Now 1 conclusion

Thirty tracks down, and what have we learnt? Well, I've discovered that I'd heard more of them than I thought I had. Will I be picking up a copy of the re-release on the way home from work? No. But I do think I have some sort of understanding of some of the songs now, even if I wouldn't claim to like any more of then than I used to.
Since Now 1 (as it was retrospectively called) is the only one in the regular series that tries to cover an entire year, I suppose we have to ask how accurate a reflection of the time it is; well there's certainly more Kajagoogoo than I remember. Also no Spandau Ballet, who had one of the few Number One singles of 1983 not represented. What I think has struck me most is how much of the album seems to conform to a stereotypical sound of the time.

One interesting comparison point: a series of digital-only compilations were released a couple of years ago, so we can get a sort of 21st-century perception of the year (admittedly compiled exclusively from the vaults of EMI and Universal). Here's what they came up with:

1 Red Red Wine - UB40
2 Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
3 Is There Something I Should Know - Duran Duran
4 Let's Dance - David Bowie
5 Beat Surrender - The Jam (this is actually from 1982, although it was still in the charts in January 1983)
6 Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson
7 I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Nik Kershaw
8 Temptation - Heaven 17
9 The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up) - Level 42
10 Tonight, I Celebrate My Love - Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack
11 Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
12 (This Is Not A) Love Song - Public Image Ltd
13 Dear Prudence - Siouxsie & The Banshees
14 Speak Like A Child - The Style Council
15 Pale Shelter - Tears For Fears
16 Our Lips Are Sealed - Fun Boy Three
17 Only You - The Flying Pickets (this is on Now II)
18 Every Breath You Take - The Police
19 The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up) [extended version] - Level 42
20 Too Shy [12-Inch version] - Kajagoogoo

Draw your own conclusions there.
Meanwhile, my vaguely-defined mission to understand the success of the Now albums continues. So you'll be "pleased" to hear that I shall be doing another one shortly as soon as I've got some more material on the Hit Parade blog.

EDIT: It turns out James Masterton, who unlike me did buy the thing, has had the same idea

Culture Club 'Victims'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

And so we end, slightly randomly, with the follow-up to 'Karma Chameleon'. It's another song I didn't think I remembered, but found vaguely familiar by the time I actually got round to listening. I suppose it's one of those songs that I heard at the time but wasn't among the four hits or so that most big acts are allowed by posterity.

'Victims' finds the Club in power-ballad mode. It's certainly less potentially irritating than their bigger hit, and is possibly even the sort of thing I'd think was OK if it was by somebody I already thought I liked. Unfortunately, it begins to lose its way in the middle, once the drums and other instruments arrive. Perhaps it was different a quarter of a century ago, but it does seem to get a bit predictable, and it comes over as overproduced. It sounds - and I hope fans will forgive me for saying this - a bit like the sort of record an X-Factor winner might release. I should probably also confess that I've never been especially fond of Boy George's voice, although I know some are.

It's not unpleasant though, and you can tell why it was a hit in Britain - strangely, it wasn't released as a single in the USA. Apparently, there were rumours in 2007 that Kylie Minogue was going to release this as her comeback single, and even that makes a bit of sense.

Edit 13th January 2010: I've found the track 'Shirley Temple Moment' which depicts George storming off in a huff while recording this very track.

Also appearing on: Now 2, 4, 41 and 43
Available on: Colour By Numbers

Madness 'The Sun And The Rain'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

One of the dominant pop acts of my youth, Madness always seemed to have a new single and crazy video out: this was their fifteenth Top 10 hit since 1979, though it proved to be the last of their original career. In a way, you could see this as the beginning of the end for Madness - it was their last single written entirely by keyboard player Mike Barson, who handed in his notice soon afterwards - and tiredness was starting to creep in. By their high standards the actual performance is slightly weak; they never quite seem to get the tempo right, almost as though they're in a hurry to get through it.
That said, though, 'The Sun And The Rain' is the second track from this project that's on my MP3 player, and not without reason. It's a long way from the ska sound of their early material, reverting to the style of classic sixties pop, and particularly seeming to channel the Kinks, demonstrating one great skill that Madness seem to have learnt from them: the ability to make the everyday seem fascinating and often joyous. This is just a song about splashing about in puddles, but they make it sound like it matters. Particular credit is also due to the brilliant but not overexposed string arrangement.

