In this episode, we dive in to a 120 Minutes world premiere video that would go on to become a massive hit, along with a surprise twist from an influential band and blast of saxophone “madness”.
And welcome back to 120 months. We are taking a 10-year journey. Hopefully it doesn’t take us 10 years.
Shouldn’t take us in years, but it’s a 10 year journey through 120 minutes from 1987 to 1997. Uh, 120 minutes being MTV’s indie alternative show. In this particular episode, 10 of those 120 minutes was taken up by our mystery song, but we will leave that for later.
You can decide for yourselves whether that 10 minutes was spent well. That will be part of the debate, but 1st we have, actually, one of the songs is a world premiere, like it actually world premiered on this episode 120 minutes, so that’s kind of cool. And we also have one of my just all-time favorite like happy songs to talk about.
So this is going to be an interesting episode. I’m interested to get into it. I admit, I’m excited to just skip right to the mystery song because there’s just so much to talk about.
But we have our choices first, and Mr. Scott Mobley is going to lead it off. All right, so my pick this week is the song Is It Love from Gang of Four? Um, I chose this one because this is one of those bands that you hear name dropped pretty frequently by a lot of artists that I really admire, and I knew a few songs of theirs, but I never really did a deep dive into these guys, so I thought this would be a good chance to help me clear up a blind spot.
Boy, was I wrong? Um, I probably only heard uh, 2 or 3 songs from these guys before this week. So I’m not sure what gang of 4 were in my mind or what I thought this was going to be, but I can assure you that it wasn’t this.
I’ll back up a little bit on that first. So Gango 4 is a UK band. They’re foreman did 1976 in Leeds.
Their original lineup is Joe King on vocals, Andy Gill on guitar, Hugo Burnham on drums, and Dave Allen on bass. You may recognize the name Dave Allen. He was one of the founding members of Shrek Back.
They are categorized as a post-punk band, and their sound is described. This is Wikipedia as stripped down mix of punk, rock, funk, and dub, with lyrical emphasis on the social and political ills of society. So that’s what I thought this would be.
Um, I know who they’ve influenced. I know they have albums that are considered really important masterpieces in the alternative music scene. So why did we just listen to 4 minutes of straight up disco?
As it turns out? The influential and important version of Gang and 4 was a few years before this. And just to clarify, this song is from a 1983 album called Hard.
It was being played on 120 minutes in 1989 because a lot of their older catalog was being reissued. So, uh, the band had gone through multiple lineup changes throughout this late 70s and early 80s. They had a wildly successful and influential debut album, which we’ll talk about in just a 2nd and they were struggling to find a sound at this time, sort of lapsed into whatever the flavor of the month was in music, trying to kind of look looking for more success.
So the debut album in question is called entertainment. And it is exactly what I described before. It’s very early post-punk.
It has good rock rips, funky baselines, some pretty cool, typical late 70s, British angry political rantings. But that album is on every list you can imagine, including it’s number 483 on Rolling Stones greatest 500 albums. The best post-punk album ever by Pop Matters magazine.
It’s 49th on the greatest debut albums of all time. Eighth best album of the 70s from Pitchfork. List goes on and on.
So I only bring that up to assure anyone, including myself, that listen to this and thought, wait, this is one of the most important British post-punk bands. This is not what they’re famous for. Entertainment is a great album.
You can hear its influence pretty solidly if you give it a listen. I recommend doing that, but for now, we got to talk about, is it love? Like I said, this song originally came out in 83.
At that time, the band that had recorded entertainment had kind of fallen apart, Dave Allen had left the band to form Shrek back. Joe King, the singer, had taken on more songwriting responsibilities. He obviously wanted to lean a little bit more into this than what they had done before.
The band would break up for the 1st time of many after the release of this album. So it’s one of those things where the members of the band have recorded and toured using the name Gang of 4 throughout the years, but from when I gathered the original lineup has never gotten back together. So, like, this song is fine for what it is, but what it is is just early 80s disco.
It’s super overproduced. It has no lyrical depth at all. It’s fairly generic.
I will say that it does have, in its defense, just one funky ass baseline, which I really enjoyed, brought to you by a new basist at the time named Sarah Lee, who, after leaving Gang of 4, would go on to work with the likes of the B 52s and the talking head. So, now, kudos to the band for bringing her in when Dave Allen left. But other than that, I think this is just about as throwaway as it gets.
So, uh, same goes for the video. It’s just one of those 80s videos where the band tries to look cool and wanders around a bunch of smoke. It’s not saying anything.
And be fair, that’s probably because the songs aren’t trying to say anything either, but, you know, just like the song, the video is just kind of there. So, um, just for fun before I pass on here or pass the mic on here. I wanted to give you a list of bands that have called Gang of 4 an influence on their sound.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Block Party, France, Ferdinand, Radiohead, 9 Inch Nails, and LCD Sound System. I bring that up only to really drive the point home that this song is not what Ganga 4 is known for. If you want to hear that, then you want to listen to the album entertainment.
So I’m curious to see where you guys stand on this. I don’t know like what you knew about these guys going in, or if you had heard any of their early stuff or whatever, if you had any knowledge of them or if this was your 1st dive. So that’s, uh, is it love from a band that Tom Murillo of Rage Against the Machine called the most undeniable influence on my guitar playing?
Gang of four. Yeah, clearly none of that from came comes from this song. I was in the same boat.
I, Gang of War, you know, you hear about them a lot, if you are in our, you know, our circles or whatever, however you want to, you know, say that. If you read a lot of music interviews or you’re in the music world, obviously, you, you know, you learn about influences and who people like and who they, you know, talk about. And Gang 4 comes up a lot.
So I had a vision of them in my head that was, you know, late 70s British postpunk, which sounds like they were at some point. Uh, and I didn’t really look to see like what part of their discography this came from, but it was pretty clear, you know, pretty pretty early on that was probably from a later portion of their discography, and I think we’ve seen that with a couple bands. I mean, I guess like Shrek Back is an example of that.
They have a much different sound in general, but they did that cover of the Casey and Sunshine band song. I feel like there was another band even that we talked about that kind of more. Oh, it was Wire had kind of morphed their sound from postpunk into something different.
Not quite this, but still kind of, you know, moving into like electronic or dance. This is not particularly electronic. kind of a funky disco kind of thing, but so that was kind of, I’m kind of in the same boat. I was looking forward to diving into gang of four.
I don’t feel like I’ve done that yet. And so that still is on the that still is on the agenda. For what it is, it’s not even really a style of music that I particularly love.
I mean, I like a good funky song. And I mean, if a really good dance track or disco track comes on, you know, and it’s undeniably catchy or funky or groovy, then like, great. But it’s not something that I, you know, I don’t have like a playlist full of funk songs that I listen to all day.
So this just kind of fell in that like, I mean, the base groove is undeniably great. The female singer who I’m not, I didn’t look up who she was, but she reminded me of Janelle Monet, who’s, you know, the contemporary singer, who I have a feeling at some point in her life, must have run across this video or found that woman and patterned like some level of her her thing on her because like the look and the hairstyle and everything just kind of vibed with that. I tried to dig into that to see if that was the case and, and I don’t think that it necessarily was like a big thing.
I don’t, there’s not, it’s funny. I did a I did a Google search. I noticed that it did say like, oh, yeah, like she was clearly influenced by Gang of Four, and I was like, oh, I’m onto something, and then I actually look at the sources, and it’s like this one dude who has a blog, and this one, you know, podcast, you know, said like, oh, yeah, this one song may have been influenced by Gang of Four.
So I’m not sure that that’s something that’s like a solid thing. But that did pop in my head. And I was very impressed by how amazing the vocals are on the song that she does.
