15. Cargo by Men at Work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqYug49O7xA&list=OLAK5uy_kq7QCVIo2veRrifljkVJ12GVNPt238wqc
As good as Business as Usual was, I rate Cargo just a tiny bit ahead of it--mostly because of the song "Overkill," which came in at #18 on my Top 200 list. The entire album, but particularly "Overkill" is actually a pretty good summation of the range of emotions I felt during my senior year of high school. It was one of my Dave Edmund's Mood records that I turned to repeatedly during my senior year, and even through the entirety of The Great Depression. While there are some albums on this list that I liked to listen to while I worked out lifting weights and jumping rope in the basement, this is an after-workout album that I found was best listened to after a jogging workout that consisted mainly of running around the outside streets of Arimo at least once (during the winter) or running up and down the gravel Arkansas road when the weather got better. I'd come home exhausted, hit the shower, and then lay on the bed and listen to this album and get lost in my thoughts. That isn't to say that there aren't songs on the album worthy of placement on a workout playlist. If I'd had a Walkman during my senior year, I definitely would have had a running tape with "Upstairs In My House," "High Wire," "I Like To," and "No Restrictions" on it. But it's the slow songs on this tape that were my favorite to listen to while I was in my Dave Edmund's Moodiness. "Overkill," "No Sign of Yesterday," "It's a Mistake," and "Blue for You," were the songs that had the most meaning for me during my last year of high school.
As was the case with Business as Usual, I think Cargo should have been released as a double album. Since the album's release in April of 1983, the band released some other songs that were written around the same time as Cargo and that have that Men at Work sound that I love so much (the sound of the band before their third album). The first four are included on the 2003 remastered version of Cargo, and they are all quite good and worthy of being included on the original album. Three of them were B-sides to the four singles that got released from the album.
Shintaro
Till the Money Runs Out
Fallin' Down
The Longest Night
There are also the following additional songs that I think could have been released on a second Cargo album.
Coldfinger
Stimulation (Feeling So Good)
And I'm not sure if this last one is album-worthy, but they played it a lot in their live shows, and the video is worth watching if for no other reason than you get to see Collin dance wildly and jump around the stage like a kangaroo.
Mr. Entertainer
I can't find any other rare, unreleased songs from Men at Work during this time period prior to the release of their third album, so I guess that second record on the Cargo double-album would have been short a few songs. Seven songs just doesn't seem to be long enough for an entire album. Still, I'd rather listen to these "throwaway" Cargo songs than most of the songs on Two Hearts.
And that concludes my back-to-back Men at Work album entries. They were one of the most important bands to me during my high school years, and I still enjoy listening to their songs today--especially when I get in a Dave Edmunds Mood. And maybe (just maybe) I'll go buy myself a pair of running shoes and some sweats and put together a Men at Work playlist that will help me get back into some kind of shape where running a mile or two around Arimo won't seem to be an unachievable feat anymore. If I do end up running around Arimo again, I will be running it in the dark, because I learned back in 1983 that's the time when there are pretty lights that nullify the night as ghosts appear and fade away.
Nardo
#15: Men At Work—Cargo. Memory is a fickle thing, but looking back I’m thinking that the music of Men At Work was a major factor on the outsized fondness for all things Australia amongst the Arimo Mafia.
ReplyDeleteLooking at my own life, I think the three biggest early influences on my Aussie love were: 1) My brother John leaving for his 18-month Brisbane adventure in May of 1981; B) Discovering the comedic stylings of The Paul Hogan Show at 10:30 PM Sunday nights on KPVI channel 6 from Pocatello, which probably first happened sometime in that 1981-1982 timeframe; and c) “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under” blasting their way to radio prominence in 1982. Throw in 4) “The Man From Snowy River” in 1982, and the Australia base was there.
(Despite the ramblings of Nardo, I don’t think Olivia Newton-John had much of an Aussie influence. In the mid-70s I thought of her as “that really cute country singer,” but didn’t think of her as being Australian. As her career progressed and she morphed into movie star, pop star, ELO-collaborator, and physical fitness icon, my thoughts on her went through various phases ranging from indifference to disgust to horniness to admiration. But, I never really thought much about her Australian-ness.)
Musically speaking, though, I think Men At Work were the initial instigators of my love of Aussie music. AC/DC was not really a factor for me back then. I liked a few of their songs, but that was it. Air Supply came on the scene in 1980. Did they contribute to my love of all things Aussie? Maybe. Or I might just be making something out of nothing at all. A few years later INXS sparked some interest, and then Midnight Oil grabbed my attention and would never give it back.
But, Men At Work were there at the beginning, knocking at the door.