BUGGLES – "Video Killed The Radio Star"

Next to the easy (because hard won) good humour of “Pop Muzik,” “Video Killed The Radio Star” in the autumn of 1979 might initially have seemed a little too grandiose, a Grand Gesture by pre-punk gatecrashers. Certainly its opening Abba-esque piano chorales and floating, flanged bass suggest an architectural intention of making a major statement. And who was this Trevor Horn, exactly? A not even remotely fashionable chap, with Thunderbirds spectacles, an incipient mullet which seemed to have sprung directly from 1974 and a terrible glittery suit.

And yet my response to this record is inevitably conditioned by what Mr Horn went on to achieve. It wouldn’t have been easy to discern Joe Meek’s future from the fine but opaque premise of “What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?” However, concentrated listening to “Video Killed The Radio Star” reveals, in embryo, nearly all of the elements which contributed to his becoming one of the two or three greatest record producers pop has ever known are present.

Paramount to its success as a record is its emotional duality – from the mock Temperance Seven megaphone delivery of the opening “I heard you on the wireless back in ’52” to the couldn’t-be-more-’79 close-ups of the female “oh-wa oh-wa!” backing vocals, “Video Killed The Radio Star” contrives to mourn the passing of an era (with considerable prescience, since two years later it became the first video to be shown on MTV) but in reality and in texture is celebrating its demise, gladly stepping aboard the train to the future; those pulsating, proto-House drum machine beats which suddenly materialise under “They took the credit for your Second Symphony,” the soon-to-be characteristic staccato vocals (“Ohhh-uh-uh-ohhh!”), the crashing drums which abruptly cascade into the instrumental break, the surface serenity of string synthesiser and Moog birdsong, and even crafty touches which directly foreshadow Art of Noise, for instance the simulated crackle and ancient Duane Eddy riff which appears subliminally in the four bars after the line “the jingles used to go.”

There are also a few unfortunate touches, such as the extremely dated rock guitar which comes in just before the final chorus, but these may be ascribable to fellow Buggle and co-writer Geoff Downes, who subsequently made a considerable profit as a member of ’80s AoR titans Asia (but redeemed himself with his extraordinary Fairlight freakout at the climax of Bush’s “Sat In Your Lap”). However, it is the balance between lightness and futurity in Horn’s vision which primarily holds sway. “We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far,” he tries to mourn (but really he is overjoyed” before finishing with “Put the blame on VTR.” After an extended pause pregnant with meaning, one solitary female vocalist materialises out of the ether, from the right channel, and sweeps into the song’s centre as the chorus repeats to fade, containing all of the epics yet to be realised – after their very fine The Age Of Plastic album, Horn and Downes did temporarily replace Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman in Yes, and Horn’s contemporaneous production work for the likes of the Jags, the Korgis and Dan-I do not in themselves really suggest a glorious future. But even in 1979, Dollar were listening, and keen (though they had to wait two years for aesthetic realisation) – and the generous bigness of “Video Killed The Radio Star” already suggests a sonic scope which would, in the right environment and with the right prompting, come to such extraordinary fruition – that nearly imperceptible piano figure at the song’s end leads directly out of the ending of “Beat Box.”

Sorry, but I’d file this one under “over-rated”.

To borrow the idea of a thematic link between ’79’s number ones from Tom’s beauty contest analogy for the last thread, there’s an element of end-of-decade looking to the future in a number of this year’s chart toppers. Funnily enough I think we said the same kind of thing re 1969/70, although in that case it was angst over the future of the planet (Spirit in the Sky, In the Year 2525) whereas here it’s perhaps angst over the future of the individual or society as a whole – whether alienated like Numan in a scary hostile world (I think I might have had Winston Smith at the back of my mind when I called his protagonist an everybloke), isolated like Sting in unbearable loneliness, crushed by a soulless education system (Brenda Spencer in “Mondays” or that scruffy bunch coming up around Christmastime) or, I dunno, just looking to Survive a Tragedy when all the other rabbits have died. You can’t shoehorn them all into this theme, although Village People had a flop called “Ready for the 80s” (as one reviewer said at the time, there’s hardly anybody less ready for the 80s than that lot).

