Re: Thomas Dolby

[relph@PRESTO.IG.COM (John M. Relph)]

In article <8711102316.AA00993@GAFFA.MIT.EDU> jw@BOURBAKI.MIT.EDU writes:

> I would also like to hear some textual criticism, particularly of
> those songs which sound (to me) to be selfevidently proEuropean (and
> why don't we hear some from other quarters? Kate?): I am thinking of
> _Europa_and_the_Pirate_Twins_ and _Windpower_. Back in 1983 (when I
> was young and happy) I looked out for received wisdom from Thas.
> Dolby, but interviews were hard to find.

I don't think "Europa" is all that proEuropean, rather I think the
song can be taken at face value.  It is about two kids whose fathers
happened to be stationed in the same place.  When Europa's dad got
called off, the two kids swore a vow, which she was later to forget,
when she became famous.  He stayed loyal to her memory (you might say
obsessive) and tried to see her, but like the song say, "She smiled
for the cameras / As a bodyguard grabbed me / Then her eyes were gone
forever / As they drove her away."

"Windpower" seems to me to be a song more about the necessity of
ignoring All artificial national borders and acting together with the
rest of humanity as one "tribe."

I was also a TMDR fan after the release of his first (and best) album,
_The Golden Age of Wireless_ (not the CD or re-release).  This is the
album with Dolby standing on a stage with a telescope and other
`scientific' apparatus nearby, book in hand, facing a ghostly cloaked
figure with hir back turned.  I like the original mix of "Commercial
Breakup" much better than the one that appears on the CD.  The CD also
leaves off two good songs, namely "Leipzig" and "Urges."  After this
album, I think TMDR only went downhill.

Lene Lovich fans note that Dolby wrote "New Toy" for Lene, which she
did one her EP of the same name (and the dance-party-dub-mega-mix
version of "New Toy" is great).  Lene and Les Chappell appeared on
Dolby's _Golden Age_.
	-- John
----
John M. Relph
IntelliGenetics, Inc.  700 East El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040
Internet: relph@bionet-20.arpa