One other fact: at the time of writing this is the only track on the album not available as a download, the licence on their back-catalogue having expired a while ago. Re-issues are apparently pending though.

Also appearing on: Now 2, 3, 6, 8, 21, 43
Available on: Millennium Collection: the Best of [Us Import]

Simple Minds 'Waterfront'

Chart Peak: 13

YouTube

I almost forgot to do this one. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking, Simple Minds being one of the bands who rank lowest on my likeability scale. I was briefly hopeful, because I thought I hadn't heard this song before, and I knew that they were one of those acts who (like UB40) had had a more interesting pre-history before their biggest success. However, once I'd found the track it didn't take long to realise that I had heard it before, that it hadn't made much of an impression on me and that it wasn't part of their experimental period.
Even if you ignore the video, 'Waterfront' is very clearly the birth of Simple Minds as a stadium rock act, the proverbial loud-sounding nothing. Big booming drums, that relentless one-note bassline, clanging guitars and all manner of huffing and puffing from Jim Kerr all of which tells us that, er, they're going to stand on a waterfront in a million years' time. Why wait Jim? It's possible that this is intended as some sort of metaphor for something else (Scotland?) but the whole thing rings so hollow it's difficult to care one way or the other. It's not even as catchy as, say, 'Alive And Kicking'

Also appearing on: Now 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 23, 30
Available on: The Best of Simple Minds

The Cure 'The Lovecats'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

I could be wrong, but I always had the impression that real Cure fans didn't like this very much. I think that might be part of the attraction, that and the bass.

The Goth thing never appealed to me much, and there's quite a lot about The Cure that I find sort of annoying, but I have to admit that they have a few pop songs in the catalogue that I can enjoy. This is usually one of them, although it's obviously a record that can be annoying under the wrong circumstances. Possibly if I'd heard it a lot when it was new, that would have been the case; actually on second thoughts as a child I'd probably have loved it, but an adult me might not be so keen. And of course you can see why people who'd been fans for years might resent this becoming an unprecedentedly big hit for them.

One thing I might not have appreciated at the time was the felinity of this song - I didn't really get to know any cats then. The lyrical references are all obvious (except maybe landing "hand in hand") but there's also a certain slinky quality about it. I like to imagine that they sealed the deal by having a nap after they'd finished recording it.

Incidentally, well as I know this song I still had to look up the correct spelling of the title. I based it on the images I found of the cover, but I'm open to corrections.

Also appearing on: Now 15, 18, 21, 22
Available on: Greatest Hits

Genesis 'That's All'

Chart Peak: 16

YouTube

You see, if it was me compiling this album I'd have saved this one up for the last track. Because it's called 'That's All' - geddit? Either way, this is sort of an interesting choice, since Genesis had their biggest single of the year (of their entire career, in fact) with 'Mama', but that was obviously considered a little bit too odd for this album. This is a far more conventional song, with Phil Collins singing over a piano riff about a relationship that seems to be going around in circles. Indeed, the tune seems to go around in circles too, making this one of their more effective songs.

Maybe it's just because I don't find Collins very likeable, but the rather crabby tone of this song is quite an advantage, that and the fact that it's not especially long. It's not quite as good as I thought I remembered it being, because there's a certain fussiness about it, both in the song itself, which seems to have one middle-eight too many, and in the performance, which does sound rather too much like the product of several weeks' repeated effort (apparently they were playing along to a drum machine, which probably accounts for the rather sterile air). And they finally snatch defeat with the hammy video where they try to dress up as tramps.

At the time, knowing little or nothing of their history, I couldn't understand why Phil Collins seemed to make Phil Collins records and Genesis records, which didn't sound all that different. Presumably he ultimately came to the same conclusion, which would explain why he left the band. But I have to admit that I greatly prefer this to his other appearance on Now 1.

