August, 2008

Pop Culture — No Comments
20
Aug 08

Number One of the Popiest Pop

#1 “Forever Young” by Alphaville (1984)

I stated recently that sometimes I believe I would be happy if people forgot how to make music following the composition, recording, and subsequent release of “Forever Young” by Alphaville for the following reasons:
1. The sheer awesomeness of the song.
2. Lyrics such as the awesome second verse:  

“Let us die young or let us live forever / We dont have the power but we never say never / Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip / The musics for the sad men.”

3. The brass synth solo.
4. A handful of other reasons.

A friend (actually a never-met friend of a friend) chimed in that he felt the first 15 seconds of “Forever Young” outweighed the combined career artistic output of many lesser musicians.

I tend to agree.

A great little factoid concerning Alphaville is that it was founded in the early 80s by three Germans with fake, more-Western-sounding (?) names:
Marian Gold (Hartwig Schierbaum),
Bernhard Lloyd (Bernhard Gößling), and
Frank Mertens (Frank Sorgatz).

Why bother with the aliases, guys? 

My Wiki-research tells me that the band was originally to be called Forever Young as well.

We can call this the Big Country Condition. It rarely works to the benefit of the song or the band (such is the dubbing of the condition for a time it “worked”).

In any case, the band went by Alphaville (named, I guess, after the Godard film) , released “Big In Japan,” (which was neither big in Japan nor the U.S. really, but was a big hit everywhere else), one dude no one cares about left the band, then came “Forever Young” all between 1983 and 1984.

This is the great song we are discussing here today (actually just doing this to test out WordPress).

There was an ironic Indie cover of it a few years ago.

It was in a bunch of movies (mostly ironically included).

Alphaville (in some incarnation) is still performing the song somewhere.

Favorite Wiki-fact: In the trivia section of the Wikipedia entry for “Forever Young,” someone has felt it important enough to state:

“On VH1 Classic’s show 120 Minutes it is a very popular music video that is played.” 

Here is the YouTube video.

Here is the Wikipedia entry.

Pop Culture — No Comments
20
Aug 08

Number Two of the Popiest Pop…

#2 – “Canada” by Pilot (1975)

In the Bible of 1970s Scottish pop music (whenever I get around to writing it), the book of “Genesis” (gotta think of a better, more Scottish/less English name or it) will read: 

”And The Bay City Rollers beget Pilot. And Pilot beget the (Scottish) Project portion of the (not Scottish) Alan Parsons Project.”

(It’ll be more a short leaflet.)
When speaking of Pilot, many are lazily too quick to cite “Magic,” but we are better than that. Aren’t we? And “Canada” is better than that too. Although the Herbie remake, aparently, is not.
Pilot formed when David Paton and Billy Lyall left the Bay City Rollers in 1973. This is after the (inital) release of “Saturday Night” (S- A- TUR- DAY- NIGHT!), but before it became an international hit some years later. They formed Pilot with drummer Stuart Tosh. Alan Parsons engineered (produced it, too?) their first album. “Magic” is on that one. Ian Bairnson joined somewhere in the mix there and they squeaked out a few more albums before they got poached by Alan Parsons, who sort of absorbed most of the band into his Project. 
”Canada” is a weird song in the vein of 10cc’s “I Don’t Like Cricket (I Love It),” because they are, uh, just weird songs (and one of them played in an 80s incarnation of 10cc), I guess. The chorus is truly bizarre and quite ambiguous:

A look out California / Ooo-ooo, I gotta warn ya / Here comes Canada

Maybe the “Cricket” comment comes from some subconscious understanding of the lyrics as a theme song of sorts for a sporting event. Europeans like to do that a lot. And that competition is, for some reason, a contest between the nation of Canada and the state of California… in something. What follows with the rest of the lyrics is a weird sycophantic, yet slightly condescending praise of Canada. They all but nudge Canada playfully on the chin and say “go get ‘em, tiger.” Nothing constructive, just praise. Each verse is capped of with a triumphant and completely out of place:

These things I do , I do for nobody else but me.

Again, not sure what is going on here. As if the singer is saying that he is only praising Canada for himself, not for public approval. Maybe? Or is the song so without a concrete meaning that there is a complete and total disconnect between the verses/choruses and this weird bridge between ‘em? It sounds cool, so, I guess it works.
You be the judge: the first verse:

Canada, you got an open door / You got so many things / I swear, I never saw them before / So much more, you got a world in store / You got a home from home, got a hold so strong / Can’t seem to ignore

Ok? And the second verse:

Canada, you proved your worth / You got snow peaked mountains tumbling down / You had them from birth / Say it clear, so the world can hear / I swear I never left you / Without shedding a tear

In a sense, Canada, in this competition (sporting or, possibly more in keeping with the lyrics, some sort of geographic worth contest) with California, is being told that it is a great place, despite popular or common opinion. (Remember, the band is neither Canadian nor Californian. They’re Scottish. Right?) Without ever substantiating the praise or attempting to clear the ambiguity, Pilot runs through truly inspiring blank praise.
I love this song even I don’t understand it. Meaning is over-rated.
Sorry I don’t know much more about this song and cannot find any other good Wiki-facts to share.
Lyall died of AIDS in the late 80s. 

Here is a YouTube video.

Newer Entries →