Not as much the regular lead singer, but I mean, it’s not bad. And the video is just, it’s just 80s to the very core. It is as 80s, as 80s, ever 80s.
I mean, it’s just… Not in a good way, though. It just kind of, like, it just kind of watches over you.
Yeah, like, comparing it to like, say, Ultravox Vienna, which is also a very 80s video, but like, it kind of draws you in. It’s kind of interesting. It’s got some things going on with it.
This one, I did watch this twice because I was trying to wrap my head around. Is there a storyline? It’s like they just kind of escort the the the singer through.
I don’t know. I’m not going to try to make sense of it. So I didn’t love it.
I didn’t hate it. It’s, you know, but it wasn’t what I expected and I’m guessing it’s, like you said, not what or I was guessing. Now I’m positive.
It’s not what made them famous or made them, you know, go on. It’s not what encouraged Tom Morello to go record, rage against the machine. I really, I really doubt Tom Morello would pick this song is what influenced him.
You tapped into something that I think may be, you know, kind of what we’re, we’ve talked about this before. This was a late 70s postpunk band, and then the 80s came along. And everybody kind of struggled to figure out what to do next.
Some bands did it right. Some bands didn’t, you know, I think this is just one of those things. This is the this is the equivalent of everybody recording a grunge album in 1993, you know, even bands that didn’t need to, like kiss.
It’s kind of that, I think. Like, they just, they said, oh, my God, music’s changing and we better figure out how to get in on it and they just didn’t. They just failed, you know?
Yeah, I had a similar experience to you guys. I had never, I’d heard the band name gang of four. Never heard any of their stuff, or if I did, I didn’t know it.
And so, yeah, put this on, expecting something, you know, punk kind of thing, and yeah, was was completely, you know, turned off by it at 1st just because it was so antithetical to what I was expecting. But I listened to it a few more times, and I think I liked the song better than you guys did. I mean, not having any expectations going into it.
Well, like I said, I did have expectations going into it, but once I kind of threw that aside and just considered it on its own merits and thank, you know, thought to myself, I don’t, I clearly don’t know what Gang of 4 is about. So I’m just going to listen to this for what it is. I enjoyed it, man.
I thought it was a pretty groovy, kind of slow jam kind of thing. I’m not really slow jam, but kind of jammy, you know, in that way. Um, I liked the female vocals.
The video is, like you said, very, very 80s, but I liked it too. You know, it reminded me also of the Ultravox video, but I, you know, I thought it was a pretty good run at that type of early 80s video. Um, this is not, you know, earth shattering or groundbreaking or anything like that.
But I think I liked it better than you guys did, apparently. Yeah, I thought the song was. But the whole thing, man, I, you know, I just think it’s a pretty neat little song.
It’s not, again, not going to change the world or anything like that, but for what it is, for kind of early 80s, you know, soul, whatever you want to call it, kind of GM, I enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty good. You know, I think I’m kind of with you.
I, I, my, my disappointment comes more from what I was expecting rather than what it was, but it just, to me, the whole thing was just kind of generic. I just, you know, like, nothing about this is going to make me ever pop it on and listen to it. It’s just very kind of there.
But it’s not, in any way, bad. It’s not like I listen to this and I’m like, oh, you know, it’s not, it’s not terrible, but it’s just not, it’s, my expectations were so different. I think I was just disappointed.
Yeah, like I said, the 1st time I listened to it, I was like, this is awful. What is this? I couldn’t, you know, I couldn’t get my head around it at all because it was so different from what I was expecting.
But yeah, on its own merits. I thought it was fine. Yeah.
All right. Well, I’m curious about this next one. This is my choice, and I’m curious to see if this actually met your expectations because I don’t know.
I expect you know who madness is. So we’re going to do Madness one step beyond. One step I expect you know who madness is, because our house, obviously, was a hit, and I think retro radio hit, and just, like, everybody kind of knows our house.
And so the question is, have you have you caught? I did not write this down. I just thought of this.
Have you gone one step beyond and learned more about madness? Madness is a band that I will say I didn’t really appreciate, obviously, at the time, I was too young to appreciate it and didn’t really run across them, like, in the early, because this is another one that goes obviously way back. It’s not a 1989 track.
Clearly, it’s this is from 1979. In fact, I don’t know why it was on 120 minutes. It may have been a cult classic thing or it may have been that Madness had like a, you know, greatest hits or something that came out.
But, and I would say even when I was in college radio, I still, I learned more madness songs, uh, because they were in rotation and and they stand out and they’re very, you know, they’re very noticeable. They don’t just blend in the background for the most part. So you kind of know when you’re playing a madness song.
Uh, my appreciation for them is actually really recent. I’ve been listening to Madness kind of recently. I mentioned before, I kind of have a guilty pleasure of listening to young people reacting to songs on YouTube for the 1st time.
So like I’m watching all these like, you know, 18, 20, 22 year olds reacting to like 90s music, but also, you know, 80s music and 70s music like madness. And it kind of made me appreciate them more because I really didn’t, hadn’t heard some of these songs and watched the videos and really appreciated madness for who they are. So that’s why I picked it.
I’m super excited to talk about it. Um, a little bit about madness. There are two-tone sky revival band.
Fun fact, I learned that 2 tone Ska, the term 2 tone has nothing to do with music. It actually has to do with the artwork that was created kind of around that scene. It’s that black and white stark kind of art, like there’s no gray tone.
It just black and white. It’s two-tone. There’s a real famous kind of character, whose name I did not write down and it escapes me, that appears like on, if you think about like the specials, there, I know their logo, the stiff records logo to some degree, or the two-tone logo, I should two-tone records logo, I should stay, incorporated that type of artwork.
So it’s actually like a, I was almost like a design style more than a music style, but that’s how they’re described. They formed in 1976 in Camden Town, which is a new Northwest London. Uh, and they had a little bit of shuffling around at the lineup, but these guys essentially have been the same band for for most of their existence.
Um, certainly from the time that they started really catching on, all the way up till today, 6 of the same, of the 7 original members still are in the band, still perform to this day. So, uh, there was a little bit of infighting at the beginning where a couple guys dropped in and out, but then they kind of solidified and then that’s been madness and they have been consistently been a band. I think they had a hiatus from like 86 to 92 or 93. that’s about it.
Otherwise, they’ve been on the road and recording and doing stuff. This was a very big band in the UK. They have 16 top 10 singles in the UK, including a number one with House of Fun, some other songs that I highly recommend going and checking out baggy trousers.
It must be love. Speaking of amazing baselines, Nightboat to Cairo, and of course, our house, which actually hit number 7 on the US billboard chart. What I love about these guys is they’re far, far more talented than I think you might initially give them credit for until you really listen to their musicianship.
And even, you know, a song like Our House, it has like some really weird like chord progressions and, you know, it’s got horn sections, it’s got piano. These guys are musicians. They are not just like some guys who picked up a guitar and learned 3 chords.
I mean, they are very good at what they do. But they’re also just super fun. I mean, you could tell from the videos.
These guys love making music. They love hanging out together. They’re a little stupid, they’re a little silly, but in the music, I mean, it’s really well done music and like lyrically, it’s usually about a lot of their songs are about their youth and like growing up and stuff.
And they’re kind of insightful. It’s not necessarily what you would expect if you only kind of tangentally know about madness or know who they are. So, I find them really, really interesting.
And this particular song, one step beyond is kind of a great example of that. It’s actually, from their debut album, so it was one of the earliest tracks, recorded in 1979 and released on Stiff Records, which was an indie label in the UK, they were also known for, like, they distributed Devo in Europe, so they were kind of into the post-punk stuff, but also, you know, clearly two-tone Ska was also in their repertoire. This song is a cover.
