November 21, 2024 • 17 mins
Wrapping up the second and final week of Clairsy & Lisa's 'The Story Behind the Song', we take a deep dive into the making, release and stories you might not know behind some classics.
This weeks' compilation includes five tracks:
- In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins, 1981)
- Stupid Girls (Pink, 2006)
- Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2, 1983)
- Great Southern Land (Icehouse, 1982)
- Money For Nothing (Dire Straits, 1985)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let Me Tell You Your Story on Time Clearsy releases
the story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The song in question today is in the Air Tonight.
It was Phil Collins' debut solo single, and it was
released as the lead single from Collins' debut solo album,
Face Value all the Way back in January nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Because he had his name, his reputation as the drummer
and then singer of course with Genesis before that, and
he went solo.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So In the E to Night reached number one in Austria, Germany, Switzerland,
and Sweden, number two in Canada, and the top ten
in Australia, New Zealand and several other European territories that
reached number nineteen in the United States. In the e
Tonight is one of Collins's best known hits, often cited
as his signature song, and is especially famous for its
(00:50):
drum break.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
The sound was different from many other records that was
around a the time. Drums really normally were recorded and
acoustably perfect surroundings, you know, that was the way you know,
studios were built. But there was a studio in London
called the Townhouse which had this stone room and that's
where I'd recorded with Peter Gabriel. You know, I was
(01:13):
his drummer for a little while when he couldn't afford
American musicians. So he invited me to play on some
tracks on that album, which was his third album, and
there was a song called Intruder on that which was
basically my drum part and a song he adapted to
fit it. But I fell in love with the engineer
who got this sound. So when I did my solo album,
(01:34):
I know, got together with him and we did face
value together. So when we did in the Air Tonight,
you know, we got set up set up in the
in the live room and I was playing from and
he was getting the sound. And then when we came
to record, I did a drum fill into my intro
(01:56):
and that Phil was that and and that ad and that,
and we thought that sounds good.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
It's a fil even bad drummers can.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Play, no word play, it's a drum fill.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
It's a fill drum We.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Love even And it ended up on the Cabriad with
the guy in the gorilla suit playing.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah the inspiration. Collins wrote the song amid the grief
he felt after divorcing his first wife, Andrea Bertarelli in
nineteen eighty. In an interview in twenty sixteen, he said,
of the song's lyrics, I wrote the lyrics spontaneously. I'm
not quite sure what the song is about, but there
was a lot of anger, a lot of despair, and
a lot of frustration. But there are also a lot
(02:36):
of urban legends. We've all heard the myths about this song,
the main one being that story that the lyrics are
based on an incident where someone drowned and someone was
close enough to help save the victim but did not
say help, while Collins, who was too far away to help,
(02:56):
looked on right and.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Knew everything and it was supposedly roughly docum it around that.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
See he had this discussion with Jimmy Kimmel on his
tonight show.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Yeah, is this true?
Speaker 6 (03:06):
That this is what happens? Is when I heard you
were you were on your outside at.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
Night and there's a dot you saw somebody saw someone
drowning and he didn't yeah, and he let him drown.
Speaker 8 (03:16):
He let him drown, and you go and he watched
the man basically murder somebody. And then so instead of
calling the authorities, you invited the man stranger.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
To your concert and then shone the lights on him.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
He showed, Yes, you shone a light on him, and
you say in the earth.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
Then you go, I know what you did, buddy, Oh
my god.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Okay, that is the best story I've ever heard of.
Speaker 6 (03:37):
It I know.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Unfortunately none of it is true.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
What you know.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I was just pissed off, you know, I was angry
at what.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Well, you know, you go through a divorce, and.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
You know, sometimes it's like I love you, I love you,
love you, don't hang out, don't and then it's like,
well yeah, and then of course that's when a song
like in the Air Tonight comes out. There's obviously a
lot of anger in there.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Well, yes, a bit of anger.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
He's written a lot of love songs and break up
once with Jimmy fallon there.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So the myth went that he then spotted the guy
at a concert in the audience, the audience even references
in his song Stan where he talks about you know
the song by Phil Collins in the Air Tonight, about
that guy who could have saved that other guy from drowning, didn't.
