Jason Meadows – “18 Video Tapes”
Here’s a Nashville Star alumnus who didn’t score a major-label deal but nonethless is producing interesting and compelling music. The instrumentation of “18 Video Tapes” is perhaps not truly neo-traditional, but Jason is clearly channeling some honky-tonk legends with his twangy vocals. The lyrical structure is classic neo-traditional and manages to strike an authentic balance between sadness and salvation. A terminally ill father records himself for his unborn son, and his child watches one tape each year of his life until he is ready to pass his father’s lessons on to his own children. It’s a shame that you probably won’t hear this song on country radio; somebody should tell Music Row to start scrutinizing Nashville Star cast-offs with the alacrity that they embrace American Idol rejects.
Listen: Jason Meadows – “18 Video Tapes”
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October 16, 2007 at 7:58 pm Permalink
I love this song – and he sings it so well -
October 29, 2007 at 5:00 pm Permalink
This is the Best Song ever and the sades to but it is my fariter song Thinks for the song it means i lot to here it.
November 9, 2007 at 11:58 pm Permalink
i love the song 18 video tapes.
i just heard it when my ex called, he told me to go listen to it…
me and my ex are really good frinds now and hes going into the army next year, and the song just made me cry.
i love him and i dont want aything to happen to him.
the songs great, sad, but great! :]
November 24, 2007 at 1:21 pm Permalink
The song 18 video tapes is so great! I just listened to it and i started crying. My friend is in the war in iraq and i hate not knowing how he is… I really hopes he comes home safe :)
November 26, 2007 at 2:19 pm Permalink
This is a great song – has anyone seen the video? The end is so sad, I was sobbing!!! God bless our troops!!!!
February 7, 2008 at 8:15 pm Permalink
excellent job I heard it on xm I love this It is the greatest
February 7, 2008 at 9:38 pm Permalink
Good song, but it didn’t hit home like “Arlington” by Trace Adkins did.
I like that Jason Meadows keeps it country, but I wouldn’t be able to pick his voice out lined up along a few other songs I have in mind.
February 8, 2008 at 9:39 am Permalink
I’m no fan of “Arlington.” I think the last thing going through any soldier’s head is pride that they’ll be buried in the right cemetery. There’s very little thought given to those the soldier in question leaves behind. “If You’re Reading This” strikes a more balanced and nuanced tone in my opinion.
February 8, 2008 at 10:30 am Permalink
“Arlington” is sung from the first person perspective, so it could be perfectly accurate. Sure, you can extrapolate that and say that being buried in Arlington is the last thing going through the majority of soldier’s heads, but I think the song can also be symbolically viewed as the selfless sacrifice that so many soldiers make for their country. I think it’s a damn good song either way. “If You’re Reading This” actually seems a little more contrived to me.
This discussion goes a long with Jim’s 20 Top War and Soldier Songs Playlist.
February 8, 2008 at 11:15 am Permalink
I think the notion of “Arlington” is that the soldier is proud to be laid to rest in the company of his compatriots, in a place of pride. It’s just phrased in such an awkward way that it comes off sounding as if the soldier’s goal is to get killed, which I doubt is the case.
February 8, 2008 at 1:34 pm Permalink
Arlington wasn’t written to say he was proud to be buried. It’s an allusion.
“Everytime I hear those twenty-one guns – I know they’ve brought another hero home, to us”
“I’m proud to be on this peaceful peace of property – I’m on sacred ground and I’m in the best of company”
It has nothing to do with the dying, it has to do with the pride that these men had. It has everything to do with what they gave up for their country and even though they died for it – they did it with pride. They did it for a reason. There’s no shame in that.
Arlington is still my favorite.
February 8, 2008 at 2:13 pm Permalink
I just think it romanticizes war a bit too much for my taste. War is dirty, nasty, brutish business, with even the best-laid plans proving inadequate for the task at hand.
Our soldiers do deserve to have a lot of pride in their service – Lord knows with a volunteer armed forces most of us (including myself) are put at an arm’s length distance from the realities those forces deal with in times of war.
There’s no anger, no grief, just relief and pride. No reaction from the Dad who showed so much pride in his own father’s military service and burial at Arlington.
Let’s just agree to disagree on liking or disliking this song.
February 8, 2008 at 4:36 pm Permalink
It’s the tagline that I get tripped up on — “I made it to Arlington,” as if dying and being buried were the achievement.
Well, that and …
“There’s a big white house sits on a hill just up the road
The man inside he cried the day they brought me home”
… which I don’t believe for an instant about this particular White House resident. But that’s another matter.
February 15, 2008 at 5:53 pm Permalink
18 Video Tapes Nominated for a CMT VIDEO MUSIC AWARD! VOTE NOW! JASON IS THE ONLY INDEPENDENT ARTIST NOMINATED UP AGAINST KENNY, REBA, FAITH & TIM! 18 Video Tapes is the first EVER YouTube to be added to CMT! SO HURRY BECAUSE PRELIMINARY VOTING ENDS FEB. 25TH!
http://www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards/
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