| MEN AT WORK CONTRABAND: THE BEST OF | |
01. Who Can It Be Now? (3:19) | 02. Down Under (3:40) 03. It's A Mistake (4:31) 04. Hard Luck Story (3:41) 05. Still Life (3:49) 06. Underground (3:02) 07. Upstairs In My House (4:00) 08. I Like To (4:25) * 09. High Wire (3:00) 10. Maria (4:34) 11. Be Good Johnny (3:33) 12. Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive (4:36) 13. Overkill (3:43) 14. Man With Two Hearts (3:55) 15. Snakes And Ladders (3:16) 16. Down By the Sea (6:48) Total playing time: 63:56 Note: all tracks previously released on albums except track 8 which is recorded live 28/07/83 by ABC Rock Radio Network at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD. B-side of 'Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive'. Previously unreleased on CD Special thanks to Evan Hosie Compilation producer: Bruce Dickinson Digitally mastered by Mark Wilder, Sony Music Studios, NYC Project director: Jessica Sowin Packaging manager: Nicholas Bennett Design by Watts Design? Photos courtesy of Evan Hosie In 1982, everyone was asking 'Who Can It Be Now?' The answer was soon loud & clear - it was an eccentric quintet from Australia by the name of Men At Work (MAW). Songs like 'Who Can It Be Now?,' with its memorable sax hook, & the sing-along 'Down Under' propelled the Men to a string of record-breaking #1's, making them one of the most successful rock groups of the early '80's. In their brief 4 years in the limelight, MAW racked up amazing chart success, including a simultaneous #1 single & #1 album with their debut 'Business As Usual', which ended up spending 15 straight weeks at the top of the charts, at that time the longest run for a debut LP. In all, their first album stayed on the U.S. Billboard charts 90 weeks & sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. The following year, their second single 'Down Under,' which immortalized their homeland with lines like 'where women glow & men chunder' (Aussie slang for drunken vomiting), set another precedent when it reached #1, thus making 'Business As Usual' the first debut LP to have two #1 singles. Their international success was capped by a simultaneous #1 single & LP in America & Britain. With this kind of trajectory, it's no surprise that the Men were viewed suspiciously as an 'overnight success', but like most so-called success stories, the truth is a far different story. The group had its genesis more than 5 years earlier in Melbourne, Australia. A young Colin Hay, who had emigrated from Scotland when he was 14 years old, met guitarist Ron Strykert in 1978, & they started playing pubs as an acoustic duo. Soon after, they joined forces with Greg Ham, the impish saxophonist/flautist/keyboardist; drummer Jerry Speiser; & John Rees, the stoic bassist. They still didn't have a name until driving in the group van one night, desperate for something to put on the chalk board outside the pub, Greg Ham spied a MAW construction sign, Men At Work was born. After slogging away in the Australian pub scene - an amazing breeding ground for bands, spawning such extraordinary acts such as Midnight Oil, INXS, Angels (renamed Angel City in the US), Icehouse, The Divinyls, & The Eurogliders, to name only a few - MAW recorded a trial single for CBS Australia & the rest, as they say is a history. As lore has it, American producer Peter McIan was flown to Oz to produce their debut LP, which they recorded at breathtaking speed for the unheard sum of $17,000. (By contrast, their last LP racked up costs of over $600,000 & took almost 4 times as long to record.) Suddenly, the unassuming fivesome found themselves airlifted out of the Aussie pub scene & deposited them into huge American arenas opening for Fleetwood Mac on what was supposed to be a short jaunt. Instead, it turned into a grueling headlining tour with no time off for bad behavior. (At one point, Colin, Greg, Ron, John & Jerry found themselves in Edmonton, Canada, freezing in their summer clothes, so the Canadian Company hastily made them up cozy jackets with a discreet, embroidered message inside which read 'To Men At Work, for selling a shitload of records.') No one was more surprised at their success than the Men. 'I never even thought, 'Well, we're going to br huge in America,' says Colin Hay. 'I never realized until now that when Americans do get onto something they don't let go.' Meanwhile, the tongue-in-cheek humor of their self-scripted video for 'Who Can It Be Now?' made it MTV's most-requested video of '83. And alienation - for after all the song is about hiding out at home - 'Who can it be now? Go away, don't come 'round here no more.' - was never more popular, or a seemingly isolated more likeable. The playful Beatlesque humor of the band made even the most routine interview fun. Once, Greg Ham decided to an entire 'Entertainment Tonight' TV intreview while up a tree in the back of their hotel. They were notorious for turning the tables on flustered writers - 'And how exactly did you get your name?' - & playing practical jokes on each other. Colin had great fun as a guest VJ on MTV & promised to come back, but unfortunately their demanding schedule never allowed it. While 'Who Can It Be Now?' was still in the Top 10, they released their second single, 'Down Under'. It entered the charts at #79; 10 weeks later it was #1. But 'Down Under' was never meant to be the Australian anthem so many people took it for. 