Hah, had a classmate in science class when this song was a hit, who would randomly blurt out "Science!" at the most unexpected and hilarious moments. Had to be there, I guess.
hah - OMG just realised I was one of those classmates - not this song - but that another song - oh I think it was Star Trekking - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FCARADb9asE.html - bored to tears in Social Studies - so many quotable bits from that - must have driven my classmates and teacher crazy, opps!
@@juliaconnell ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3Fn36l_z3WY.html Eye for an eye;-) After watching your link I felt like Napoleon the 14th.
@chadergeist82 and awhat about Airwaves? It was a hit here in Brazil, as She blinded me with science was too. Not to mention, I think Dolby produced the great album Steve McQueen, by Prefab Sprout
Guilherme Silva Airwaves is a masterpiece. So is Windpower and Europa And The Pirate Twins. It pains me to see Thomas Dolby represented as a one hit wonder.
The 80's were great musically because creativity was allowed, record companies were willing to take chances on a "new sound", thousands of young bands abandoning formulaic, slick, overproduced of the late seventies and embracing a punk inspired do it yourself garage ethos. Almost every genre dabbled in experimentation, blending with other genres, looking back or abroad for influences. Therefore, in the top 10 chart of any week you could hear soulful r'n'b, reggae/ska, punk, new wave/synthpop, heavy metal, rap/hiphop, Calypso rythmns, African beats, irish or scottish rythmns (bagpipes even), blues, country, funk, rockabilly, disco or any blend of these. Never before or since was there such variety or raw explosion of new or unconventional sounds to music. Unfortunately, today's music seems to be very formulaic mostly, less variety, less rawness or creativity. Likewise, in tv and movies in almost all genres there were templates set that are still being copied by Hollywood today, but not with the same vitality.
Thomas Dolby is a giant of electronic music. Was also super in demand as a session musician - played on Foreigner 4 “Urgent” & “Waiting for a Girl Like You”; Lena Lovich classic hit “New Toy” and many others. A once in a generation talent not to mention a real sweetheart. Respect.
Perhaps it's just classic British self-effacement, but it surprised me that Dolby said he felt he couldn't compete 'in the handsome boy stakes with Sting and Adam Ant'. He was then, and still Is, a good-looking guy, and it suits him to have shaved off what remained of his hair. As for this song, it's a novelty hit that I can take or leave, but a lot of his album tracks are thoughtful, moving, beautiful and very sophisticated musically. Dolby has also had a hand in a lot of very interesting projects. I find him fascinating.
couldn't agree more regarding his looks - was and is - a really good looking guy got to admit that don't really knew his work apart from this - intrigued now - thank you - will investigate further
That's just because Sting or Adam would inevitably appeal to a more younger female audience back then (they were already way popular)...but I agree...unlike Sting or even Adam he's aged better...
So bright, we had to wear shades! There's a song I hadn't heard in years that just popped in my head... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8qrriKcwvlY.html
Thomas Dolby is a very likable man. He is down to earth and hilarious especially when impersonating the scientist. I wish that he would have had more hits.
@@GreenTeaViewerHyperactive! was a song equally as good and catchy, with a video just as innovative. Windpower was another fantastic tune. Yes, he never had the chart success his talents deserved, but he operating in a business that was then incredibly corrupt. He’s more than a one hit wonder, with a loyal following a body of work to be proud of.
I remember where I actually *was* the first time I heard this song. I was in the living room where I lived when I was 12 years old, my best friend was over, we had not long met, and our parents let him come over, and he brought his “boom box” radio, something I only dreamed of owning, and we played this song over and over. I thought it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard. That had to have been 1983? I remember things looking exactly as they did on Stranger Things. My best friend was def a Stranger Things kind of kid...nerd, smart mouthed, picked on by bullies, and he LOVED all things science, D&D, Star Wars, etc...and I wasn’t really into all of that yet. I used to be called a nerd for hanging around him, and I resented it at the time.
I remember this song being on stations that I could barely receive in my dinky-ass hometown, trying to get the 'big city' stations from 100 miles away so I could hear Peter Gabriel and stuff like this. It was scratchy but I still listened.
@Time Bandit Budspest!!.... the song that got me crazy about the Dolby!.. Its a nice long meaty song...with alot of sensitivity. All of Aliens--- play it front to back.....its a Masterpiece.
I'd just LOVE LOVE LOVE to get rid of the UNBEARABLY LAME computer drum tracks on EVERY stupid rap album...jmo. And I lept right on the early Simmons/ V-drum bandwagon being a drummer myself. Btw, wth happened to Simmons??? They make garbage amps and e-drums I wouldn't let my dog urinate on these days. Disgraceful. Meanwhile, I'm trying to foster a set of original Simmons hex drums from Sunglasses at Night, Mad Max, total eclipse of the heart hit era...
You should do a search for "modular synth music" on RU-vid. There are plenty of talented artists out there. Modular synthesis and real analog synths are making a HUGE comeback.
