Icehouse, "Electric Blue" and "Crazy"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

The American breakthroughs for Australian combo. "Electric Blue" was cowritten - in one of the stranger collaborations in rock history -- by one John Oates. Classics or duds?

(And if anyone knows how and why Oates hooked up with them, gimme theh inside scoop.)

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 30 July 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

oates was attracted to their mullets

― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 30 July 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

In junior high we would sing a dirty version of this song, "Electric Spooge." Pretty much the only words in common were "and it's all over you"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 30 July 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

I haven't heard "Crazy," but I caught "Electric Blue" for the first time like a month ago and it just floored me. Fantastic.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 30 July 2005 23:48 (twenty years ago)

i'll finally admit to always really liking parts of these songs. esp. eletric blue. it's kind of gorgeous.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 30 July 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

Dudster. It's always good to draw the line.

― paulhw (paulhw), Sunday, 31 July 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

"Electric Blue" is utter crap. Can't recall what "Crazy" sounds like.

― van der who (van smack), Sunday, 31 July 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

"you gotta be crazy baby, to want a guy like me"

― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 31 July 2005 00:43 (twenty years ago)

100% CLASSIC

― jeremy jordan (cruisy), Sunday, 31 July 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

ws crazy ever actually in a teen movie?

― jeremy jordan (cruisy), Sunday, 31 July 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

what i really want to know tho: is the rest of the album good?

― jeremy jordan (cruisy), Sunday, 31 July 2005 00:53 (twenty years ago)

Crazy i love, Electric Blue, not quite as much. Permed mullets rool!

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 31 July 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

If you like those singles, the rest of the LP would probably be deemed good. I seem to recall it was proclaimed locally as a classic album for about 6 weeks in 1987, maybe longer!

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 31 July 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

Totally classic. But then again, I'll even stick up for "Miss Divine".

― edward o (edwardo), Sunday, 31 July 2005 01:03 (twenty years ago)

The 'haunting' title track was not without its charms, and "Nothing Too Serious" and "My Obsession" had endless radio play also...

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 31 July 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

My Obsession is also good. Crazy is my favorite though.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 31 July 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

I adore that CD. "Electric Blue" is an absolutely perfect confection of the gooiest variety.

Iva Davies is doing soundtracks now--he did MASTER AND COMMANDER, but I wouldn't hold it against him.

― Ian in Brooklyn, Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:32 (twenty years ago)

(Actually, the record gets kind of proggy by side II.)

― Ian in Brooklyn, Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:33 (twenty years ago)

Their "Measure to Measure" album features Eno all over it, for some reason, especially odd considering the disc is such a Roxy rip.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:44 (twenty years ago)

Then again, a goodly portion of the 80s was a Roxy rip.

― Ian in Brooklyn, Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:55 (twenty years ago)

Ugh, these were the worst things Icehouse ever did! Bleach! Get one "Love in Motion" or "Hey Little Girl" and then get back to me =)

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 31 July 2005 03:38 (twenty years ago)

5 brilliant singles and not a dud track make a classic .

― diva avies, Sunday, 31 July 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

I liked both singles at the time but had no knowledge of or context for the earlier stuff, so I might have thought differently if I had. Still, I can recall the choruses for both songs just like that, a good sign -- "Electric Blue" was the better one.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 31 July 2005 11:33 (twenty years ago)

No doubt years of writing and cowriting genius-quality nonsense for H&O taught John Oates his craft. How else explain the perfect positioning of the "electric blue" phrase in such a way that it's instantly memorable?

Anyone notice how much "No Promises" sounds like Bowie-Pat Metheny's "This is Not America"?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 31 July 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Icehouse had finer moments than either of these two, notably "No Promises" and "Hey Little Girl". They also had the good intention and exquisite taste to cover "Love Like Blood" by Killing Joke, but it ended up sounding like a damp, wheezing fart at a margarine factory. Nice try, though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 31 July 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

Also, for a few years (circa "Crazy"), Iva had THE WORST HAIR IN RECORDED HUMAN HISTORY

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot/images/nz199001.gif

This pic doesn't even do it justice.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 31 July 2005 13:23 (twenty years ago)

Didn't all Australians in the mid to late '80s? (INXS to thread.)

