.
1) I have no recollection of this video. None, zip, zilch, and I wasted a goodly part of my adolescence watching MTV. This song, however, got killer playtime on KSHE 95 in STL. Let your mullet fly!
2) My highschool buddy claimed this song promoted cocaine use. Everything promoted drug use for Mark though. Yay Mark!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:11 PM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
1) I have no recollection of this video. None, zip, zilch, and I wasted a goodly part of my adolescence watching MTV. This song, however, got killer playtime on KSHE 95 in STL. Let your mullet fly!
2) My highschool buddy claimed this song promoted cocaine use. Everything promoted drug use for Mark though. Yay Mark!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 6:11 PM on April 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
1) I like it better if "go for a soda" is some amazingly filthy euphemism.
2) I envy the kind of confidence that says YES THAT HAIR LETS PUT IT ON VIDEO FOR FOREVER
posted by The Whelk at 6:19 PM on April 12, 2011 [4 favorites]
2) I envy the kind of confidence that says YES THAT HAIR LETS PUT IT ON VIDEO FOR FOREVER
posted by The Whelk at 6:19 PM on April 12, 2011 [4 favorites]
hey the guy your talking about the one with the afro in the video his name is jack Malbogat and he is my dad he is so super cool and yea it was only a ciggarette in the video he is supposed to look like he is high well neways thought i would clear that up for you. By the way that was over 20 years ago and he is now the coolest dad in the world ciao love always malissa
posted by staggernation at 6:24 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by staggernation at 6:24 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
I always loved "America", if for nothing more than the incredibly socialistic music video.
posted by mightygodking at 6:39 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by mightygodking at 6:39 PM on April 12, 2011
Who better to teach you guitar than Kim Mitchell?
posted by spinifex23 at 6:43 PM on April 12, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by spinifex23 at 6:43 PM on April 12, 2011 [3 favorites]
This song was a shit load cooler when I thought it was "might as well go for the sword". It's not like KSHE didn't also play the crap out of Angel's The Tower as well.
posted by khaibit at 6:45 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by khaibit at 6:45 PM on April 12, 2011
Kim Mitchell sorta looks like Richard O'brian as Riff Raff...
posted by ashbury at 6:57 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ashbury at 6:57 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Obligatory salute to the mighty Max Webster, Mitchell's band from the mid 70's to early 80's.
posted by davebush at 7:07 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by davebush at 7:07 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
"The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
Sorry about that."
Because here in Hong Kong the very first thing I wanted to do was make a pirated copy of a 27-year-old music video to sell on the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui.
Ferfuckssake.
posted by bwg at 7:11 PM on April 12, 2011 [3 favorites]
Sorry about that."
Because here in Hong Kong the very first thing I wanted to do was make a pirated copy of a 27-year-old music video to sell on the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui.
Ferfuckssake.
posted by bwg at 7:11 PM on April 12, 2011 [3 favorites]
> Sarnia represent!
The house that allegedly inspired "Patio Lanterns" was pointed out to me once.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:18 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
The house that allegedly inspired "Patio Lanterns" was pointed out to me once.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:18 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
I think that was a staple when I'd come home from school to watch Toronto Rocks (long before I knew the theme song was a ripoff of Cleveland Rocks) with the late John Majhor (and then his seeming clone, Brad Giffen) - along with the similar show on another Toronto UHF station (47?) that was playing multicultural programs the rest of the time. Definite the visual soundtrack of my teen years.
posted by stevil at 7:20 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by stevil at 7:20 PM on April 12, 2011
My main beef with this song as a kid in Sarnia was that no-one said soda. It's pop. I know, "pop" wouldn't fit the meter, but still. No-one in Sarnia has ever, to the best of my knowledge, gone for a soda.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:23 PM on April 12, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:23 PM on April 12, 2011 [4 favorites]
I also just watched this the other day for the first time in almost 30 years after hearing it on American Dad. Oh Roger…
I also thought, when I was younger, that the song must have been about cocaine, I really didn’t get it.
posted by bongo_x at 7:23 PM on April 12, 2011
I also thought, when I was younger, that the song must have been about cocaine, I really didn’t get it.
posted by bongo_x at 7:23 PM on April 12, 2011
Three things:
1. The brown box that Mitchell is hopping about on at around the one-minute mark is a converter, provided by the cable company to allow you to access all thirty or forty channels cable subscribers could get. In case you young folk were wondering.
