Spoons -- Tell No Lies

 

Well, we've reached the final day of June, and for us here in the Great White North, that also means the eve of Canada Day. Tomorrow on July 1st, the country will be celebrating 155 years of existence, and as such, I've decided to devote a couple of Reminiscings of Youth articles today and tomorrow to Canadiana.

First off, this will be the third ROY article dedicated to the Burlington, Ontario band Spoons which had its heyday in the 1980s. However, compared to the atmospheric synthpop of "Nova Heart" and the breeziness of "Romantic Traffic", their 1984 single "Tell No Lies" was a whole other animal. Even the Wikipedia article for Spoons remarked that this particular song was a bit unusual for the band. 

For one thing, it was fully dunked into some really upbeat pop with the addition of a horn section that seemed to burst out from Tito Puentes' band and merge with some of that Spoons synthiness (yes I know that the preceding isn't a real word). For another, I remember seeing the music video for "Tell No Lies" and thinking that Gordon Deppe, Sandy Horne and the rest of the guys must have hit the sauce really hard since these guys were just happily goofing around in this air vacation gone horribly wrong (and on a more serious note, Toronto's own Pearson Airport is going through some major logistical issues along with other airports around the world; do wonder about Narita and Haneda in the Tokyo area, too). But hey, they need to have fun as well.

And "Tell No Lies" is a fun song. In fact, I made it SOP for a while as a late teen to always listen to it whenever it came on the radio, and I did a search for the extended version. I did find it on one of the regular Saturday night dance remix shows, fortunately enough. Moreover, both "Tell No Lies" and "Romantic Traffic" shared the same September 1984 album "Listen to the City" which was actually the soundtrack for a cinematic drama of the same name that had bassist Horne as one of the cast. Both she and Deppe worked on the album which has been apparently discontinued according to the band's website but it does exist via that YouTube link above.

Now, what was also coming out in September 1984 from Japan?

Hiroshi Tachi -- Nakanaide (泣かないで)

Checkers -- Hoshikuzu no Stage （星屑のステージ）

Takashi Hosokawa -- Naniwa Bushi da yo, Jinsei wa （浪花節だよ人生は）(although J-Wiki says it was August)

Spoons -- Romantic Traffic

 

Yes, that is one of the entrances to Bay Station of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the main bus, subway and streetcar network for our city. Before the onslaught of COVID over the last 15 months, I used to take the TTC fairly often to meet up with friends but the last time I did so, it was back in early September and perhaps with our province of Ontario opening up to Stage 2 next week, it may not be too long before I actually hop on a bus and a subway once more.

At my age, nostalgia looms rather large...hence the presence of this blog. It also extends to the subway since as a kid, I remember taking the really old red trains (the last one apparently was retired in 1990) when I went to Japanese Language School or field trips to the museum and such. The interiors were quite elegant for their time with the leather handstraps, old-fashioned lamps and firm cushioned seats, and it was often the case that during the often rocky run on the rails, those lamps would conk out suddenly for a few seconds.

All this talk of Toronto and subways and nostalgia is due to the fact that for this week's Reminiscings of Youth article, I'm going with the single "Romantic Traffic" by the Canadian synthpop/New Wave band Spoons. Spoons already has its ROY article thanks to my article on their "Nova Heart" back in February.

Released in 1984, the same year that I entered University of Toronto, "Romantic Traffic" is quite different from the 1982 "Nova Heart" in that there is no synthpop and I'm not even sure if I can really even consider it a New Wave tune. It strikes me as being more of a straight-on and fun pop tune with that "doot-doot" chorus, and the horns that come in during that point take me back to some of the swinging Bacharach 60s music. So even back when the song was new, "Romantic Traffic" was giving off that nostalgia.

Speaking of all that nostalgia, well, the music video for "Romantic Traffic" was shot at Yonge Station and Sheppard Station so I get to remind myself what the old stations and subways (nope, the video wasn't shot on the red trains) looked like before they got their facelifts some years later. Of course, I get to see all that 80s hair and winter fashion as well. 