It’s a cover of a tune written by Jamaican sky singer, Prince Buster, who was basically these guys’ idol. They loved him. They loved his music.
They use elements of his music and other songs. In fact, the spoken word intro that begins this, has like a quote from him, and a quote from another one of their idols. So they definitely have like a lineage through Jamaican Scott, but that version is a lot slower, for one thing.
And it’s got a little bit more of kind of a swingy, slinkier feel. This one is a very, like, percussive upfront, really fast version of the song. The saxophone play is is just top notch.
I mean, we, you know, you talk about people like, I don’t know, Clarence Clemens. a few saxophone players from the 80s that are kind of famous because back then it was more common to have, you know, horn section, and that was the thing back then that you just don’t really find a lot anymore. Um, but these guys, I feel like live in kind of anonymity a little bit. You don’t really talk about like the sex guy from madness, you know, being like a big deal, but holy crap, he nails this song.
It’s incredibly good. It’s just and it’s just so much fun. Like the video is a blast.
I love watching these guys dance. I wish I had learned some of those dance views, moves back in the day so I could have busted them out. They’re really, really just, they just crack me up, just watching them.
All their videos are kind of that way where it just, they seem really authentic and sincere, but just silly and fun. And I can’t recommend enough, like I said, going back and watching some of the videos and hearing the songs, they go along with them. This particular song, um, did okay in the UK, did hit like number seven, number one in France, number five in Spain.
So it got the ball rolling for them and it was one of the 1st ones that kind of got them into the mainstream. And then from 1980 to 1986. They had a run where they were constantly on the UK charts and really were like a very big band that I think probably exceeds what most American audiences kind of think of and they think of madness.
Probably they think of him as a one-hit wonder, which just is not the case in the UK, but it is the case in the US, obviously. But to me they’re just, it’s just, they’re just a lot more than that. Um, and I hope that, you know, I’ll say two-tone sky isn’t exactly a genre that I, you know, am in love with or anything, but I just really like these guys, and I hope everyone else that’s listing, maybe if you’re, if you’re like, ah, you know, I heard our house, whatever, like, give these guys another shot, go and listen to a few of the tracks I mentioned.
It must be love, baggy trousers, night boat to Cairo. Those songs are really fun, and it may give you kind of a new appreciation for, like, who these guys are as a band, but also their musicianship. Like pay attention to what they’re doing and the songs that they’re writing.
And I think I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you’ve never done like a deeper dive on madness. So, again, I don’t know where you guys are on them. I’m sure you were exposed to him at KTXT.
I’m sure you know our house, but I’m curious if you like them as much as I do or if you if this inspired you to like go deeper. So let’s I’ll turn the mic over to you. I’m not a huge Madness fan. a lot about them.
I had heard this song, our house, obviously. And I think I’ve heard some other stuff by them. This song, I didn’t recognize until I put it on and played it again.
I would agree that these guys are really good at what they do. It’s just that I don’t like what they do. I’m not a scar fan at all, even to dip my toe in it, you know, the way you are, apparently, Mike.
So, um, I can’t say I really enjoyed this whole lot. You mentioned the saxophone. is a badass, man. He was wailing.
One of the note I took was, this has a sax. I should love it, but I don’t. And so…
The Saxon was not enough to draw me. I did have one question, though, about this song. Is the version that’s on the video, is that the record song with, or the version that’s on the record with the a cappella stuff at the front and all of that, or was that done for the video?
The spoken word intro starts when he wakes up the dude from the bed and is like, don’t listen to that. Listen to this, but the, uh, the, the on the stairs, the boop, the, boop, that’s just for the video, yeah. I was wondering about that.
I figured at least that part probably was for the video, but I didn’t know if all of it was or not. There’s a part in that little opening speed trend. Because of his accent.
I was having trouble hearing exactly what he said. Does he say the word Nazi-ist? It sure sounds, it sure sounds like it.
I meant to address that. He says the nuttiest. Nutty, yes.
And if you are kind of questioning that, the B side to this single was actually called the Nutty, the Nutty theme. They have a side project called the Nutty Something or like, so that they call themselves the Nutty Band, the Nuttiest Band, but the way he says it is super questionable. I’m sure everybody who hears it is like, wait, what did he just say?
And it’s actually, it’s funny you mentioned that. I’ve seen people react to this And every single time on YouTube, you see their faces kind of, and then they just kind of like, you know what? I just gonna let that go.
I’m going to assume he did not say what I think he just said, because it makes no sense that he would say that. That was my exact reaction to it. I was like, wait a minute, was that Nazi?
let’s just move along with the song. Let’s just assume, yeah. Okay, well, good.
I’m glad to know that they are nutty and not Nazi. They are nutty. I do not think they are Nazis as far as I know.
Some of that UK post-punk stuff in the late 70s, like had some, you know, Nazi influences and was kind of, you know, associated with that. So I was like, it’s at least possible that that’s what he’s saying, but surely not. So, yeah.
And surely they would have cut it out at some point like, yeah, exactly. Okay. Good, good.
But yeah, I can’t say I really like this a whole lot. I mean, if you are a scoff fan, you’re probably going to love this, but I’m just not. didn’t do a whole lot for me. You know, I’ve also said in the past that I’m kind of cool on on ska in general.
Um, you know, absolutely. absolutely hate white people doing reggae. Um, ska, I’m a little cooler on. Um, and, you know, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of it, but man, this song is fantastic.
Um, I, I, I remember this song and this video from back when MTV 1st started. And, you know, at that time, MTV didn’t have a whole lot to play. So they would play the same handful of random videos over and over and over again. and this was one of them.
I I remember this song very well. I remember the video very well too. I don’t think there’s a whole lot to go in about it.
You touched on everything, but you know, this is, this song is what kind of became the blueprint for what Scott was going to be moving forward. Like, this is sort of the foundation of what Scob is going to become. These guys certainly deserve probably the lion’s share of the credit for its popularity.
But yeah, no notes. This is a straight up jam. I just love everything about this song.
And this video, so you know we talked last episode about how the video for the Dead Moatman was like obviously very low budget and kind of done on the fly, but it was absolutely perfect for the song. Again, we have that right here in front of us. This video is a perfect example of how you take a little bit of money and you just perfectly capture like the spirit and energy of this band.
They obviously just said, let’s go film ourselves being goofy and silly, and mission accomplished. Just a blast of a video that like perfectly captures the energy and spirit of this band. So I really don’t have much more to say than that.
Just make sure that you get this song and video in your life. It’s wonderful. It will make you happy, whether you want to be or not.
This is a 10 out of 10 nostalgia trip for me. I’m so glad you picked it. But yeah.
Excellent, excellent song. If nothing else. And, you know, I respect your views, Keith, I am not a fan of Scott.
I would not say, like, I am a fan of Sky. Absolutely I’m not. If you’re feeling down, if you’re sad, you need to pick me up.
Like, you could do much worse than picking up a madness track, especially one step beyond night boat to Cairo is a very similar vibe. It’s another like instrumental vibe. Baggy trousers is a ton of fun, House of Fun, the song, House of Fun, is a ton of fun.
Like, they all have the same vibe in the video, too, of, let’s just kind of go be goofy, let, they’re all different enough, like, on the Naibo to Cairo. They dressed up in like safari gear and they’re kind of trooping around, but they still, their personality really comes through and I love that about this band because it, I really feel like I would love to just hang out with these dudes. Like, it just makes me feel like, God, these guys would be a lot of fun to go, like, have a beer at the pub with, you know?
