Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Dipping into Wang Chung today. I featured “Dance Hall Days” once. This time I’m going with a favorite walking song, “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” (1986), which I often call, “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight” because of that line in the song. It’s an excellent walking song when I’m feeling optimistic or jubilant.
As an aside, a co-worker at the time hated this song. A major fan of Ratt, Judas Priest, and Rush, he felt music by groups like Wang Chung used too much techno to be true music.
“Dance Hall Days,” by Wang Chung, was supposed to be new wave.
Coming out in nineteen eighty-four, when I lived on Okinawa, I didn’t get it. What was so special about new wave? This song didn’t sound any different from other music heard on juke boxes and FM radio stations.
The lyrics were definitely weird. “Take your baby by the hair. Pull her close and say, there, there, there.” “Take your baby by the wrist. And in her mouth put amethyst.”
Yeah, strange, if you listen to them. I think they just junked out some rhyming words to a beat. It works as a stream to help dance your way through the first few days of the season’s change.
Michael Seidel, writer 