29 January 2019

29 January 2019 - Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

Some days, I miss having a co-author on this blog.  Scott Colvin was a great partner to write with, and he made this blog better.

Nearly seven years ago, he wrote a piece about a Canadian band that is essentially a one-hit wonder in the United States - Men Without Hats.  He wrote about a different great song.  I am telling you about the one hit wonder he didn't like as much.

"The Safety Dance" came out when I was 10 or 11.  It is the first song I can remember ever being my favorite song. I thought the song was fun, the video was fun, and the dance was fun.  Little did I know how subversive the song was - although not a call for safe sex as some think, it WAS a protest against bouncers at clubs who didn't like the pogoing a lot of new wave music fans were doing - and how indicative of future musical tastes it would be.

And I really didn't know that such subversion would be allowed in the US Billboard Top 5.



The official video, which only featured one band member - lead singer Ivan Doroschuk - was built around the short single version of the song.  This fan cut version is the longer, more synth-forward version that a lot of people have heard nowadays.  Compare, contrast, enjoy.

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