well, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. worst as it seems that Google Play has now stopped offering 3 new albums for 99p each day. so i am not discovering any more new vibes. best as it seems that Google Play has now stopped offering 3 new albums for 99p each day. so now, look you see, i am not handing over £1.98 or £2.97 to them each day.
which of the new albums did i go for today? why, absolutely none of them. for some reason i was of a mind to go back 34 years and listen to the sounds of 1981. specifically, the sounds of 1981 which were considered satisfactory by Australians in Australia. so it was off to the compilation Over The Top, which, at time of going to print, you could get yourself off of that ebay thing.
is it any good, then? oh yes. i listened to the first ten tracks on the way to verk, then the last eight on the way home. no skipping, no fast forwarding, just a little bit of turning it up from time to time.
it is remotely possible that i still have a tape of the album that Dad will have made me for my first ever walkman.
what sort of highlights reside on this album? well, as proud as Australia was, is and always will be of all things Australian, it is as top-heavy with Australian acts as you might expect. the awesomeness of I've Done Everything For You by Rick Springfield, for instance, is right here, despite many people assuming he is some sort of American or Canadian. Olivia Newton John also features, who whilst to the letter of the law is English is widely regarded as Australian. and then, of course, there is Mental As Anything, arguably, or at least to my memory, the biggest Australian band in Australia in 1981.
it was kind of weird, really, arriving back in England in 1983 being a massive fan of Mental As Anything and finding that absolutely no one in England had ever heard of them. it was a most happy day when they did that Live It Up song for Crocodile Dundee in the mid-80s, then, and i could walk into HMV and find most of their records on the shelf as a consequence.
is the snippet there from my favourite Mentals song? no, that would be If You Leave Me, Can I Come To?, shrouded as it is with lovely bass. but the Too Many Times you can partially hear there is good.
Spiros is very angry that i have a bad eye. not that he has any concern at all about my health, you understand. as readers of yesterday's approach will recall, he currently has a grand plan involving me and him running a scrapyard. he is rather hopeful that i will lose at least one eye and a few fingers operating the machinery in this venture. it would, apparently add to the authenticity of our work and serve to show off our credentials to the world. i had rather thought that us hanging our respective degrees (for we have many, we are quite clever) in the distressed caravan that we would use as a serviceable office would do that, but far be it from me to get in the way of the vision Spiros has for all of this. it is, after all, he who is creating a sensational pyramid scheme of loans to fund the idea, so it will be his kneecaps that get broken.
is it sore? oh hell yes. if it is true that it will feel the worst before it gets better, then please let this be the worst it gets. it is total agony, and i can hear Spiros (and a few others) laughing as they read that.
but you want more Over The Top stuff, do you not? sorry, by the way, if you did a google and were hoping to find the Stallone film of the same name. maybe he has the album too.
what's my all time favourite track on this compilation? Louise by Jona Lewie. a really poor quality snippet of it so that you might hear what it is? sure, why not.
i just love that awesome, layered sound, the deep vocal, the oopah bass, the lot. i loved this song so much, aged 8 or 9, that i can recall being determined to get a girlfriend at some point called Louise, because then she must surely be as awesome as this song. how did that work out? well, the name of my (considerably) better half is sort of an anagram of Louise, i suppose. so a sort of victory.
other highlights? well, what's not to love about I Won't Let You Down by PhD, exactly? also, there's The Stroke by Billy Squier on it. Spiros reckons that song is one brazen, bold celebration of manly men mutual masturbation, and as a consequence has cited how great the song is as an excuse for a number of situations he has been found in. and why not. also, Beautiful World by Devo is boss. and, and, well, all 18 tracks are brilliant, cheers.
it would have been unfair of me not to include a picture of Mr 1981 here in a post about a compilation from 1981, would it not? i mean, hot on the heels of Empire Strikes Back, 1981 saw Billy Dee Williams save the very arse of the career of Sylvester Stallone in the film Nighthawks; a movie which also saw Rutger Hauer get his first sort of prominent showcase to the world. so yeah, other than things like Reagan getting shot and the first Space Shuttle mission, and a Royal Wedding, when people think of 1981 they think of this class compilation and how smart Billy Dee Williams was in films released around then.
seriously? there's no Lando in Star Wars Episode VII : Mission To Moscow? what a wasted opportunity, it would be smart to see him in that boss blue suit again.
anyway, i am sure anyone who wants to have a listen to this smart compilation can, with a bit of work, go right ahead and find it. as for what i will be listening to tomorrow, who knows? i suppose i will, at around 7:20am, when i get on the bus and flick through the ipod.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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