Then Phil saw it all. Then at a show we
found him.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
It's so bizartically. This wasn't about that.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No, no, it wasn't. But the song got even bigger
and it was on the pilot of Miami Vice, the
old Crockett and Tubs. Remember that, almost the whole song
on there. And it's funny how eventually Phil ended up acting.
Because Phil was a bit of a child actor, he
ended up acting on an episode of Miami Vice. But
I used it was one of the first times a
song that popul rock song had been used almost in
its entire in the TV show.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Well that's a groundbreaker.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's not. It's not a short one.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
It's not what a classic Phil Collins.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Let me tell you a story on Time releases the
story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And that story behind the song. Song today is Stupid
Girls by Pink from her fourth studio album I'm Not Dead.
It was released in February two thousand and six. It
introduces a more provocative, feminist and explicit side of Pink Lyrically,
it condemns sexism and it encourages women not to dumb
it down. The music video features Pink in a variety
(05:33):
of roles, both as an angel and a demon, and
a variety of celebrities. Some of the negatively portrayed characters
in the video are parodies of young female celebrities of
the time that didn't necessarily go down.
Speaker 9 (05:46):
Well, did you.
Speaker 8 (05:47):
Ever hear from any of the girls you parodied in
a music video for Stupid Girl?
Speaker 6 (05:51):
I did.
Speaker 10 (05:52):
Actually the test, Paris was upset with me.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
She was she was what did she say? And how
did you hear from her? I was at a club.
Speaker 10 (06:00):
She said, I just want you to know that I
get it, like, I'm not dumb. I just play like
I'm dumb. And I was like, that's kind of my point.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Right, I'm gonna go good to see fair enough too.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
It's so true.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And there all guys hand in hand with the Yeah,
it's been well documented why she has rised her daughter Willow,
who she's performed with, and you know, the strong messages,
and why played dumb when you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Don't dumb it down?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
It is bizarre.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I think she had this discussion with Andrew Denton.
Speaker 10 (06:33):
There's one force fed image of what a woman is
supposed to look like, how she's supposed to act, how
many big words she's allowed to use in this paragraph,
what shoes she should have in order to be sexy,
you have to be stupid in order to be successful,
be less challenging, don't contribute anything to the world because.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
It's not cute.
Speaker 10 (06:50):
Just all of these just perpetuating stereotypes that I just
find so boring and so nauseating.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, there's references, very clear reference. Isn't that clipper to
all our favorites, Paris Hilton and Jessica and Nicole richards On.
Speaker 11 (07:04):
Have you met any of these girls?
Speaker 10 (07:05):
Yes, And I don't think any of them are stupid.
So why you can't be that successful and that's and
be stupid? I think it's an act, and it's the
act that I can't respect.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
M exactly. Self explanatory. Thank you, Pink, Good on you, Pink.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
On time, Coley and leases the story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Today's song is Sunday Bloody Sunday by You Two. It
is the opening track from their nineteen eighty three album War,
One of You Two's most overtly political songs. Its lyrics
described the horror felt by an observer of the troubles
in Northern Ireland, mainly focusing on the nineteen seventy two
Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and
(07:45):
killed unarmed civil rights protesters.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Bono has said in the past that he himself believes
he's a militant pacifist, which I thought it was an
interesting way of putting it, but it didn't mean that
he didn't get very very strong in the way that
he Brody's lyrics and also worked with those rifts that
the age came up with. Yeah, he's born talking about
the writing of Sunday Buddy Sunday.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
When we wrote.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
Sunday Bloody Sunday, I just tried as a lyricitizen It's
not much of a lyric really, but it has one
original thought, which is it contrasts Easter Sunday, which was
the rising in Ireland. It's one hundred years actually in
(08:27):
twenty sixteen, one hundred years since nineteen sixteen when Ireland
rose up at the Easter in revolt against Britain, and it.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Can trast Sunday Bloody Sunday.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
Which was a massacre that happened in Derry in the
early seventies where British paratroopers opened fire on a peaceful protest.
