(Has anything so meaningless ever been so drawn out? I'm guessing, no.)
#10. The Fixx:
Only in the 80's could you have so many good bands who started out as hairdressers as Cy Curnin of the Fixx did (and the Flock of Seagulls guy). The Fixx entered Dolberry's conciousness in '82 as one of the early MTV heavy rotation stalwarts w/ songs such as "Stand or Fall" and the apocalyptic "Red Skies".
I wonder what year marked the point in which people quit worrying that the world could end any second due to nuclear war. I remember thinking about atomic mayhem many nights falling asleep while growing up. And for you youngsters out there ... we had this so-called "Doomsday Clock" which showed how close the world was to ending and it was always like 11:57pm. Just for hoots, I googled it to see where we're at now: 11:55pm. Now that's progress, folks. Good thing I was already staying up late tonight going over everything I could have coached differently in our 3-0 loss tonight.
Anyway, "Red Skies" made the prospects of a nuclear holocaust totally hummable ... "Red Skies at night ... red skies at night ... Oh Oh ... oh oh ... Oh OH OH oh Oh Oh ho ho!"
The Fixx hit it really big in 1983 w/ their Reach the Beach album featuring the smash single "One Thing Leads to Another" and less-smashier hits "Saved By Zero" and "The Sign of Fire". I saw the Fixx live in St. Louis w/ one of my earliest SLU friends Harry (last name forgotten). The Fixx started a great SLU tradition though w/ their "sharing" of zeroes w/ the crowd. Cy Curnin would form a zero w/ his thumb and forefinger and throw it to the crowd, then patiently wait for someone in the crowd to throw it back, whenceupon (?) he would catch it using a reverse motion of the throwng motion. We did it a lot at SLU because it was as fun and creative as hackysack w/o having to have any hackysack-skillz.
My other Fixx memory was that Ron M. hated 'em, or at least disliked them. One night when I was in a grumpy mood, I vowed to listen to Reach the Beach all night long to indulge my gloom by hopefully passing it on to someone else. Two problems w/ the plan ... 1) Ron usually forestalled getting gloomy by hitting/kicking/stickwhacking people & 2) I could only listen to about 6 Fixx songs by that point (1985?).
Best Songs: Saved by Zero, Red Skies, Are We Ourselves, One Thing Leads to Another
Worst Songs: The Sign of Fire, Less Cities More Moving People
1 comment:
My favorite Fixx moment was seeing them in the mid-90s, way past their prime, at a free Louisville Waterfront concert. They played some boring songs off their new album that no one wanted to hear. The best part was the local band opened for them; as their final song, right before the Fixx took stage, they covered The Fixx's most popular song, Red Skies at Night. A tribute or a slap in the face? You decide.
Post a Comment