Popdose: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 26 | Popdose
Ethan Tucker
· 1 year ago
Hi there - minor point: Dragon were from New Zealand rather than Australia. They didn't achieve their mainstream success until after they moved to Australia in '75 though, so it's not unreasonable to refer to them as an Australian band.
Oh, hey there - you are absolutely correct - my use of "native" is not proper here...
WHarrisBullzEye
· 1 year ago
I know and love "Rain," but the version I have is on a CD where the band is called Hunter. In fact, when I interviewed Todd Rundgren last year, I asked him about working with the group (though, embarrassingly, I made an inaccurate comment about Shaun Cassidy's tie to the group that will haunt me forever).
LMAO Sorry, WHarrisBullzEye, I don't mean to laugh at your pain, but the Shaun Cassidy comment kills me! Sounds like something I would do... :)
steed
· 1 year ago
Good interview. I've never seen the song with the Hunter moniker - though I did know they released one album under that name. Is it the same version as the one labeled Dragon?
Eric S.
· 1 year ago
I have the Hunter version as well and it sounds slightly different. The Hunter version is a bit longer, but doesn't have the sound effects at the end. The Hunter CD, "Dreams of Ordinary Men" is from 1987. According to the liner notes, "Rain" is the only song on the CD not produced by Todd Rundgren. I bought it specifically to get a copy of "Rain" since my brother had the original Dragon album, which I never saw available on CD.
I agree that lying on a couch in the dark is the best way to experience an album, but it does seem harder to do the older you get. I guess that's the wife and kids trade-off.
Mary in Dallas
· 1 year ago
I love Dr. Hook's "Years From Now;" I bought their greatest hits album a few years ago just for that song.
This was an interesting post -- I'd never heard of most of these songs, so I've been introduced to some new stuff. Great column, as always.
steed
· 1 year ago
Thank you. This was an interesting week of some of harder to find tracks.
DavidMedsker
· 1 year ago
I have a version of "Shaddap You Face" by EMF. I couldn't get the version above to play, though.
Funny what you say about Dolby. Those are actually two of my favorite songs of his. The 12" mix of "Hyperactive" is much better.
Holy crap. Playing the original for the first time. EMF, uh, changed it a little.
drcastrato
· 1 year ago
Wait, Dragon told their audience that the AUDIENCE was gay, or that DRAGON was gay? In Texas, I suppose it wouldn't make a difference.
steed
· 1 year ago
Ha. Dragon said that about Texans in 1979 - from what I've read they were complete asses during that American tour - stemming from all the drugs Marc Hunter was taking at the time.
Eric
· 1 year ago
"Hyperactive" sounds very much like an early Level 42 track, in their funk days before they became a top-40 band.
jack
· 1 year ago
Did the band Double release any charting singles after "Captain of her Heart"? Just curious, not asking if you omitted them on purpose.
twostepcub
· 1 year ago
nice column as always, Steed! Y'know I completely forgot that Shaddup your face was so recent (i thought 70s)
Jack, Double never hit the pop chart again, but did scrape the Adult Contemporary list with "Woman Of THe World" from the same album Blue. It's a really cool dinner-play album that i loved (maybe partly cuz it was on translucent blue vinyl.)
Cheers Ernie 2sc
steed
· 1 year ago
Yep, that's right - no other charting songs other than Captain of Her Heart.
I do have to disagree with you on this one though twostepcub - I hate both Blue and the following record Dou3le....although I have to look at my album again - I don't remember Blue vinyl on my copy. Might have to hunt that down.
shweeney
· 1 year ago
Genesis? Huey Lewis? You are Patrick Bateman and I claim my £5.
as for Shaddap You Face - was an ENORMOUS hit in the UK. Bewildering.
David_E
· 1 year ago
Aside from the Doors, the Doobies and the Dolby, I'd never heard any of these. Or of these people.
Must have been protected by my +2 Cloak of Mainstreamness.
Elaine
· 1 year ago
That just gave me nostalgia for Nethack.
MichaelFortes
· 1 year ago
I don't think I heard D-Train's "Something's on Your Mind" till last year, might have even been around this time last year. I had only been familiar with the Miles Davis version for years. It was a staple of his live sets in the mid '80s.
breadalbane
· 1 year ago
XTC alert! That's Andy Partridge on harmonica on "Europa and The Pirate Twins". And that's Terry Williams on drums for Dragon. (After leaving XTC, he moved to Australia, and played with Dragon from 83 to 85.)
Perhaps not coincidentally, Dolby and Dragon are -- for me anyway -- the class of the field in this particular post.
breadalbane
· 1 year ago
Chambers. Terry Chambers. Terry Williams drummed for Rockpile. The XTC/Dragon drummer was Terry Chambers.
______________
Your handy guide to really good 80's drummers for UK quasi-new-wave-bands:
Martin Chambers: Pretenders Terry Chambers: XTC Terry Williams: Rockpile Boris Williams: The Cure
That is all.
wags
· 1 year ago
Hey! two new tracks here for my kids' compilation I make as a Christmas present for my nieces -- Doobies and Shaddap!
As for the music in the dark at night -- it's definitely something I miss too living as a couple... you might get a few nights like that with the baby, though, you might have to listen through some crying...
dhrobbie
· 1 year ago
A die-hard Phillies fan? They make those?