It can trast these events with.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
The resurrection, and that was that was a bit of
a trip.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
I think that was audacious at the very least to
do that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
During its earliest performances, Sunday Bloody Sunday did create controversy.
As you can imagine. Bono reasserted the song's anti sectarian
violence message to his audience for many years. But drummer
Larry Mullen said of the song, where into the politics
of people. We're not into politics. You talk about Sunday
Bloody Sunday and people think all that time when thirteen
(09:28):
Catholics were shot by British soldiers, that's not what the
song is about. That is an incident to the most
famous incident in Northern Ireland, and it is the strongest
way of saying how long? How long do we have
to put up with this? He said, Let's forget the politics,
let's just stop shooting each other. And I guess that's
why Bono thinks the song has taken on new meaning
(09:49):
in later years.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
So Blood Sunday the song has taken on a completely
new found meaning. On the innocence and experience tour, I
sing it from this other place, take away.
Speaker 8 (10:01):
The kind of rock and roll approach is more acoustic,
and it seems to me more now that we have peace.
It reminds people, and we used images on the tour
to remind people of where where this song came from.
It reminds people that the hope I was playing that
(10:24):
that the division is never physical like a border. Real
borders are in people's hearts, the way we see each other.
And and I think that's that can be applied to
to all kinds of situations.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
When they started working on the album of the war
album Bono and He's why then from you know what
New Wife, Ali were in the Caribbean on holidays, so
Edge stayed at time, it would have been a very
different album if Edge of being on holidays in Jamaica
as well.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
You know he started very different honeymoon too, having three
of them there, well they were you too, so you
three would have been on Let.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
Me tell you a Story one time.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Coley releases the story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
This morning, we were talking about the Great Australian Songs
off the back of g Flip winning Song of the
Year at the Arias last night, and this one came
up more.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Than a few times, got a few votes in.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
It great Southern Land by ice House was released on
in August nineteen eighty two as the lead single from
their second studio album, Primitive Man. It peaked at number
five on the Australian Singles Chart. At the nineteen eighty
two Countdown Music Awards, the song was nominated for Best
Australian Single. When it came out, The Guardian wrote, many
(11:45):
great Australian songs couldn't sound more different to the circumstances
in which they were dreamed up, and none more so
than ice House's nineteen eighty two classic Great Southern Land.
While the song evokes the vast emptiness of the nation's countryside,
it was written and recorded in Iva Davies' living room
and then Sydney suburb of Leichhart, right under the airport
flight path.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Isn't that funny? So different than the subject matter?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And then we are plane going over. Apparently Iver frequently
had to stop the tape as the roar of the
engines made the houses foundations rattle.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Called it Great Southern Airlines, adn't he Yeah, he's ever
talking about his original inspiration for the song.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
It's much easier to see.
Speaker 9 (12:21):
In hindsight sort of where it came from because we
went on that first international tour. Was the first time
I'd been away from Australia for any length of time.
And I remember the flying from Sydney to Perth. I
remember sort of being interested to look out the window
until the point where we got to what looked like desert,
not much in particular, and I fell asleep over the desert,
not much in particular, and I didn't wake up for
(12:43):
two hours, and when I looked out again, we were
still over desert and not much in particular. And I
think it was that it was that moment, that light
bulb moment when I suddenly went, oh my goodness, the
scale of the continent, you know, was suddenly very real.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It's a damn big continent. It's a very big It
was the moment where he went wow, yeah, how incredible.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Ten years ago this month was selected for inclusion in
the Australian National Film and Sound Archives Sounds of Australia list.
