Sunday, October 20, 2013

38 -The Man with the Child in His Eyes – Kate Bush – 1978


38 -The Man with the Child in His Eyes – Kate Bush – 1978

42 -Something About You – Level 42 – 1985

63 – Down Under – Men at Work – 1981

66 – Major Tom(Coming Home) – Peter Schilling – 1983

67 – Elstree – The Buggles – 1980

74 – Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo – 1983

116 – Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime – The Korgis – 1980

124 – The Getaway – Chris DeBurgh – 1982

126 – Wouldn’t it Be Good  - Nik Kershaw – 1984


            I’m gonna group these 9 songs together because the only reason I have them on the Zune is because I saw a video on MTV back in the day when they actually played videos, and bought the album.

            The Man with the Child in His Eyes-Kate Bush- She wrote this song at 13, recorded it at 16 as a single. The video version comes from her first album released several years later. I always found her eyes arresting. The video was mesmerizing as well.

            Something About You-Level 42- Reportedly their name comes from the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I don’t know what Level has to do with it, since the answer is just 42. The song is cool, though.

            Down Under-Men at Work- Sprightly video, wacky characters, eminently sing-alongable song. Only use of projectile vomiting in a pop song (“..where the beer does flow and men chunder”), that I’m aware of. Also led to a spike in sales of Vegemite for a week or two.

            Major Tom(Coming Home)-Peter Schilling- A sequel to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, sung phonetically by the German Schilling. I seem to recall his visit o Dick Clark’s American Bandstand where he had some trouble answering Dick’s questions because he spoke little English.

            Elstree- The Buggles-Another song from the “Age of Plastic”, one of two Buggles albums that were released. I found the second album, “Adventures in Modern Recording”, at a record store in a mall at Rand and Palatine roads whose name escapes me. It was on the way to EJ Korvette’s, another long gone store that had an album department with a pretty decent Imports section. I bought the 3-sided “Monty Python’s Matching Tie and Handkerchief” album there (I’ll explain in a future post).

            Mexican Radio – Wall of Voodoo – Another great sing-alongable song. “We’re on a Mexican..whoa-oh..radio”

            Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime – The Korgis – A band named after Queen Elizabeth’s lap dog. Very pretty song, though. Almost a “Wall of Sound” production, starts slow and simple and builds in instrumentation and volume as the song progresses.

            The Getaway – Chris DeBurgh- The title track from the album that contained “Don’t Pay the Ferryman”, the video/song that got me to buy the album. I found a couple of his albums at EJ Korvette’s and one at the Randhurst shopping center. I then ordered his whole back catalog from Apple Tree Records in Elgin. It took about 3-4 weeks to get them, in those pre-Amazon days. Today, you can download it as soon as you see it online.

            I went to see Chris DeBurgh in 1983 with my friend Jim D (of the quad stereo, #10-Brandenburg Concerto) at Poplar Creek when he (Chris DeBurgh, not Jimmy)opened for Asia. A pretty good concert at both ends as I recall.

            Wouldn’t It Be Good- Nik Kershaw  – A nice little song, I always thought it had parts that sounded like Eric Clapton’s “It’s in the Way that you Use it”. Or perhaps it’s Clapton that sounds like this, since Clapton’s song came out in 1986

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