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Topic: Family man, Hall and oates< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Major Gowen Offline




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Posted: Sep. 03 2008, 00:47

Quote (Dirk Star @ Sep. 02 2008, 02:49)
Quote (Major Gowen @ Sep. 02 2008, 03:52)

Quote
Big Train did like their musical absurdities,


Yes they did some really fantasticaly inspired sketches involving groups and musical artistes etc.My own personal faves were the "George Martin gets held hostage" sketch, which I`ve already linked on this forum before."Chairman Mao singing Roxy Music`s Virginia Plain" uncannily very similar to the original.But my all time fave has to be the wild west shoot out between Chaka Khan & The Brothers Gibb. Such a greatly under-rated series imo,wish there had been more of them.

The George Martin hostage sketch - ha ha! Pure genius. And didn't Chairman Mao sing Rod Stewart's Hot Legs as well? I recently watched both series again on DVD and it was a real pleasure being reacquainted with it all.

On the subject of Family Man, I remember a review of Hall & Oates' version that gives a pointer to how Mike was percieved by the press back then. Admittedly it was in Smash Hits, but they weren't so much the teen/boy band magazine at that time. The reviewer noted that Mike had made the original and said something along the lines of "who would you rather sing this song, two handsome American blokes or some old hippy sat on a toadstool with a fishing rod?" Give me the old hippy any day of the week...

I actually like some of Hall & Oates' material but their take on Family Man is not the greatest example of a cover version.
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Sweetpea Offline




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Posted: Sep. 03 2008, 01:23

Dirk, you made me LOL with that 'defective speaker' theory.

Quote (Major Gowen @ Sep. 03 2008, 00:47)
I remember a review of Hall & Oates' version that gives a pointer to how Mike was percieved by the press back then. Admittedly it was in Smash Hits, but they weren't so much the teen/boy band magazine at that time. The reviewer noted that Mike had made the original and said something along the lines of "who would you rather sing this song, two handsome American blokes or some old hippy sat on a toadstool with a fishing rod?" Give me the old hippy any day of the week...

That's so wrong on multiple levels. Firstly, although they're okay to look at, I'd never thought of either Hall or Oates as "handsome". Their hair, maybe. I find Mike more attractive. His hair, too. Secondly, Mike was twenty-something at the time. How is that "old"? Was the reviewer twelve?? Thirdly, it wasn't even Mike singing the song. So, if the reviewer was referring to Maggie Reilly as that "old hippy sat on a toadstool"... well, I wouldn't want to be in his karmic shoes.

Sorry if that sounded a bit ranty. I'm just baffled how anyone could prefer Hall & Oates' "Family Man".


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"I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty
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Major Gowen Offline




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Posted: Sep. 03 2008, 01:47

Quote (Sweetpea @ Sep. 03 2008, 01:23)
That's so wrong on multiple levels. Firstly, although they're okay to look at, I'd never thought of either Hall or Oates as "handsome". Their hair, maybe. I find Mike more attractive. His hair, too. Secondly, Mike was twenty-something at the time. How is that "old"? Was the reviewer twelve?? Thirdly, it wasn't even Mike singing the song. So, if the reviewer was referring to Maggie Reilly as that "old hippy sat on a toadstool"... well, I wouldn't want to be in his karmic shoes.

Sorry if that sounded a bit ranty. I'm just baffled how anyone could prefer Hall & Oates' "Family Man".

A lot of paraphrasing on my part there, and after 25 years, but that was the general gist of it. Yes I know what you mean - the 'old hippy' comment was baffling as he was still in his 20s then. It shows he was wrongly perceived as being from an older generation, he was still being tarred with the dinosaur brush. I remember hurling my copy of Smash Hits across the room in disgust. Only a few years previously there'd been a decent interview with Mike in the same magazine, so it was doubly annoying!
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olracUK Offline




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Posted: Sep. 03 2008, 16:19

Smash Hits? I have a cutting from that very magazine in an old scrap book when they printed the lyrics to Moonlight Shadow, and gave it 4 stars, barely a year later.

Nice to see the music press holding true to their beliefs and not not just being fickle with their praise. :p


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The answer is 42 - but what is the question?
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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: Sep. 04 2008, 02:53

I remeber my sister buying that.There was a small interview in either that or another edition where Mike talked of his wanting to write a novel and the possible connections between Moonlight Shadow and Lennon's murder.Thanks for jogging my memory Olrac but that was 25 years ago.OMG!!! :laugh:

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THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH.
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moonchildhippy Offline




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Posted: Sep. 04 2008, 03:18

Quote (Bassman @ Mar. 22 2008, 21:40)
I just sat through it again and I've decided I wasn't sufficiently hard enough on it the first time.

Marvel!  at their perfectly coiffed hair!

Gasp!  at the misogynistic concept of the harried husband!

Cringe!  at G.E. Smith playing electric guitar chords on an acoustic!

Pray!  that at some point Beavis & Butthead will appear to put it all into perspective!

Can I get an Amen, brothers and sisters!!!!????  Peace...out.