Also appearing on: Now 7, 8, 9, 21, 23, 24
Available on: Platinum Collection

Will Powers 'Kissing With Confidence'

Chart Peak: 17

YouTube

Another one I wasn't looking forward to, in which celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith adopts the guise of parody self-help guru Will Powers, whilst an uncredited Carly Simon plays the satisfied customer. I suppose to be generous about it, making fun of these people was a fresher idea then that it would be now, but it still sounds a bit too much like a joke that's more fun to play than to hear. An all-star cast, including Steve Winwood, Nile Rodgers and Todd Rundgren, make a decent effort at trying to sound funky, but although it's vaguely memorable it doesn't really come off and the ultimate effect is more of a big celeb get-together than an enjoyable record.

Available on: 12" 80s Pop

Tracey Ullman 'They Don't Know'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

A sort of homecoming here. Not only in the literal sense, but also because this is the first time on the entire album that I can turn to my own MP3 library to listen. Although it was a hit in the autumn, the production makes it sound a little bit like a Christmas song, so perhaps it's just as well I'm not posting it any later than this.

Back when Homer and Marge were just Matt Groening's parents, Tracey Ullman had a secondary career as a singer, which brought her no fewer than four Top 10 singles. This was the biggest, possibly (or possibly not) because Kirsty MacColl's original version had failed to chart, though it was apparently a big radio hit in its day. Of course, both versions had come from Stiff records and MacColl appears on this recording too (one website has it that they're the same backing track, though this obviously isn't the case). Most obviously, at least once it's been pointed out to you, MacColl has to sing the high note after the instrumental break. None of this should be taken as criticising Ullman's version, though - while not a great singer technically she sells this song very effectively, pioneering the vogue for Sixties pastiche and carrying the hint of clumsiness that makes you root for the protagonist. Of course, she helped to sell it in a more literal way too, thanks to her fame and connections (check out the guest star at the end of the video!).

Possibly because she left the country, her pop career seems a little forgotten. Maybe it deserves better.

Also appearing on: Now 2
Available on: You Broke My Heart in 17 Places

Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack 'Tonight I Celebrate My Love'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

In stark contrast to yesterday's new-to-me UB40 song, this is one I knew well enough that I was tempted to write this piece without listening back to it at all. There seems to be something about slushy records from early in my life that makes them feel almost inescapable. In the end I felt I had to play it once, but that was plenty.

Perhaps this is unfair on my part. It's difficult for me to find anything about this record that's actually bad; the tune is pretty if unimaginative, and the singing (particularly from Flack) is really quite good. I suppose this record is almost guilty by association because it's so exactly the sort of thing that local radio DJs play late at night and back-announce in a deep voice, normally pronouncing the word "love" as "lurrvve". It's the kind of thing you'd expect to hear as the last dance in a school disco (if you didn't go to a single-sex school) and I wasn't in the least surprised when I searched for Peabo Bryson on Amazon and one of the top results was called Bedroom Classics Volume 2.

At least my rush to get this over with has completed Side Three nice and fast.

Available on: The Very Best of Roberta Flack

UB40 'Please Don't Make Me Cry'

Chart Peak: 10

YouTube

Well, I wasn't going to until I found out I'd have another UB40 sing to write about. At least I haven't heard this before, which is one advantage over the grossly over-exposed 'Red Red Wine'. Also, whilst this is another cover version (from their first Labour Of Love album) it was at least a reggae song - by the brilliantly named Winston Groovy - to start with, so at least they knew what to do with it.
Well, they should have known anyway. Unfortunately, they seem to fall into the same trap they did before: surprisingly, since whatever else we might say about them their love of the music is clearly genuine, they appear not to have realised that the simplicity of the original is actually quite demanding, and even though they perform it at about the same tempo as Groovy, they don't seem to convey the same energy with their synthetic-sounding version - I don't know whether this means they rehearsed too much or not enough. The record also casts an unflattering light on Ali Campbell's lead vocal.
On the positive side, though, Winston Groovy obviously had more to gain from the exposure than Neil Diamond, and he seems to have done well enough out of it, having toured and recorded with the group. And the video, which shows a boxing match between the two Campbell brothers, looks a bit prophetic with hindsight.

