Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A Flock of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song

One of the prototypical early MTV bands, A Flock of Seagulls gets a bad rap as "that one hit wonder band with the hair."  In fact, they were not even a true one hit wonder, as two songs from their debut album broke the top 40 in the U.S.  ("I Ran," #9 and "Space Age Love Song," #30), while the LP, a concept album about an alien invasion of earth, peaked at #10 in the U.S.  They also had one top 40 hit from their second album, Listen ("Wishing (I Had a Photograph of You)" which peaked at #26).

The band began in Liverpool in the late 1970s, and got their name from a line in The Stranglers song, "Toiler on the Sea." And, in one of the least surprising factoids ever, lead singer Mike Score was a former hairdresser.

"Space Age Love Song" tells a love story in three verses, each verse starting with "I saw your eyes."  The songs' structure is unconventional, with no apparent chorus or bridge, just the verses linked with a catchy guitar line.  While the sound is a bit dated, we think this ranks as a great rock love song.

As is often the case, A Flock of Seagulls were unable to replicate their success.  Although they released several follow on albums, they saw steadily declining sales and finally broke up in 1985.  However, in recent years, they have reunited from time to time, and lead signer Mike Score continues to tour under the Flock of Seagulls name.

4 comments:

  1. Great song, and I didn't realize it had charted in the US. "Wishing" (also a great song) is actually from their second album, Listen.

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  2. You are totally right, and I have fixed the post. It is great to have such informed readers -- I encourage all to point out future errors.

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  3. I always have to stress that A Flock of Seagulls actually had several hits, so when people call them a "one hit wonder" I can reply "Uh, no" and then annoyingly cite sources. :D

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    1. Outstanding -- and that's what we're here for.

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