There are certain songs, no matter how many times you hear them, that still cause goosebumps to erupt on your skin or make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.
Unforgettable Fire is one of those tracks. I hear the opening bars and then I wait for Bono's raspy voice and I'm transported to another time and place. And I love the lyrics, too, nowhere near as contrived or as slogan-rich as the U2 of late.
Carnival
The wheels fly and the colors spin
Through alcohol
Red wine that punctures the skin
Face to face
In a dry and waterless place
And just check out how young everyone looks in this video (Bono was just 24)!
Love Will Tear Us Apart is one of my favourite songs of all time, although I came to it about ten years after its first release. I think Joy Division were probably too dark, too British to make it onto my radar when I was a ten-year-old, but when I was 20 they were my perfect new discovery.
I have a funny story to tell about this song. When I first heard it there was lots of hype about the impending new U2 album -- the yet-to-be-released Actung Baby -- and I was hanging out for the new single. I was sharing a flat with my sister at the time and she convinced me that this song -- Sarah (I Miss You) -- was the new U2 single. I was absolutely convinced it was Bono singing, until I heard the disc jockey back announce it as the new Richard Pleasance song and my sister fell about laughing.
Richard Pleasance was one of the founding members of Boom Crash Opera but launched a solo career when tinnitus put an end to his ability to go on tour. His debut album Galleon is still one of the finest Australian albums ever produced, in my humble opinion, although I think it has since been deleted from sale, a pity because it was critically acclaimed, nominated for a host of ARIA awards and featured "my" buddies Paul Hester and Deborah Conway.
His follow-up album, Colourblind, is also very good.
This is the debut single by a band formed in Melbourne in 1985. I used to love this song. Played it to death. Bought the album. And then I recall that they kind of disappeared off the face of the earth.
It's only now, listening to this song for the first time in 20 years (!), that I can hear that the opening bars and the whole beat and rhythm of the song sounds remarkably like Midnight Oil's Beds are Burning.
And strangely enough, confirming my belief that old bands never die they just keep playing on and on and on and on, I see that they've got a MySpace page and are still touring around Australia!
I can't say I was ever a huge fan of Dragon -- the gap in the late Marc Hunter's front teeth used to freak me out -- but this song, which reached #2 on the Australian charts in 1983, is a goodie. Hunter's got an awesome, smokey voice ... sadly, he died of smoking related oesophageal cancer in 1998.
The band, which was formed in New Zealand but translocated to Australia, has quite an "interesting" history, as this wikipedia entry attests. And to think they all looked so innocent...
I normally post songs by Australian bands in my Throwback Thursday series, but I am making an exception this time.
Echo & The Bunnymen are a post-punk British band hailing from Liverpool. They're one of those bands that I never really got into despite the fact I know most of their songs, acquired, I suspect, by osmosis. I had a flatmate in Brisbane who loved them and when I first started working in England back in 1998 my boss was a rabid fan.
The Donny Darko soundtrack was on high rotation around chez kimbofo in 2001 and this song, performed over the opening sequence, was enough to get the goosebumps going. I still think it's a terrific song, one that seems to get better as it gets older. Although Ocean Rain does give it a run for its money.
I was never a huge Models fan. The band formed in Melbourne back in 1978 and had a string of hits in the early-to-mid-1980s.
I used to have a crush on James Freud, the lead singer who looked a little like Rob Lowe. He plays the bass in this clip and leaves the singing to guitarist Sean Kelly, who looks -- and sounds -- like David Bowie during the Thin White Duke era.
Personally, I think this song has aged very well. It still sounds relevant today. I've had this one running through my head for weeks now.
Real Life came from Melbourne and had a hit with this, their debut single, back in 1983.
According to wikipedia, the band has released 17 versions of this song since its release. And god knows how many other bands have covered it in one way or another.
It's a great song though, and, like most new-wave stuff, has a great beat and a chorus that sticks in your head. Pity the lead singer wasn't much of a looker though!
I was never a Machinations fan, probably because the lead singer wasn't cute enough when I was a teenager! Shallow, huh?
Not having heard this song for at least 20 years, I rediscovered it on YouTube last week and found myself singing away to it. It seems to have stood the test of time quite well -- it's got an awesome bassline.
For those who are interested, Machinations were from Sydney. According to the Australian Rock Database, they were around between 1980-1989 and reformed briefly in 1997 -- probably to prop up the retirement fund.
Remember the days when you'd have to video tape filmclips off the telly or tape record songs off the radio if you wanted to capture your favourite tunes? Today's kids don't know how good they've got it. Want a clip of pretty much anything -- TV show, song, promo et al -- these days and it'll be online somewhere.
I'm actually beginning to think You Tube is the best invention ever. I've certainly spent many hours trawling through music clips from my teenage years and thought I might present a regular series called Throwback Thursdays until I get sick of the exercise. Expect lots of new-wave/rock Australiana from now on.
So here's the first one. It's an oldie but a goodie, by a little known band called Flowers, which later went on to become Icehouse.
I was 11 when this song came out. I had a crush on Iva Davies, who looks like he's about 12 here but was actually 25 at the time. His claim to fame was that he was a classically trained musician who turned to pop. I suppose lots of people do that now, but back then it was kind of unique.
He does movie soundtracks these days (Master and Commander, for instance) and I believe is currently appearing on Australian TV as a judge on some kind of musical programme called Battle of the Choirs, which, quite frankly, sounds rather naff. Still, from the pictures I have seen of him, he's aged rather well...
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