Then there’s this, a clever-clever self-conscious ode to the past and reference to a future they could already see hoving into view. It’s tediously often cited for kicking off MTV when it was such a bloody obvious, to use Tom’s words, self-fulfilling track to use (as obvious as Dire Straits later on, becoming ubiquitous on MTV by referring to it in one of their very worst records). At around that time Blondie were releasing “Eat to the Beat” on video disc, being the future rather than waffling on about it.

Yes, we’ve a lot to thank Trevor Horn for, including some great productions coming up on Popular, but this combination of the tinny and the plasticy isn’t it. As an evocation of the passing from one age of consumption of music into another, give me “Radio Ga Ga” any day.

Oh get off that fence Marcello! (And it’s a bloody great record.)

“White Car In Germany” by the Associates, which “Radio Ga Ga” rips off fairly thoroughly, was a great record.

DJ Punctum says NO to NAZI FIST UNISONS by FRIENDS OF SUN CITY!!!

Yeah, “The Buggles”, as they were known on early pressings.

Whoo.

Rosie, I was with you till you knocked “Singin’ in the Rain”!

OK, radio’s finest hour – discuss.

Heres’s a candidate – when Bob Willis was skittling the Aussies at Headingley in ’81 (predates Radio Ga Ga but never mind) and in the era before internet over-by-over accounts it seemed half the country was listening on Test Match Special.

You’ll have many others, maybe the Radio 1 Roadshow from Minehead one year…

Before this conversation goes too far on radio’s finest hours, bear in mind that this website has made well thirty hours of radio now – ahem.

Kat’s point is wise, but dancing is not everything. I think this was little DV’s favourite song in the world (apart from Pop Music by M), and I was very sad when it stopped being number one, because this meant that TOTP would never play it again, which meant I would never hear it again. Buying a record was something that would never have occurred to me, and I had not yet mastered home taping technology.

Having recently taken most of my video tapes to the charity shop or the tip – supplanted by dvd and streaming video – the punchline of ‘put the blame on VTR’ is starting to sound a bit antiquated itself. Maybe we can expect a remake.

I like some of the later productions associated with Trevor Horn – but mostly for the contributions of others like Anne Dudley and even Paul Morley.

I don’t find the lyrics either profound or witty – and perhaps because I’d just arrived at art college when this was a hit and didn’t have a TV I don’t remember seeing the video – so that has no strong association for me.

I just find this a bit mediocre and 9 seems way off the mark to me – no way is it equal to ‘Heart of Glass’ or ‘Hit me with your rhythm stick’. I’d give it 4.

You had to be there Tom, it was fucking annoying hearing that chipmunk chorus and the “ooh wah ooh wah!” on the radio all the time.

Re #21 I don’t know ‘Into The Lens’ but I soon will! Thanks. My girlfriend will be disappointed as Yes are pretty much all her old man talks about when we visit and the conversation turns to music. Ah well.

Chipmunky vocals do tend to bring me out in a rash but I don’t think the ones here ever really bothered me (even when I did find the song annoying). If there’s enough other cool stuff going on I guess I can tolerate them (applies to a LOT of rave tracks I love but that’s a different kettle of fish indeed).

Just looking at ChartStats and it says this hit the top for the week ending 20/10/79 so bit confused about the dates being used here.

A pretty siwft rise to the top tho I notice – from #57 to #1 in just 5 weeks, if only for a one week stay. Shame that the also fab ‘Elstree’ didn’t make the top 40 – seems odd now that it was the fourth (choice) single from the LP.

Given the name of my old blog (and the fact that I’ve used pretty much every other one of that track’s lyrics as a header for some post or product or something) then yes, it should be easy to guess what mark I’d have given “Pop Muzik”! But this would still have got 8 or 9 – “modern” or otherwise.

(And the projection is largely onto the video, which is what’s being reviewed!)

I prefer the Bruce Wooley version. Horn’s glasses make me wanna punch somebody. And of course there’s the Yes thing…

I agree with comments from Rosie and Lonepilgrim above. I always thought this was rather over-rated. It is undoubtedly clever, but probably not to the extent one or two earlier comments would suggest.

Also, that cleverness seems to have compromised the quality of the piece – it’s not as obvious as Costello or Squeeze getting tangled up in the attempt to write clever lyrics, because we knew THEY had talent, but at this time we didn’t know if Horn and Downes had any. Subsequent singles seem to suggest their forte was not either song-writing or performing.