Also appearing on: Now 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18, 26, 41, 56
Available on: Labour of Love Vol.1-3: the Platinum Collection

Howard Jones 'New Song'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

I don't mind admitting that I found this title quite confusing at the time. And that was even before I had to try and remember which ones were Howard Jones and which ones were Nik Kershaw... Sometimes I still wonder whether he could have had a Number One if he'd actually called it 'Don't Crack Up' or 'Throw Off Your Mental Chains'.

Oh yes, if you hadn't already realised it's that one. The one where he has his little friend dancing around and throwing off some (physical) chains. Whether this was intended as a joke I don't know, but if so it seems to have worked only too well in preventing anyone from taking it seriously. Or maybe it was Jones' knitwear. Still I've tried to figure out why this doesn't convince - sure the lyrics are clicheed but they're almost so far into rock cliche as to come right out the other side. The glory of music is that it can make even trite or obvious sentiments sound convincing if they hit you hard enough, and that's probably where this falls down; the tune is moderately catchy but doesn't deliver (in melody or arrangement) the uplift that should accompany a rallying cry. It would have worked better as an advertising jingle. Also, as one YouTube commenter pointed out, the melody in the verses is actually quite similar to 'Solsbury Hill' - that's even more obvious if you compare it with Erasure's version, which is played on similar instrumentation.

Also appearing on: Now 2, 3, 5
Available on: Ultimate Collection

The Human League '(Keep Feeling) Fascination'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

And meanwhile, the rest of the Human League had been pretty busy too. Phil Oakey had made a conscious decision to pursue a more pop-oriented sound; and a lucrative one too, this being their sixth consecutive Top 10 hit. For me, though, it's mostly annoying (with the exception of the revived 'Being Boiled', which is odd enough to be forgivable), because I often get the impression of a band looking down their noses at the audience, pretentious in their dismissal of seriousness, self-important in their heavy-handed lack of importance. As I've tried to keep in mind throughout this blog, I don't think there's anything at all wrong with simple or meaningless pop music; the very problem I have with the League is that they seem to be trying to impress you all the time with how lowbrow they are. Of course they weren't alone in that at the time, but the fact that they're still trying to do it now, and their apparent insistence on being recognised as some sort of pioneers, as well as the fact that so many people actually seem to do so, just exacerbates it and makes them feel like the start of something I dislike. I'd be less concerned about any of this, of course, if I felt that it worked as pop music but for me the vast majority of it doesn't. I'll surprise nobody by saying that they weren't a great reserve of vocal talent, but nothing else has ever drawn me in either. Now I know that persuading the relatively primitive synthesisers of the era to play in time with themselves let alone each other was more of a challenge than we realised then; but I don't think much of it was worth the effort.
All of which said, I tend to find 'Fascination' one of their more tolerable ones, so I was glad that it was this I had to listen to rather than any of those others. It seems odd to say that they're playing to their strengths when I've just implied that they didn't have many, but perhaps they're playing against their weaknesses - they spread the vocals around a bit, and that's an undeniably catchy riff despite or maybe because of the the fact that it's a bit out of tune. And not a bad bassline too, albeit a bit like 'Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)'. Maybe that's why this single actually managed to reach the US R&B chart.

