Crossovers are Important These Days

I know EPMD wasn't into the idea, but I think crossing over is a good thing. There is no such thing as "purity" anyhow (except for Neil Young maybe). Everyone is out for a co-branding sitch at this point, and a few interesting ones slid across my screens this week, with the Winter Classic, followed on NBC immediately by Seal on Ice. I let Seal play.

These days you have to do whatever you can to sell a song, and Seal went all out the other day. Here he is playing "Crazy," acoustic while some dude figure skates. Our man Doug Wimbish from Fats Comet and Living Colour played on the record, is this him here?



I knew someone in the stands in Buffalo, Mike Parrish of FMQB and former WBNY music director. He's always been into sports AND punk/rock, I can recall asking him about the lines in the Sabres logo even then and a fanzine the kids before him there had called "Avenue Player" about wrestling, rock, hockey and strip clubs. This is the sort of lifestyle that got me thinking about sports and music crossovers in the early 90s, which is now a huge business.

But an outdoor hockey game on New Year's Day in the snow in Buffalo is visual spectacle that hopefully got some non-fans to watch the game. I had the rare treat of attending the King-Ranger game held in Las Vegas in 1991. That was a very warm night and there was mist over the ice. Jon McHugh helped us sneak into a party where I met Jim Patrick and Tony Granato before getting bounced.

I was chilling on the phone when my tv turned from the Buffalo game to the Music of Seal on Ice. What a bizarre and lame idea someone had! But I wasn't near the remote, and it played on. Now of course, Seal is some good soccer mom music, so combining it with figure skating is not a bad call. Seal sold it well in my opinion, however, and I hope the program got some ratings as well as sales for his music. Is Seal our Lawrence Welk?

I wonder if the juice company had any extra sales from their sponsorship.

My friends think I'm lame for liking this special and one even cited that I liked Luther Vandross, so this isn't so strange. Luther Vandross was pretty awesome, I know no one is going to disagree with me on that.

But I mostly wrote this because I thought both the Winter Classic and the Seal show were pretty good tv on New Year's Day.

Here are some highlights from the Winter Classic:



Yes, crossing over is important these days. Just ask Barack Obama!