2. I never noticed that the life-sized Kim briefly spinning about the room at the end of the video is playing left-handed.
3. The expression in the final shot of the afro'd kind as he is being pulled along on a platform with the camera is weirdly reminiscent of a character that actually came along years later.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:34 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
1. The brown box that Mitchell is hopping about on at around the one-minute mark is a converter, provided by the cable company to allow you to access all thirty or forty channels cable subscribers could get. In case you young folk were wondering.
2. I never noticed that the life-sized Kim briefly spinning about the room at the end of the video is playing left-handed.
3. The expression in the final shot of the afro'd kind as he is being pulled along on a platform with the camera is weirdly reminiscent of a character that actually came along years later.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:34 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Enough with soda, how about Max Webster (with Kim Mitchell) belting out HANGOVER?
Back in the day, on the morning after, we would put the stereo speakers right up against whomever we figured would be the most hungover, and crank it up; the opening feedback would sound so good...good times, awesome times.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 7:37 PM on April 12, 2011
Back in the day, on the morning after, we would put the stereo speakers right up against whomever we figured would be the most hungover, and crank it up; the opening feedback would sound so good...good times, awesome times.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 7:37 PM on April 12, 2011
Nah, with all due respect, BBB, if we are going to Max Webster, A Million Vacations has to be the first stop.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:40 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:40 PM on April 12, 2011
Max Webster was an interesting band.
Q107 programs classic rock with... a whole lotta commercial interruptions.
posted by ovvl at 7:43 PM on April 12, 2011
Q107 programs classic rock with... a whole lotta commercial interruptions.
posted by ovvl at 7:43 PM on April 12, 2011
If I had a time machine, I'd dearly love to go back and re-experience Max Webster at Uncle Sam's on Lundy's Lane in Niagara Falls. Damn, memories.
posted by davebush at 7:48 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by davebush at 7:48 PM on April 12, 2011
Lager and Ale is the best Kim Mitchell tune ever - even if he looks like he has freshly risen from the grave in this video
posted by troll on a pony at 8:29 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by troll on a pony at 8:29 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Even as a child I fucking loathed this song. It hasn't gotten any better with age. Sounds like every other Mitchell song in that you can picture him sitting down trying to write the radio-friendliest song evah! Guy's like the absolute antithesis of Neil Young.
Mitchell's in the same camp as Platinum Blonde, Glass Tiger, Loverboy, and countless other bands that are an embarrassment to pop/rock no matter the decade.
Makes me sad knowing my childhood was spent listening to this garbage when other parts of the world knew of Husker Du, Tom Waits, Bad Brains, Wire, Pere Ubu...
*shakes fist at older siblings*
yeah, yeah, I'll get out of your thread now.
posted by dobbs at 9:05 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Mitchell's in the same camp as Platinum Blonde, Glass Tiger, Loverboy, and countless other bands that are an embarrassment to pop/rock no matter the decade.
Makes me sad knowing my childhood was spent listening to this garbage when other parts of the world knew of Husker Du, Tom Waits, Bad Brains, Wire, Pere Ubu...
*shakes fist at older siblings*
yeah, yeah, I'll get out of your thread now.
posted by dobbs at 9:05 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
"1) I like it better if "go for a soda" is some amazingly filthy euphemism.
2) I envy the kind of confidence that says YES THAT HAIR LETS PUT IT ON VIDEO FOR FOREVER"
1a) I don't know how many times I've heard this song and thought "this has be about something else, nobody would write a song about going for a soda".
2a) Must be a Canadian thing. Devin Townsend rocked that fivehead/skullet thing for years.
posted by MikeMc at 9:09 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
2) I envy the kind of confidence that says YES THAT HAIR LETS PUT IT ON VIDEO FOR FOREVER"
1a) I don't know how many times I've heard this song and thought "this has be about something else, nobody would write a song about going for a soda".
2a) Must be a Canadian thing. Devin Townsend rocked that fivehead/skullet thing for years.
posted by MikeMc at 9:09 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
I like it better if "go for a soda" is some amazingly filthy euphemism
It's a secret Canadian pass phrase.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:21 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
It's a secret Canadian pass phrase.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:21 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Speaking of Jeopardy!, I watched that show for the first time in a while tonight and it seemed like the challenger contestants didn't show up, so the producers went down to the local watering hole and grabbed the first two people they came across. One guy seemed to have blazed a fatty right before taping, and the lady looked like she'd be right at home with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
Mind you, the returning champion could have easily been a serial killer in his spare time, so they fit right in.
posted by mannequito at 9:22 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Mind you, the returning champion could have easily been a serial killer in his spare time, so they fit right in.
posted by mannequito at 9:22 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
When this record came out, all the cool kids (both of them) at my Toronto high school stopped talking about Rush, figuring they were washed up. Outclassed even.