Also appearing on: Now 8, 13, 30, 31, 32
Available on: The Very Best of the Human League

Tina Turner 'Let's Stay Together'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube

My Dad's always been a big Tina Turner fan (Happy New Year if you're reading this!) so I remember the Private Dancer album (where this track appeared the following year) on pretty heavy rotation in the car for my formative years.
Back then, of course, I was entirely unaware that Tina Turner had any previous career, or that she was any older than any other pop star. As a matter of fact, this was the song that relaunched her, her first ever solo hit in the UK, and one that proved that this already-established performer was happy to pick up on the prevailing trends of the day; of course the fact that she probably didn't feel too much nostalgia for her former hit-making days might have helped with that. The track was originally recorded with the BEF (ie Heaven 17) who had a sideline in recording cover versions with what were then state-of-the-art production values and guest vocalists. Although they released two albums of these, it was this one track that became the biggest-ever success from the project. Listened to in the 21st century, the monotonous, programmed backing track does sound dated, but as with their own 'Temptation' it's somewhat rescued by the excitement of the vocal performance, which is given plenty of room by the starkness of the arrangement around it. It all sounds very much of its time of course (particularly those backing vocals, which admittedly might be a joke) but then again so does Al Green's original - that one just so happens to be in a style I'm more comfortable with. Neither would have been a fraction of the record it is without the quality of the singing, that's for sure.

Also appearing on: Now 4, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34, 44
Available on: Private Dancer

Kajagoogoo 'Big Apple'

Chart Peak:

YouTube

Well, I suppose you can't accuse the compilers here of taking sides. We've already had Limahl on his own after he was fired, so here are the rest of the band without him - bassist Nick Beggs took over lead vocals for the remainder of their career.

This is another one I'd never heard before, and I don't feel I can disagree with the YouTube commenters who say this was better than 'Too Shy'. Beggs doesn't seem any worse a singer than Limahl, and the song is mildly less ridiculous than their other hit, although still somewhat trite: I don't know that we really needed a song to tell us that the pace of life in New York City is fast, thanks. Whilst the music is competent (maybe they'd got a bit more practiced since 'Too Shy'?) it doesn't seem to me to capture much of an NYC atmosphere - but then again I've never been there, so I can only assume that. Although there isn't really anything wrong with this, it's not hard to tell why it's not been much remembered by posterity.

Either way, though, this does make Kajagoogoo the first act to appear twice on a Now album, unless you consider Limahl to have done so already. They're definitely the first to appear twice on one and then never make it to another.

Available on: Islands

New Edition 'Candy Girl'

Chart Peak: 1 (1 week)

YouTube

And so Side Three starts, like the previous two, with a Number One single. What's possibly more remarkable is that this is first encounter with a boy band. New Edition were, of course, a fairly obvious attempt to reinvent the Jackson 5 for the 1980s, and Bobby Brown seems to have followed the blueprint a little to literally in his transition to adulthood. In these more innocent times, their biggest hit is a distant cousin of the family group's 'ABC', with the Motown backbeat replaced by squelchy synths, everything seemingly pitched quite high to avoid clashes with the pre-pubescent vocals. The one other concession to the era are some brief rap segments, which help to break some of the monotony built up by the almost identical verses and chorus.
Oh yeah, and there's a middle eight where they seem to be talking about how great their girlfriends are. Or something like that - dogs might be able to hear the words a bit better. Much as I try to avoid being prejudiced about music, I do find it very difficult to find much to say about this. I suppose the best thing about it is that it's not the Babybird song of the same title.

Available on:Candy Girl

Paul Young 'Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)'

Chart Peak: 1 (3 weeks)

YouTube

And by a coincidence of running order, this follows the track it deposed from the top of the chart. I worry sometimes that I might be writing too much about myself in these entries, but the first thing I remember about this song is that I failed to understand the metaphor and wondered what he was doing with all those hats. Now I've grown up a bit and realised that it's about a man leaving a trail of one-night-stands behind him, it seems like there are several different ways to play the lyric: shamefully, boastfully, fearfully (as if you've just found the consequences coming back to haunt you) or perhaps most tantalisingly in a kind of "Aw shucks," way , employing confession as a pretext for boasting - I can imagine Sinatra doing quite a good job of it. Paul Young, however, doesn't seem to attempt any of these approaches, or if he does he's not very persuasive, and that's a double problem with a song whose protagonist has to be quite a persuader in order to, ahem, lay his hat that often.