I think it's a pretty cool thing to get it gone.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
For absolutely belongs in there real.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And I do wonder if tomorrow when the Aussie Boys
walk out they often use this song down at Optus
for the test match in India. If they play the
song again tomorrow to start a new cricket summer, it
seems to be one that they do well.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Iver didn't always think it would be a hit, and
he told our own Russell.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
That I heard that you thought it might not actually
work on the radio. You thought, no, no, no, it's
a bit long. Even though the record company.
Speaker 9 (13:42):
Liked it, right, everybody immediately liked it, but I was
terrified of it because it was five minutes and fifteen
seconds long. Now, and you have to imagine those days
that the record company said, when you take a single
into the radio station, what they'll do is that they'll
look at the label and if they see three point
fifty nine seconds, three minutes fifty nine seconds, that's fine.
(14:03):
If they see a four, forget it, they'll never play it.
I was trying I out a fire. We have a
very long note that started the front of it, and
the record company kind of discreetly tried to encourage me
to edit the note off because it took care of
about fifteen seconds on its own, and I'm very glad
I didn't, because our keyboard player at that time a
little while ago said, I've never kind of dreamed of
(14:25):
the idea that I could stand there and play one
note and the entire audience would erupt, And that's exactly
what happens.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Now at a time, Clearsy releases the story behind.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
The song, the song behind the story behind the song.
Today is Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, the second
track on their fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms. It
was released as the album's second single in June nineteen
eighty five. Now the lyrics are written from the point
of view of two working class men watching music videos
(14:58):
and commenting on what they see. Yeah, I think Mark
Knopfler can probably tell the story better as he did
when he appeared on Parkinson in two thousand.
Speaker 11 (15:09):
Well, I was I was in New York and I
was in a I was in a kitchen appliance store
and it had a window, a kitchen window was playing
the window, and then there'd be a row of microwaves
or you know, cookies and things like that. And then
at the back of the store it was a big
wall of televisions or all tuned MTV. There was some
(15:30):
bonehead who worked for the store at a great, big,
macho guy with a you know, with a check shirt
on and a cap and a pair of workboots, and
he'd been delivering stuff at the back and he so
he was watching MTV and he was saying all these
great lines about you know that ain't working, you know,
that's the way you do it, and stuff like that,
and what's that what's that Hawaiian noises he was saying.
(15:50):
And so I just thought it was so classic that
I went and asked for a pen and paper and
started writing the lines.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Down, you know, started taking notes at freehand. How good's that?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
It was din Strait's most commercially successful single, peaking at
number one for three weeks on both the US and
UK charts, picked at number four here. The songwriting credits
a share between Mark Knopfler and Sting. According to Knopfler,
he used the network slogan I Want my MTV after
seeing an MTV ad featuring the police and setting it
to the tune of Don't Stand So Close to Me,
(16:23):
which is written by Sting, hence the co writing credit.
But keyboard player Alan Clark claims the I Want My
MTV intro was his idea, oh not Nophlin's. He says
the song originally began with the guitar riff, and then
he developed the intro on keyboards and saying I want
my MTV on top during a break and rehearsals for
the album.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
That's the kind of thing that will break a band.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Absolutely either way. How awesome was it when Sting joined
dire Straits at Live Aid to perform the track, which
would have been pretty much brand new at that time.
(17:11):
Either way, He's just glad he got the co running.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
That's all he had to do, and it was a
perfect voice for it.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I remember seeing that movie Under the Volcano, which is
about their studios in once Arat, and as they're recording
the song and they go, jeesu, I wish Sting was
here to do this bit, and someone.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Goes, he's here.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
He's going to record later at this studio with the police,
but he's on holidays, so they call him up, gett
him in and his wife Trudy said, that's going to
be a huge hit. The Sting went, I don't know,
maybe it's okay. How wrong he was.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Well, it was a huge hit. It is a huge hitch.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Yeah, And what a way to wrap up the story
behind the song.
