When I was in eighth grade, I would come home from school and this would be on the television.:
No Prince, no Funkadelic, not even metal or punk rock. A bunch of bad 80’s videos with a bunch of rich suburban kids in the audience doing that new wave dance. It was depressing, but since they took off the reruns of The White Shadow and replaced it with MV3, there was nothing else better to watch.
There was one song I wanted to like. It was Thomas Dolby’s She Blinded Me With Science. The video was so goofy I was embarrassed to like it, even though it was funky. A few days later I went to the park and all the breakers were pop locking it to it. I figured if they liked it, it wasn’t so bad. My sister had the first Thomas Dolby record and I started to listen to it more than her. Outside of the annoying song, Europa, I liked it. Still, I kept in the closet about my love for the TB, except for a few friends.
When the second Thomas Dolby album, The Flat Earth came out, I bought it right away. I didn’t like the single, Hyperactive. It sounded like a weak attempt at The Talking Heads. The rest of the album was surprisingly chill and somewhat acoustic. It took me a bit off time to like this album, but at the end, I did. The song that hit me was Dolby’s cover of Dan Hick And His Hot Licks’ I Scare Myself. It was haunting with a slight Jazzy Brazilian feel to it. I soon went on the hunt to find the original version. When I found it I noticed that it was very different. Dolby’s version was haunting, yet calm and melodic. Dan Hicks original version sounded frantic and straight up paranoid, thus validating the title. It was a little too much for me to take at the time. Still, there was something about it that I liked.
I noticed that Dan Hick was on Blue Thumb Records. I started to buy other artists that were on Blue Thumb Records as well. Blue Thumb introduced me to The Last Poets, The Crusaders, Hugh Masakela, Gabor Szabo & Captain Beefheart. All those records all came from that Thomas Dolby connection. There was another artist that was on Blue Thumb that I had heard about but could never find his records. His name was Sun Ra.
(To be continued)
No Prince, no Funkadelic, not even metal or punk rock. A bunch of bad 80’s videos with a bunch of rich suburban kids in the audience doing that new wave dance. It was depressing, but since they took off the reruns of The White Shadow and replaced it with MV3, there was nothing else better to watch.
There was one song I wanted to like. It was Thomas Dolby’s She Blinded Me With Science. The video was so goofy I was embarrassed to like it, even though it was funky. A few days later I went to the park and all the breakers were pop locking it to it. I figured if they liked it, it wasn’t so bad. My sister had the first Thomas Dolby record and I started to listen to it more than her. Outside of the annoying song, Europa, I liked it. Still, I kept in the closet about my love for the TB, except for a few friends.When the second Thomas Dolby album, The Flat Earth came out, I bought it right away. I didn’t like the single, Hyperactive. It sounded like a weak attempt at The Talking Heads. The rest of the album was surprisingly chill and somewhat acoustic. It took me a bit off time to like this album, but at the end, I did. The song that hit me was Dolby’s cover of Dan Hick And His Hot Licks’ I Scare Myself. It was haunting with a slight Jazzy Brazilian feel to it. I soon went on the hunt to find the original version. When I found it I noticed that it was very different. Dolby’s version was haunting, yet calm and melodic. Dan Hicks original version sounded frantic and straight up paranoid, thus validating the title. It was a little too much for me to take at the time. Still, there was something about it that I liked. I noticed that Dan Hick was on Blue Thumb Records. I started to buy other artists that were on Blue Thumb Records as well. Blue Thumb introduced me to The Last Poets, The Crusaders, Hugh Masakela, Gabor Szabo & Captain Beefheart. All those records all came from that Thomas Dolby connection. There was another artist that was on Blue Thumb that I had heard about but could never find his records. His name was Sun Ra.(To be continued)
I have the most awful memories associated with Thomas Dolby: they include the state of Delaware, being 13 or 14 years old with massive D cup breasts, bar scenes - oh yes, lots of blinking and flashing colored lights ... I hated Dolby. Nothing personal, Thomas Dolby! I think it was the whole package. Besides, I found him to be silly, and nothing at all in my existence was silly at the time. I still lack a sense of whimsy and lack an appreciation for his art. Nothing personal to his fans and those with whimsy! Looking forward to your words on Sun Ra, very much.