firstly, a recent & exciting development in my life over the past 10 days is that now i am going to the 'splendour in the grass' music festival in byron bay next weekend!!! ;-D i am very happy about this, as many of my friends have been going for several years (and are going again) and i have never been (due mainly to fatherly/hunsabndly duties & the like). also it is in a very lovely part of the world, about 2-2.5 hours drive south of where i live. actually, having thought about - and i kinda can't believe this myself in a way - i don't think i've ever been to any substantial music festival at all! certainly not a large, 2-day event such as this. i'm very excited - it's a rare treat for me nowadays ... and i'm looking forward to hearing/seeing a large number of the bands playing there, as well as soaking up the whole vibe.
yes - men at work. i don't have any of their albums; in fact there are only 3 studio albums by them! but i've always liked most of their singles & i've been getting into them a bit on u-toob recently. quite a few of their songs have a signifcant reggae element to them - e.g. "it's a mistake" has an upbeat reggae beat, as does "down under".
but what's even more interesting, upon closer inspection, are some of their lyrics; quite a few of the singles at least (most written or co-written by colin hay) explore topics around mental health and/or disturbances in that. "overkill" (a brilliant pop song incidentally) discusses insomnia, probably resulting from obsessive-compulsive thought patterns. "who can it be now" deals with paranoia. "be good johnny" is perhaps a 1980s take on chuck berry's less sophisticated, guitar-playing protagonist (johnny b. goode), and the 1980s johnny probably has what some would now diagnose as (the often over-used) attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder. "dr heckyll & mr jive" seems to cover biploar disorder and/or what some call multiple personality disorder. even in "down under" the narrator seems paranoid when he says that a strange lady made him nervous (although perhaps that's a consequence of smoking pot if he indeed was "in a fried-out kombi on a hippy trail, head full of zombie"). other titles on the "cargo" albuim such as "blue for you" (and "high wire") point to depression (and maybe mania).
am i reading too much into these lyrics? probably not. either way, these lyrics & topics are more interesting than those in your average, top-40 pop song!
~
yes - men at work. i don't have any of their albums; in fact there are only 3 studio albums by them! but i've always liked most of their singles & i've been getting into them a bit on u-toob recently. quite a few of their songs have a signifcant reggae element to them - e.g. "it's a mistake" has an upbeat reggae beat, as does "down under".
but what's even more interesting, upon closer inspection, are some of their lyrics; quite a few of the singles at least (most written or co-written by colin hay) explore topics around mental health and/or disturbances in that. "overkill" (a brilliant pop song incidentally) discusses insomnia, probably resulting from obsessive-compulsive thought patterns. "who can it be now" deals with paranoia. "be good johnny" is perhaps a 1980s take on chuck berry's less sophisticated, guitar-playing protagonist (johnny b. goode), and the 1980s johnny probably has what some would now diagnose as (the often over-used) attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder. "dr heckyll & mr jive" seems to cover biploar disorder and/or what some call multiple personality disorder. even in "down under" the narrator seems paranoid when he says that a strange lady made him nervous (although perhaps that's a consequence of smoking pot if he indeed was "in a fried-out kombi on a hippy trail, head full of zombie"). other titles on the "cargo" albuim such as "blue for you" (and "high wire") point to depression (and maybe mania).
am i reading too much into these lyrics? probably not. either way, these lyrics & topics are more interesting than those in your average, top-40 pop song!
~
posted by fergal at 10:27 PM
2 Comments:
Good for you -going to the festival. I went to one once -back in 1984(I need to get out more :) )- Werrikimbe. I can't remember all the bands -but a couple were rose tattoo,redgum, dragon(who were on such a roll at the time -brilliant), the angels. Still have the t-shirt somewhere here. You're right about the men at work songs being interesting.The song of theirs I like the least is downunder. fergal -if you ever see it - get their first album -it is very listenable, holds up very well -some fantastic music on there.I just might put it on today after reading this.
Byron Bay? WOW lucky ya!
Men At Work rocks!
Keshi.
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