That moment in the video where the song really kicks in and they all start dancing and they’re all basically doing the exact same dance. It’s such a great moment. But yeah, what I wanted to add was, you know, we’ve watched a lot of videos and a lot of songs, and the videos are what they are, and the songs are what they are, and every once in a while, you come across something where the video actually does make the song better.
And I think this is one of those things where I would tell anyone that’s not heard this song to only hear it for the 1st time with this video. The video helps the song. which we haven’t seen a whole lot of in this era of, you know, what we’re doing. But this is definitely one of those where I think seeing these guys and sort of their goofy energy and like watching them have such a good time bring this song to you helps the song become more fun, I think.
You may have hit on the reason that I’ve had kind of a resurgence in my interest for madness, is that I’ve now watched these videos and gotten a better idea of who these guys are, and it makes me, it really does make me appreciate what they’re doing a lot, because they just are so frigging likable. And they still clearly love what, like, it really feels like these guys all just picked up instruments and somehow found each other, somehow found that, like, we’re all really talented. We should jam and like they do and they enjoy it and they, I mean, the dancing.
Oh man. Like the, uh, the video for House of Fun in particular, uh, there’s a, there’s a moment in this video where they do, where they’re kind of all in a line doing it on like a, like a conga kind of dance. There’s a moment in House of Fun where they do one of the funniest dances I’ve ever seen in my life, but they’re all doing it like choreographed.
It is top notch. So, yeah, I’m not, I could talk about madness for the rest of the hour. I’m not going to.
But again, if you need to pick me up, if you’re looking for like some sort of just upbeat moment to like kind of get your day going, one of these madness tracks can almost certainly do that for you. Like, they, they have a bunch of them and they’re, they’re really, really enjoyable. Okay, I’ve said enough.
Go check out Madness. We’re moving on, and this is the song that I kind of previewed in the intro as a world premiere. I think this is maybe the 1st time, it’s certainly the 1st time we are knowingly, there may have been a time that one of these other songs was a premiere and they didn’t say it or we didn’t know it, but very specifically, this song is the very 1st time this played on MTV, so I’m interested in knowing more about, I don’t know a lot about these guys.
The song is familiar, so let’s dive into it. All right. Well, today, I will be talking about our world premiere.
And I think it’s interesting. I guess we’ll get into it a little bit. The song we’re going to talk about today, the World Premier video, played in February of 1989 on 120 minutes, is she drives me crazy by the fine new candles.
Come, come, come, come, come, come She drives me crazy And I can’t, yeah And so, yeah, this, apparently, was the first place this ever played. And so it’s kind of neat to think about. We’ve talked about some songs before that have kind of started off on 120 minutes and then broken containment and, you know, gotten bigger, out into the mainstream and all that stuff.
This one absolutely did that. I remember this song. I loved it when I was a kid, but it’s another one, and it’s kind of like when we talked about hazy shade of winter by the Bengals, back on an early episode of the 35,000 Watts podcast, when I was doing that one, and I had no idea that song had gone to number 2 on the billboard charts.
I had no idea it was that big. I just knew that I knew it Same thing here. I had no idea this song was as big as it was.
This was a number one hit on the billboard pot 100. Um, and I just I just did not know that. I knew it was a single.
I knew I’d heard it on the radio. But not only was this a number one hit for them. Uh, the next single, uh, good thing was also a number one hit for them.
I had no idea whatsoever that this band was ever that big. We’ll get into that a little bit. First, let me tell you a little bit about the band themselves, that they are a British band that was formed in Birmingham in 1984 by a couple of former members of the band, The Beat.
It was Andy Cox on guitar, and I’ve got Andy Steele on bass. I don’t know that both of those guys are named Andy. I may have written my notes down wrong there, but it was Cox and Steele or the 2 guys from The Beat that were in that band.
And they got together and decided they were going to do their own thing and they were auditioning for a singer. Apparently they listened to over 500 tapes of different singers before settling on Roland Gift. But man, what a choice.
I mean, that turned out worked really well for them. This song, she drives me crazy. He’s off their 2nd album, the 1989 album called The Raw and the Cooked.
And it’s also their last album. They were not, this was not a long-term project. They got together for these 2 albums, and there was like 4 or 5 years in between the 1st and 2nd albums.
So they were also working on other stuff at the same time that they were doing finding on cannibal stuff. The 2 guys from the beat, Cox and Steele, potentially both named Andy. They did some musical side projects.
Roland Gift, did some acting during that time. But all of this time, they were slowly but surely working on getting the 2nd album together. The raw and the cooked, again, you know, not to my knowledge, was huge.
This album sold over 3000000 copies, and it reached number one in 5 different countries. Um, in the UK. It was on the chart for 66 weeks.
In the US, it went to number one and was on the number one on the album charts for 7 weeks. Again, I had no idea that any of that happened. I like I said, I remember the song.
I bought this album. I owned it, but I had no idea it was this big. And it’s kind of funny to me to think about the fact that it was this big because I was not a huge fan of this album.
I bought it. I loved, uh, she drives me crazy. You know, some of the other songs are okay.
Good thing is a good song. Um, but I was not a huge fan of this album, so I was surprised to find that it went that big. And not only did it get that big, the critics loved it too.
So maybe I need to go back and listen to this album again. Maybe I gave it short shrift back in the day, but I was not a huge fan of it. I like I said, I had a cassette copy of it and thought it was fine at best.
And so, um, I was surprised, really surprised to find out how big this song and this album was. The song went to number one on the Billboard, Hot 100, like I said. Um, it was also went to number one in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Spain, among other place.
Billboard ranked at number 77 on the list of 500 best pop songs of all time. Critics loved it. Everybody apparently loved this song.
And it is the best song on that album, or at least that was my experience with it back in the day. This song I do really love. It was just everything else on that album that I thought was pretty dicey.
The song itself, probably known most for 2 different things. One is rolling gifts vocals, which are done mostly in Falsetto, which completely works, especially when he kicks into the chorus and comes out of the Falsetto into his full vocal. That transition is just fabulous.
The other thing that this is probably known best for is the odd drum sound it has on the snare drum. And so this is another one, kind of like the Susie and the banshee song where the studio trickery that they used to get this sound. was pretty neat. So I wanted to go into that a little bit.
So what they did to get that was they had a stretch of snare drum skin and hit it with a ruler, a wooden ruler. And then they took that sound and blended it with a snare sample, ran it through an EQ that boosted the one kilohertz area on that sound. Then played that sound through a speaker, sitting on top of a snare drum with a microphone underneath it.
And then what was recorded by that microphone is the sound that you get on the actual song. So a incredibly tortured process ends up with one of the coolest drum sounds you’re ever going to hear. Like, I don’t recall ever hearing another song that’s got a snare drum sound quite like this, mainly because I don’t think anybody else wanted to do all of that nonsense to get to bother to do that.
But it’s cool, and it really works, and I think it does add to the song. Um, you know, the song itself is basically just a pop song, um, little guitar driven, kind of a little jangly in the uh, in the, uh, the verse and a little crunchier in the chorus. Um, but it’s not like a hard rocker or anything like that.
It’s definitely a pop song, but man, it’s just fantastic. And rolling gifts, vocal performance on this song is, you know, if for no other reason, it’s a good thing that finding cannibals ended up choosing him to be the vocalist just so he could do this song for him. It’s great.
So yeah, I love this song. Um, and so, you know, I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the song itself, um, because I do think it was really good. I’ll be interested to see what you guys thought about it.
I have a feeling we probably all liked this song, even if we didn’t like the album. Um, but I didn’t want to talk a minute about the video because I think the video is interesting. There apparently were 2 different videos recorded for this.