Let Me Tell You Your Story on Time Clearsy releases
the story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The song in question today is in the Air Tonight.
It was Phil Collins' debut solo single, and it was
released as the lead single from Collins' debut solo album,
Face Value all the Way back in January nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Because he had his name, his reputation as the drummer
and then singer of course with Genesis before that, and
he went solo.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So In the E to Night reached number one in Austria, Germany, Switzerland,
and Sweden, number two in Canada, and the top ten
in Australia, New Zealand and several other European territories that
reached number nineteen in the United States. In the e
Tonight is one of Collins's best known hits, often cited
as his signature song, and is especially famous for its
(00:50):
drum break.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
The sound was different from many other records that was
around a the time. Drums really normally were recorded and
acoustably perfect surroundings, you know, that was the way you know,
studios were built. But there was a studio in London
called the Townhouse which had this stone room and that's
where I'd recorded with Peter Gabriel. You know, I was
(01:13):
his drummer for a little while when he couldn't afford
American musicians. So he invited me to play on some
tracks on that album, which was his third album, and
there was a song called Intruder on that which was
basically my drum part and a song he adapted to
fit it. But I fell in love with the engineer
who got this sound. So when I did my solo album,
(01:34):
I know, got together with him and we did face
value together. So when we did in the Air Tonight,
you know, we got set up set up in the
in the live room and I was playing from and
he was getting the sound. And then when we came
to record, I did a drum fill into my intro
(01:56):
and that Phil was that and and that ad and that,
and we thought that sounds good.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
It's a fil even bad drummers can.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Play, no word play, it's a drum fill.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
It's a fill drum We.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Love even And it ended up on the Cabriad with
the guy in the gorilla suit playing.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah the inspiration. Collins wrote the song amid the grief
he felt after divorcing his first wife, Andrea Bertarelli in
nineteen eighty. In an interview in twenty sixteen, he said,
of the song's lyrics, I wrote the lyrics spontaneously. I'm
not quite sure what the song is about, but there
was a lot of anger, a lot of despair, and
a lot of frustration. But there are also a lot
(02:36):
of urban legends. We've all heard the myths about this song,
the main one being that story that the lyrics are
based on an incident where someone drowned and someone was
close enough to help save the victim but did not
say help, while Collins, who was too far away to help,
(02:56):
looked on right and.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Knew everything and it was supposedly roughly docum it around that.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
See he had this discussion with Jimmy Kimmel on his
tonight show.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Yeah, is this true?
Speaker 6 (03:06):
That this is what happens? Is when I heard you
were you were on your outside at.
Speaker 7 (03:09):
Night and there's a dot you saw somebody saw someone
drowning and he didn't yeah, and he let him drown.
Speaker 8 (03:16):
He let him drown, and you go and he watched
the man basically murder somebody. And then so instead of
calling the authorities, you invited the man stranger.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
To your concert and then shone the lights on him.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
He showed, Yes, you shone a light on him, and
you say in the earth.
Speaker 7 (03:31):
Then you go, I know what you did, buddy, Oh
my god.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Okay, that is the best story I've ever heard of.
Speaker 6 (03:37):
It I know.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Unfortunately none of it is true.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
What you know.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
I was just pissed off, you know, I was angry
at what.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Well, you know, you go through a divorce, and.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
You know, sometimes it's like I love you, I love you,
love you, don't hang out, don't and then it's like,
well yeah, and then of course that's when a song
like in the Air Tonight comes out. There's obviously a
lot of anger in there.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Well, yes, a bit of anger.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
He's written a lot of love songs and break up
once with Jimmy fallon there.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So the myth went that he then spotted the guy
at a concert in the audience, the audience even references
in his song Stan where he talks about you know
the song by Phil Collins in the Air Tonight, about
that guy who could have saved that other guy from drowning, didn't.
