I bring this up because I have been on a Lionel Richie kick as of late. Some kids liked Kids Incorporated, others liked the Mickey Mouse club, I loved Lionel Richie. I remember sitting in the front seat of my aunt and uncle’s new Buick Regal begging for the tape (my dad refused to listen to Lionel), I remember the feeling of the hair standing up on my deck during the intro of “All Night Long” when the delay hits the line “Let the music playo” and it still does. I never said I was normal.

The rub here lies in that I actually think Lionel Richie’s solo stuff is good. There is solid songwriting, great production, and his voice is excellent. When compared to today’s pop, it’s very good. I have to admit that it spits cheese at you, and his music videos are downright embarrassing, all culminating with the worst bust of a head ever put to celluloid, but I don’t understand the violent reaction I get when I listen to it.

People have literally thrown Advil capsules at my head when listening to Lionel, those hurt. My love of 80′s pop goes far beyond Lionel and I attribute that to a happy childhood. One of the nice things about being large and mean looking is that you don’t really have to explain yourself when your iPod playlist is populated by Nena, Lionel, Wang Chung, A Flock of Seagulls and others. However, for some reason A Flock of Seagulls is considered kind of cool and Lionel is not when Lionel bests them at nearly every aspect of the music.

I have just realized that I dedicated a few hundred words to broadcast my love for Lionel Richie, but I have nothing to be ashamed of. Yes, I love Lionel, and you have to admit there is something worthy in there somewhere. I guess my point is that maybe Lionel does suck and I just loved it as a kid because kids are stupid and the previous paragraphs were nothing but rationalizations to defend my love for Lionel. However, as I mentioned before, I am large, I like Lionel, if you want to talk about it, too bad, because I will be too busy dancing on the ceiling. I think I am going to watch Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome now. Maybe I need to go on a Tina Turner kick.