Put both on mix disc recently for a friend of mine, and found I still swoon at each of them. They both sound like pop music from another dimension these days. How Schilling ever got away with this bit of Bowie pilferage remains a mystery, but the soaring final "Hoooooome" towards the song's climax forgives all.
The `Works' finest hour, meanwhile, features an equally celestial chorus (Ian McNabb's voice resounding from a thousand stories high....though singin' about God knows what), and the manic thwacking of those toms coupled with those chiming guitars..? Perfection! Too bad they never managed anything as great (though "Understanding Jane" weren't bad).
I have a sneaking suspicion Icicle Works might win this one, but I've certainly been wrong before when it comes to anticipating ILM reactions.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 23 May 2005 13:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 23 May 2005 13:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― chr1sb0y (chr1sb0y), Monday, 23 May 2005 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 May 2005 13:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 23 May 2005 13:56 (eighteen years ago) link
Surprised to see Schilling getting such love here.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 23 May 2005 14:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Monday, 23 May 2005 14:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 23 May 2005 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link
It's especially emotional when one's in a club, dancing, drunk.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 23 May 2005 14:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 23 May 2005 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link
So yeah, "Major Tom" = brilliant, and I'd rank it barely above the similarly majestic "Whisper to a Scream".
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 23 May 2005 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 23 May 2005 15:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 23 May 2005 16:29 (eighteen years ago) link
I actually have a soft spot for the Icicle Works' "Understanding Jane." A lost classic! I love it!
― Hutlock (Hutlock), Monday, 23 May 2005 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link
Anyone?
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 23 May 2005 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link
Fantastic stuff - gets my vote. Great video too, which concludes with the eponymous spacefarer's ascent to Heaven, where pretty waitresses in red hotpants roller-skate in formation through drifting clouds of dry ice. Mmm.
― Palomino (Palomino), Monday, 23 May 2005 18:57 (eighteen years ago) link
"EARTH BELOW US.....DRIFTING, FALLING....FLOATING WEIGHTLESS....COMING, COMING HOME.....:"
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 23 May 2005 19:03 (eighteen years ago) link
"Völlig losgelost von der Erde schwebt das Raumschiff vollig schwerelos ... "
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 23 May 2005 19:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 23 May 2005 21:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ian Riese-Moraine is on toffuti break! (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 23 May 2005 22:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― John Justen (johnjusten), Monday, 23 May 2005 23:45 (eighteen years ago) link
-- Tim Ellison (timelliso...), May 23rd, 2005 9:24 AM. (later)
OTM
Oh yeah those 80s, where KROQ was the best thing ever!
Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly) does win this one, barley. Now you make me what to listen to Ultravox for some odd reason.
― BeeOK (boo radley), Monday, 23 May 2005 23:51 (eighteen years ago) link
My best friend in high school was an Icicle Works fanatic. I never bought any of their records besides this single. I wonder now if they had any other singles chart in other countries. Certainly not in the U.S.
― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 01:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ian Riese-Moraine is on toffuti break! (Eastern Mantra), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 02:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― biz, Tuesday, 24 May 2005 02:16 (eighteen years ago) link
I like Birds Fly, but I was just listening to the album a few days ago, and I actually like it much less than most of the other songs on there! Great album. I think Love is a Wonderful Colour, Factory in the Desert and Cauldron of Love are all better tunes. I just never "got" that one. What is he singing about?
― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 03:56 (eighteen years ago) link
I first heard it (several times) in its German version blaring out over a PA while trying to ice skate for the very first time, in Germany. A cute German girl took pity on me and dragged me round the rink. Not sure who was the more embarrassed, her or me.
― Jeff W (zebedee), Tuesday, 24 May 2005 15:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 01:43 (eighteen years ago) link
Ah, 1984.
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 18:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 1 April 2007 19:32 (sixteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Sunday, 1 April 2007 20:06 (sixteen years ago) link
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 1 April 2007 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link
― Dimension 5ive, Sunday, 1 April 2007 20:12 (sixteen years ago) link
― Dimension 5ive, Sunday, 1 April 2007 20:13 (sixteen years ago) link
― Eisbaer, Sunday, 1 April 2007 20:14 (sixteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Sunday, 1 April 2007 20:37 (sixteen years ago) link
― gershy, Sunday, 1 April 2007 21:26 (sixteen years ago) link
― Pye Poudre, Monday, 2 April 2007 13:28 (sixteen years ago) link
AUF DEUTSCH
God, I love this song. It's even better in German.
― EN Save-A-Ken BB (ENBB), Monday, 6 April 2009 04:01 (fourteen years ago) link
stuck in my head. "FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!"
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 1 October 2014 08:02 (nine years ago) link