All right! On the with summer! Let's start it out loud, with long-haired former prog-rockers going the big arena route! With lame VHS tape quality special effects! And gymnastics! And remember, this was even before Mary Lou Retton appeared on Wheaties boxes.
Obviously, Asia had even more influence than any of us could have guessed.
That's the song with the lyrics in iambic pentameter, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteTry singing your favorite Shakespeare speeches to its tune...
Man, is that dated. Still a kick-ass album cover, though.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I used to somewhat like Asia, but I'd apparently forgotten how wussy they were.
ReplyDeleteHere's something you might like, Russell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZDl2xRK_r8&NR=1
I'm out of touch so I've only learned about this band (via Matt Yeglasia). Two things make me think you might like them. First, they have, what seems to me, to be a pretty 80's inspired sound, both in the music and the singing. secondly, your discussion of the editing in this video made me think you might like the way someone has made a video for this song out of a great Godard movie- it's really well done, and very interesting, I think, to see how things that would have been really, really hard even 10 years ago can be done by all sorts of people today.
(some of their songs have another feature I like lot that's less on this song- the way that the music, and sometimes even individual instruments, don't exactly line up w/ the singing, so that they create a sort of disruptive effect. I don't know if you'll like that or not, though.)
Douglas, I'm going to try that. "Is this--a dagger--which I see--before me?" Yeah, I guess it could kind of work.
ReplyDeleteScott, just wait until I do something by Toto!
Matt, that was a seriously cool video. Thanks very much for the link. It's fascinating the creativity which easy digital editing has unleashed. It's interesting that a song by Asia brought them to your mind, though; the 80s act which they most sound like to me is Dream Academy.