Coming soon: The Synth & Swagger member's section
Tempted? Take a peek!
Hello!
Let’s go over some key new wave songs from 1979. The number of new wave hits went up a lot from the year before. Thus, the movement was really picking up momentum.
The Knack - My Sharona
The first song for this episode is My Sharona by the Knack. The Knack formed in the late ‘70s, sounding somewhat like bands the Romantics, Cheap Trick, and Blondie. My Sharona was the lead single off their debut (Get The Knack, and boy, was it a gargantuan hit, staying atop the US singles chart for six whole weeks.
The drum hook in the beginning is quite memorable, along with the subsequent main guitar riff and flowing bass that permeate the song. The singing is energetic and passionate, featuring lead singer Doug Fieger’s stuttering vocals. For example, a couple of “oohs” and the iconic “ma-ma-ma-my Sharona”. The long guitar solo in the bridge is really good and compliments the rest of the song nicely. The melody of the song even has a little bit of surf overtones to it. I do hear it in the guitar.
The lyrics talk about being turned on by a younger love interest. I believe there are hints that the singer’s lust is unrequited. For example, a line like “When you gonna give it to me?” Though I’m curious to hear if you, the listeners, agree. The words are a little dirty, what with always getting it up for the touch of the younger kind. Nope, not a lot of double entendre with this one, but the melody makes up for the straightforward lyrics.
No video was made for My Sharona, which was not unprecedented in 1979, so we give them a pass. For what it’s worth, a YouTube search first yields a live performance by the band. Shortly after the release of My Sharona, Weird Al Yankovic did the parody My Bologna, which was in turn Weird Al’s first hit ever. Alas, the Knack could not follow up on the success of My Sharona and had only two more albums before they broke up for almost a decade.
Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him?
Next up is Joe Jackson’s chestnut, Is She Really Going Out With Him? Joe Jackson, not to be confused with Michael Jackson’s father, was a classically trained musician who quickly latched onto the aggressive energy of the punk and new wave movement. He debuted in 1979 with the album Look Sharp, and the top 40 hit Is She Really Going Out With Him? came off of it. If you like Elvis Costello, there is a good chance you would like Joe Jackson. It should be noted that Joe Jackson has a less raspy voice and is a little less verbose than Costello.
After the intro to Is She Really Going Out With Him?, there is a great baseline that is distinctive due to the relatively light instrumentation of the song. Such sparseness contrasts nicely with the chorus, which has more punch to it and has great vocal passion from Jackson. As far as the words are concerned, Jackson sings about his jealousy that seemingly inferior guys are getting to go out with the women he likes. Indeed, this goes well with the angry young man persona that Jackson liked to portray early in his career, channeling that early new wave rawness. Indeed, Jackson is lyrically acerbic, referring to the other guys around him as gorillas and denigrating the looks of Jeannie’s boyfriend, citing the boyfriend’s success as proof that looks don’t count for much.
There is no official video for this song, but I can imagine it would have matched the acid wit of Joe Jackson himself. More new wave hits came from Jackson, but he soon explored other sub-genres, including cabaret and the blues. ‘90s pop band Sugar Ray, who have an affinity for new wave music, later covered Is She Really Going Out With Him? It was a serviceable effort, but I would definitely stick with the original if I were you.
The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star
Next up for us is Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. The band consisted of vocalist and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes. They were similar to fellow new wavers Devo and Oingo Boingo. The first single off their debut album was Video Killed the Radio Star. Horn’s vocals sound like they’re coming from an old school radio. The effervescent female vocals add to the pop sheen. The song begins with a regular piano and continues with a synthesizer. This also reflects the song’s theme of one technology supplanting another. The splash of guitar right before the second chorus adds more novelty to the song. Finally, the almost one-minute outro is a reprise of the verses of the song. The lyrics deal with, well, music videos killing the radio star. The lyric “Put all the blame on VTR”, refers to a video tape recorder. If you’d like to get deep, Video Killed the Radio Star can be seen more broadly as a cautionary tale of the double-edged sword of automation. For example, a classical musician has their symphony automated by machinery, and thus their songwriting credits stolen. The song reminds me of the future as envisioned by people in the ‘50s and ‘60s, perhaps like The Jetsons.
