Australian Crawl - Boys Light Up/Way I've Been Reaction 

James Reyne's mother taught me at school. What a truly lovely lady. I remember she wasn't a fan of the record cover but I can't remember any controversy about this song. BLU. Fun fact. Before Australian Crawl, James and the boys had a kick arse blues band .

I first saw them open for The Knack in 1979 after the success of their first single ''Beautiful People''. Two new bands opened for The Knack that night - Australian Crawl and Mondo Rock. Great time to be alive! Teehee ❤

Saw them a lot in Melbourne back in the day. R.I.P. Brad Robinson, such a sweetie.

This Album the debut by Australian Crawl was pretty big when it first came out….with songs like Indisposed, Chinese Eyes , Coffees gone cold, Downhearted…. They produced 4 studio albums until 85 then broke up…. A great live band and just another part of the Aussie pub rock scene.

I don't know why but the harmonica was used A LOT in the eighties in Oz.

You arent alone in not getting the lyrics, most of us Aussies couldn't understand what James Reyne was singing. He had a quirky way of pronouncing words.

They were sort of music industry plants in their day. They did pay their dues in various groups, but it was one of the guys from Little River Band that gave them the big boost.. I grew up in the Mornington Peninsula Shire, and know a few folks that are still pretty proud of Ozzie Crawl. Looking at the ''Boys Light Up'' video it's pretty obvious that they're in need of Guy McDonough. He was the missing link.

There was no controversy around this song. Radio just temporarily punished the band for the crimes of writing a rude song by not playing it. I saw the band perform the song on the Countdown Music Industry Awards ceremony of 1980, and that was televised. I guess this song's about a wife of a business man that allows his peers to blow a load on her face? That's the take away from this tune? Charming.

Thank you for using that specific video. The other videos available have always been a bit of an eyesore. ''Way I've Been'' is a quick and easy song that I would have come around to requesting. I figured we might as well get the song out of the way. I remember routinely playing ''Way I've Been'' after school, and just liking it as a simple little number. There wasn't much controversy over Boys Light Up. I just remember Ian ''Molly'' Meldrum talking about the song being banned from radio play, and reading about the lyrical content: ''And later at the party where all the MP's rave about the hummers she's been giving, and the money that they save.. To her it's skin lotion for his promotion too...'' I know it's not Darling Nikki or some 2 Live Crew number, but radio programmers in 1980 were not keen on the song and it was banned from radio play in Australia for roughly a year. It was a storm in a tea cup, and Australian Crawl did get to play the song on the Countdown Music Awards thing in 1981. I hear the song played on those ''Classic'' stations, and at the local supermarket nowadays. It's nothing really... Silly schoolboy humour attached to a pretty catchy song. I have to admit that the second verse has always been a deal breaker for me. I've never appreciated the imagery. The other thing about the song that has amused people for years is the neologism ''dorsetted'', which was a made-up word created for the sake of a rhyme. Next Australian Crawl song to check out is ''Indisposed''.

A nice catchy pop song there. A little juvenile in the lyric department. Not sure if I was amused by it at the time. Just thought it was a dopey song by a bunch of surfer boys from Mornington Peninsula. I gotta say that it takes being a surfer to recognise other surfers. We just carry this vibe that may not be noticed by anybody else but surfers. I knew Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil was a surfer when I first saw him play with the Oils when they were called Farm. They played gigs with AC/DC. Peter Garrett had a surfer look, as did the Oxley boys of Sunnyboys and Australian Crawl. Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons and The Sports were NOT surfer boys. You can just tell. I had a chat with the Oz Crawl boys about surfing and surfing brands at the time, and a couple of years later they sponsored a surfing contest. I think there's a bit of ground to cover with Australian Crawl. Gillian, Hayley, Kaitlyn and I will guide you through Australian Crawl. We will talk about the next Oz Crawl song you guys need to do. Keep you on the right path. ''Reckless'' will be a song you two can do in March next year. As for now, let's stick to this period. They're a good band!

I always speculated that Men At Work took a few cues from Australian Crawl. Australian Crawl were the new and improved version of The Sports, and Men At Work were the new and improved version of Australian Crawl. Even the chorus of ''Boys Light Up'' is similar to The Sports' ''Boys (What Did The Detective Say)''. With members of Skyhooks spilling over into The Sports and Jo Jo Zep/Falcons, and Australian Crawl being Little River Band's pet project band, and Mondo Rock and The Sports writing and producing eachother's material, and Mondo Rock's singer being Skyhooks' producer .. one cannot help but wonder if the Melbourne rock music scene was a tad incestuous?

This was banned from the airwaves by certain stations such as Sydney's 2SM - the Catholic radio station (and derisively known as 2 St Mary's)

Yep on Holiday !

Oz Crawl are an awesome band but generally James Reyne is a great singer/songwriter. His phrasing ensures that you will never get sick of any of his songs however you may need lyrics for future songs to know what he is saying. These blokes were a bunch of uni students having a bit of fun when their music just took off. So many great songs...try Downhearted, Oh no not you again, Reckless, Things don't Seem. I don't recall any real controversy back in the day over this song but maybe radio wouldn't play it. Oh and i've finally subscribed...i couldn't ignore your content any longer, not that i was trying to. Thanks for the reaction.

I always thought it was about professional married couples and secret suburban lives

Never heard the second song. First song always liked but never listened to it closely and do not recall any controversy about it at all. Not sure anyone took Australian Crawl seriously. Just a fun light hearted band. I really love their song Reckless though. They had some other song that was fun and heard a lot but because never took much notice of any of the words I only found out it about the famous Aussie actor Flynn. In like Flynn is a saying which I am sure is related about him and his ways off camera. I think he did movies in the 1940s and from Tasmania originally.

