"I Got You" by Split Enz

Split Enz had New Zealand's first international hit with a song that had the chorus of "I don't know why sometimes I get frightened." It was one of those early MTV videos that for the anxious young people who saw it, they themselves felt seen. 
You can hear "I Got You" along with other songs by Split Enz and the Finn brothers' bands that followed here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5T3b5Lz7XOrm4VM6fjvatD?si=d9e9531930d54585

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
The Shark Deck. Hello and welcometo the best Song Ever this Week,
A short deep dive into a songand what makes it special. The best
song ever this week this week isI Got You by Split Ends. I'm
Scott Frampton. We won't be listeningto the song together here because that's not

(00:33):
the way things work. There isa link to a playlist in the show
notes I Got You and other songsby Split Ends, but I hope you'll
enjoy, So let's begin. SplitEnds spelled with an N Z n Z
for New Zealand. The band changedtheir name from Split Ends and the normal
spelling upon a move to Australia totry to make it big, or at

(00:56):
least bigger. This was nineteen seventyfive, when no New Zealand artist had
ever had a hit in the UKor US. If this band from the
small island nation was going to makeit internationally, they were going to do
it with their Kiwi on their sleeves. That hit came with a single about
anxiety and obsession, written by bandleader Tim Finn's kid brother, from an

(01:18):
album with a cover designed by universitychum. Their Australian label, Mushroom,
didn't hear much in it, releasingthe True Colors album and I Got You
singles simultaneously in January of nineteen eighty. January releases often cast records into the
post holiday's lull, like Spartans leavinga baby on a hillside. By March,

(01:38):
however, both the album and singlewere topping the charts in Australia and
New Zealand and would stick there formonths. Come August, I Got You
went number twelve in the UK.Two months after that, it hit number
one in Canada and skimmed the USsingles charts at number fifty three. True
Colors even cracked the top four albumchart in the US where copies with laser

(02:01):
etched vinyl were available. They're funto watch spin around. I Got You
starts off tense, just to clipthe guitars drumming in a stalking rhythm.
Neil Finn's vocals join a bit lateand nearly have a flat affect. He's
backed by a synthesizer's eerie parabolic whirls. The beat sounds like someone impatiently drumming

(02:23):
their fingers. It's uncomfortable, whichisn't a word you often see used to
describe hit records. The chorus iswhat makes most songs, and especially this
one. The first chorus comes injust over half minute en the keyboard sound
brightens dramatically, emulating that garage rockstaple of the vox countinental organ, but
the respite is brief. Finn singsthe vocal hook just a single time before

(02:46):
the verse reclaims the song a beattoo soon, as the keys returned to
their creepshow oscillations. It's clear whatkind of ride we're on, tension built
for the pleasure of release. Eachverse reratches up the tension, pairing a
slightly twisted declaration of affection with lyricslike look at you, You're a pageant,

(03:06):
You're everything that I've imagined. Withthe second couplet's teeter totter dip into
anxiety, something's wrong, I feeluneasy. You show me, you tell
me, you're not teasing. Theproduction accentuates the drop by slapping extra reverb
on the last word of the lineto make an echo. The abrupt shift
into the second chorus is where thehook is set. The younger Finn's voice

(03:28):
jumps higher as he repeats this sortof rhyme, further emphasizing the brightneck climb
and the melody it's a little wobblyup there at the top of his range,
and alongside keyboards that sound like they'veescaped from some sixties frap party banger.
It's both catchy and affecting, deliriousin both senses of the word.
Lit by high wattage power pop.The naked humanity of these lyrics still startles.

(03:53):
I don't know why sometimes I getfrightened. You can see my eyes,
you can tell that I'm not lying. This was particularly arresting in nineteen
eighty overwrought obsession was supposed to becouched and pop song craft not amplified by
it. Three years later, thepolice blanketed radio and MTV with the honeyed
Every Breath You Take, which ismanifestly more oppressive, but couples swayed to

(04:16):
it at their weddings well into thenext millennium. I Got You doesn't have
anyone, not really. As thelast verse troops in the cycle of tension
and release starts to spin out ofbalance, their production on Finn's vocals actually
get drier, no more creature,double feature echo as they grow more strained
and urgent. The verse ends witha clenched jaw declaration it gets on my

(04:42):
nerves, a muted cry of theinsecure and self destructive, which, statistically
speaking, when thinking about people wholisten to pop music way too deeply,
is most of us. A songabout feeling the most and fearing the worst
really couldn't end any other way.But for all the pure pop pleasure of
that stunner chorus, repeating it andit's I don't know why, sometimes I

(05:03):
get frightened through the fade out.It feels less like a release than an
unraveling split ends well split. Atthe end of nineteen eighty four, Neil
Finn went on to form Crowded House, which brother Tim joined for a time
in the nineties and sold ten millionalbums his Don't Dream. It's over stood

(05:27):
as the biggest international hit by aNew Zealand artist for a couple of decades.
It can fairly be described as perfect. I often credit split ends I
Got You as the song that changedmy life. I saw the video.
It was on a local video show, just some clips thrown together as part
of our cable package, and cableTV was a real novelty back then.

(05:53):
But the point is I heard thesong saw the video love them both,
and at that point in my life, I had this assumption that all the
good songs were on the radio.That was the point of it, right,
people were picking all the good songs. If I may, I don't
like to give it a bit ofrecognition to w rs UFM eighty eight point
seven, Rutgers University. Yes,the legal idea I said many times as

(06:15):
a college DJ. The station recentlycelebrated at seventy fifth anniversary. I didn't
make the banquet, regrettably, butI'm proud of my time at my old
college station and that the station itselfis endured. I had my best times
there. Serving as music director ledto pretty much everything that's been good about
my work life. Thank you toeveryone who's kept it going, and to

(06:36):
Bryan, Kathy, Andrea and Clairewho represented our error at RSU. And
thanks to you for listening. Ifyou haven't yet, please follow us to
effortlessly get new episodes into your queue. Thanks again, and see you next
week. I'm Johnny Mack, hostof Daily Comedy News. Do you like

(07:13):
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(07:34):
wherever you get your shows,