My Most Courageous (or Foolish) Blog Post Yet

The ad features Dan Helmer, a Democratic hopeful from Virginia who is running for the U.S. House. In the ad, Helmer does a parody of the bar scene from “Top Gun.” In the film, Maverick (Tom Cruise) sings “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” to Charlie (Kelly McGillis) and the entire bar joins in.

In the ad, Helmer sings “You’ve Lost That Centrist Feelin’,” supposedly to Republican incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock.

Helmer is certainly no Tom Cruise, but then who is. But as I watched the video I thought it must have taken a lot of nerve to make such an ad, since I’m sure it involved Helmer going out of his comfort zone.

So I thought, if Helmer can do it, so can I.

One of my biggest fears is singing solo in public, and as far as I can recall, I’ve never done it.

So on my last night of being 59 years old, I thought “what the hell”. If they are giving out awards for the worst videos of the year, why not throw my hat in the ring.

My favorite song of all time is “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen, so I decided to record myself singing just the first verse.

So without further ado, here it is:

My first hope, for all of you fellow fans of Thunder Road, is that I didn’t ruin it for you to the point that you can never listen to the song again. Aren’t you glad I only sang the first verse? (see the end for a cure)

My second hope is that you weren’t drinking anything while watching the video, and ended up spitting it out all over your computer or phone. (Or maybe it would have been better if you were drinking something that might make video a distant memory when you wake up in the morning.)

But now it’s out there for all the world to see (well, at least 28 people), and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be (not the singing, that is bad, but actually posting a video of me singing). That’s of course before anyone has had a chance to see it, but I think I’ll be able to walk around tomorrow with my head held high, no matter what happens.

I also want to use this video as a challenge to my fellow daily bloggers. David Kanigan, Seth Godin, Fred Wilson – I don’t think I’ve seen any videos of you guys singing. Now would be the time to do it, since you know it won’t be the worst one out there – I think I’ve got that award all to myself.

By the way, if you’d like to see the original scene from Top Gun, here it is, followed by Bruce singing Thunder Road – it doesn’t get better than that. Make sure this is the last version you listen to before you go to sleep…