@@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823 Rap isn't the only genre to use programmed drums. Unless you were asleep, Dolby programmed his drums for this hit song and at the time the options were pretty basic. Dolby was also one of the earliest adopters of the computer digital audio workstation using Opcode's Studio Vision software running over the top of Digidesign's Pro Tools hardware... where you could program in your "computer drums" using Sample Cell cards. It's a bit ironic that you're airing your opinion in this comment section.
TheGuerillapatriot Magnus Pike was actually a human biologist specialising in diey and nutrition. I suppose he came to be demonstrating physics on telly because he was a definitively Englisg eccentric. His cousin (also called Pike) was behind the war-time plan to build aircraft carriers from icebergs. I believe that's been 'tested' on Mythbusters. It's rather a shame that Magnus is better remembered for Thom's video than his scientific work.
Yes, Magnus was what I would consider a true English eccentric. Met him as a child back in either the late 70s or early 80s. For another good example look up Patrick Moore who used to present astronomy programmes for like 50 years on the BBC. Or for a more comic version - Stanley Unwin.
The late Magnus Pyke had the ability to explain quite complicated things in layman's terms, which endeared him to TV viewers. I would have to disagree with Dolby ... particularly in his younger years, Thomas Dolby was a very handsome guy!
A lot of the albums of my youth have gone by the wayside either through changes in taste or just sheer overplay. But Thomas Dolby's 'The Flat Earth' still makes it into the rotation every once in a while. 'Screen Kiss' is still one of my favorite songs.
HEY!!!! WAIT A MINUTE! That library where this interview starts... Reminds me way too much of the video by Tears for Fears "Head Over Heels"! Am I going nuts? :)
I'm not sure if that's sarcasm but I was a little irritated at the moment where he was using the Moog and the song was still looping the main riff over and over while the live Moog sound was barely there.
Iconic tune and video from the infant days of MTV. Who wasn’t blurting out random “Science!” back then. Still do, except now people think I just have Tourette’s.
@@markfryer9880 The books have a mind of their own but it is easy to write them so as to not contradict the cover. My covers don't give a lot away so it can be up for interpretation anyway :-)
He was one of the pioneers of electronic music in the 80's. Check out the video of him with Stevie Wonder, Howard Jones and Herbie Hancock performing "Rockit" live at 1985 Grammys.
Yes, Before Twitter we all used a MOOG to kill 8 hours... and still at the end leave you feeling like you have achieved something! 😂 GREAT tune Sir, one of my analogue influences. And great to hear the voice of Magnus Pyke OBE FRSE FRIC.... he lit up my inner Geek as a kid.
Love Thomas Dolby! His Flat Earth Album is a personal favorite the way I love Wish You Were Here (PF). But with a dome like that, how can you believe the Earth is flat? That's ok, I still love you Bro. ...
Thomas Dolby. I discovered this musical genius through the works of another musical genius, Lene Lovich. Wouldn't it be something if they collaborated again for a new album? Imagine what they would come up with in this day and age. :)
I love that whole album and saw him perform it flawlessly in his tour some twenty years after the initial release. So glad to see him in such good shape. He is a GEM.
The story about the video makes total sense to me now, with all of the quirky ticks like the nose sniffing, the throat clearing -- great stuff. Honestly, this could be a hit today.
We had a great alternative radio station in Annapolis Maryland 99.1 WHFS and they played all sorts of great music. They were my introduction to The likes of Thomas Dolby, The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Dead Milkmen. Clash and on an on. The early eighties were a blast.
Superb track, so well thought out and fun, but it was the vocal of "Science!" that pushed it through the roof, you just had to like that song, and it sounds goofy but that song really made a positive impact on the field of scinece for school kids, actually made it cool, Dolby is a magnificent composer.
@@Rightclick88 That is the most-trite and pointless thing you could possibly say on this subject. "Durr, millenials duh!" There we go, that's how it sounds to everybody else.
Fun Fact: Thomas Dolby is the first person to join the online Flat Earth Society. Don't know if he did this as a joke or if he's a believer, though. (I would hope it's a joke if he comes from a family of university professors!)
No, there was already a lot of great synth stuff out there but he put it in 'pop' format and a lot of people prefer that over Vangelis or Wendy Carlos, who were truly ahead of their times.
Before this album was out, I found the cassette EP with 4 songs: She Blinded Me With Science, Airwaves, One of our Submarines, and Europa and the Pirate Twins. I pretty much played that tape until it broke, but by then the album came out (and it was mostly just those 4 songs plus some filler). I really wish he had explained the importance of the Fairlight CMI to all of those songs, instead of just obsessing about the Moog Modular.
Flying North is definitely not a filler! As for the Fairlight, he actually bought it with the earnings from The Golden Age and then used it on Flat Earth.
@@_cb336 - the same exact library sounds on "One of our Submarines" and Kate Bush's "Under Ice" tell me otherwise. And since I had a chance to play with a Fairlight in the early 80s, I recognize many other library sounds.
Ah, memories. The golden age of MTV. At the end of the 8th grade (US) I made my biology a teacher a t-shirt in art class that said "She blinded us with science!” and had the class sign it.
That was Great! It really shed light on that wonderful video (and Dolby) from a wonderful time when I was just an 8th grader in Atlanta, Ga., glued to MTV after school, and I had a sexy red head science teacher named Ms. Peiffer!