18:38 My sister had that picture as a poster on her wall. It had been up on her wall for a couple of weeks before our Dad noticed it. He looked at the band, read their name and without a shadow of doubt, told my sister that he was happy to see her taking a new interest in the Australian men's swimming team. Ugh.. Boys Light Up was a fun song at the time, but there were much better songs that would come out the following year. As Gillian said, the song being banned from radio play was a storm in a tea cup. The band were still big at the time, and I do remember hearing Boys Light Up at almost every party and pub. Personally, I liked Flowers a lot more than Australian Crawl.

James Reyne's singing: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N4ns3RsY9W0.html James Reyne impersonation: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JJYcx9-xdlE.html If he was Australian or knew about Oz Crawl, a young Jim Carey would have had a field day aping James Reyne. lol

They mention a pub I used frequent... unfortunately.

I was pretty young when this song was a thing, and Australian Crawl were becoming a pretty big ''Countdown'' band. I read through the lyrics while listening to the song, and was wondering what ''dorseted'' meant. Then the 2nd verse came along, and I had enough. I just saw them as a bunch of wankers after that. That said, it's still an important song in the Crawl song book and it's a page we need to get through. Downhearted, Things Don't Seem, Reckless, Shut Down, are much much much better songs.

Great Australian band and song

I seen them at Sylvania hotel Sydney James had both hands in plaster, I'm guessing 1978

Errol and Beautiful People are my fave Aus Crawl tracks.

Teddy Swims " I Can't Make You Love Me".

It'd be fun if you guys did a reaction to Australian Crawl's Santa Claus Is Back In Town during the Christmas season. Their Christmas rock song did make us cringe at the time. I'll make the request when the time comes.

I never thought about it before, but with a bit of maturity and hindsite, I can see that ''Boys'' is not the best Australian Crawl song. There were a few cute numbers on their first album, but the real stuff begins with the Sirocco. Maybe this channel would like to check out ''Beautiful People''. The singer performed the song on Countdown with his arms in plaster after a car knocked into him. He wrote about the accident in a song called ''Indisposed''. Cold Chisel captured the working class, fairly bleak side of Australia in the early 80's. Australian Crawl were the encapsulation of the good life in Australia if you born in the right place, right time, right amount of money.

I’m quite conscious of not being too rude about a song the Aussie Countdown mafia clearly like , so I’ll say with Boys light up , it has yet to become my fav track seen on this channel but it does have good points , I like the sound the rhythm guitarist is getting , choppy and clean . The second one was ok , just doesn’t appeal to me personally but I listened to both all the way through out of respect to C n C and the folk who asked for it . 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Saturday night music video by cold chisel..reckless by ozi crawl...goofy m8te from Australia

Nah.. UK radio programmers are more notorious with banning songs than Australian radio programmers. Boys Light Up has been playing on radio in Australia for over 40 years. It was banned for a couple of years and then programmers thought ''fark it, let's just play the farken song'' and everybody was happy.. We had a Top 10 hit in Australia called ''Man Overboard'' by a band called Do-Re-Mi. They were on Countdown, on radio and on TV doing ''Man Overboard'' and nobody cared. But they were banned in the UK because of the mention of ''pubic hairs'' and ''penis envy''. There you go.. Aussies are not that uptight about shit like that. We're not a God fearing country, we're not scared of marijuana... we do have some backward censorship laws but that's not a complete reflection of the people. Texas Chainsaw Massacre was banned in Australia, but then again, A Clockwork Orange was banned in the UK Give or take

I'm soz but if Aussie's like i am are saying they don't understand the song then they have issues. U know exactly what James is singing about ..

Sounds late 70s/early 80s.

Not the most sensitive approach to the subject character - a lonely housewife that gives amazing hummers and has fun with Taxi drivers and convenient little helpers. What to her is skin lotion exactly? And speaking of which, what the hell is a dorseted? The only thing that makes sense is that boys are lighting up. I saw these guys religiously back in the early 80's. Just a fun quirky band with a surf rock thing going on. Thankfully Guy McDonough stepped in to add a bit of a more serious tone.

Flowers - Can't Help Myself *nzoz1980* Sooner or later, you have to do this song and start the ball rolling for Flowers/Icehouse. I know you already did ''Hey Little Girl'', but now you need to dig deeper into the dark ages when they were a super cool/super hip band from the Sydney scene. I used to see Flowers when they did T-Rex and Kinks covers, and they were icey cold... And please don't leave out nzoz1980 because it's a pretty strong upload of the song.

Australia is an island ,

if you have never lived on Dorset road how do you know you are really alive.?

I can never understand what James Reyne is singing about so the lyrics are irrelevant 😅

If I had a reaction channel and people warned me about the lyrical content of this song before I played it, I think I would appreciate the heads up No matter how you look at it, this really is one of Australian Crawl's poorer lyrical choices. I'm not a raging feminist, but I can do without the graphic detail of this lady's activities...

could have been worse. the song could have been called ''boys line up''.

Another empty page … omg I’m not a stalker .. honestly 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I love my Australian Crawl. But I just can't stand to watch James mime the songs for TV appearances. Ugh, it makes me cringe. He just not good at it! Sorry I can't keep watch no matter how much I like the song! You should listen to "Reckless" by them as well! Great channel!

Never cared much either way for this. It was an okay pop song, bit of a foot tapper. But compared with the rest of the catalogue it really is a bit of a bottom feeder.

It was early days for the band and is not their best moment.