Celine Dion was the host. Sebastian Bach (Skid Row) and Gil Moore (Triumph) were up to present an award.
For context:
On February 24 1993, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, with a record low 21% approval rating, announced he was resigning. Bach and Moore were at the Junos a month later, on March 21. Watch what Sebastian does.
GETTING MORE TALE #606:
Why Roger Smith is the Greatest Character on Television
Roger Smith from American Dad is an alien. He’s grey, squat, with a big bulbous head and no visible nose. He thinks he looks like Lena Dunham. “It’s nice to see someone with my exact body type succeed.” But he has several amazing abilities that allow him to blend in with modern society. Some of these abilities are musical. If you want to know how an alien can impact the world we live in, even musically, then check out some of Roger’s amazing traits and accomplishments below.
Parker Peters
1. Master of Disguise
Roger can disguise himself as anyone. Even his own family can’t recognise him in certain outfits. A wig and some clothes are all that’s necessary. In disguise as Kevin Bacon, he even successfully framed the actor for a car accident when the real Bacon was 2000 miles away. “I didn’t think I did it,” said the real Kevin, “but it’s clearly me on the tape!”
Some of Roger’s most incredible disguises include “alien hunter” Parker Peters, and his mentally handicapped bodybuilder persona, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Max Jets
2. Incredible Speed
Using his ability to move really fast when he wants to, Roger can appear to be in multiple places simultaneously. This has allowed him to live multiple lives under different personas. As wedding planner Jeanie Gold, he raised a family. As Roslyn Jenkins, he has been married for eight years to business mogul Ax Jenkins, in a long running plot to trick Ax into breaking his pre-nup agreement. It is revealed that even though he lives “full time” with the Smith family, he also seemingly lives with dozens of other families all at the same time. Meanwhile, his old man millionaire persona Max Jets languishes away in jail. Roger’s ability to manage these multiple lives simultaneously is unparalleled in television.
Kripsy Kreme McDonalds
3. Musical Ability
Roger is also drummer Krispy Kream McDonalds, percussionist for Steve and the Ass-Tones. Because he has no bones, his drumming ability is unparalleled. That’s not all. As hipster guitar player Donald, he acquired his great skill due to a deal with a devil. When he makes a bet with another guitarist, the stakes being “the cost of his lessons”, Donald wins and passes the soul debt on to the loser. He is also known as country singer Cuss Mustard, and even seduced Ricky Martin and stole his shirt.
Roger can be heard singing a number of original songs on the show. His best include “The Confi-dance” and “You’ve Got a Kink”. Roger is naturally drawn to artists such as Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion. In order to watch the Barbra Does Celine pay-per-view TV special, Roger disguises himself as a Viet Cong and kidnaps Stan in a makeshift POW camp, all for the pay-per-view password.
Roger even “invented” Disco music. In a time travel snafu, Stan Smith left a Best of Disco cassette in the 1970s. The tape is found by Roger, who strikes it mega-rich, until Disco is declared dead in 1981.
The Prophecy
4. He is Somehow Connected to the End of Days
Early in season one, Roger reveals he can poop out jewel-encrusted golden turds. As the series unfolds, one of his turds inspires great evil and murderous cover-ups over the years, moving all the way up to the White House. In the season 14 opener, it is revealed that Pope Francis and all the world’s religious leaders are aware of a secret prophecy involving the discovery of the golden turd. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics show that the only way to destroy the golden turd is to return it to its source – Roger’s anus.
Chex LeMeneux
5. He Impacted History in Remarkable and Unexpected Ways
Roger the Alien is responsible for many historical events that you didn’t know about. Yes, he “invented” Disco. How about Jar Jar Binks? Also invented by Roger. The killing of the Notorious B.I.G.? Caused by his driver Roger aka MC Raw G, when he went all road-rage on another vehicle. “No one cuts off Biggie Smalls!” Whoops. He also got a sober George W. Bush back on the booze, and helped the US hockey team win the gold in the 1980 “Miracle on Ice”. He did this on steroids as his hockey player persona, Chex LeMeneux.
As if all this wasn’t enough, he can fart toxic gas! Just feed him okra. He is fireproof and can float. Stan Smith used him as a floatation device when stranded on a desert island.
If these reasons are not enough to convince you that Roger Smith is the greatest television character of the modern era, then nothing will. My advice is to just watch American Dad and see for yourself.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
I thought it would be fun going forward to re-post old chapters of Record Store Tales that you may have missed. Enjoy this Christmas-themed re-post!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 150: Smells Like Presents
Our original computerized inventory system forced us to manually type in every album title ourselves. Out of sheer boredom, often we’d shake it up a bit. For example, just for laughs, we’d often input Alanis Morissette’s album Jagged Little Pill in the system as Jagged Little Pillow. Or whatever.
When we saw this Celine Dion Christmas album come in, somebody came up with a clever custom title for our system. Remember that Marilyn Manson album, Smells Like Children? Take a look at the Celine Dion album cover. You’ll understand why we used to call this one Smells Like Presents!
