Colin Hay is an amazing song-writer, and a very funny man. I went to see him in January, and this song was the highlight, possibly due to its inclusion in an episode of Scrubs.
Most people don't realise(or care ) that he was born in Scotland, and only emigrated to Australia when he was 14.
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I always thought this was their best song too. Might not have been as 'radio friendly' as Down Under or Who Can It Be Now but just a better all-around song.
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i always liked the song but it was never my favorite. that is, until i watched an episode of the tv show "scrubs" and they had colin playing this song acoustically in the beginning of the show on one episode and i don't know why but i loved it and now i think its one of my favorite MAW songs.
after i typed this out i saw that scrubs was already mentioned. but that is the reason why i love this song.
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buffalo-girl
She's going round the outside, round the outside...
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down under was my fave from men at work that's about it though!
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Top marks for getting that into a song!! Posts: 1069 | From: Dragon of the Black Pool Restaurant, Chinatown. | Registered: Mar 2006 | Site Updates: 0
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It's a keeper, nice to have one of those kind of introspective and vulnerable songs smack dab in the 80's me generation.
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80'sRocked Play it Loud, Play it Proud
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I'm a huge "Men at Work" fan - I had their albums on vinyl & cassette back in the day. To me, their music is quintissential '80's, but at the same time it's also somewhat timeless.
"Overkill" is possibly my favorite MAW song, too - it's very deep/thoughtful. And, I actually appreciate & can relate to the song a lot more as I've gotten older - much more than I did when I first heard it as a teen.
"Down Under" is obviously a brilliant song as well - though I've never been to Australia, apparently this really captures the whole feeling of being an Australian - the fact that it became a world-wide pop/rock '80's hit shows that the song really touched a lot of people - many of whom (like me) had probably never set foot in that country. The song is also the first time I heard the expression "Chunder" and the food/spread "Vegemite" - LOL.
I even had "Two Hearts" (1985) on cassette, even though this was their last, little known album. Here are some songs/videos from "Two Hearts" - this album was so obscure that a lot of fans didn't even know MAW had a third album. I liked the songs/album, but the sound was somewhat different from their first two, much more popular albums.
These days, I only have "Cargo" and "Business as Usual" on CD. "Two Hearts" on CD is quite expensive - it's OOP, and probably was hard to find even when it came out.
[ 11. February 2017, 09:12: Message edited by: Nostalgic for the '80's ]
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They were sued for 'Down Under' by an Australian company that bought the rights to an Aussie folk song. The 'flutey' bit is from a classic tune (Kookaburra something). They lost the case (the band).
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I have Overkill on a 7" single (above), great track I would put it as one of my Men At Work faves along with from the one's that I have heard Who Can It Be Now and Underground which are both from there Buissness As Usual album.
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) that he was born in Scotland, and only emigrated to Australia when he was 14.