Then Phil saw it all. Then at a show we
found him.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
It's so bizartically. This wasn't about that.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No, no, it wasn't. But the song got even bigger
and it was on the pilot of Miami Vice, the
old Crockett and Tubs. Remember that, almost the whole song
on there. And it's funny how eventually Phil ended up acting.
Because Phil was a bit of a child actor, he
ended up acting on an episode of Miami Vice. But
I used it was one of the first times a
song that popul rock song had been used almost in
its entire in the TV show.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Well that's a groundbreaker.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's not. It's not a short one.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
It's not what a classic Phil Collins.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Let me tell you a story on Time releases the
story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And that story behind the song. Song today is Stupid
Girls by Pink from her fourth studio album I'm Not Dead.
It was released in February two thousand and six. It
introduces a more provocative, feminist and explicit side of Pink Lyrically,
it condemns sexism and it encourages women not to dumb
it down. The music video features Pink in a variety
(05:33):
of roles, both as an angel and a demon, and
a variety of celebrities. Some of the negatively portrayed characters
in the video are parodies of young female celebrities of
the time that didn't necessarily go down.
Speaker 9 (05:46):
Well, did you.
Speaker 8 (05:47):
Ever hear from any of the girls you parodied in
a music video for Stupid Girl?
Speaker 6 (05:51):
I did.
Speaker 10 (05:52):
Actually the test, Paris was upset with me.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
She was she was what did she say? And how
did you hear from her? I was at a club.
Speaker 10 (06:00):
She said, I just want you to know that I
get it, like, I'm not dumb. I just play like
I'm dumb. And I was like, that's kind of my point.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Right, I'm gonna go good to see fair enough too.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
It's so true.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And there all guys hand in hand with the Yeah,
it's been well documented why she has rised her daughter Willow,
who she's performed with, and you know, the strong messages,
and why played dumb when you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Don't dumb it down?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
It is bizarre.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I think she had this discussion with Andrew Denton.
Speaker 10 (06:33):
There's one force fed image of what a woman is
supposed to look like, how she's supposed to act, how
many big words she's allowed to use in this paragraph,
what shoes she should have in order to be sexy,
you have to be stupid in order to be successful,
be less challenging, don't contribute anything to the world because.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
It's not cute.
Speaker 10 (06:50):
Just all of these just perpetuating stereotypes that I just
find so boring and so nauseating.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, there's references, very clear reference. Isn't that clipper to
all our favorites, Paris Hilton and Jessica and Nicole richards On.
Speaker 11 (07:04):
Have you met any of these girls?
Speaker 10 (07:05):
Yes, And I don't think any of them are stupid.
So why you can't be that successful and that's and
be stupid? I think it's an act, and it's the
act that I can't respect.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
M exactly. Self explanatory. Thank you, Pink, Good on you, Pink.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
On time, Coley and leases the story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Today's song is Sunday Bloody Sunday by You Two. It
is the opening track from their nineteen eighty three album War,
One of You Two's most overtly political songs. Its lyrics
described the horror felt by an observer of the troubles
in Northern Ireland, mainly focusing on the nineteen seventy two
Bloody Sunday incident in Derry where British troops shot and
(07:45):
killed unarmed civil rights protesters.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Bono has said in the past that he himself believes
he's a militant pacifist, which I thought it was an
interesting way of putting it, but it didn't mean that
he didn't get very very strong in the way that
he Brody's lyrics and also worked with those rifts that
the age came up with. Yeah, he's born talking about
the writing of Sunday Buddy Sunday.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
When we wrote.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
Sunday Bloody Sunday, I just tried as a lyricitizen It's
not much of a lyric really, but it has one
original thought, which is it contrasts Easter Sunday, which was
the rising in Ireland. It's one hundred years actually in
(08:27):
twenty sixteen, one hundred years since nineteen sixteen when Ireland
rose up at the Easter in revolt against Britain, and it.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
Can trast Sunday Bloody Sunday.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
Which was a massacre that happened in Derry in the
early seventies where British paratroopers opened fire on a peaceful protest.