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 31 July 2005 13:32 (twenty years ago)

The real original sin.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 31 July 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

so no one knows how the hell John Oates hooked up with Iva Davies?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 31 July 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

Obviously they were comparing hair tips as they used the same stylist.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 31 July 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

hmm he looks a bit like red symons in that pic

― jeremy jordan (cruisy), Sunday, 31 July 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Heard "Crazy" yesterday for the first time in a long time...total classic.

― van der who (van smack), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 03:17 (twenty years ago)

was great southern land not a hit? crazy is much better than electric blue, which is lame-o. i like their first lp best (like this is any surprise)

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 03:31 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't "Great Southern Land" on the Young Einstein soundtrack? As silly as it seems, the album went a long way in turning me on to some Australian bands (notably Lime Spiders!)

"Electric Blue" has a great build-up and chorus, "Crazy" is little more than 1987 top 40 radio fodder. I remember liking some of the other songs on the album, but I'd have no idea now which ones they might have been.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 04:00 (twenty years ago)

Didn't all Australians in the mid to late '80s? (INXS to thread.)
-- Alfred Soto (sotoal...), July 31st, 2005.
hi from geelong - do you mean michael's long mullet in "i send a message" or any video from the swing.

― dameron ciaz, Tuesday, 2 August 2005 04:14 (twenty years ago)

Didn't all Australians in the mid to late '80s?

Peter Garrett didn't.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 04:25 (twenty years ago)

nor grant mclennan! (can you imagine him with a mick fleetwood-esque crimped mullet?)

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

haha. nick cave did though.

i don't really like either of these.

but when they were called flowers they were the first band i ever threw up too!!

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 04:29 (twenty years ago)

peter garrett was ahead of his time -- wasn't till about 1992 or so when it became cool to have a shaved head!

whatever joys "electric blue" might have had were washed away by the massive overplay that this song received on american radio when the song was a hit.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 05:43 (twenty years ago)

OMG "Great Southern Land" should be shot from a cannon, into the sun [/AlexinNYC]. Only because I am SO TIRED of it being the "quintessential" aussie track.

(And Jim whosever idea it was to stick it on the Pigs Arse comp is a loon ;P)

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 2 August 2005 05:49 (twenty years ago)

I can indeed imagine Grant McLennan with a crimped mullet. It would have made all the difference. They would have been bigger than Farnesy.

― scriblerus (mike lynch), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 04:30 (twenty years ago)

great southern land is highly reminiscent of australia day fireworks shows for me, the epitomy of mob yobboism. provides a great summer soundtrack to people getting pissed in the afternoon then starting fights on the foreshore over trivial nuisances. noice.

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 04:35 (twenty years ago)

"Electric Blue" = klassic. Didn't I just finish saying on the NYC pub quiz thread that the lyrics to that song are possibly THE ONLY thing I remember from the 80s?? Dude. I never met anyone else who knew the song until one night when NYC Julie & I sang the whole thing a capella. She is now married to an Aussie who blanches and leaves the room whenever Icehouse is mentioned.

― Laurel, Wednesday, 3 August 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

I am ashamed to say I heard neither "Crazy" nor "Electric Blue" on South Florida radio.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 3 August 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

holy shit is "Electric Blue" the best song ever or what

"Crazy" sorta sucks, though

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 09:10 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

I love Flowers/Icehouse, the earlier albums are absolute classics, so so beautiful and totally underrated. I love the opener 'Icehouse' on their debut album & 'Street Cafe' on Primitive Man is just pure class.

Although Man of Colours makes me a tad sad because it's so bland and generic...but i can pretty much listen to anything Iva Davies does because I adore his voice.

And btw, Great Southern is our classiest aussie anthem by far. I've never ever gotten sick of it.

― Miranda Leigh (Miranda Leigh), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 05:14 (twenty years ago)

It's all over you
Electric blue

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 23 May 2006 13:22 (twenty years ago)

ten months pass...

My iTunes eighties station just played "Electric Blue." Ah, those Oates-sian harmonies...

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 23 March 2007 19:21 (nineteen years ago)

I think the Mathias Schaffhauser cover of "Hey Little Girl" was my favorite thing to come out of micro-house.