I just had to laugh at that Bassman :laugh:  . Here's another Hall & Oates song given the Bob Fossil (The Mighty Boosh) treatment :laugh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMOVJtKRF_E&feature=related
I'm going out soon , and I've gotta take some decent music, as I've got H&O songs in my head now WAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Some may say the 70's was the decade that style forgot,  but I do think it was the 80s. OK there was some great stuff around in the 80's, The 2 Tone Movement, Some of the New Romantics, Electronica/New Wave, and there was what is now  "Classic Rock" Pink Floyd, The Stones (OK they were a bit pants by Stones standards), Queen, but these were the bands who were filling stadiums. Other 80's bands on the Rock/Metal scene, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Marrillion, they were influenced by Genesis. I love Genesis, have to get Invisible Touch album again, my casette player chewed it up.  
Oh yes I was mad on Howard Jones when I was 12, and I was embarrassed about that for a number of years afterwards, but anyone who can go out and play Keith Emerson's Karn Evil 9 on a piano is worthy of my respect. KE9 is one of the most difficult pieces of music written for piano.  Maybe the 80's weren't so bad, apart from the cheese, such as H&O.


--------------
I'm going slightly mad,
It finally happened, I'm slightly mad , just very slightly mad

If you feel a little glum to Hergest Ridge you should come.


I'm challenging  taboos surrounding mental health


"Part time hippy"

I'M SUPPORTING OUR SOLDIERS

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!!
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Sweetpea Offline




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Posted: Nov. 25 2008, 03:19

Woo-hoo! I found a Chinese cover by Sandy Lam on imeem. I really like it. :)

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"I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty
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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: Nov. 25 2008, 11:23

Why?

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We raise our voices in the night
Crying to heaven
And will our voices be heard
Or will they break Like the wind
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Bassman Offline




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Posted: Nov. 25 2008, 11:39

Did anyone else LOL at the start where it sounds like the guy dropped the F-bomb (he didn't, it's just the translation)?  FUNNY.

(Actually, the melody of the song lends itself well to a J-Pop arrangement.  I like J-Pop.  Did someone say Sandii & The Sunsetz?  Oh, I did.  Love 'em.)
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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: Nov. 26 2008, 03:02

I used to like Shonen Knife an all girl band from Osaka.They wrote some great lyrics to some highly infectious guitar punk/pop tunes.And there`s a similar kind of band out at the moment actualy called Spookey who are also pretty good.

I thought Sandy`s version of Family Man was ok,better than the Hall & Oates cover anyway.I think maybe the verses could`ve done with being a bit louder in comparison to the chorus.And then why is the Family Man bit still in English I wonder?Maybe that`s a common thing that Chinese bands do when covering western material,I don`t know?
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Chris Ibberson Offline




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Posted: Aug. 11 2011, 06:40

I remember the 70s Teen Magazine "Smash Hits" reviewing Hall + Oates F.M, not praising it exactly, but concluding that "I'd rather have these ... than an ageing hippy sitting on a toadstool with a fishing rod..." You can probably guess what they had to say about "Guilty". "Smash Hits"? Long since departed...Mike? Still the Genius as ever was.  :(  :)

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Diana Luna Lucina
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qjamesfloyd Offline




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Posted: May 08 2014, 07:34

Just adding my thoughts on this:
The Hall & Oates version is awful :O
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MadTheDJ Offline




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Posted: May 08 2014, 10:19

Oddly enough, I knew the Oldfield version first. A friend pointed out that H&O covered it. I later sought their version and like most (all?) people here, I'll take the MO version any day of the week. H&O's was a hit, which is good because it brings some attention to the original.

I think one of the many things that helps the original is that it's a woman singing the song. With Maggie's vocals, we see the situation play out from the point of view of the character of the prostitute, hitting on this guy, getting rejected and pathetically trying again. Hall's vocals, being a guy, put us in the point of view of the Family Man himself who, with the altered lyrics, flip-flops between wanting to be with her and remaining faithful to his wife. The prostitute is the more interesting character in the scene because we see her increasingly desperate attempts to pick this guy up. It opens up a whole spectrum of possible personality traits in her (why *this* guy, why not move on to another guy? Is her view of her own beauty really that objective, is she deluding herself that her expression would "work on any man in sight"?...). In the H&O version, his temptation is an attempt to make the situation more interesting (will he or won't he?), but it's too clichéd and predictable.

The altered lyrics present an interesting shift in context, though. Because in the H&O version, the man is genuinely tempted and struggling, and ultimately goes after her when it's too late. The chorus of the song is given a different meaning now:

He said, "Leave me alone,
I'm a family man
And my bark is much worse than my bite!"

"Please, just leave me alone,
I'm a family man.
If you push me too far I just might!"

In the MO version, the "just might" is qualifying the earlier line about his bark and his bite, threatening that if she doesn't go away, he just might lash out at her in some way.

The H&O version adds the context that, in his temptation, he "just might" take her up on her offer, which he eventually chooses to do after she leaves and it's too late for him. And again, having him bow to her come-on is a far less interesting way to play the situation out, in my opinion.


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