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Friday, March 02, 2007

You're indestructible

I was kind of surfing around YouTube tonight in an increasingly futile attempt to find old music videos and I came across this one - Spandau Ballet's "Gold."



I'm not sure a band that looks this clean cut could have made it at any other time than in the early 80s, don't you think?

Believe it or not, I'm actually the proud owner of Spandau Ballet: The Singles Collection. I purchased it in the spring of 1993 because I really really wanted the song "True" on CD, and well, it was probably the best value for my money. This was in the days before iTunes (obviously!) and trying to buy just ONE SONG was nigh onto impossible. I suppose I could have looked for a cheesy 80s compilation that had "True" on it, but that was more work than just picking up their greatest hits. Sometimes, when I think about life before the net, I just shudder!

Surprisingly, it isn't all that bad. Sure there is filler (and plenty of it) but it's fun early 80s Europop filler. And there are some absolutely fabulous songs on there - "Gold" being one of them. Others that really tripped my trigger were ""Round And Round" and "Highly Strung" (which has a killer sax in it.) And the best part of "Gold" is the "you're indestructible" part because the guy sings what is a 5 syllable word on, really, 3 notes. Wendy and I always used to laugh at this because it was kind of the counterpart to Mariah Carey making a 1 syllable word hit 58 different notes.

Spandau Ballet is a one of those early 80s bands that no one even remembers anymore, but I'm sure glad that I picked up that CD!

And just for fun, here's a DJ remix of "Gold" that I found back in the Audiogalaxy days. Totally unofficial as far as I know, so totally ok to share.

"Gold (DJ Rico Mix)"

6 comments:

xolondon said...

Do you have the extended version of Gold with the long intro?

I loved this song, stil do. Good pick! I also like True and Only When You Leave, but the rest I could do without. :)

Yuяi said...

Nice post! Cool remix too. Ah, I remember the Audiogalaxy and Napster days. I have TONS of burned CDs full of mixes and stuff that's hard to find. As for SB, I only had True, and of course the awesome mashup/sample, PM Dawn's Set Adrift on Memory Bliss.. Gold is good! Of course, it didn't get much radio play after True, but that was the case with many bands back in the day. :)

Dan said...

xo - no, I don't have that extended version of Gold! The version I have clocks in at under 4 minutes, so I can't imagine that being the extended version.

Yuri- The Audiogalaxy and Napster days really were the Wild West days of music on the net, no? While I was always a bit conflicted about downloading stuff, I did it mostly because there was this entire back catalog of stuff that was impossible to find any other way. And what better way than fans sharing with other fans?

Dan

Yuяi said...

You know, I totally didn't care about being sued. I was just trying to get that hard to find stuff, and all those remixes that cost upwards of $30 or more. Hell, I still get a lot of stuff from Limewire...although I'm not "living" there like I was on Napster with my crappy dial-up connex! :)

xolondon said...

Audiogalaxy.. big sigh! I liked how they had message boards on there too.

I'll look for the ext Gold.

Anonymous said...

hey do you happen to have this remix. the link said its no longer there. can you please reupload the remix of gold, i cnat find it anywhere and so good i want a copy of it. mail the link to a.moose1892@yahoo.com
thank you thank you :)