― Spencer Chow, Friday, 23 March 2007 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

'electric blue' is pretty amazing

― gangsta hug (omar little), Tuesday, 9 June 2009 17:21 (seventeen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xYQBTwP3t0

― gangsta hug (omar little), Tuesday, 9 June 2009 17:22 (seventeen years ago)

My friend was just talking about this band recently, he really likes them. I'm kindof lukewarm on them, even though I tried some of their early stuff recently. I'm intrigued to learn there was John Oates involvement on that song. That singer's mullet really bothers me, though.

― Imagine being an elevator (Bimble), Tuesday, 9 June 2009 19:13 (seventeen years ago)

I love the power chords.

― Bud Huxtable (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 9 June 2009 19:18 (seventeen years ago)

three months pass...

I'm listening to "Hey Little Girl". They give me great memories of the more pleasurable and superficial qualities of the eighties. I had clothing with pastel flowers all over it and stuff like that.

― MCCCXI (u s steel), Wednesday, 16 September 2009 11:47 (sixteen years ago)

Their early stuff (way prior to "Electic Blue" & "Crazy") is quite nice.

― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 16 September 2009 11:53 (sixteen years ago)

iva davies fell prey to the mullet worse than almost anyone else.

'hey little girl' is probably the pick of all icehouse tracks for mine, though 'great southern land' is up there.

it all fell apart with 'spellbound by miss divine'.

― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 16 September 2009 11:56 (sixteen years ago)

'crazy' has a horrible sleazy smugness behind it. mock humble in the worst possible way.

― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 16 September 2009 11:57 (sixteen years ago)

five months pass...

Revive! "Hey Little Girl" is aces. Most of Primitive Man is pretty gr8 -- terrific Linn beats and atmospheric Prophet textures. I'd say it's post-Avalon Roxy, except they came out at the same time.

― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 26 February 2010 03:36 (sixteen years ago)

I just freeze!

― Slacker Bilk (S-), Friday, 26 February 2010 04:04 (sixteen years ago)

I bought "Flowers" on vinyl from Second Spin a couple months ago - it holds up rather well actually. Especially ...errm.. is it "Icehouse"? Wld love to do a cover of it or something.

― ABBAcab (Trayce), Friday, 26 February 2010 05:14 (sixteen years ago)

"great southern land" and "electric blue" should be taken out and shot, though.

― ABBAcab (Trayce), Friday, 26 February 2010 05:14 (sixteen years ago)

Oh dear I appear to have already expressed this opinion on this thread /senile.

― ABBAcab (Trayce), Friday, 26 February 2010 05:15 (sixteen years ago)

"great southern land" should be taken out and shot, though.

Uhhh...why? Just that it's overplayed down under?

― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 26 February 2010 23:38 (sixteen years ago)

You have no idea how much (and also what it gets associated with - see gem's comment upthread).

― ABBAcab (Trayce), Saturday, 27 February 2010 01:00 (sixteen years ago)

In fairness it isnt a bad song though - but Crazy and ELectric Blue are shite.

― ABBAcab (Trayce), Saturday, 27 February 2010 01:01 (sixteen years ago)

What about "We Can Get Together"? Was that actually released under the name Flowers? I assumed it was a huge single -- although that maybe due to MTV overplaying it. Although "over"playing = turning up sound on tv and dancing in the den w/my brother.

― the higgs, Saturday, 27 February 2010 05:32 (sixteen years ago)

i forgot how totally unforgivably shit electric blue is until video^^^, but hey little girl is v. good.

― malicious humor victim (Hunt3r), Saturday, 27 February 2010 06:13 (sixteen years ago)

three years pass...

very eurythmics-y career arc. it's like iva davies can't just be happy at home with his fairlight and is always grasping towards the thing he's least equipped to be, that being an oz rock band. he gets away with it on the 'man of colours' material because those big hits sound like studio confections anyway; the later stuff is only good when it's not trying to sound like a live band, like 'miss divine'.

never mind oates, how/why did eno hook up with them for that one record??

― 'SPIRIT OF TRUCK' (haitch), Sunday, 11 August 2013 12:18 (twelve years ago)

Eurythmics sounded good as a rock band though.

― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 11 August 2013 12:21 (twelve years ago)

^^ some real talk

tbf Iva's line of thinking did end up with Electric Blue and Crazy so it wasn't a total loss

― sick Germaine Greer burn (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 11 August 2013 12:33 (twelve years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.

Icehouse, "Electric Blue" and "Crazy" - C/D?