I have no doubts that it is beautifully produced, and there are little bits in it which almost let me tolerate it, but overall I would have to say that it does not represent one of Horn’s finer moments.

I don’t hear chipmunks, I just hear an attempted gimmick, which luckily struck paydirt with the emergence of video. I rather feel that without the “honour” of being MTV’s first song, this would have faded into deserved obscurity.

I don’t remember hearing this at the time, which must mean I heard it a few years later back up in Oakville; perhaps on a rainy weekend when a DJ at CFNY wanted to brighten things up (instead of playing John Cooper Clarke, which they always seemed to do on such occasions). I had no idea who was in The Buggles, no idea it was a #1, so my expectations of it were nil and I enjoyed it thoroughly – if I had thought just a bit harder as to who else it sounded like maybe I would have joined some dots – but it seemed very sprightly, very British, and I didn’t mind any of the oh-wa-ohs or any vocal parts, for that matter. The song is a lament, a prophecy, and it’s interesting to read all the negative reactions here, as I consider this a cornerstone song much like “Pop Muzik” (indeed I’m sorry the next ‘cornerstone’ song won’t be written about here by Tom as I would love to know his reaction to it)! This is a hurry-up-80s-let’s-go vibe to this that I thoroughly would have approved of if I had heard it at the time, and behind the ‘gimmicks’ of the song I can hear ‘you were the first one, you were the last one’ and a whole world of pop being ushered into existence, as if by magic.

Lena if I don’t have to write about it you don’t have to be shy of mentioning what it is! I am intrigued!

I think the MTV thing and the future career of Horn mean this is a great song which has had significance rather thrust upon it (not least by me!). But there are lots of great, intense moments in it too.

Oh Waldo, you tease. You’d set that up for an on-air swear punchline. You know you did.

(or maybe I’ve read and heard too many Jasper Carrot anecdotes)

heh!

I’ve often spoken to Mr Read on-air, back in his 210 days. I can’t remember any particular exchanges though.

BTW what is all this nonsense upthread about chipmunk voices. There are no chipmunk vocals on VKtRS!

As promised, I listened to The Age of Plastic again last night. It’s better than I remembered. You can hear the nods to ABBA and 10cc (it’s as if Benny & Bjorn had heard Replicas and thought: hey let’s make our own distopian future record, but make it bouncy and fun not depressing like that Numan chap’s). So while it looks forward it’s also very much of its time.

The most startling thing about it is how fast many of the songs are.

# 39 – That’s the mark of good writing, Jeff!

Marcello’s right. “Dean Martin” is indeed omnipresent on Gold Radio. It’s rather like the old radios in North Korea where all the dials were set so that you could only hear the speeches of Kim il Sung. Unnerving, to say the least.

39 and 45, Human League had it right with WXJL Tonight. Now, that’s prescience for you.

Automatic stations came and sent them all away…

Chipmunk voices? No, the effect could readily be obtained by pinching one’s fingers over one’s nose, as Jane from the girls’ school round the corner did one afternoon after school in our little gang’s daily meeting place, Martin’s Coffee Bar on Trumpington Road. How we laughed.

(Oh, hang on. You weren’t talking about the verses, were you? “I heard you won the Wallace back in ’52”, as some Japanese pop mag mistranscribed it. I’ve never been able to hear it any other way since.)

Cornerstone record? Restrospectively, an absolute yes. But at the time, I merely took it as a clever conceptual prank by a couple of smoothy studio boffins – slightly out of touch but trying admirably hard none the less – who were pretending to be dumber than they were. (For wasn’t calling your band something stupid like “Buggles” a act of provocation in itself?)

Others (mostly the previously mentioned dullard sports jocks with their newly cropped hair and their Police albums), either didn’t get the post-modern irony, or else were unimpressed by it. (Ooh, hang on: post-modern irony. There’s another milestone for you.) Anyhow, to these people, “VKTRS” was a teeth-grindingly irritating novelty – which made me laugh all the harder when Horn and Downes joined Yes the following year. (Best conceptual prank ever! Oh, hang on, they’re serious about this?)

Back at home for the Christmas hols, I got to try my dad’s Ceefax for the first time. The music section contained an interview with Buggles, illustrated with a full-screen ASCII-rendered image of Trevor Horn and his Amazing Plastic Spectacles. Wow, wow, wow, unbelievable. This Was The Future, and it thrilled me.