The obvious thing to do was to turn to Marvin Gaye's version, which doesn't completely work either, although Gaye is the more convincing vocalist. Or maybe I just think that because of what I know about his life. It does heighten how different this arrangement is though: I'd remembered it as being very heavy and overdone, but actually there's not very much to it. It's just that Pino Palladino's fretless bass is so dominant that it makes the record feel sort of muddy and overwrought. Young's scat-singing on the way to the last chorus is in retrospect reminiscent of Gaye, which suggests that he was a fan, but he doesn't measure up to the man here. What he did do was to establish himself as a star, going on to apply this formula to various other songs for many a year to come.

This is the last track on the first disc of the album, so it represents a sort of half-way mark for me.

Also appearing on: Now 5, Now 20
Available on: Wherever I Lay My Hat: the Best of Paul Young

Rod Stewart 'Baby Jane'

Chart Peak: 1 (3 weeks)

YouTube

This one, I remember. And I remember that even then I knew who Rod Stewart was; at any rate I had an idea who he was, which was obviously based on the sort of person he seemed to be at that time, and I probably thought he was American too. I thought all rock stars were American unless I knew they weren't.
In retrospect, Stewart's last Number One single plays a bit like an attempt to recapture his first ones; like 'Maggie May' and 'You Wear It Well' it's a second-person monologue, in which Rod is nominally addressing some sort of femme fatale character, although in no case do you really believe that he'd say any of this out loud to her, if he even could. Our "Jane" here seems reminiscent of the social-climbing characters from 'Out Of Time' or '(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone', at least in the minds of their respective narrators. But for perhaps the last time in his career, Rod Stewart appears to acknowledge the passage of time, his protagonist here coming over as somewhat more mature than Maggie's toyboy. He's "said goodbye so many times the situation ain't all that new," and he can probably afford his own pool cue too. Thus the tone is more rueful than mortally wounded - yes, he reminds Jane that he knows secrets about her, but he doesn't seem to be rushing to divulge them in any way, just taking a deep breath and (in the chorus) hoping for better luck next time. The material's interesting enough to inspire one of his better vocal performances too, although it can't stop him doing that odd look left-look right dance in the video.
It's unfortunate that the rest of the song doesn't seem to deliver on the promise of the singing, with its muddy post-disco production and that awful sax solo. It's interested me enough to want to hear Belle & Sebastian's version, which I'm guessing isn't delivered in quite the same style. This doesn't add up to one of his best records, but I don't think he's done anything better since.

And in case anybody asks, I did assume this song was named after the film Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? but I've never seen it.

Also appearing on: Now 38 [N-Trance featuring Rod Stewart]
Available on:Some Guys Have All The Luck [2CD + DVD]

Rocksteady Crew '(Hey You) The Rocksteady Crew'

Chart Peak:

YouTube

This being 1983, there was nothing new about rap music but, as we've already seen on this album, it had yet to gain very much traction in the mainstream as more than a novelty. By now, we'd obviously moved on from "Oh wow, it's like he's talking instead of singing!" and instead the focus seemed to be on breakdancing, something I can dimly recall a big craze for in the middle of the decade, accompanied by the usual warnings not to try it at home. Funnily enough, I don't recall hearing this track at the time, but with hindsight I probably did: it's just that there's not much to it other than as a vehicle for the video, the Crew themselves being dancers rather than singers. And if the imagery of the video wasn't cliched then, it became so fast enough not to have stuck specifically in my mind.
Of course, this is another record that really begs to be judged on its own terms. Anyone looking for any more positive musical endorsement than "catchy" is barking up the wrong tree, and even after three minutes of listening in front of a computer it's threatening to outstay its welcome - but I'm sure it'd work much better dropped into a well-constructed DJ mix. Really it only exists as a way to cash in the fame they'd accrued by appearing in Flashdance and they were too good at what they did for me to begrudge them that. In fact, I find myself warming to this more than the Malcolm McLaren track, even though by any sober analysis that one's probably better.

On a less cheerful note, I believe this track represents the first posthumous appearance on this blog, since Frosty Freeze died earlier this year.

