Rock Muppets

I'm thrilled about the new Muppets show coming to TV this fall, and of course I'm hoping they'll continue to have metal guest appearances--Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne and Dave Grohl are among the headbangers who've performed with Kermit's gang in the past. Maybe this time they'll even create a metal muppet, something they've never done in the past (as far as I've known). But two hard rock themed performances come close.

"ZZ Blues" is a catchy blues-rock song lamenting the lack of z-words, performed by ZZ Top-inspired Muppets. Whoever put this together was clearly an old school fan--notice how the song plays on the band's blues-based '70s tracks and not their more popular synth-heavy '80s hits. The green screen background suggests every generic '70s rock TV studio performance, and the creators even got the beardless drummer right. "ZZ Blues" is as worthy of the Top as "Haw-haw-haw" and the famous hand gesture.



"Rebel L" honors Billy Idol as deftly as "ZZ Blues" gets ZZ Top, with a "Rebel Yell" parody that chronicles a renegade letter making noise outside the Idol Muppet's house. I'd love to know how many kids learned what a rebel was from this video, or bothered their parents by reenacting the events. Bonus points for being the only '80s music video I can think of where the cops are as badass as the singer and the title characer.