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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Infatueighties

  • Infatueighties #59: Maniac

    It’s easy to imagine the allure of a song called “Maniac” to a 7-year old terror like I was. What’s not as easy to imagine is why the song still brings a smile to my face twenty-six years later. Believe it or not, I’ve never seen “Flashdance” all the way through, so that can’t be it. The song just makes me happy. I play it when I work out and it peps me up (although I don’t think I have much in common with “a steel town girl on a Saturday night). Hey, did you know that Michael (or Mike, as he was known at the time) Sembello played guitar on some of my favorite records by Stevie Wonder and The Jacksons? Hard to imagine a song this synth-heavy coming from a noted session guitarist, but, such are the mysteries of life.

    Of course, the video features Jennifer Beals in all her “Flashdance”-ian glory.

    For my money, one of the best soundtrack songs of the decade.

  • Infatueighties #61: Who Can it Be Now?

    It makes perfect sense to have a song by Men at Work follow one of The Police (although, if you really wanna get technical, it’s actually in FRONT of a song by The Police, but let’s not talk semantics now). Colin Hay and his band of merry Aussies were often accused of biting Sting, Stewart and Andy, but even if they were a carbon copy, at least they were a good carbon copy. “Who Can it Be Now?” is one of the best debut singles of the decade-from that signature sax part to it’s insistent drumbeat to Colin Hay’s deadpan vocal, which makes him sound even nuttier than if he’d screamed the song’s lyrics.

    Men at Work burned bright and fast. Their debut, Business as Usual (which contained “Who Can it Be Now?”), hung around at #1 for the latter part of ’82 and the first part of ’83, and the band won the Best New Artist Grammy Award before anyone knew that winning that was the beginning of the end. A follow-up, Cargo, sold well off the fumes from the previous album, and by the time the band’s third album, Two Hearts, was released in ’85, no one cared anymore. Lead singer Colin Hay has gone on to a mildly successful solo career and is a particular favorite of Zach Braff, who put him on the Platinum-selling Garden State soundtrack and has featured him in several episodes of “Scrubs”.

    I wonder if Rockwell was inspired to watch “Somebody’s Watching Me” after hearing this song.

  • Infatueighties #62: “King of Pain”

    For those who are actually following this and wonder where #63 went, it’s “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley, which I already discussed at length here. Let’s move on to one of the only artists viewed as being as pretentious as Mr. Henley. Yes, folks, that would be Gordon Sumner, who you know better as Sting. Sting, along with Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, was a member of The Police, who recorded the song you find at #62: “King of Pain”. See how it all ties together?

    Anyway, there are quite a few Police songs that I wanted to include in here (Side 1 of “Zenyatta Mondatta” might be my favorite side of an album ever), but “King of Pain” gets the nod because it’s the song that best marries the highbrow intelligence of many of Sting’s lyrics to a simple yet effective pop tune. How effective? I was 7 when this record came out and I loved it despite the fact that I had no bloody idea what The Police were talking about. “There’s a blind man looking for a shadown of doubt”? Whaaa???

    Anyway, “Synchronicity” is one of only a handful of albums (I can only think of six) with more than one song on this list, a testament to the legacy The Police left in only five short years of making records. Sting saving the rainforests may have muted their impact somewhat, but these were the records that turned me on to rock music. So let’s temporarily forget about the pompous ass-iness, the tantric sex and the cash-grabbing reunion tour (although they were quite good when I saw them) and remember how damn good this song is.