Seeing the 'featuring Kim Mitchell' plastered over these classic album covers is a travesty. Kim was a big part of the band, but their drummer, Gary McCracken was amazing, a very melodical player, and the lyricist, a psychologist named Pye Dubois wrote gloriously quirky songs. They had a keyboard player too, something of a rarity even now. I'd say I like each of their successive albums just slightly less than the previous one, but they were all amazing. Definitely anthemic too..
we've just researched wasaga beach / bonfire pits at midnight
hangover eyes at sunrise six
what is it that we stare at? / is it the passports and campsite stars?
or the monogrammed bikinis and cars?
or maybe we just need some perspiration 'cause we're frostbitten Canadian boys
Sadly, Max never really penetrated even into Western Canada, never mind the states. Kim had a hit in which he used the U.S. term for pop. It's pop. Not soda, not soda pop. Just pop.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 10:00 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Seeing the 'featuring Kim Mitchell' plastered over these classic album covers is a travesty. Kim was a big part of the band, but their drummer, Gary McCracken was amazing, a very melodical player, and the lyricist, a psychologist named Pye Dubois wrote gloriously quirky songs. They had a keyboard player too, something of a rarity even now. I'd say I like each of their successive albums just slightly less than the previous one, but they were all amazing. Definitely anthemic too..
we've just researched wasaga beach / bonfire pits at midnight
hangover eyes at sunrise six
what is it that we stare at? / is it the passports and campsite stars?
or the monogrammed bikinis and cars?
or maybe we just need some perspiration 'cause we're frostbitten Canadian boys
Sadly, Max never really penetrated even into Western Canada, never mind the states. Kim had a hit in which he used the U.S. term for pop. It's pop. Not soda, not soda pop. Just pop.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 10:00 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
When I first heard this song, I thought the lyrics were very funny, and in the tradition of really weird stuff that Pye Dubois (as not_that_epiphanius pointed out) was writing, like Rush's "Tom Sawyer" for instance (which also has really weird/funny lyrics). That made it all the stranger when the U.S.'s M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) made it their big anthem.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:43 PM on April 12, 2011
posted by stinkycheese at 10:43 PM on April 12, 2011
Be sure to check back next week when we'll go over the career of The Northern Pikes with a fine-toothed comb.
posted by i_have_a_computer at 12:07 AM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by i_have_a_computer at 12:07 AM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
i can't tell you how thrilled i am that i helped inspire a kim mitchell mefi thread
posted by dayan at 2:30 AM on April 13, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by dayan at 2:30 AM on April 13, 2011 [3 favorites]
Kim had a hit in which he used the U.S. term for pop.
He had a song called "Dad"?
posted by explosion at 5:38 AM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
He had a song called "Dad"?
posted by explosion at 5:38 AM on April 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
Also, thumbs up on the thread title.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:17 AM on April 13, 2011
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:17 AM on April 13, 2011
Also also, this could be known as "the video where Kim Mitchell gets drunk."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:01 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:01 AM on April 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
dayan: "i can't tell you how thrilled i am that i helped inspire a kim mitchell mefi thread"
It was a great set of posts, dayan. I smiled when I read you were getting backslaps and congrats from everyone in the bar. And "ORANGE you glad..." was funny, too. I also love getting peeks of what happens backstage from people who are not in the biz.
I am sorry you lost, but still, congrats on making it onto the show! I know a couple of other MeFites who have also been contestants. I try out, but I always get not enough questions right to warrant an email.
posted by not_on_display at 7:34 PM on April 13, 2011
It was a great set of posts, dayan. I smiled when I read you were getting backslaps and congrats from everyone in the bar. And "ORANGE you glad..." was funny, too. I also love getting peeks of what happens backstage from people who are not in the biz.
I am sorry you lost, but still, congrats on making it onto the show! I know a couple of other MeFites who have also been contestants. I try out, but I always get not enough questions right to warrant an email.
posted by not_on_display at 7:34 PM on April 13, 2011
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posted by jonmc at 5:52 PM on April 12, 2011 [1 favorite]