I found this short interview with Spoons vocalist and bassist Sandy Horne giving her thoughts and insights on "Romantic Traffic" including how the song got its "doot-doot" which has become a popular thing at their concerts. Also, the Wikipedia article on the song goes into that as well.

Now, I couldn't find out exactly in which month "Romantic Traffic" was released in that year of 1984, so I'll just go with June since we are in June 2021 as I type this. So, what were the Top 3 hits on Oricon for that month?

1. Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Main Theme （メイン・テーマ）

2. Checkers -- Kanashikute Jealousy （哀しくてジェラシー）

3. Seiko Matsuda -- Jikan no Kuni no Alice（時の国のアリス)

Spoons -- Nova Heart

 

Welcome to another Thursday ROY article to start things off for this broadcasting day.

From the time that I've started this category of Reminiscings of Youth where I talk about some of the non-Japanese pop songs that came into my ears and life, and make that superficial comparison with what was showing up on Oricon or being released as singles in Japan, I've been covering a lot of my favourite 70s and 80s tunes from the United States and the United Kingdom. However, strangely enough, I had yet to do anything about the songs of my youth from my own country of Canada.

Well, one of the finest examples of our Canadian humour came from the beloved show "SCTV" that had its run in those 70s and 80s. In a long-running satirical gag about fulfilling the need to provide Canadian content on the show, the producers and cast came up with "Great White North" (which is why I've often referred to my nation as the Great White North in past articles from time to time), a two-minute vignette featuring a couple of hoseheads, the brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, spouting off on various Canadian concepts. Even surprising the guys who had played the McKenzies, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, the skit became a huge hit on both sides of the US/Canada border, and for a while at least, terms such as the aforementioned "hosehead", "beauty, eh?" and "take off" merged into the pop culture vernacular. Up to my final days in Japan, there were people meeting me for the first time who when discovering where I was from, gave the secondary greeting of "How's it going, eh?" along with "Must be cold up there".

In the interests of providing Canadian content then, I bring you Spoons' "Nova Heart", a May 1982 release. Now, who are the Spoons? Well, the original band formed in 1979 in Burlington, Ontario, just to the west of Toronto and consisted of guitarist/lead vocalist Gordon Deppe, bassist Sandy Horne, keyboardist Brett Wickens and drummer Peter Shepherd, and I found out through their Wikipedia entry that they got the name for the band from all of the members sharing some alphabet soup and then suddenly staring at their spoons (ahhh...the magic of alphabet soup!).

Apparently, Spoons initially reflected their love for prog rock band such as Genesis (in the 1970s) but due to a lack of interest from audiences, they decided to go for something more pop and New Wave, and that's where I first found "Nova Heart". At the time, I'd just fallen for kayo kyoku after the trip to Japan in 1981 along with a suddenly ravenous interest in pop music (especially songs that included those analog synthesizers) in general thanks to music videos. So, the video for "Nova Heart" with its dreamy images (and the dreamy beauty of bassist Horne), the distinctive delivery by vocalist Deppe, and the mesmerizing synthpop arrangement immediately got my attention. 

For a fellow who got all into technopop (Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, etc.) thanks to Yellow Magic Orchestra, hearing a local band embracing a somewhat similar sound was manna from heaven for me. "Nova Heart" did moderately well on the RPM charts by coming in at No. 40, but the song itself has lasted in my memories for about 40 years now. The song was also a track on Spoons' 1982 album "Arias & Symphonies".

Now, what got released in May 1982 in Japan?

Meiko Nakahara - Konya Dake Dance Dance Dance (今夜だけDance Dance Dance)

Motoharu Sano -- Sugar Time

Chiemi Manabe -- Nerawareta Shoujo（ねらわれた少女）

To finish off, here's some more Canadiana with "Hinterland Who's Who", an animal-based PSA that was playing throughout my childhood on the television in the 1960s and 1970s. You have a good day, eh?