It can trast these events with.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
The resurrection, and that was that was a bit of
a trip.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
I think that was audacious at the very least to
do that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
During its earliest performances, Sunday Bloody Sunday did create controversy.
As you can imagine. Bono reasserted the song's anti sectarian
violence message to his audience for many years. But drummer
Larry Mullen said of the song, where into the politics
of people. We're not into politics. You talk about Sunday
Bloody Sunday and people think all that time when thirteen
(09:28):
Catholics were shot by British soldiers, that's not what the
song is about. That is an incident to the most
famous incident in Northern Ireland, and it is the strongest
way of saying how long? How long do we have
to put up with this? He said, Let's forget the politics,
let's just stop shooting each other. And I guess that's
why Bono thinks the song has taken on new meaning
(09:49):
in later years.
Speaker 7 (09:49):
So Blood Sunday the song has taken on a completely
new found meaning. On the innocence and experience tour, I
sing it from this other place, take away.
Speaker 8 (10:01):
The kind of rock and roll approach is more acoustic,
and it seems to me more now that we have peace.
It reminds people, and we used images on the tour
to remind people of where where this song came from.
It reminds people that the hope I was playing that
(10:24):
that the division is never physical like a border. Real
borders are in people's hearts, the way we see each other.
And and I think that's that can be applied to
to all kinds of situations.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
When they started working on the album of the war
album Bono and He's why then from you know what
New Wife, Ali were in the Caribbean on holidays, so
Edge stayed at time, it would have been a very
different album if Edge of being on holidays in Jamaica
as well.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
You know he started very different honeymoon too, having three
of them there, well they were you too, so you
three would have been on Let.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
Me tell you a Story one time.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Coley releases the story behind the song.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
This morning, we were talking about the Great Australian Songs
off the back of g Flip winning Song of the
Year at the Arias last night, and this one came
up more.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Than a few times, got a few votes in.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
It great Southern Land by ice House was released on
in August nineteen eighty two as the lead single from
their second studio album, Primitive Man. It peaked at number
five on the Australian Singles Chart. At the nineteen eighty
two Countdown Music Awards, the song was nominated for Best
Australian Single. When it came out, The Guardian wrote, many
(11:45):
great Australian songs couldn't sound more different to the circumstances
in which they were dreamed up, and none more so
than ice House's nineteen eighty two classic Great Southern Land.
While the song evokes the vast emptiness of the nation's countryside,
it was written and recorded in Iva Davies' living room
and then Sydney suburb of Leichhart, right under the airport
flight path.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Isn't that funny? So different than the subject matter?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And then we are plane going over. Apparently Iver frequently
had to stop the tape as the roar of the
engines made the houses foundations rattle.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Called it Great Southern Airlines, adn't he Yeah, he's ever
talking about his original inspiration for the song.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
It's much easier to see.
Speaker 9 (12:21):
In hindsight sort of where it came from because we
went on that first international tour. Was the first time
I'd been away from Australia for any length of time.
And I remember the flying from Sydney to Perth. I
remember sort of being interested to look out the window
until the point where we got to what looked like desert,
not much in particular, and I fell asleep over the desert,
not much in particular, and I didn't wake up for
(12:43):
two hours, and when I looked out again, we were
still over desert and not much in particular. And I
think it was that it was that moment, that light
bulb moment when I suddenly went, oh my goodness, the
scale of the continent, you know, was suddenly very real.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It's a damn big continent. It's a very big It
was the moment where he went wow, yeah, how incredible.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Ten years ago this month was selected for inclusion in
the Australian National Film and Sound Archives Sounds of Australia list.
