Yes, I know I said I wouldn’t be doing music posts all week but when I did my 80′s music post a few days ago I can’t believe I missed out on this band!
Eighties music in Australia was all about mullets and having fun and I think that one of the bands that embodies this the most had to have been the Uncanny X Men.
I admit, I was a big fan of them back in the day, maybe it was those extra fluffy mullets that did it…
Amazingly their lead singer Brian Mannix manages to get an occasional gig on the odd tv special and still seems to be having as much fun as ever.
Since Meeks started a few of us on doing posts of a musical bent in the last few days I have been tempted to do them for the rest of the week!
I will restrain myself from subjecting you to more of those 80′s hits I love (for now, anyway….. ) and revert back to my usual historic newspaper format of blogging. I will still be doing a music post though, this time it is something that is quite the antidote to the types of music I have posted so far!
Dame Nellie Melba was a world-renowned opera singer in the late 1800′s and one of her homes, Coombe Cottage, is in a nearby town.
Until I read this biography I didn’t realize what an interesting life she led.
I was very interested to find this photo of Dame Nellie Melba helping out at a BBQ for the students of the Conservatorium of Music at that very same Coombe Cottage in 1927. Hard to imagine an operatic diva wielding the barbie tongs, isn’t it?
In fact, if you have ever driven from Lilydale to Yarra Glen or Healesville you have driven right past its neatly clipped, high hedges on the corner of Maroondah Highway and the Melba Highway (named in her honour).
I imagine that Coldstream, where Coombe Cottage is located, was considered to be far out in the country back in those days. I wonder what led her to buy that particular property?
Just to help bring Dame Nellie Melba to life my music video contribution is this interesting collection of clips from her life to the accompaniment of Melba singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (and ended by one of her speeches). I suspect (and hope) that the part when she is dancing with the cockatoo was filmed at Coombe Cottage.
After quickly throwing together a post on Friday for Meeka’s music challenge I spent the entire weekend saying to myself ”Aaarrgh! I should have included that one, and that one too!”
I have decided to do another post today with a few of the 80′s hits I can’t believe I forgot to include.
How could I have not put in New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle?
Or the annoying, but original, video clips done by Peter Gabriel like this one, Sledgehammer.
Or last, but definitely not least, Adam and the Ants and Ant Music.
Ahhh, Adam Ant. He could easily have played Captain Jack Sparrow, although he might have had to tone down the wardrobe slightly…
Today I have been struggling with trying to think of something to post. I have been out in the garden all day and the weather is far too beautiful to be inside on the couch. The reason it is only perfect-ish is because I have a pile of washing and would rather be doing other things!
Luckily, inspiration struck when I read Meeks’s post about her music challenge. Thanks Meeka! Now all I have to do is narrow down music from my favourite decade. Hmmm… not so easy.
It is probably no surprise to you that my favourite music decade was the eighties. I was a teenager in the eighties, so that was when I was buying my own records and thinking I was all grown up.
I still have all those records and we still have a turntable, so they get a look in when the Man feels like dragging them out for a listen.
With the perfection of the weather today (and for so many other reasons) I can only begin with this, One Perfect Day by the Little Heroes.
I tend to listen to current music more than anything these days, but the songs that can still transport me back to a particular moment in time are those from the Eighties.
Below is What About Me by Moving Pictures. I have posted before but it is up there in my top ten even though it is probably one of the whingiest songs ever. Perfect for teenaged angst I guess!
I hate to add this next one, you know that politicians aren’t my favourite things and the tall bald bloke singing it is now one of our politicians, and one that we are all happy to complain about. Their songs were political and as soon as a political party got him they just nobbled him. We loved Midnight Oil back in the day but Pete, you’ve let us down….
Midnight Oil, Short Memory.
The next song surely has to loved by all, and although the clip might be dated my kids still love this one and jump around to it whenever it comes on.
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I Love Rock n Roll.
There are so many more songs I loved and to just pick a few was really hard. This post could have had a hundred songs and taken days to put together! I’ll be thinking of all those other songs I should have included for days…
Ahh the Eighties, things were so different. They were the days when girls swooned over George Michael, fashions were bad, radios were huge, and men wore more makeup than the women.
Bless you YouTube for the ability to be transported back to those Saturday afternoons watching Video Hits and jumping around the loungeroom with my sister, no doubt driving mum and dad crazy!
Sad news today with reports of the death of Chrissie Amphlett in New York aged 53.
If you listened to even the smallest amount of Australian rock in the eighties you would have heard Chrissies distinctive voice. She was the lead singer of The Divinyls and a wild woman of Australian rock.
Chrissie was known for her school uniform and primal performances. When you went to see the Divinyls live you got the same as you did on a recording, and if you were one of the adoring fans in the front row you would probably get a pot of beer thrown over you!
Hmmmmm… Which song to share with you……. Probably the bands most well known song was “I Touch Myself”, but I can’t tell you which of their songs is my favourite, I have different reasons for liking different ones!
We have one of their albums on tape in the 4WD so even the kids know the words to many of the songs, our next road trip will never be the same.
Yup. Earworms. I know you’ve been afflicted, and more than once too. Don’t be ashamed, you’re amongst friends. You can admit it.
Earworm is the term used for those songs that get stuck in your head, playing over and over, and driving you crazy. According to that wikipedia link, women and men are equally affected by earworms, although in women they last longer and we find them more irritating.
*not representative of real earworm…
(Yes, I know there are some of you who wish to make some comment about the annoyance threshold of women and how unsurprised you are. You know where the comments are, knock yourself out )
Naturally, I went to youtube to find a really annoying clip to put here in order to give you all an earworm for the day.
In doing so I found this utterly brilliant mashup of some of the worst earworm offenders of 2012 (by DJ Earworm of course). It includes Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Psy, Gotye, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, One Direction, and that bloody whistle from Flo Rida among others.
Some of them are songs which have been on high rotation on my own ipod (definitely not One Direction though, you gotta draw the line somewhere) and have taken up wormy residence in my brain for varying amounts of time.
The prompt for this post was a television report noting that a technique has been developed for removing these catchy, yet massively annoying, things. Apparently solving an anagram will do something to your brain to circumvent its evil hold on your mind.
I suspect that all it will really do is free up more space in there for the next earworm to get its catchy little tentacles in there….
Ok. Share, people. What is the most annoying earworm (old or new) that you know?
Alternatively, share your best anagram! I couldn’t think of one of my own. Since watching that clip all I have in my head now is a snippet of One Direction …..“You don’t know, oh oh…..” Aaargh!
If you wish to use any images or text from my blog be sure to ask permission and include a link back to Buried Words and Bushwa, and full credit to it.
Trove.
The newspaper articles here come from the National Library of Australia (trove.nla.gov.au). Get on there and do some text correcting! You never know what you might find...
