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Once upon a time, there were the Men At Work. And you would need to be over thirty (at least) or have a strong musical passion to remember them and talk about them... Unfortunately for me, I've passed that threshold some time ago, and I remember everything about the Men, perfectly.
I recall the insane comparison with the Police, perhaps because both the men at work and the policemen were among the few who combined punk and reggae roots. Perhaps for those two voices, Sting and Colin, so incredibly original and unique in the so-called light music scene of the early eighties.
I remember well that we all listened to, bought, and danced to "Who Can It Be Now", with that saxophone intro that was so fun to imitate back then. With that dry and precise drumming, so very eighties.
I remember that many of us bought the first album, "Business As Usual", that fewer bought the second, "Cargo", driven by the big single "It's A Mistake", and that almost no one bought the third, and last, "Two Hearts", an album that had become fashionable to call rubbish. Maybe without having listened to it, or having listened to it with senselessly severe ears, as was fashionable in the eighties.
I also remember very well that Colin Hay and his Band completely disappeared from the national interest, too often led and orchestrated by a short-sighted and silly market.
Only a few of us did everything possible to follow the solo career of Colin James Hay, and very few of us know that in the mid-nineties the men at work reunited and recorded an excellent live in Brazil. Naturally, needless to say, it was unreachable in the lands where figures like Pausini and Bocelli flourish.
But let's get to the album being discussed. That album with the black-and-white cover where CJH looks slyly, with the famous eye (the straight one, who knows...?) from under his glasses. The album that I found on vinyl in France, which already led one to think...
Well...: the album is beautiful. It is the first in a series of beautiful albums by a singer/songwriter/rocker with great compositional and especially vocal qualities. An absolute celebrity in Australia, who has many devotees in the USA, and practically ignored by us... but let's not keep hitting this note... I've already saddened you enough.
We're at the end of the eighties, in 1987, and on the radio, and on what was then DJTelevision (was it called that...?) the video of the single "Hold Me" circulated, shyly and briefly, a good track but certainly not the best of the work. To go to the atmospheres loved by those who adored the Men At Work, you should head to the second track "Can I Hold You", or direct yourself to the eighth, the reggae of "Ways Of The World".
The absolute best of the production, however, is found in track three, the title track, dedicated to the incomparable Jack Nicholson, all supported by a splendid drum, the protagonist's guitar, and Herbie Hancock's piano.
But the album is entirely beautiful. Played and written extremely well. Naturally, but it's really useless to say, sung like a god, in the sense that there are good chances that god has that voice. And to think that, in all the specialized magazines, at the turn of the year two thousand, when listing the 100 best albums of the century or the best one hundred voices, you had the displeasure of encountering some Oasis brother or some sad Bono imitator, but there was no trace of the famous and beloved (elsewhere) Colin James Hay.
After this album, quite a few followed, all available for import from Australia or the USA, otherwise, more prosaically— but necessity is the mother of invention...— you can manage to download a lot, but not always everything, from the Internet.
If you want to give it a try, besides "Looking For Jack", I recommend "Topanga", "Wayfarin Sons", the acoustic "Going Somewhere", and the penultimate of unreleased tracks, the excellent "Company Of Strangers".
For a fun curiosity, also widely noteworthy is the episode of "Scrubs", where CJH, guest of honor, first plays a sick person and then even the dead man who emerges from the crypt with a guitar under his arm, singing "Overkill".
If you don’t already know him, trust me: a great.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Looking for Jack (04:10)
everybody's always looking for jack
in the fire and in the water
everybody's always looking for jack
in the streets and on the corners
i always wanted to be like jack
he's as cool as they come
i always wanted to be like jack
still for me, he's the one
someday
someday
someday
someday
hear the wind blow through the long grass
i hear laughter in the night
there's no revelations as the years pass
you just disappear from sight
as i grow older, i grow younger
everyday is like a dream
i wouldn't go back for a moment
except for maybe seventeen
someday
someday
someday
someday
everybody's always looking for jack
in the fire and in the water
everybody's always looking for jack
in the streets and on the corners
yeah even jack, he's always looking for jack
he's always in another room
and when i spoke to the woman there
she said he left this afternoon
someday
someday
someday
someday
someday
someday
someday
someday
09 I Don't Need You Anymore (03:06)
I don't need you anymore
I don't need you anymore now
When you leave please close the door
I can't stand it any more
Now you're gone
On and on, I'll carry on
Are you here to give me pain?
Behind your eyes you're still the same now
Please don't smile and play those games
And don't pretend that you have changed
Now be gone
On and on, I'll carry on
When first I knew you'd gone
The wind grew colder
But after the pain had gone
I felt much older
You had my very soul and my completeness
And now I find you here
You leave me speechless
I don't need you any more
No you can't sleep on the floor now
You'd stay a while and then you'd go
And I can't love you any more
Now please be gone
On and on, I'll carry on
10 Circles Erratica (04:03)
sometimes i'm invisible
i'm nowhere to be seen
kick like a tin can in the shape of a man
try so hard to break in so i can brust out
perspectives ever changing leaving me in doubt
i've got a chronic disorder
i'm balanced between
the edge of a razor
trying to cut clean
i've got my eyes on the road
i'm trying to keep steady
i've got my hands on the wheel
i feel i'm nearly ready
hope that me who's dreaming
and that's not me who's screaming
want to wake up warm
in a tattered down tarn
still for all the killing
there's nobody winning
i want to spit it out
i want to scream and shout
lying in the gutter
i heard someone mutter
we'll creep in the shadows
trying to get home
like the swing in the see-saw
hard to keep steady
with some rearranging
i feel i'm nearly ready
sometimes i'm invisible
i'm nowhere to be seen
kick like a tin can into a sugarade man
hope that me who's dreaming
and that's not me who's screaming
want to wake up warm
in a tattered down tarn
lying in the gutter
i heard someone mutter
we'll creep in the shadows
trying to get home
i've got my eyes on the road
i'm trying to keep steady
i've got my hands on the wheel
i feel i'm nearly ready
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