I could not find the 2nd one. The 1st one, though, and it’s one that I imagine you guys saw and one I had seen before, you know, this was the video I remembered from back in the, uh, the 80s. But I hadn’t watched it since then.
So I put it on. It comes on immediately, I’m like, 0 yeah, I remember this. My very 1st thought was, man, is this video directed by the same guy that did the new order video for true faith?
Yep. And it turns out this video is directed by the same guy. The new order video for true faith.
And that is real obvious, right, at the beginning. The guy’s name is Philippe Descoufflet, maybe, is how you pronounce that. He’s a French guy, so I’m not sure that that’s exactly right.
Um, but yeah, I mean, if you have seen the video for True Faith Biden New Order, you essentially seen the video for, she drives me crazy by the fine young cannibals, they’re extremely similar. Like, lots of characters in costumes. There’s a couple of guys, one in a black suit, one in a yellow suit in this one.
There’s a guy in here that’s wearing a suit that appears to be made out of pillows that’s kind of rolling around on the ground at one point. A couple of girls in like leotards with shoulder pads on that are like attacking each other at one point. There’s a guy in like kind of a David Byrne-ish, uh, big suit that’s all stripes that’s dancing around crazy at one point in there.
There’s a dude with a TV where on his head where his head should be. at least got a TV up there. Like all these just bizarro images are thrown in and out throughout this video. And then as it’s going on, you get, you know, little images of the band too.
Usually close-ups right on Roland Gift’s face, which appears that they airbrushed his face, either that or Roland Gift is made out of porcelain, one or the other. Um, and then you’ve also got, you know, the other 2 guys get, you know, a little bit of uh, airtime on the video as well. But it’s mainly just these weird characters doing odd things and and rolling gift, close-up of him singing the song.
Um, it totally works. Man, I love this video. And it’s funny because I’m not a huge fan of the true faith video.
Like, the weirdness on that one kind of throws me off, and yet the exact same weirdness on this one like really drew me in. I, for some reason, it works here for me where it didn’t work there for me. And I, I can’t explain that any other way to say that maybe I’m just kind of a fickle dude.
But yeah, man, I loved this video. So this was fun for me, man. Going back and listening to the song again, discovering that the song was enormous when I had no idea that it had been quite that big, watching this video again was fun.
Yeah, I had a good time with this. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did, but yeah, that’s she drives me crazy. World premiere video on 120 minutes by the fine young cannibals.
Yeah, I was really curious to hear what you had to say about that. And this almost popularity, and it, you know, versus it being on 120 minutes and all of that, because I remember all this very clearly for 1989, and how big this was. And I had started to hear about this band, Fine Young Cannibals, before this album came out, and then being this sort of up and coming new band, and I was seeing stuff about them, but almost exclusively on more alternative outlets.
Like they were all over Spin magazine, but Rolling Stone never mentioned them, just, you know, as an example. So I remember before this album coming out, Spin magazine did a big article about them and and also at that same time had done a list of the like the 100 or 50, whatever, greatest cover songs of all time. And number one, number one on that list was their cover of Suspicious Minds, which is good, but I don’t know if it’s the greatest cover song of all time.
But anyway, so I, the hype on these guys was was rapidly building around the time, you know, this album started to come out. And it seems a little weird in retrospect that there was a time when these guys were being pushed to be the next big alternative act. And I’m not sure why because it’s just straight up pop music.
It’s very easily marketable. It’s very easy on the ears. I mean, this was always going to be mainstream music.
I don’t know that anyone could have known how big it was going to be, but I’m not sure why anyone thought it wasn’t going to be, you know, on top 40 radio versus college radio. It seems pretty obvious. Maybe that’s retrospect talking.
I don’t know, but you know, I remember seeing this video. I bought the album right away. Um, I remember everyone around my high school being into this.
I’m kind of with you, Keith. I, um, I don’t think the album cover to cover is very good. Um, but I do think it has 2 really strong songs.
This one and good thing. Um, which I actually think I like good thing more than this song, but that’s, you know, whatever, we could have that debate. Um, But yeah, great song.
Instantly likable, total crowd pleaser. Now, the video, um, you know, when when I saw that this is what you picked, I had the video in my head, but the video I had in my head was the good thing video, the black and white one where they’re kind of rocking out in the club or whatever. That’s the video I remember.
Turning this on, then I suddenly went, oh, yeah, that’s this video, and you immediately go, you know, wow, this is just true faith with a different song behind it. which I guess I probably didn’t know at the time because I wasn’t that into the true faith video back then. But, you know, that’s, and finding out the same guy directed it, that certainly clarifies a lot of things. That’s a very minor complaint.
This is a fun song. and I think it’s aged very well, honestly. So, yeah, the only other note I wrote down was to make a shout out to good thing, because that’s an excellent song, too, if you like fine young animals, but, yeah, I mean, this was another a nice revisit for me. You know, I remember being very into this when it came out and kind of forgetting about it over the years.
So it was nice to, nice to tap back into. I would say I’m lukewarm on this one. Like, it’s it’s it’s good, but not great, in my opinion.
But a lot of that has to do with when I discovered it, which was, you know, when it broke big on MTV, because it definitely did. I mean, it was it was on MTV a lot, a lot. Um, and so it wasn’t quite in my wheelhouse at the time, and I think we, you know, we had this discussion just another episode or 2 back where it’s like, oh, the Edie Burkell song. same thing.
Like, I think there’s a better song there that I’m, that I’m not appreciating because it just hit, when I 1st heard it. It kind of set itself into my memory in a certain place and it’s just hard for to get out of that rut, I guess. There’s nothing wrong with the song.
It’s very, very listable, very, you know, both you guys kind of mentioned. It is a pop song. And to me, I’m thinking about what else was going on at this time.
We’ve talked about some of the other songs that were on the charts around this time, and 2 of the songs that immediately leap to my mind are the Escape Club, Wild, Wild West, and the song by Go West called King of Wishful Thinking. This song is it’s a jam, and it’s not a 1000000 miles away from this. That that late 80s, these those songs were both out at this time.
And so this song fit right, and those songs were also huge on top 40 adult contemporary radio. The song slots right in there. And I think someone had to know that because this video was not cheap.
Someone put some money behind this video. Someone had to know this song was gonna do more than some of these other videos we’ve seen that were shot with like a video camcorder and, you know, 2 buddies and a 6 pack of beer. The marketing of this, too, was huge. like before it even came out, you know?
So they knew. They were easing us into it, I think, maybe. You know, I wonder, like, did it, did it show up on 120 minutes first because of a couple things?
A, did they maybe discover that marketing technique that we were all subjected to a college radio where a record label dips their toes into college radio and sees how this song does and then they elevate it? Like, sort of where they kind of forging that path? Because that would have been a, you know, 89 was still a little early for record labels to be super into that, but it certainly was happening at the time.
My other question is, is it because of the name of the band? This is not a good name for a pop band. It’s a terrible name for a pop band.
Um, you know, it’s like slots right in with like the new pornographers. Instead, people over, it’s like, maybe, did they ever think, man, we really kind of blew it with the band name, because it feels like they could have maybe, you know, done something a little more friendly, that maybe worked, because it’s just, you know, I don’t know, maybe it didn’t affect him at all. It certainly didn’t hurt him that much.
They hit, you know, number one with what multiple songs and had a huge album, but it makes me wonder if that, um, played into them being thought of as like an, you know, an alternative or indie band first. And they tested the waters, and I’m sure what they learned right away is this song is huge. It’s massive.
Let’s go ahead and push it out all the way. and they did. I remember marketing for this song. I mean, if I’m not mistaken, they would run ads for this album on MTV as well as like the actual videos.
