When my abusive father finally cut me off I listened to this song over and over. I still couldn’t escape him, thinking about it all the time and crying. This song helped me through that rough patch. 💕🙏
if you would like to go back to these times, close your eyes, fantasise, get away from where you are now, and you will be there. Back to the life we long for, real freinds, laughing,dancing & happy again. no phones, tablets laptops. no facebook . just good music and a beer or 2.......ahhhhh take me back
I remember back in the day, Altered Images were a favourite band of John Peel, he played their records frequently on his late night radio 1 show. R.I.P. John Peel.
Ahh ... the 80's ... graduated HS in '82 ... Every time I listen to 80's music now, I think of the quote from Andy Bernard on The Office ... "“I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.”
All these years later she still owns 'super adorable'. Despite filters etc etc, no one has got even close. George Harrison and his son Dhani come a good second/third (I am not gay!).
So very happy that I grew up in the 80's with KROQ giving me the opportunity to hear all this new music. Almost every other station in L.A. was lame... well, KMET and KLOS were good, too. lol
For my 50th birthday, my wife threw me a surprise party complete with the best DJ I've ever known -- Richard Blade -- playing the best 80s dance music all night long. One of the best nights of my life.....and on top of it all, Richard Blade was one of the nicest people we've ever met. Epic......
You absolutely should read or hear his autobiography. The audible is read by him. A genuine person, so nice, and like Mr. Rogers just who he is without a doubt.
Saw Clare in Gregory's Girl and fell in love with her. Then she was on TOTP singing and dancing like a loon and never looked so beautiful. A few years later she turns up on Red Dwarf and I think this girl just keeps haunting me. I'm 52 and very happily married but still love the music of the 80's and along with Kate Bush, Clare singing brings back so many happy memories.
Altered Images really had something; shame they never fully realized their potential. At their best, though, they nailed the era. I Could Be Happy is one of their best.
It was the production from one album to another. Fans from Happy Birthday couldn't relate to Pinky Blue and fans of Pinky Blue didn't make the leap to Bite. I liked them all though.
So many people are commenting what a happy uplifting song this is, and it is....on the surface. However, take a look of the lyrics. After singing through the different things she could do to be happy, the final line of the chorus is "All of these things I do / To get away from you" and the song ends with the repeated refrain: "Get away, runaway, Far away / How do I escape from you?". It's actually about an abusive relationship and THAT'S the thing I find so genius about this song - the various emotions it conveys and the dichotomy of the upbeat poppy music in relation to the dark context behind the lyrics. It mirrors real life in a way because so many women are trapped in unhappy abusive relationships, but due to embarrassment or shame they wear the mask of a happy, upbeat public persona. You often never know what someone is dealing with behind closed doors. Brilliant song!
As far a I recollect it was about a facial scar she had as the result of a pub fight in which she was innocently involved , she was hit by flying glass.
An interviewer once asked Clare Grogan, "You always look so fashionable & current in th latest look, how do you do it ?" Clare looked @ him absolutely deadpan & said " I just usually put on what's on the end of my bed from the night before " I loved her & Altered Images & it's such a wonderful pop production from Martin Rushent, I mean wow ! Altered Images in 1982 AND The Human League in 1981. Bless you Mr Rushent.
We were so spoilt with such brilliant, timeless 80s music! Altered Images still sound amazing....Life was so much simpler then and ppl were happier....We're now living in difficult, uncertain times and the music isn't half as good....At least there's still RU-vid and I can step back in time with these classic tunes for a while.....This was an enjoyable trip down memory lane!
Stone cold classic. Still have an irrepressible crush on her to this day. Songs like this were ten-a-penny at that time. Perfectly crafted pure pop, jangly guitars shoved right up in your face and a bunch of real people simply enjoying themselves and sweeping you along at the same time with the sheer joy of it all. God I love this song so much.
You're not alone. I both love her voice & still have a crush on her since the '80's. I really do wish they lasted longer. I hear they are going to debut an original album in August. Let's hope so...
I'm in Dublin on the same road where her cousins lived. She came to visit them (40 years ago)and I watched from the gate as she said to her cousin ''doe's your friend want to come up and say hello " to which she replied"no" (I'd pissed her off a few days earlier or she thought (incorrectly) that we only liked her for her looks🙄. I was and still am to this day GUTTED😂
I had a massive crush on Clare Grogan as a young lad viewing videos to this track and Happy Birthday. Thanks to you tube I am able to bring back those long ago days. Thanks for uploading.
I don't know how I found this, but I am 55 and from the U.S. and although I don't remember this song playing on MTV or the radio back then, it is one of my favorites and brings me back to that time ! It is so wonderful, (the song and video), I can't even describe it. It actually makes me Happy.
One of my favourites songs and band form the 80’s. It makes happy but a bit sad at the same time especially in the summer. A bit of seasonal depression. Living with people can be a bit hard at times. I find my self escaping all the time. Just getting out it’s better then sitting around doing nothing.
My love for this song is boundless. I was living in a Wolverhampton bedsit at the time, I would listen to it on an old white transistor radio. I'd already come out on the Liverpool gay scene and was feeling a bit under confident about it all. Somehow it was this song completely lifting my spirits getting me involved not just in the gay scenes of both cities, but all the clubbing scenes. I don't really know why, it just did, the magic of pop music on a young adventuring soul. Timeless, touching, uplifting, escaping and what a stunningly story telling vocal, what else did a young gay need? Gx
Good times right? As a total hetero, I feel ya. It's just so catchy and well, happy! I fell in love with Clare as an actress in Gregory's Girl. I had no idea she even had a band going until '86 years after they broke up!. So much undiscovered joy ever since.
I remember listing to this song in my childhood and becoming obsessed with it, but i lost the song years ago. I never knew the name of it but it’s been stuck in my head for years, but I finally found it after searching “i could be happy i could be happy” since those were the only lyrics i understood
Yes, no doubt she is cute but what is up with that guy running around in a lion's suit? Methinks some mind altering substances were enjoyed by the people who produced this clip!
i went on an army reunion in Leicester a few years back. ended up in the suburbs in some pub disco. next day i woke up in my front garden holding an altered images cd!! this is a great song
@Andy Brown Was that an average night for you? I used to black out when I drank with prescribed medication. I would wake up in the strangest of places notably public parks and church doorways.
I'm 34... so I only spent 3 years of my life in the 80's...but christ I was too young to appreciate the fantastic music that was produce in that decade
The best thing about living through the 80s and probably the only thing that was the best . Groups like these lifted the spirits and made life then a lot more bearable.
+Chris Mozer Lucky you ! I turned 18 in 1991. I always said I was born 10 years too late because I loved all the early 80s music when I was a kid. Looking back though I am glad I was a teenager when Stone Roses , Happy Mondays etc. were around. Loved it.. I feel sorry for teenagers today. They are too glued to X box and Play station to even be into music!
+uman965 you will have to leave your cell phone , internet, cheap air fares ,i pod etc ..its nice to look back with nostalgia but ..im still happy in 2015 ..sure i wish i could go back and do things different but we grow and learn and constantly change mentally we are all on a spiritual journey for a purpose
I was at their first ever gig at a pub in Shawlands, Glasgow. I ran a fanzine called Fumes and I knew the bass players' sister Lorraine who asked me to interview them. The sound was terrible, and to be totally honest, they were pretty crap. I'm pretty sure I recorded this gig as I tended to record every gig I went to in the 70's and 80's. They did a much better gig at the Mars Bar on my 21st Birthday and Claire gave me a big kiss, she also managed to smash her Maracas, which caused a cloud of white dust...happy days!
