Please stop the music

This is why sportspeople should never be allowed to also have music careers. Former Australian footballer Mark "Jacko" Jackson released this single 40 years ago, this month. I'm An Individual is best described as a shouty rap, and reached number 15 on the Australian music charts. 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2013/may/28/aussie-rules-footballers-sing-joy-of-six

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_an_Individual

Hairs on the back of your neck

Here's a motivational song for the Australian Olympics team, from 1988. A roster of some of Australia's best known singers, musicians, and athletes collaborated on this single, You're Not Alone. Profits went to the Australian Olympic Federation. It peaked at number 18 on the Australian Top 40 in May 1988. 

Cabin fever

To keep up the spirits of my reader during this third Coronavirus lockdown in the People's Republic of Victoria, I have repurposed Australian country singer Chad Morgan's 1969 single, In the Nuthouse, as a humorous lockdown song. Think of Victoria as a metaphorical "nuthouse", and the home as a "little padded cell." Enjoy. 

https://chadmorgan.com.au

https://www.discogs.com/Chad-Morgan-Its-All-So-Nice-In-The-Nuthouse/release/15529233

Where's my capo?

Happy birthday to guitar virtuoso, Tommy Emmanuel. He has more musical ability than I do in my little finger. Years ago, he collaborated with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra on this version of Classical Gas. 

Making sense out of nothing at all

At the risk of subjecting myself to mockery, I wish to state that I am a fan of the soft rock duo, Air Supply. Furthermore, I plan to go to their concert when they tour my city later in the year. This will be the third time that I have seen them in concert, but this time, I won't be going alone. 

Here is a screen capture from an online event ticket reseller. Sounds like a great concert, doesn't it? The band will be accompanied by a full orchestra, reproducing the sound of the studio versions of their biggest hits.

The first sentence of the second paragraph reads, "Russell Hitchcock met Graham Russell have been thrilling audiences for over 40 years." Clearly, there are words, or perhaps a whole sentence missing from this paragraph, because this makes no sense at all.

Radio friendly

Sometimes good songs don't become big hits. Take for example, Only You, released in 1990 by Australian band, Bang the Drum. It's a listenable, if slightly generic ballad, with excellent musicianship. I actually followed the pop charts back then, and I hadn't heard of this song or band until today. Its highest chart position was 31.

Real talent

Colleen Hewett was one of Australia's most popular entertainers. She is best known for her 1971 cover of Day by Day, from the musical, Godspell. Among her other hits was Dreaming My with You. If you were alive back on February 15, 1980, this was number 2 on 3XY's Top 40 chart. She charted higher than the likes of Queen, The Jacksons, and, er, Rupert Holmes. 

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Badgerdarkness/3xy_top_40___15_february_1980___melbourne_vic_australia/

Act your age, not your shoe size

Triple J is moving its Hottest 100 countdown from Australia Day to January 27. The radio station said it moved the countdown in recognition of “increasing debate” surrounding and the day’s meaning for indigenous people. In response, Senator Cory Bernardi, leader of the Australian Conservatives Party, decided to compile his own alternative list of 100 Australian songs on Spotify. The created controversy, when many of the artists on the list demanded they be removed from it.

To paraphrase, "You and your party are against everything I stand for. I refuse to let you use my music for your political purposes," they said.

Bernardi also invited suggestions from Twitter users. Leftist keyboard warriors couldn't resist the opportunity to smear and mock him by suggesting songs like Mummy Doesn't Know You're a Nazi, by Frenzal Rhomb, and Christian songs with titles such as Jesus Use Me, He Touched Me, and Hallelujah, The Lord's Coming Again. Well, tee hee, and chortle. What shining wits these people are. 

Two can play at that game. Here's some of my song suggestions for the other side, some of whom stubbornly cling to socialist ideology, despite ample historical evidence that it doesn't work. 

Dahp Prampi Mesa Moha Chokchey (National anthem of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge)

The East is Red by Li Youyan

The Internationale (Traditional)

Haste Siempre, Comandante by Carlos Puebla

Onwards Toward the Final Victory by Kim Moon Hyuk and Yoon De Geun

Solidarity Forever (Traditional)
The Stalin Album by the Red Army Choir

State Anthem of the Soviet Union (1944 version) by Alexander Alexandrov 

Here ends today's history lesson. 