I remember it was hugely marketed. You know, we talked before about, I think we were talking about like Gevin Records and and them, you know, dipping the toes into the water of the alternative scene, the college radio, and then seeing kind of what they got and then pushing it out there further. I just looked this up.
Fighting Cannibals were on IRS records who were also very guilty of that. They would they would try their stuff on the college market 1st and then push it out there. I think what happened with this is that they did that that test and it just blew up out of control like way too fast.
I was going to look up the timeline of when this happened, like the premiere on 120 minutes versus when this song started, like, racing up the charts. I bet those 2 things are not that far apart from each other. Kind of like we talked about with Edie Burkell, you know, they, in November, it was on 120 minutes.
In January, it was number 7 on the top 40 charts, you know, I think, I think this is probably around that same timeline if I was going to guess. I’m thinking maybe they were just kind of hedging their bets, you know, just we’ll float it on 120 minutes and see what happens, but kind of expecting that it was going to go bigger than it did. But it’s funny that you mentioned the marketing on MTV because, as we mentioned, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier episode, I didn’t actually have MTV in the little town I grew up in at this point.
And so it may be that it was surprising to me that it was this big because I didn’t get that marketing push on MTV itself. You know, the only place I was hearing this song was on the radio. Um, and I don’t even know where I saw the video.
I know I had seen it, but yeah, that’s that’s entirely possible, is that a lot of their marketing push may have been based on this video on NTV and trying to use that as a tool to push it forward. And so someone like me who wasn’t actually seeing that, I was only hearing it on the radio was kind of unaware of just how big it was blowing up at the time. Yeah, because it was, they pushed it a lot.
I mean, I, it was it was in whatever the highest rotation level on MTV was. It was in it for a while, you know, like once every 2 hours kind of… The last thing I will say about this, you know, we’ve talked about, you know, what exactly it is about a song that we like or don’t like or, you know, on various songs that we’ve gone through.
And I mentioned rolling gifts vocals on this. I absolutely love, like, the song Kiss, by Prince, is one of my all-time favorite, uh, Prince songs. I love the trope where you do the uh, the verse in falsetto and then just really let it fly on the chorus.
Um, and I think that just works really, really well in this particular song. I think that’s one of the best uses of that kind of, you know, whatever you want to call it, that tool in the toolbox of creating a song. I’ve always like it and I think it works specifically well with this song.
You know, I’ve never made this connection, but Kiss and this song are remarkably similar, like the kind of hard-hitting drum beat, and the jangly guitar riff, and the falsehood of, well, yeah, that’s those songs are more similar than I ever gave them credit for. Yeah, one of the 1st things that came into my mind actually on here on this one. All right, we’ve avoided it as long as we can.
It’s time for the mystery song, folks. I’m sorry. Let me tell you something.
Listen here. Listen here. I’m just, I will just let you start, Scott.
I have thoughts. I have notes, I have trauma. I have, I have so many things that I need to get out, but I need to let you tell me about the, I didn’t do any research.
I just watched the video. I want to learn. I want you to lead me in through this, and then I will, and then we will go from there.
So, Scott, tell us about this week’s mystery song. Okay. So I’m going to start this week’s mystery song by saying that at no point, have we put a limit on the running time of these songs.
So maybe that’s something we can consider for the future. So from a fairly weak field this time, however, I did choose the song. Jonathan Toledo by the Toll.
In New Mexico, oh This is a rose Let it go. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, and I assume that’s almost everyone. This song runs a staggeringly unnecessary 11 minute.
And, um, that’s not to say it isn’t good. I think there’s some good stuff to say about it. But it is 11 minutes long and I don’t think it had any need to be.
But so the toll. They were a rock band from Columbus, Ohio, they formed in the mid 80s. They had broken up by the early 90s.
So they were fairly short-lived. They were led by vocalist and main songwriter Brad Chercone. I looked up a pronunciation thing.
I hope I get that right, because based on what I saw in this video, Brad thinks very highly of himself, and I don’t want to interfere with his pronunciation of Bradshaw Cohn. He was backed by Rick Silk on guitar, Greg Bartram on bass and Brett Mayo on drums. This man was known for being a really good live act.
They were actually signed to Giffen Records in 1987 after a rep from the label, saw one show, and like immediately signed them to Geffen. So they must have been very impressive live. They released their debut album.
It’s called The Price of Progression, 1988, and this song, the 11 minute Jonathan Doledo, is the lead single from the album. I think that’s maybe where their mistakes started, but it didn’t really go anywhere. There was a 2nd single that did even less.
The band then turned in their 2nd album, which was a concept album that Geffen immediately rejected. They released a full 2nd album that had some songs from that on it and some other new stuff, and then Geffen dropped them. So they broke up shortly after that.
So this song, musically, this is a pretty straightforward rocker, I actually thought it was a pretty good one. I’d like just about everything the song was doing from a musical perspective. I want to make sure to make that clear before I talk about what’s happening here lyrically.
This man was known for using a lot of spoken word, and there is a lot of it here. I don’t really have a problem with that. But I will say that spoken word really only works in small doses.
We talked before about King Missile, and I’ve mentioned the whole study before. You know, these bands are exclusively spoken word, and they’re good for about 2 songs, and it kind of starts to sound the same. This is not purely spoken word.
It’s mixed in with some song vocals, but there is a lot of it, and over the course of this 11 minutes, and my problem wasn’t so much that he was speaking. It’s what he was speaking. The message of this song certainly has its heart in the right place, but man, weren’t those?
some juvenile, pretentious and completely unprofound lyrics. It was just grating to listen to after a little while. The video is performance for the most part.
There are some interstitial shots of native people and Brad Chircon wandering around the desert trying to sound important, but there’s nothing really to talk about. think with the video, you guys might have more, but it. I will mention that this video held the record for the longest video that wasn’t by Michael Jackson for a long time. I couldn’t find what dethroned it.
I also think that stat is really weird. That’s like You know, well, Michael Jackson did make longer videos. So what record do you have?
That’s like saying, you know, if Pink Floyd and Def Leppard and Michael Jackson didn’t exist, I’d have one of the greatest selling albums of all time, you know, it’s it’s just a weird stat to have to put that caveat on it. But anyway, I just got the feeling immediately that this guy thinks very highly of himself and his rocking abilities. And, um, he really believes that he is educating the world on the plight of the Native American, but using the poetry of a 4th grader to do it.
I will give this band their props, though. I really think this is a solid band, it’s a pretty solid work. That, my positive.
It’s the vocals and the length of this thing that I could have just done without. If this was a 4 minute song, you know, maybe it would have been a little easier to swallow. I don’t know.
Um, but that’s Jonathan Toledo by the toll. How about it? I will say it’s impressive that this guy found some competent musicians willing to jump on the train with him and provide the backing competent backing for what I have to feel is just the most insanely miss everything about this misses the mark from a vocal perspective.
Everything, everything, everything. It doesn’t work even a little bit. There’s not a moment where I’m like, okay, yeah, I can see why.
I guess maybe the chorus, there’s a there is a chorus. It’s kind of a shoutdy, a little. I’m looking for any silver lining here, but I was so affected by this that I stopped about 2 minutes in because I got a sense that this was going to go bad.
I didn’t realize how bad it was going to go. So I backed it up and I kind of timestamped my thoughts a little bit. So I just wanted to read through a few of my notes.
Oh, Jesus fucking Christ was my 1st note. But then I went back. And that’s it, folks.
Thanks for tuning in. That sums it up. Maybe I should have saved that for the end.
