185. Puttin' on the Ritz!

185. "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group, performed by Tomoyasu Hotei

The original version of "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group would not make the top 200. It's a good song, and I'll listen to it when it pops up on the radio, but there's a good chance I'll punch a radio button to see what else is playing. If a song parks the radio dial, there's a good chance it could make the top 200. But the Edgar Winter version of this song only makes me tap the brakes a little bit, not jam on the parking break. It just seems to be missing that extra level of UMPH! that I like to hear in my rock songs. For years I wanted to like this song because I had enjoyed watching Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster on the Friday night KID Cash Calls movie of the week. (I actually won $10 cash from the show!)

Give cash now!

I also LOVED the movie Young Frankenstein, even though I had been forced to watch it on a Halloween date my junior year in high school. During a church meeting, Ruth Christiansen found out that I'd never been kissed, and she was interested in being the first. Of course, and army date of 8 people watching Young Frankenstein in her basement with her mother in the room really was not the recipe for the level of romance needed for me to give up my membership in the Virgin Lips Club.



But all through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I never really took to the "Frankenstein" song until I heard it the 00s played by the Japanese guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei. He came to my attention after I heard his excellent guitar work on "Battle Without Honor or Humanity"on the radio, which had been featured in the 2003 movie "Kill Bill." (Dumb movie. Smart song.) I decided that song was worth purchasing on iTunes, and as iTunes purchases tend to go, I also ended up sampling some of his other work, and ended up discovering this rock monster. Tomoyasu won't let me embed the video below, but here's the link to the song that he put up on the interwebs.

"Frankenstein" by Tomoyasu Hotei

Oh, yeah! That song CRUSHES the original version!

I've said a number of times that my goal as an instructional designer is to figure out how I can do to a college course what Tomoyasu did to this song--make it at least four times better than the original. Maybe if I listen to this song enough, I'll figure out his secret, and then I'll know how to design instruction that ROCKS!

"Oh, sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you!"