I think it's a pretty cool thing to get it gone.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
For absolutely belongs in there real.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
And I do wonder if tomorrow when the Aussie Boys
walk out they often use this song down at Optus
for the test match in India. If they play the
song again tomorrow to start a new cricket summer, it
seems to be one that they do well.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Iver didn't always think it would be a hit, and
he told our own Russell.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
That I heard that you thought it might not actually
work on the radio. You thought, no, no, no, it's
a bit long. Even though the record company.
Speaker 9 (13:42):
Liked it, right, everybody immediately liked it, but I was
terrified of it because it was five minutes and fifteen
seconds long. Now, and you have to imagine those days
that the record company said, when you take a single
into the radio station, what they'll do is that they'll
look at the label and if they see three point
fifty nine seconds, three minutes fifty nine seconds, that's fine.
(14:03):
If they see a four, forget it, they'll never play it.
I was trying I out a fire. We have a
very long note that started the front of it, and
the record company kind of discreetly tried to encourage me
to edit the note off because it took care of
about fifteen seconds on its own, and I'm very glad
I didn't, because our keyboard player at that time a
little while ago said, I've never kind of dreamed of
(14:25):
the idea that I could stand there and play one
note and the entire audience would erupt, And that's exactly
what happens.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Now at a time, Clearsy releases the story behind.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
The song, the song behind the story behind the song.
Today is Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, the second
track on their fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms. It
was released as the album's second single in June nineteen
eighty five. Now the lyrics are written from the point
of view of two working class men watching music videos
(14:58):
and commenting on what they see. Yeah, I think Mark
Knopfler can probably tell the story better as he did
when he appeared on Parkinson in two thousand.
Speaker 11 (15:09):
Well, I was I was in New York and I
was in a I was in a kitchen appliance store
and it had a window, a kitchen window was playing
the window, and then there'd be a row of microwaves
or you know, cookies and things like that. And then
at the back of the store it was a big
wall of televisions or all tuned MTV. There was some
(15:30):
bonehead who worked for the store at a great, big,
macho guy with a you know, with a check shirt
on and a cap and a pair of workboots, and
he'd been delivering stuff at the back and he so
he was watching MTV and he was saying all these
great lines about you know that ain't working, you know,
that's the way you do it, and stuff like that,
and what's that what's that Hawaiian noises he was saying.
(15:50):
And so I just thought it was so classic that
I went and asked for a pen and paper and
started writing the lines.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Down, you know, started taking notes at freehand. How good's that?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
It was din Strait's most commercially successful single, peaking at
number one for three weeks on both the US and
UK charts, picked at number four here. The songwriting credits
a share between Mark Knopfler and Sting. According to Knopfler,
he used the network slogan I Want my MTV after
seeing an MTV ad featuring the police and setting it
to the tune of Don't Stand So Close to Me,
(16:23):
which is written by Sting, hence the co writing credit.
But keyboard player Alan Clark claims the I Want My
MTV intro was his idea, oh not Nophlin's. He says
the song originally began with the guitar riff, and then
he developed the intro on keyboards and saying I want
my MTV on top during a break and rehearsals for
the album.
Speaker 5 (16:42):
That's the kind of thing that will break a band.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Absolutely either way. How awesome was it when Sting joined
dire Straits at Live Aid to perform the track, which
would have been pretty much brand new at that time.
(17:11):
Either way, He's just glad he got the co running.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
That's all he had to do, and it was a
perfect voice for it.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I remember seeing that movie Under the Volcano, which is
about their studios in once Arat, and as they're recording
the song and they go, jeesu, I wish Sting was
here to do this bit, and someone.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Goes, he's here.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
He's going to record later at this studio with the police,
but he's on holidays, so they call him up, gett
him in and his wife Trudy said, that's going to
be a huge hit. The Sting went, I don't know,
maybe it's okay. How wrong he was.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Well, it was a huge hit. It is a huge hitch.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Yeah, And what a way to wrap up the story
behind the song.
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