Thomas Morgan Robertson
"She Blinded Me With Science" was released one year prior to "Whirly Girl", but I don't think I paid much serious attention to college-dropout Thomas Dolby until I went away to college, when his "Hyperactive" became the de rigueur basement speaker blast during Saturday morning cleanup at the frat house.
"Hyperactive" was the thinking man's version of "Whirly Girl", more introspective but wound just as tightly on the drum. I love how "Hyperactive" threatens repeatedly to unspool, each time catching itself as the bass line walks a tightrope over fiasco canyon.
But SBMWS gets all the attention now, especially the video, a play on British eccentrics and silent movies, supposedly storyboarded before the song was even written. (Dolby himself admitted the composition was one of his most frivolous, a break from serious sound engineering and studio toil when synthesizers were much more primitive and demanding.) At the time, Magnus Pyke was the "Bill Nye" equivalent of TV-friendly academic, his "Science!" cry akin to Information Society's later sampling of Leonard Nimoy's "Pure energy" line from a Star Trek episode on their hit "What's on Your Mind".
I wish the SBMWS video had credits, because I contend there are two (and possibly three) very different Asian women featured at different points, yet the internet claims Miss Sakamoto was played by J-pop star Akiko Yano, wife of occasional musical collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto, whereas I suggest the lyric was just inspired by her (because while she is certainly pretty, the women in the video are striking), but I'm not inclined to binge Yano videos from the 1980s to make the distinction.
Whereas "Whirly Girl" ranks among the worst of the English language "one-hit wonders", SBMWS consistently ranks among the best, despite Dolby's obvious multiple-hit career. Perhaps it qualifies on the back end because Dolby never actively pursued hitmaking or fame (or he was intelligent enough for us to grant his contention that popularity wasn't a goal - SBMWS certainly seems to be pursuing something in the "ain't it cool" department, through).
The video for SBMWS is blocked on YouTube, so you have to uncover it through devious, and potentially short-lived, links. Here is one worth a try (copy and paste in your browser address bar):
https://nightskyradio.com/2015/10/10/double-bonus-sakamoto-night-studio-akiko-yano/
"Hyperactive" was the thinking man's version of "Whirly Girl", more introspective but wound just as tightly on the drum. I love how "Hyperactive" threatens repeatedly to unspool, each time catching itself as the bass line walks a tightrope over fiasco canyon.
 | |
| MTV was just 1-3/4 year old, and Thomas Dolby 24-1/2, when "She Blinded Me With Science" topped out at #5 on the Billboard chart |
But SBMWS gets all the attention now, especially the video, a play on British eccentrics and silent movies, supposedly storyboarded before the song was even written. (Dolby himself admitted the composition was one of his most frivolous, a break from serious sound engineering and studio toil when synthesizers were much more primitive and demanding.) At the time, Magnus Pyke was the "Bill Nye" equivalent of TV-friendly academic, his "Science!" cry akin to Information Society's later sampling of Leonard Nimoy's "Pure energy" line from a Star Trek episode on their hit "What's on Your Mind".
I wish the SBMWS video had credits, because I contend there are two (and possibly three) very different Asian women featured at different points, yet the internet claims Miss Sakamoto was played by J-pop star Akiko Yano, wife of occasional musical collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto, whereas I suggest the lyric was just inspired by her (because while she is certainly pretty, the women in the video are striking), but I'm not inclined to binge Yano videos from the 1980s to make the distinction.
Whereas "Whirly Girl" ranks among the worst of the English language "one-hit wonders", SBMWS consistently ranks among the best, despite Dolby's obvious multiple-hit career. Perhaps it qualifies on the back end because Dolby never actively pursued hitmaking or fame (or he was intelligent enough for us to grant his contention that popularity wasn't a goal - SBMWS certainly seems to be pursuing something in the "ain't it cool" department, through).
The video for SBMWS is blocked on YouTube, so you have to uncover it through devious, and potentially short-lived, links. Here is one worth a try (copy and paste in your browser address bar):
https://nightskyradio.com/2015/10/10/double-bonus-sakamoto-night-studio-akiko-yano/
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