'It tells a story about Australians who have been abroad & come back home,' Greg Ham has said. 'The absurd Australian abroad. Fortunately for us, the song is all things to all people.' Wayne Robbins, writing in Newsday, agreed: 'It's the first hit song in recent history that belongs to everyone.' Vegemite, as everyone now knew, was a yeasty food spread - you have to be brought up on it, say most Australians - & 'G'day mate' was the proper way to greet your friends. Long before 'thrown another shrimp on the barbie', there was simultaneous Men popularizing their homeland. Everything from Oz was suddenly hip. In February '83, the Men were awarded simultaneous Grammy for the 'Best New Artist of the Year', & a delighted but slightly embarrassed Colin passed off the glitzy statue to his manager to carry around. Hay was aware that Australia had originated the expression 'cut off the heads of the tall poppies,' the rough American equivalent of 'He's too big for his britches; bring him down a notch.' Canada, who had been early believers, enthusiastically awarded them a Juno award for 'International LP of the Year.' Just weeks after simultaneous Grammys, 'Cargo' was released. It had been finished in the summer of '82 but was held for release because of the debut's phenomenal success. 'Cargo' quickly jetted into the Top 10, & simultaneous haunting ballad 'Overkill' (#3), 'It's A Mistake' (#6) & the irrepressible 'Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive' (#28) kept the band a popular radio staple. While many of the band's songs seemed lighthearted on the surface, there was no denying the angst in songs such as 'Overkill', with lyrics that again spoke of alienation: 'Day after day it reappears,/Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear,/ Ghosts appear and fade away'. And in another song, 'It's A Mistake,' Colin sings of regrets of war: 'We'll not fade out too soon,/ Not in this finest hour/ Whistle your favorite tune/We'll send a card and flower/It's a mistake; it's a mistake'. From the same album came 'Upstairs In My Room' where Colin is alone on his roof, listening to the sounds of 'dealers selling junk & trash' & observes 'No one knows what I can see.' He is deliberately detached from the world around him but makes no excuses for his behavior in 'No Restrictions': 'Leave me to my selfish ways; I'm well enough alone.' Then, to lighten it up, they break into the frenzied 'Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive,' but if you listen carefully, you hear the narrator claim 'He loves the world except for all the people' as the Doctor tries out his little experiment which will 'cure all matter of imbalance in this world of fools.' But hey, it had a good beat & you could dance to it. In '83, an exhausted band embarked on their second major headlining tour of North America, a 60-day schedule that began at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville & ended at Radio City Music Hall 5 months later. 2 years of non-stop touring & recording was taking its toll on the band; however, it was also a classic case of too much success too soon. Nothing in their homeland - which tended to savage people who believed their own press - could have prepared them for the star system in cheap motels now started snapping at each other & demanding separate limos. For the boys, who were homesick, & 'crispy' as they called it, wives, girlfriends & even parents were flown into the New York show. MAW became Men At Play. A year off stretched into 2 & when faced with starting it all up again, drummer Jerry Speiser & bassist John Rees bowed out & session musicians sat in for them on the 3rd LP, 'Two Hearts' Colin & Greg brought in Bob Clearmountain to mix the album with them at NY's Power Station & they picked 'Everything I Need' as the single. A good-natured love song with a lush sound usually not associated with MAW, & with Colin's vocals down in the mix, it failed to capture the public's heart. Although the album eventually went gold, it featured no Top 40 singles & next to the huge multi-platinum success of the first 2 records, it was considered a colossal disappointment. Unfortunately, strong songs such as the title track & the beautiful ballad 'Maria' went by unnoticed & most people don't even remember that MAW released a 3rd album. ; Soon after 'Two Hearts' release, MAW, or what passed for them at that stage, called it quits. Some critics blamed the 2-year layoff for killing the band's momentum, but whatever the reason, simultaneous world of music lost a unique band who left a wonderful legacy. But as Colin would say, 'No worries, mate.' (-Evan Hosie) (P) © 1996 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. 
| 
|