Amram
· 1 year ago
So. Dragon once called a Texas audience "gay."
AND???
(Can't help but feel that there may be more to the story than that...)
sfenn
· 1 year ago
"Hyperactive!" = slammin'. Love how he sticks in the little "ha". Somewhere I have a 7" of Dollar doing Erasure's "O L'Amour" but I didn't realise they had such an extensive discography of (hit) singles. I feel some Duran Duran coming up.
Joel
· 1 year ago
Yup. The 12" version of "Hyperactive" is far superior to the 45 RPM/7" version. MTV gave the song HEAVY airplay during Feb-March 1984 and the video featured the 12" mix. The song really doesn't make much sense in it's edited form. In fact, it kinda sucks. The 12", however, is brilliant. I think it's Dolby's finest moment.
Amazing that "Shaddap You Face" didn't chart top 40. It was THE catch-phrase/buzz record/novelty hit of the spring and summer months of 1981. Sorta like "My Toot Toot" 4 years later (which incidentally didn't go top 40 either....weird).
A shame that D-Train's 1981 R&B/Club jam "You're The One For Me" didn't even crack the Hot 100. That song is a definite old school classic. Then again, a lot of quality dance tracks didn't end up charting during the post-disco years. Seemed like top 40 radio avoided anything that remotely sounded like disco. There were exceptions of course ("Funkytown", "Take Your Time (Do It Right)", "Stomp"), but most of the (blackest) rhythmic music mid-charted ("Super Freak", "Don't Stop The Music", "She's A Bad Mama Jama").
David Noland
· 1 year ago
I've recently discovered this web site and missed a few previous parts. If anyone downloaded Crosby, Stills, and Nash - War Games , Curtie and the Boombox , or Ana -- Shy boys ... I'd love to have a copy if anyone could send it to me.
ElCartero
· 1 year ago
That version of "Shooting Star" may have been a later one. The version that (I think) hit the charts in '80 was recorded in a higher key (E-flat) and had a synth sound more typical of 1980 than the one here. Where did you get it from?
ElCartero
· 1 year ago
I'd had no idea, but Toni Basil's "Don't Want Nobody" (from her first album, the one with "Mickey") was a cover of the J.D. Drews song here. I was on a church ski trip once where somebody brought along that cassette and played the freakin' thing incessantly. Ugh. As you can imagine, I had to turn it off when the chorus started and the recognition hit me.
steed
· 1 year ago
Correctamundo on both. I popped out the 45 of "Shooting Star" and it is in a slightly higher key - but other than that they sound virtually identical to me.
I never pieced two and two together with Toni Basil's "Nobody". I listened to that again now and I like that much better than JD Drews version.
All Comments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_band
http://www.bullz-eye.com/music/interviews/2007/...
I agree that lying on a couch in the dark is the best way to experience an album, but it does seem harder to do the older you get. I guess that's the wife and kids trade-off.
This was an interesting post -- I'd never heard of most of these songs, so I've been introduced to some new stuff. Great column, as always.
Funny what you say about Dolby. Those are actually two of my favorite songs of his. The 12" mix of "Hyperactive" is much better.
http://earbuds.popdose.com/david/EMF - Shaddap You Face.mp3
Jack, Double never hit the pop chart again, but did scrape the Adult Contemporary list with "Woman Of THe World" from the same album Blue. It's a really cool dinner-play album that i loved (maybe partly cuz it was on translucent blue vinyl.)
Cheers
Ernie
2sc
I do have to disagree with you on this one though twostepcub - I hate both Blue and the following record Dou3le....although I have to look at my album again - I don't remember Blue vinyl on my copy. Might have to hunt that down.
as for Shaddap You Face - was an ENORMOUS hit in the UK. Bewildering.
Must have been protected by my +2 Cloak of Mainstreamness.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Dolby and Dragon are -- for me anyway -- the class of the field in this particular post.
______________
Your handy guide to really good 80's drummers for UK quasi-new-wave-bands:
Martin Chambers: Pretenders
Terry Chambers: XTC
Terry Williams: Rockpile
Boris Williams: The Cure
That is all.
As for the music in the dark at night -- it's definitely something I miss too living as a couple... you might get a few nights like that with the baby, though, you might have to listen through some crying...
AND???
(Can't help but feel that there may be more to the story than that...)
Amazing that "Shaddap You Face" didn't chart top 40. It was THE catch-phrase/buzz record/novelty hit of the spring and summer months of 1981. Sorta like "My Toot Toot" 4 years later (which incidentally didn't go top 40 either....weird).
A shame that D-Train's 1981 R&B/Club jam "You're The One For Me" didn't even crack the Hot 100. That song is a definite old school classic. Then again, a lot of quality dance tracks didn't end up charting during the post-disco years. Seemed like top 40 radio avoided anything that remotely sounded like disco. There were exceptions of course ("Funkytown", "Take Your Time (Do It Right)", "Stomp"), but most of the (blackest) rhythmic music mid-charted ("Super Freak", "Don't Stop The Music", "She's A Bad Mama Jama").
I never pieced two and two together with Toni Basil's "Nobody". I listened to that again now and I like that much better than JD Drews version.