This song and video found a second life when it became the first to ever be played on MTV, right at midnight. Horn and Downes are wearing shiny silver suits while Horn is singing into an old-fashioned radio microphone. It should be noted that the female vocalists, while sounding great, are worse at choreography than a fight scene in the Batman ‘60s TV show. Video Killed the Radio Star was a large worldwide hit, though it took a little bit longer to catch on in the United States. Eventually though, it hit the top 10 there too. The Buggles would only record one more album in 1982 before going on hiatus, but Video Killed the Radio Star is a memorable new wave gem. The bands Presidents of the United States and Erasure later covered this song, and Trevor Horn became a producer (for ‘90s artist Seal and others).
Nick Lowe - Cruel to Be Kind
Nick Lowe’s Cruel To Be Kind is the next featured song on my list today. Lowe debuted in 1978 and already had his third album in 1979, which included Cruel To Be Kind. It hit number 12 in both the US and UK charts. As with Joe Jackson, there are similarities of Nick Lowe’s music with that of Elvis Costello. That makes sense since Lowe produced Costello’s My Aim Is True, among other albums.
An acoustic guitar begins this song, and the guitars follow a simple chord structure. Then there’s Nick Lowe’s vocals, which sound kind of like they were delivered from the ‘60s. Lowe seems to provide emphasis on just the right parts of the lyrics. The chorus is deceptively smooth with a female vocal harmonizing with Nick Lowe. Despite the wholesome melody, the song talks about a guy who’s mired in an emotionally abusive relationship. For example, a line like “I have you knock me back down again and again.” When confronted with this, his partner says that her cruelness is actually a measure of endearment through lines like “You gotta be cruel to be kind in the right measure.” This melody-lyric dichotomy was employed often and to good use during the early phase of new wave.
The video strayed from the lyrics quite a bit, and it’s a lot more innocent. It features shots of Nick Lowe and his band performing in a lawn. He then gets in a limo to go to his wedding. The wedding footage is from Nick’s real, recent at the time wedding, giving it that air of authenticity. The couple looks like they’re having a good time, which I would expect being that this is real wedding footage. Unfortunately, Nick Lowe never had another hit, and his first marriage ended in 1990. Lowe veered from new wave into country music for a stretch, but perhaps country music podcasts can cover that phase of his career.
The B-52s - Rock Lobster
Let’s conclude with Rock Lobster by the B-52s. This five-member band from Athens, Georgia was named after singers Kate Pierson’s and Cindy Wilson’s distinctive beehive hairstyles that were popularized in the 1960s. They drew influences from such diverse sources as the Ventures, the Talking Heads and even Yoko Ono. The B-52s released their debut self-titled album in 1979. It contained the cult hit Rock Lobster, which was eccentric to say the least.
It starts off with a surf-sounding guitar played by Ricky Wilson, and an insistent Farfisa organ adds to the ‘60s pastiche. Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson are enthusiastically singing and shrieking, and Fred Schneider provides shouted-word vocals. There are long instrumental sections and the song title repeated throughout by all three singers. The lyrics are really quirky with a beach theme to match the music. For example, “everybody had matching towels” and “motion in the ocean.” Towards the end of the song, Schneider does a roll call of sea creatures while Pierson and Cindy Wilson make various loud noises to represent these animals. It’s seven minutes of madness. It’s weird. And you know what? It works. This song encapsulates the fact that new wave music did not have to conform as much as contemporary styles like disco and AOR.
The video for Rock Lobster also follows the beach theme put forward by the song, but also includes random brief clips of things like telephone operators and roller skates and a biplane crashing into a barn. The last minute mostly shows the band performing live. Rock Lobster did quite well in Canada, but failed to crack the Top 40 in their native US.
Unfortunately, the band dealt with tragedy in 1985 when member Ricky Wilson died from AIDS. The B-52s would rebound from this and later have a massive hit at the end of the ‘80s with Love Shack.
Bye!
And that wraps up our reviews of great songs from 1979. This is Jason D’Orazio from New Wave Beat.