Catch Me I’m Falling – Real Life
Written by group members David Sterry and Richard Zatorski, this was the follow-up to the first single by this Australian band, “Send Me An Angel.” The song is about living in a dream state and the fear of one’s dreams being a danger.
Tom Waits – 16 Shells from a Thirty-ought-six
The imagery in this song is so surreal and strange that it’s almost cartoonish. It’s sung from the perspective of a character who captures a crow in a Washburn guitar and then bangs on the strings “Just to drive him crazy.” The song’s narrator also makes a ladder from a marimba (a mallet percussion instrument); beats a French horn into a small travel kettle, and blows “a hole in the sky ’bout the size of a kickdrum.”
According to 1983 interviews, Waits wanted a sort of chain gang, work song feel to this track – which explains the metallic clangs and crashes. At least six years before Swordfishtrombones was released, this song started as a lyric about a farmer who shoots sixteen shells into the belly of a scarecrow out of frustration during a drought. A “Thirty-Ought-Six” is a .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge. (Source: “The Beat Goes On”, a 1983 interview with Rock Bill magazine.) Waits wanted this track to sound like a train; the low trombone and steady rhythm support this feel.
Love Is A Stranger – Eurythmics
Absolutely beautiful, sexy song.
“Love Is a Stranger” is a song by the British pop duo Eurythmics. Originally released in late 1982, the single was commercially unsuccessful, but it was re-released in 1983, reaching the UK top 10. The single was re-released again in 1991, to promote Eurythmics’ Greatest Hits album. Cash Box said that “the commanding vocals of Annie Lennox and hazy, electronically inflected backing combine to make ‘Love Is a Stranger’ a challenging yet already familiar sound.” Stereogum and The Guardian both ranked the song number two on their lists of the greatest Annie Lennox songs.
Will Powers – Kissing With Confidence
Always reminds me of a more mainstream Laurie Anderson 🙂
Recording Artist Will Powers re-releases her rare music video. There is no other album like Will Powers Dancing for Mental Health. With the support of such legendary musicians like Sting, Steve Winwood, Nile Rogers, Todd Rundgren, Carly Simon, to name a few, Will Powers brings you words and music that will not only make you smile, but make you realize what your smile can do for you.
Family Man: Hall & Oates
This was first recorded by the British musician Mike Oldfield and included on his 1982 album Five Miles Out with vocals by Maggie Reilly (Oldfield wrote the song with Reilly, guitarist Rick Fenn, keyboard player Tim Cross and drummer Mike Frye). Issued as a single, Oldfield’s original “Family Man” reached #45 on the UK charts. The next year, a version by Daryl Hall and John Oates became an international hit.
Jeopardy – Greg Kihn Band
This was the biggest hit for Greg Kihn Band, and it was a slow build: The group released nine albums between 1978 and 1986, and didn’t have a hit until “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em),” which appeared on album number six. “Jeopardy” came on their eighth album.
As for Kihn, he went on to write several novels and became the morning DJ at K-Fox FM in San Jose, California. He continued to perform live at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in California well into the ’00s.
BERNIE KNEE – “Zelig” Chameleon Dance
OK, so this is slightly cheating, but it could well have existed.
From Woody Allen’s “Zelig” (1983). Vocals by Bernie Knee, Music by Dick Hyman.
Fictional documentary about the life of human chameleon Leonard Zelig, a man who becomes a celebrity in the 1920s due to his ability to look and act like whoever is around him. Clever editing places Zelig in real newsreel footage of Woodrow Wilson, Babe Ruth, and others.
ZZ Top – Legs
Very possibly their finest era (of several). Didn’t you want a bass (or guitar) like that or was it just me?
The video was very popular. Just like their videos for “Gimme All Your Lovin'” and “Sharp Dressed Man,” it featured Billy Gibbons’ 1933 Ford Hot Rod, which he called The Eliminator. The big difference in “Legs” is that the main character is a girl.
The video had the same director (Tim Newman) and featured the three “Eliminator Girls,” but instead of sweeping a guy off in the Eliminator, the models rescue a girl who desperately needs some confidence. They give her a makeover and teach her how to handle guys to get what she wants.
Lara Petersson Music 