July 2010
Men Without Hats – Safety Dance
Safety Dance was one of those one hit wonders that did go quite well in the charts worldwide. Released in 1982, the song is a protest against bouncers stopping dancers pogoing to 1980s New Wave music in clubs when Disco was dying and New Wave was up and coming. If you recall, there was a medieval theme to the music video too. How that fits in to the theme is still a loss to me.
New Wave dancing was different from Disco dancing because it was done individually instead of with partners and involved holding the torso rigid and thrashing about. This could be seen dangerous, especially if pogoers (if that’s a term) bounced into one another – accidentally or otherwise. The bouncers didn’t like pogoing so they would tell pogoers to stop or be kicked out of the club. Thus, the song is a protest and a call for freedom of expression.
Men without hats was a band from Montreal, Canada. But Safety Dance was actually filmed in England with only the band leader Ivan Doroschuk in the video. Enjoy it below:
Musical Youth – Pass the Dutchie
Released in 1982, this catchy tune sung by two pairs of brothers reached #1 in the UK and the single was even nominated for a grammy. The Jamaican-British band sold over 4 million copies of the single.
The song was based on the Mighty Diamonds “Pass The Koutchie” (which was a song about cannabis), and the title was subtly altered to feature the patois “dutchie”, referring to a type of pot used for cooking. This idea is emphasised throughout the political and economic overtones throughout the song about extreme poverty and Musical Youth asking the question How does it feel when ya got no food after each verse line.
The band did release other singles, but none of them reached the heights of this one.
Enjoy the music video (and the lyrics):
Lyrics | Musical Youth – Pass the Dutchie lyrics
I also found a live version of the song, and it’s great that live they sound the same – not sure the crowd really got into it though 🙂