Yes, yes. I know.
The haircut.
If you listened to the entire 11 minutes and 23 seconds of "Albuquerque"--and why wouldn't you?--toward the end of the song (yes, it does in fact, end) you heard Weird Al describe a fight that he got into with "some big fat hermaphrodite with a Flock-Of-Seagulls haircut and only one nostril." And I bet what you paid attention to in that line had nothing to do hermaphrodites or nostrils. I bet you heard "Flock-of-Seagulls haircut" and instantly remembered the haircut and began to laugh because of how ridiculous it looks. Hey, that's what I did too.
I have a theory about the haircut. It's was both a blessing and a curse for the band. The blessing came in the form of widespread name recognition, something new bands need if they want to survive long enough to get really good and put out lots of albums so they can become old bands. The curse came later in the form of widespread dismissal of their music once the coolness of the haircut wore off and people began to mock it.
But I totally get the reason why the haircut gets mocked. Funny-looking hair is just...funny! And if you want a scene in a movie or a line in a song to evoke laughter, the Flock-of-Seagull haircut is a well that never runs dry. For example, "La La Land" is an academy award-winning film from last year about the importance of following your dreams, especially if those dreams have something to do with playing jazz music and/or looking pretty in movies. When they needed a funny scene, the writers threw in a Flock-of-Seagulls song. And for the most part, the scene worked well because of the mockery. (I admit I'm partial to Emma Stone because of the red hair thing. She also has the kind of eyes that hypnotize me through.)
If the singer had never cut his hair like that, I believe A Flock of Seagulls would have lasted longer as a group and be remembered today in much the same way The Police is remembered--as a group ripped to shreds by Sting's ego. They were actually a pretty good band--even winning a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "D.N.A." in 1983. (The Police won it the year before and Sting won it the following year. What an egotistical bastard!) To my ears, A Flock of Seagulls' sound was full of lots of interesting layers--you know, like the Wall of Sound sound. When this New Wave song came out in 1982, I played it a lot at school dances, and I always liked to hear it at the highest volume allowed by whatever chaperone was there to make sure no one got pregnant while on the dance floor. But I didn't like the band so much that I wanted to have mirrors for walls and tin foil for carpet.
I know it's hard to believe, especially considering the high production values of music videos today, but this video holds the record for the most plays on the MTV. Somebody in charge of the MTV playlist must have really liked merry-go-rounds as a kid.
Shortly after the success of "I Ran," A Flock of Seagulls came out with another song that I really liked--"Space Age Love Song." In many ways, it's a better song than "I Ran." If I could remember dancing with any girls to "Space Age Love Song," it probably would have taken the lead. However, "I Ran" wins out because of its association with school dance DJ-ing and it's ability to do double doody as a running song.
I'm sorry. I can't end this entry here. I simply can't use the phrase "funny-looking hair" and not include a Donald J. Trump hair photo. I was going to try to avoid posting pictures of people with a Flock-of-Seagulls haircut, but oh well.
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| Run! Run so far away! |
No. Seriously. Wherever the hair goes, there's a riot.
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