imomus: (Default)
[personal profile] imomus
This morning, sleeping late, I dreamed a song. I was watching a film, and the final title sequence had Boy George crooning a languid little number called "Your Own Private Gazelle". When I woke up I could sing the first few lines, the melody and chords into a tape recorder. I love it when that happens; manna from heaven!



Talking of Boy George, doesn't the fellow on the right of this photo look like him? It's a scan of the cover of some forgotten Japanese teenpop magazine from 1984, a mag called Rio. The man who looks like Boy George crossed with David Bowie is in a band called Seona Dancing. This past week I've been oddly fascinated by a track they made, a remixed b-side called "Bitter Heart". You can download an mp3 of the song if you follow that link. It's almost a parody of English mid-80s shiny Simmons synth-pop, very Tears for Fears, very Pet Shop Boys, dark and sparkly. The band never had any hits, though they did quite well in Japan and (it says here) the Philippines.

Well, twenty years later that Bowie-Boy George fellow shot to fame as quite a different sort of animal. His name is Ricky Gervais, and he devised, wrote and acted in a TV sitcom called "The Office". Watching David Brent, I always did suspect he was a man who knew his way around a make-up box.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 01:14 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Interestingly, I saw a dream featuring signing tonight as well. There were blond twins, male and female. Female sang. Could not remember the song though.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 01:37 pm (UTC)
aberrantangels: (geek)
From: [personal profile] aberrantangels
When I woke up I could sing the first few lines, the melody and chords into a tape recorder.

Neeters. Are we gonna get to hear it at some point?

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 02:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spoombung.livejournal.com
Live fast, die young? Not me. Live fast, die old . . . and if there's one other person who ifluenced me in that way . . . it's Ian Botham. Beefy will happily say: 'That's what I think of your selection policy. Yes, I've hit the odd copper. Yes, I've enjoyed the old dooby. But will you piss off and leave me alone? I'm walking to John O'Groats for some spastics!'"

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 02:13 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 02:22 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Hmmm. I'm guessing you see something of yourself in Seona Dancing. Gervais was someone who tried to make it big in the shiny world of eighties British pop. Trouble is, he wasn't very good at it. But unlike you, he could see that it was going nowhere, got out of it, and eventually wound up doing something he was genuinely good at. Somehow, you never made that transition. You got stuck in the hell of pop mediocrity. You've tried to be a pop star. You even had your glimpse of success. But only as a songwriter for someone else. Since then, you've tried to be an indie artist, and now you're trying to be an experimental artist. But behind it all, it's the same old doggerel, the same excruciating puns and TV ad melodies and beats. Over the years, being a recording artist has become so crucial to your sense of identity that you can't bring yourself to give it up. You're edging towards it, though. You're a horrible lyricist but a good and interesting essayist. When the right book proposal comes along you'll write a killer book and you'll find the recording artist identity you've clung to so desperately withering away inside you.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 03:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spoombung.livejournal.com
But unlike you, he could see that it was going nowhere, got out of it, and eventually wound up doing something he was genuinely good at. Somehow, you never made that transition.

Ah, c'mon. What about doing something because you love it , then?
Everybody's so obsessed with money and duty versatility nowadays. We're all expected to bloody well 'transcend'.all over the place instead of playing to our strengths and what comes naturally. Soon we'll have no more butchers and bakers. We'll have transcendants and shapeshifters instead.

I wonder why...

Date: 2005-11-25 10:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 222b.livejournal.com
... the best jerks are always anonymous?

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-26 07:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stanleylieber.livejournal.com
Aw, come on, he writes good lyrics. It's the essays that rankle.
From: [identity profile] pop--kandy.livejournal.com
(said in the manner of inspirational broadcaster Paul Harvey).

Wow. He almost looks like a young Edwyn Collins there. Interesting! I'd have never have guessed, except for the eyes.

He did manage Suede in their early career, so I guess his glam-radar (glam-dar?) was still functioning in the 90s...
From: [identity profile] 23doves.livejournal.com
He also managed a bunch of ex-housemates of mine as well, and that was well into the mid-to-late nineties. He didn't quit the music industry as rapidly as some seem to believe.

As a manager he was apparently quite efficient and well connected, and therefore not very much at all like David Brent.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vinylboy20.livejournal.com
Wow. I had a real WTF moment right there. Barely looks like him.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 04:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hotbeatz.livejournal.com
He was so...PRETTY!

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 06:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] silentalarm.livejournal.com
The band never had any hits, though they did quite well in Japan and (it says here) the Philippines.

Yes, Seona Dancing's "More to Lose" became really famous here (Philippines). and is still played on mainstream radio whenever they have new wave hours/spots.

(no subject)

Date: 2005-11-25 07:38 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
ack... I dreamt you had a huge comedy show in Germany last night...
to top it off for some reason we ended up in a desert in the middle of America and I was walking barefoot, you happened to remove a scorpion from my leg with a peice of paper very very carefully..

wierd..

..the Ricky Gervais thing works with this... I usually dream very very strange things anyway but this all was just too much because of all the people in the world, I certainly thought I would be afraid to dream of you.

Licky Gelvais

Date: 2005-11-27 08:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rober-dyeatribe.livejournal.com
Nick, how do you do it? 1984 J-pop teen mag? Come on, spill it, you knew Gervais when Suede were cruising you, surely. You two are the five funniest people alive today. Well, Lord King is dead now, but along with the Mighty Boosh duo, you lot are the ones.

Following some splurt of dyeatribe at my conveyencer this week, he quipped that I'd never make an actor, but a comedian maybe. Do you think it was a compliment or was he taking the piss?

Robert

holiday ideas

Date: 2005-12-02 04:19 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Just to let you know i found this great place to make holiday cards. They are usually like $20 but free if you click on this link. I am going to put my christmas letter and favorite family picture in them for christmas cards this year. If your interested

http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/gateway.aspx?s=9171591673

boy george

Date: 2008-12-20 11:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aramis007.livejournal.com
seams old georgey has had a tough time of late, he to my mind quite a misunderstood character.....i've written a little blog page here ...ps Spoom - IT Botham is the nuts ...the best england allrounder (he did like his pies) we ever had ?
http://hubpages.com/hub/boy-george-the-complete-picture-the-songs-the-chameleon-and-the-dimise