Then I backed up and said, okay, I’m gonna timestamp my thoughts. So 40 seconds in, the 1st 40 seconds remind me of like a cure song, uh, it also actually, I finally figured out in my head, it reminds me of the beginning to, um, one arm scissor by at the drive-in. And that’s all good.
So 40 seconds in is great. I like the intro, very solid. Three minutes in.
This guy is not really a good singer. Uh, maybe it’s just the recording. Maybe he’s better live.
But at that point, he’s still kind of singing a song and you still think that maybe this isn’t going to take the most ridiculous turn that it could possibly take, which it does, in fact, do. But at that point, you’re still, you know. Five minutes and 10 seconds.
He just face forward falls flat onto the stage for some reason and and I feel it. I feel him. I feel why I get it.
But yeah, he just, he just fucking face plants. just whop. I don’t know if you guys saw that, but okay. Sure, dude.
Why not? Um, no, I will say at 510, I still wasn’t sure if I was gonna really rip into the song or not because these are people, they have a, you know, they’re human beings, they have a heart, they have souls, they have feelings. I don’t like just absolutely ripping into people for no good reason.
And I was still on the fence at this point. All right, 5 minutes and 22 seconds. The thing where he just spits a loogie right into the air makes me feel like it’s okay to totally rip on this dude.
Because, look, if you’re just gonna spit up in the air and just assume, you know, that has to land somewhere, dude. Like someone has to clean that up. He’s in concert.
So that gave me a little insight into what I feel like is this guy’s personality. Scott, I think you kind of nailed it. He thinks he’s, he thinks he’s that guy that he can just go around spitting everywhere he wants and like everybody’s just going to clean it up for him.
So like, that’s where I was like, screw this guy. In his head, he is a rock star. Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, so 522 starts to get towards the spoken word section of this. My notes get a little more dense at this point, but I’ll try to get through it. Six minutes and 15 seconds in.
I have known Scott Mobley for 32 years. We have run a business together that went completely tits up. We’ve DJed together.
We’ve had a lot of drinks together. We’ve had a lot of road trips together. We spent a lot of time together.
I don’t think I’ve ever been mad at Scott until this moment. Six minutes and 46 seconds. The spoken word stuff, Jesus fucking Christ.
I don’t know who I hate more, Scott or this lead singer. Seven minutes and 18 seconds in. Okay, I hate the lead singer more.
But he’s doing a front flip. So I paused at 7 minutes and 18 seconds to make that note, and he was actually in the air halfway through a front flip, and I was like, this dude is about to land a front flip on stage. That at least is impressive.
Seven minutes and 19 seconds. Nope, he didn’t land it. Right on his butt, right on his butt.
Didn’t even didn’t even try. Seven minutes and 55 seconds. He’s now imitating the voice of the Native American woman whose plight he is trying to get across.
What the fuck are we even doing here? Nine minutes and 29 seconds in? Back to the course in the live performance.
Maybe they had the good sense to not actually perform the middle 5 minutes of this song live. And that’s why the video switches to him just giving his speech, shall we say, and like the actual live performance is just the bits that don’t absolutely make you want to rip your ears off. Uh, 950, 9 minutes, 56, and 6 seconds in, what the fuck was that?
Was that a blowup doll? You know what? I don’t even care anymore at this point.
Those are my notes. You know what’s funny about that is that you mentioned, you know, like maybe the spoken word part was cut into this. It should have been the opposite.
Like, that that middle 5 minute rant should have been what they did live, so people would go get a beer or something. When they put this out as a single, that all should have been cut out of there. But they did it the opposite way.
Good job boys. No, somebody heard this and said, we should make a video. You know, sometimes they cut the songs down for like radio and video.
No, no, no, no. We want the whole thing. Uncut.
Keep the Native American voice and that’s not going to offend anybody. That’s great. Let’s let’s run with it.
And by the way, somebody at 120 minutes said, yeah, fuck yeah, we’re putting this on the air. we’re putting this on the air. Jesus, that makes me, I have to say, it makes me question everything about 120 minutes, but okay, I’ve said enough. Keith may have loved this song.
Um, well, first of all, just spoiler alert for our listeners at home, uh, that that Mike’s description of the song there and the the timeline breakdown of it actually had me in tears. I literally been crying over here. So cool.
I believe the 1st time I cried on the podcast. so excellent. Good job, Mike. Yeah, no, you guys pretty much covered it all here.
I took 2 notes. I put, this is serious music by serious young men because that’s certainly what they thought they were doing. And then I also said, this is well intentioned, but just impossibly ham handed.
Like, it could not have been any more hand fisted than it was. And my favorite part. You guys covered the spoken word stuff pretty well.
But my favorite part in the spoken word is like, he’s talking about the Native American women and they got the backs up against the wall. and I’m trying to figure out why. Well, they probably got the backs up against the wall, so they won’t get stabbed in the back by the white man again. Yeah, that was another time where I’m literally laughing out loud.
There were parts of this where I was just like, Bono would look at this guy and go, what a pretentious douche. Even at 2 minutes, I watched this twice, and the 1st time I was mortified by the whole thing. But I had a blast with it the 2nd time around.
I absolutely recommend watching this thing again for its unintentional comedy value because this video and song are funny, man, they are, they’re not supposed to be, but they are funny. I actually recommend people do watch this, but go into it with that mindset that if you want to see just everything you can do wrong in a song and video on display in 11 short minutes. It’s all right here. this is this is how you do it wrong.
You did mention that like his heart, I think, is at least somewhat in the right place. I I would go so far as to maybe argue that he’s using the Native America thing just as like a, you know, as a soapbox that he can get on or whatever, but let’s let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. And let’s say that he was, he is trying to get the point across that we have treated, we, as Americans, have treated Native Americans very poorly.
But I feel like I stated it more clearly and better in that 5 seconds than he did in a 10 minute song because you can’t take this seriously. You cannot. There is not, there cannot be.
There cannot be any human in this world who would watch this and take it at the, take it the way. I think this guy intended it and take it at faith, like you just can’t. You, you’re gonna get taken out of the moment so far that nothing he says is gonna land with you. like so it doesn’t work as any kind of advocacy or awareness.
If there is a picture in the dictionary next to ham fisted, it’s of this guy singing this song because I don’t know how better to describe it. Like if someone asked me to describe ham fisted, I’d be like, actually pull up YouTube, skip to about 545 in this video, and you will understand ham fisted 100%. Like, you will never have to question what that term means again, because it’s this.
This is ham-fisted, personified. He is. He is.
I just, you know, in other news, Scott is no longer allowed to pick the mystery song. Yeah, I was going to say. So Scott’s in the penalty box.
We were gonna take his mic away for the entire podcast, but we realized that was too much. So he’s not allowed to pick mystery songs anymore and anything that’s over 5 minutes has to be approved by the group. Sorry.
Yeah. No, I mean, seriously, we, you know, you and I, for sure, I don’t know if Keith, you still, sometimes you listen to stuff ahead of time, you and I pick blind, so, I mean, it is what it is. How you chose this one over a couple of the other ones that you might have chosen.
I don’t know, but it came into our lives for a reason. Who knows what that reason is? I’m I’ve seen it.
So the next time somebody says, you know, what’s the most ham fisted douchey video of all time? Well, I have an answer. I can beat, yeah, because you have a topper, no matter what anybody comes at you with, and it’ll probably be a U2 song or have you heard the live version of Bullet the Blue Sky by U2?
Well, have I got news for you? It’s not even… It’s not even in the…
Yeah, there’s there is no ballpark for this song. And I know people out there are listening to this and they’re going, well, this, they’re, you know, it’s, it’s hyperbole because you’re on a podcast, you gotta kind of, no, nothing we’re saying. I don’t, if anything, we are not saying enough about how ham fisted and ridiculously.