AOR

Back in the early 1990s my Saturday morning ritual was to watch the ARIA Top 50 music chart countdown on Rage, which is Australia's longest running music programme. I later stopped watching it when I lost interest in the pop music scene, and became a young fuddy-duddy.

Rick Price had a top 5 hit single with Not a Day Goes By. By this week in 1992, it had dropped to number 21. It stands the test of time, as a passionate love song without a hint of sleaziness in it. Price is still actively touring and recording.

http://australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Rick+Price+%5BAU%5D&titel=Not+A+Day+Goes+By&cat=s

The Hi-Fi Club

Compact discs were meant to replace vinyl records, but vinyl has made a comeback. Old vinyl records are highly collectable, and current artists are releasing their albums on vinyl. Some people may now be regretting throwing out their vinyl records collections. Other people have kept them, not because they knew they would become fashionable again, but simply because they have an aversion to throwing things out.

In Christmas 1981 Bert Newton teamed up with the Debney Park High School band to release the spoken word single, Bring Back the Spirit of Christmas. I distinctly remember my mother buying this single for herself and for a couple of friends and relatives. She still has it today. A few thousand people bought it, helping it to become a minor hit around Australia. 

Bill Cosby's secret Australian connection

The Brown Hornet

As I sit and write this I'm only 30 minutes drive from the Mornington Peninsula, one of the state of Victoria's premier tourist destinations. In addition to its historic sites, spectacular coastline, amazing beaches, and gourmet produce, it has also contributed to the Australian music scene.

Australian Crawl came from Mount Eliza. It was founded when its members were at school together. Active between 1978 and 1986, they were one of the most popular Australian bands of the era. Lead singer James Reyne was famous for his unintelligible vocals. Take for example their 1980 single, Downhearted, which hit number 12 in the Australian charts in July of that year.

I left my heart back in the Orient
Down on Bali bays
It's not the way that I should feel
But it's the way I'm gonna stay

Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really started
Yeah
Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really start

It seems all wrong to be back home
There's no end in sight
Should I be made to drag you through
This lovers and spite

Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really started
Yeah
Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really start

Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really started
Yeah
Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really start

I sometimes think that we should stay
Happy on the farm
I sometimes think I'll give it all away
This love and all it's charms

Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really started
Yeah
Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really started

Yeah
Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really started
Yeah
Downhearted
Broken dreams that never really start

It's clearly a song about love and loss. This was lost on me as I heard this song on early 1980's AM radio. To my untrained young ears, it sounded like James Reyne was singing about the Brown Hornet, a superhero who appeared in the animated television series, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, which Bill Cosby created, produced, and hosted.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of websites about misheard song lyrics, which are known as mondegreens. Some of them are quite amusing to look at. Reyne's unique vocal style was obvious fodder for these sites.

http://amiright.com/

http://www.australiancrawl.com

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/australiancrawl/downhearted.html

http://kissthisguy.com/

http://viewer.dacast.com/broadcaster/25999/f/88347

A good habit to be into

It was 40 years ago in 1974 that Adelaide based nun Sister Janet Mead of the Sisters of Mercy order had a worldwide hit with her rock version of The Lord's Prayer. She was the second nun to have a top ten hit in the Billboard Hot 100, preceded in 1963 by Sister Luc-Gabrielle, who had a hit with Dominique.

Following in Luc-Gabrielle and Mead's footsteps is Sister Cristina Scuccia, an internet sensation who won the Italian version of television singing competition The Voice. It remains to be seen how her career will turn out after this, but good on her for her achievement and sharing her gift with her fellow Italians.

Mead has shunned the limelight, but she deserves the distinction of being among many Australian female solo artists to have international hits in the 1970's just like her contemporaries, Olivia Newton-John and Helen Reddy.

Chomping on onions

Pseudo Echo in the music video for their 1986 hit, Funky Town. Pierre Pierre is on the right.

It has been announced that Jim Carrey will be playing an obnoxious Frenchman in his next film, Pierre Pierre. I snickered quietly when I read this story. Why? Pierre Pierre (real name Pierre Gigliotti) was also the stage name of the bass/keytar player in Aussie rock band Pseudo Echo, who still tour around Australia to audiences of nostalgic generation X'ers. I've also been testing out Blogger's new image caption feature, as seen above.