Album: Heartland, 1983
Justification: Yes, Real Life were a pioneering synth-pop band in a time when Australian music had little time for anything other than pub rock; yes, this single and ‘Send Me An Angel’ proved that Australian bands could compete on the world stage with the best of what the UK and US had to offer in the ’80s; yes, the video clip demonstrated that local filmmakers could be as nonsensically garish and horribly dated as the rest of the world – or, in the words of the inspired genius who wrote the song’s entry on Wikipedia:
At the beginning of the video there is a crowd in darkness with a luminous paint. The band performs the song in a bright room and then it is distributed among the members throughout the studio with some other people. In addition there are movie effects
However, not even the fact that paint is distributed among the members throughout the studio is the reason that this song is the four-hundred-and-fortieth Song You Should Rediscover Today Because It Is Awesome. That honour is for one reason and one reason only: it was the first ever song to which I danced with a girl.
"Slightly out-of-focus shot of a rusty weathercock? Sure, that'd be a fucking kick-arse album cover! No, there's no need for a second opinion, let's print this baby!"
The year was 1984. It was the year seven disco at Flagstaff Hill Primary School. I was a coltish lad of 12 – not a boy, as Britney Spears might say, but not yet a woman. I was undoubtably wearing something truly hideous – I can’t be sure but there’s a pretty good chance I was wearing quadruple denim (jeans, vest, jacket and natty little denim hat – and yes, not for the first time, I’m amazed I turned out straight too) and I can’t recall who it was with whom I was dancing. However, I do know that it was to this song, and it’s had an impossibly nostalgic hold on me ever since.
Fun fact: it was produced by prog-rock guitarist and occasional Gong member Steve Hillage.
SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2011: I missed a day, and I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that it was post-Mardi Gras party comedown. So let’s go for the entry from March 4 instead: it’s Camper Van Beethoven’s cover of ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’.
AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…
436. Five-Eight: Karaoke (29 Feb)
437. Lucious Jackson: Naked Eye (1 Mar)
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