Available on: Fantastic Day One of the most random compilations ever?

Men At Work 'Down Under'

Chart peak: 1 (3 weeks)

YouTube

"Very good at sending themselves up, the Australians," said my mum when we saw this video on the telly. And that, whatever else you might say about this record, is certainly beyond dispute. Perhaps this is why they were able to produce a parody of their own stereotypes that not only conquered the world, but was embraced by their compatriots too; it seems to have become something of an anthem to the Aussies in Britain.
To my four-year-old self, there wasn't a lot here except a bunch of Australian guys doing a silly dance and singing about coming from "Down Under" - I suppose it shows how broad the humour is that I could get it even at that age - and I don't think I really understood any of the words in the verses, or even noticed that there were any (Colin Hay does seem to run out and just start bellowing over the fade-out). I didn't decipher until we went there years later what a Kombi was (a VW camper van, in case anyone hasn't caught up yet) and not until later still why he'd have a "head full of zombie". Listening back now, it's pretty much a shaggy dog story as the protagonist travels around the world (including Belgium, for some reason) and is constantly greeted with the same images from everyone he meets. By all accounts, this turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy for many a year thereafter, because Australian tourists and ex-pats got this sung back at them. Of course, the very idea that they're wandering around the world without any obvious intent is itself another stereotype.
As a child, I don't think I had any idea what Australian music would sound like, but with hindsight there isn't much local colour beyond the lyrics. There are hints of reggae in the rhythms and in Hay's vocal, but with no pretence at any sort of authenticity - it's almost a good-time version of The Police. The most notable feature of all is that infectious flute riff that would surely have made this song a single even had it not had such instantly marketable subject matter. It also distracts Greg Ham from the sax he seems to have ladled over every other track on the Business As Usual album.

Of course, the trouble with having this kind of novelty hit is that the only way is down, because people who bought this wouldn't all appreciate the (slightly) more serious tone of their other material: and if they had tried to persist with this direction buyers would have got tired of it anyway. Thus Men At Work won't trouble us again here, although whilst few people remember it they did notch up a couple more Top 40 singles in Britain. Strangely enough, their other US Number One, 'Who Can It Be Now?' is not among them.

Funny thing is, Colin Hay's actually Scottish...


Available on: Business As Usual

Mike Oldfield 'Moonlight Shadow'

Chart peak: 4

YouTube

Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first, shall we? "4am in the morning." Of course it's in the morning! That sort of phrasing has always annoyed me, and it's worse than usual in this case because it's not even necessary for scansion. "Four O'clock in the morning" would be less jarring and is anything a little bit folkier.

Anyway, now I've got that out of the way, I can write about the rest of the song. When this was a current record (I have some memory of hearing it in the end-of-year chart for 1983) I had no idea who Mike Oldfield actually was, or what sort of music he might ordinarily be expected to make. Anyway, this was the first single from his album Crises, possibly his most successful one without the word "Tubular" in the title, and (I now know) much more conventional a pop song than the sort of epic multi-layered pieces with which he first made his name. Indeed, the video seems to present it as a sort of wintertime, folksy singalong around the fire, and perhaps that's how Oldfield himself perceived it; in reality, of course, it's still a very produced-sounding record, clearly the result of a lot of studio time which can make it sound a little bit heavy-handed to these ears. On the positive side though, Maggie Reilly's vocal adds some humanity to the process and I've got to concede that even though Mike Oldfield is the sort of musician I tend to dislike (and by some accounts not a particularly appealing person either) he's managed to create a decent record, though nowhere near as important a one as I suspect he thinks this is.

Incidentally, I'd never thought of this until I read it on Wikipedia, but apparently at the time some people thought the lyrics were somehow alluding to the death of John Lennon, presumably because they contain the word "gun". Of course, this comparison falls apart after even the most cursory examination: Lennon wasn't shot six times by a man on the run, it wasn't a Saturday night, and it certainly wasn't 4 am in the morning...

Available on:Crises [MP3 download]