R.I.P. Sunrise Records, Fairview mall
RECORD STORE TALES MkII: Getting More Tale
#360: CHYM FM
In the beginning of my job at United Rentals, they had the radio set to local lite-rock station CHYM FM. It is a horrible station, unless you enjoy old Daughtry and Taylor Swift ballads coupled with the biggest hits by the dulcet Lady Gaga. Why, just the other day I was in my dentist’s office. They have CHYM on the radio, and I was treated to some “Bad Romance” by Miss Gaga. That’s dreadful enough, but the squeaky, bubbly on-air personalities are way too much for me to handle. Apparently this was also the case nine years ago when I started at United, according to this 2006 journal entry. We switched stations to Dave FM shortly thereafter. Thank fuck! CHYM TIME journal entry below.
Date: 2006/11/17 17:04
“96 minutes of continuous light rock…for your workday!”
That phrase, friends, is the sound of being welcomed into HELL!
Dear CHYM FM: This is something that I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time. Here it is. Sorry if I’m being rather harsh, but you had this coming.
#1. Nobody needs to hear three Kelly Clarkson songs in one day. Nor do we need three of Jann Arden, Chantal Kreviazuk, Celine Dion, or any other of these wonderful light-rock songstresses.
#2. Lionel Richie has a long, illustrious career. I’m pretty sure he has more than one song. Why then, do you insist on playing the same damn song of his every single day?
#3. Same goes with Elton John.
#4. Tara, from the morning George and Tara Show, is too fucking perky. She’s like a fucking toothpaste commercial! I don’t need that shit at 8:30 am before my coffee.
And finally #5. Why do you call your station “today’s light rock”? Are you not aware that Jann Arden hasn’t had a hit in over a decade?
Yours truly, Mike
RECORD STORE TALES Part 150: Smells Like Presents
Our original computerized inventory system forced us to manually type in every album title ourselves. Out of sheer boredom, often we’d shake it up a bit. For example, just for laughs, we’d often input Alanis Morissette’s album Jagged Little Pill in the system as Jagged Little Pillow. Or whatever.
When we saw this Celine Dion Christmas album come in, somebody came up with a clever custom title for our system. Remember that Marilyn Manson album, Smells Like Children? Take a look at the Celine Dion album cover. You’ll understand why we used to call this one Smells Like Presents!
This isn’t some definitive list or anything like that. Just five memories that stand out among the others: my Top Five Flops.
#5. The Rolling Stones – Bridges to Babylon. I know this album didn’t sit well for a few people, but we just flat out ordered too many. They started coming in used within days and before too long, we had so many used copies that they were starting to show up in bargain bins. Never a good sign when you’re the so-called greatest rock and roll band on Earth.
#4. Van Halen – III. Same deal. We ordered 50 copies. I don’t know why. This one was going to be a flop even before it was released. Gary Cherone had no marquee value whatsoever in 1998. We ordered 50, we ended up selling (probably) 5.
#3. Hole – Live Through This. Yes, it was huge in 199x, but by the late 90’s, you would have been a fool to pay more than $5.99 for this stinker, such was the frequency of the trade-ins.
#2. Titanic – Soundtrack. Yeah, yeah, I know. One of the biggest soundtracks of all time. Well, as soon as Celine put out her own album with “My Life Will Go On” on it, the trade-ins began. At one point we were bundling it with DVDs and VHS tapes just to get it out of the store.
#1. Spin Doctors – Turn It Upside Down. I recall at one point we had something like 20 copies, used, in stock. We couldn’t give it away even for $3.99. I wouldn’t know from listening to it, but I am pretty sure that it sucks. It sold so infrequently, that I would be willing to bet that there are still copies in the 10-15 year-old-range, sitting there unsold today.
My first Mother’s Day at the store was unique. We never tried this stunt again, because it was a bit of a waste. It was spring 1995. The boss had brought in a bucket of roses. He said, “I want you to hand these out to every lady that looks like a mother, that comes in today.” OK, all well and good. A little on the weird/awkward/unique side, but OK. I didn’t want to do it but I didn’t have much choice. You had to kind of guess who was a mother and who wasn’t. Not fun! “Do I look that old to you?” was a common response.
I guess the problem is that most mothers didn’t really go out to buy CD’s on Mother’s Day. A lot of them headed out for morning brunch with the families, or spent the day with the families. Then you’d have the occasional crackhead mother that I would skip, because they’d probably just try to smoke the flowers. On Mother’s Day, it was pretty much just dudes. They were in there to buy the latest Jann Arden, Celine Dion, or Shania Twain for mom. As my bucket of flowers sat there, I figured I’d throw in a free one to any non-jerky dudes that were buying gifts for mom, too. I got rid of a couple more roses that way.
Finally towards the end of the day, the bucket of roses still half full, I had a visit. It was from a girl I liked named Holly. Holly was a big Depeche Mode fan, and I had some CD singles in stock. She picked a couple out and I decided, “What the hell? Worth a try.”
“These are for you, Holly.”
I handed her the rest of the roses. She was thrilled. I didn’t get a date out of it, but at least the flowers didn’t go to a crackhead!
Oh! And I did bring one home for my mom.
We never did the flowers thing again. Happy Mother’s Day!
mikeladano.com 