Like, I just can’t conceive of anyone thinking this was a good idea. And that’s where I go back to the fact that this guy, I almost, I think of him as like a Tommy, what’s his name from the room, kind of guy, or like Tommy Wiso. Wiso, or, uh, I had someone else in mind that, like, just, yeah, just like an ego so big that you can record this song and think, yeah.
That’s, yeah. Cool. Yeah, it’s, it’s almost like a lack of self-awareness that, that, that comes out as, as a, like really, really strong confidence, you know?
I, you know, it’s an admirable quality to me to be so confident in your inability that you don’t realize, you know, that, you know, that, that you, uh, I mean, don’t you wish you could go through life like that? Like just thinking everything you did was amazing? Was this good?
Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell you who we’ve run across in our travels through these podcasts that rivals this guy. It’s the dude from the Brian Jonestown Massacre. his name now.
Thank you. Yes. That’s where I could find it in my notes.
I was like, this guy, and Anton Newcomb, I’m going to throw Ed Kualachek from live into the mix just as like being maybe. He could hang out with these guys. And they would all, like, be sitting around drinking a beer with a candle lit next to a picture of Blano.
I think is probably, you know, But then they’d all end up choking each other. Well, I think Ed and Anton would end up choking this guy because, like, even they would be like, oh, dude, like, fucking, no. And I mean, we all agreed about Anton Newcomb and how we kind of feel about that when we did when we did the documentary dig thing.
And I don’t think any of us really wants to be in a room with that guy. And I think Anton would absolutely, yeah, just be like, I don’t want to hang out with that guy anymore. That’s…
So do we recommend it? I, I, I mean, that’s not really the podcast, but we, we do, usually. It’s not the point, but like, we usually, yeah, we usually at least try to…
And for what it’s worth, this band is good. Like these guys can play. If you if there’s a if you have one of those those computer programs that pulls vocals out, like do that and listen to this guy, these guys play, they’re good. you know?
And the music is not bad in this. It’s it’s pretty good. I mean, it goes on way too long, but it doesn’t, it’s not, these guys can play.
They just have a lead singer that is an anchor around their neck, unfortunately. You know, the YouTube video. I meant to bring it up because there’s a bunch of comments about how many how many people like this band. for one thing.
But the bass player for the band actually commented on YouTube. And sometimes I will reach out to people and be like, hey, do you want to do an interview or whatever for various projects? I haven’t for this podcast.
But I was like, hmm, I wonder if this guy, but I’m like, I don’t know if I could have an interview with him that wouldn’t maybe be offensive because I would want, I want to know, you’re good, your guitar player’s good, your drummer’s good. You guys were a good band. Did you guys all gel?
Did you, did you all feel what, you know, that this was the direction with, did you feel good about what was happening vocal wise or lyric wise with these songs? I mean, they must have been on board with it, but I mean, I feel like maybe no. And the reason, yeah, right?
the reasoning behind that. My reasoning behind that is they recorded 2 albums with a recording contract. I’m sure they were all very happy to get.
When the 2nd album didn’t take off and they got dropped from the label, they went their separate ways. Like, if they really believed in this project, it could have kept going and gone to some smaller label or just kept touring around or whatever, they just said F it after that. And I think that might have been the man going, okay, we latched our wagons to this guy, but it ain’t going to work.
So we’re moving on, you know. That’s just, it’s all in my head, but I, the fact that they just disbanded so quickly. And made no attempt to keep this project going tells me that they kind of knew that, you know, maybe this wasn’t the answer, this guy.
And they were correct. And they were right. They were so right.
So, okay, yeah, we’ll recommend it. I do think that it’s such an outlier and it’s so unique in its terribleness that it is absolutely worth watching. It is.
It’s torturous. You will you will cringe yourself into a ball at at points in this when he, especially during the spoken word where you’re just, you can’t believe someone is saying this out loud, much less in this format. But I guess, you know, we’re all masochists to some degree, like you kind of want, it’s like a car crash, you kind of, now you kind of want to see it, right?
This is, your mention of the room was perfect because that’s what this is. It’s the so bad it’s good video of this. so bad. And sorry to all the Native Americans.
You deserve better. You deserve better songs than this. Like, Jesus.
Like, can’t we give you guys? I mean, surely someone’s done a better advocacy song than this. I mean, it could hardly be worse.
The United States has to have a midnight oil somewhere that’s doing good work in this department. doing something. Yeah, right? Like, they just, yeah, Jesus, they deserve better than this, but okay.
So check that out. Otherwise, pretty good week. Like, gang of four, I think Scotty is saying, go back and listen to entertainment, the album, if you really want, like, the gang of four that influenced all your favorite bands, if you just want a funk jam, this is fine.
I mean, check it out. I don’t think any of us necessarily loved it, but I mean, we jammed to it. It’ fine.
Madness, hey, come on, cool, listen to madness. Don’t, don’t, don’t sweat. Don’t sleep on madness.
They’re great. If you just want, the songs are pretty short too. So, like, if you just want a quick pick me up, a quick jam, but also, I will say, it must be love is the one song that isn’t, like, kind of a sky, it’s still sky, but it’s slow and very, It’s got a great baseline, Keith, so check it out.
Uh, it’s it’s a different kind of Scott song. So check that out, but baggage. House isn’t very Scott either.
You know, they’re… It’s not terribly Scott. So check them out. and then find young cannibals.
I have to think you’ve probably heard. And it doesn’t sound like maybe a deeper dive is necessary with fine young candles. You might get, you might just want to get the cream of the crop from, from like the, like the greatest hits or compilation or something, but, I mean, it is an undeniably catchy song and and absolutely was a massive, massive hit.
So you’ve probably heard it, but if not. Or just, if you haven’t heard for a while, go back and check it out. It is, it’s a very, you know, I think I was in the minority on that one.
It is a great song, so. Watch the video at the very least. The video is delightful.
It works really well. You know, I did say when you mentioned this, I had the exact same feeling where the true faith video absolutely does not work for that song. It doesn’t fit.
They don’t match. They don’t feel this one feels exactly right. It fits like a glove with the song.
And it’s funny because they are so similar. And all the things I hate about the true faith video. I actually kind of like about this video, even though they’re virtually the same, which is funny.
I think it’s the quirkiness of the beat of the fine young cannibals. works for that silliness better than that. Yeah, the truth faith, true faith is a song that has like some meaning and purpose behind it that I feel like was very incongruent with the video. So I definitely agree that this video works really well for the song.
So if you haven’t seen it for a while, or maybe you never saw the video. You just heard it on the radio. Check it out.
Wow. Yeah, what a journey. Man, I don’t, I just, I feel like I, I don’t know.
I need like a shower. I need to like, I need a nap. I don’t know.
I don’t know. I feel different after this episode than I normally do, but there you have it, folks. Hey, go check out 35,000 Watts, the story of college radio, it’s on Tubi.
It’s a feature documentary about college radio, and I think if you like some of this music, if you like this podcast, you would probably also like that documentary, so please check it out. We have a whole bunch of podcast episodes if you’re just tuning in because you just found us. We’ve already done 1987 and 1988.
So there are 24 episodes. waiting for you from those years. Then, of course, we just did January of 1989. so that’s out there as well. We’d appreciate it if you listen in and comment on YouTube or we have Facebook, we have Instagram, so you can comment there, but we’re, I’d love for you to all go to YouTube and comment there, so we have like one place where we can debate all this time stuff, but, you know, wherever you’re most comfortable, we’ll find it.
Thanks for listening and join us next time for March of 1989 right here on 120 Months.