You should really stick to your day job, dude.
Has the summer heat got you down on the first day of Autumn? Well, The Nest can’t do anything about the weather… but we can play some wonderful muzak to distract you on this first Monday of Fall. That’s the day we rake up another lost hit that fell out of season and into that giant burning leafpile we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy’s got another moldy oldie ready to play that should help put a bit of a chill in the air, while the Sponkies finish drinking their pumpkin spice Kool Aid. It’s time for a cool change…
The 1970’s was a veritable musical smorgasbord of styles that crossed over onto the pop charts, and one of the somewhat underground movements that became big during the decade was the art of the twelve minute song known as progressive rock. One of the B-list members of the prog rock sound was a British outfit by the name of The Alan Parsons Project. APP was primarily made up of the titular Mr. Parsons and his partner Eric Woolfson, along with a cast of underlings who helped make the project successful.
It never hurts to be a band of sharp dressers as well…
Strangely enough, about the only place in the free world that Alan Parsons Project did not have success was their homeland of the UK. They charted moderately well in most other countries, including the US where they had a small handful of Top 20 hits, including the #3 song “Eye in the Sky” which I helped earworm over the weekend. That song was led into by an album cut that you probably know well if you’re a sports fan in North America.
Surely you can’t be Sirius!
But for this week’s DVA, it’s APP’s final Top 20 hit that I want to present. While the song is certainly OK, it’s the video for the song that’s actually the story. It was getting shown a lot on MTV back when I first started watching it in 1984, and is really one of the underappreciated classics of the 80’s music video revolution. Here is Alan Parsons Project’s #15 hit with the nifty video “Don’t Answer Me”…
The presentation of a video’s story in animated comic book style was quite pioneering way back in 1984 when the coolest feature of most videos was still those annoying black bars that had people thinking their old boob tubes were going out. We get to watch Nick, who looks like every fictional private eye ever in the 1930’s, sulk in a bar as his gal Sugar gets pawed at by some hulking lug in a mobster suit.
Might as well drown your troubles… and any tapeworm you might have.
After consuming an entire bottle of hard liquor, Nick does the responsible thing and gets in his car for a drive. Nick is too depressed (or perhaps too wasted) to even bother trying to hit on the cute carhop at the diner he stops at. Lo and behold, the lug pulls up next to him with his beloved Sugar in the front seat. When the Meathead tries to get sweet with Sugar, she rejects his advances and that pisses him off. Nick notices that Sugar’s about to get MeTooed by her date, and decides to pull a George McFly and yank the giant ape out of the car to kick his poorly drawn ass. Despite having the size disadvantage, Nick clocks the giant douchebag so hard that he sends him to the moon…. literally.
Splat! And you thought Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon…
With the manhandling thug lying in broken pieces on the lunar surface, our hero Nick finally reunites with his girlfriend Sugar… and they get stars in their eyes as they look at each other. Why stars? Because it’s fucking 1930-something and emojis haven’t been invented yet, that’s why!
This is soooo 2010’s.
Join me again next week for another forgotten hit that isn’t bad, it was just drawn that way…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I really did like Alan Parsons Project “Eye In The Sky” and I remember this one too. They definitely had a “sound” of their own. Thanks for reminding me – I rarely hear them on the radio.
Pam
Outside of a 70’s station I listened to in the 90’s, I don’t ever remember hearing one of their songs on the radio. Maybe not even Mecca Radio… and heck, they play just about everything at work! This song will always be one I remember for the video, which entertained me as a young squirrel…
aaah the tunes of the first infight tries… what a lost generation who had no ed sheeran to come into da mood hahahahaha
Argh! If I have to hear “Shape of You” one more time, I’ll barf right in the car….
An Alan Parsons Project ear worm is a great way to start out the week! Thanks for starting out the first week of autumn on a great note. 🎶
Hopefully the smooth sounds will mellow out the weather and remind Mother Nature that summer is OVER….
Alan Parsons could be absolutely brilliant. It was almost ruined for my by and ex who played them too much. Anyway, my all time favorite is the little known, exquisite, and never played, La Sagrada Familia from the Gaudi album.
Here is the link to the live version. It is a bit quieter than the studio version. Alan Parsons was all about the studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAv_lLgsH9I
Wow this brought back memories. Unfortunately many of my musical memories are tied up with assholes I used to date. Thank goodness for Teddy. He has horrible musical taste but at least I don’t have to listen to it.
My taste in music is highly subject to debate, but at least it’s so wide and random that you’ll eventually hear something you like. And I wouldn’t ever want to hear entire collections from the same artist…. most album filler is crap. Even the album filler the Beatles did…. maybe ESPECIALLY the album filler the Beatles did.
Hey now….the Beatles are Great, Mr. Squirrel!
May I say that your collection of “moldy oldies’ is vast and amazing. I haven’t heard of (nor thought of either) The Allan Parson’s Project in as many decades ago as “Eye In The Sky” was a hit. 😐 And it looked rather as if the moon got hit in the eye with something other than a mammal…. sticky much?
It kinda looks like that guy was made out of shit the way he splatted on the moon, which may be true. Glad to bring Alan parsons back into your mind, for better or for worse…
NOOOOOO! There was never a world without emojis! It can’t be true!
😦
I remember this song and this group. I never saw the video… because we didn’t have cable TV. But I like this comic book style video. It’s cool.
It’s a real cool and kinda forgotten video. Can’t believe it took me four years to include this song in my lost hits series…
I had a dream about you the other night, that we met in person and got along really well! Not like a romance get along or anything, just two good friends. And when I woke up, I felt happy, which is unusual because most of my dreams are sad.
I think I’ll name my next Betta fish Alan Parsons.
Whew, I’m glad I managed to behave. Or did you have to slap the shit out of me a few times?
Now that you mention it, I did have to slap the shit out of you…but I stopped because we both enjoyed it so much!
Cool video. “Take on Me” was around the same time and another comic book-style video (but a better song!).
I’ll agree on better song, even if Take On Me is overplayed. This one does precede A-ha by a year, though… so it may be the very first all comic-inspired video.
This Dick Tracy looking cartoon has themes & looks like it’s right out of the 40s. Weird to use in the 80s.
I have heard this APP song, but not often. I know more of their songs than I thought, though.
Everything old is new again. It certainly helped me remember this video despite the song not really being played all that much…