Jim Capaldi - Living On The Edge

While Jim Capaldi is not a household name (even here on ERV), he was an interesting and important figure in rock, especially during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Capaldi was born in  Evesham, Worcestershire (this isn't important, but we liked it anyhow) and became involved in the lively London music scene during the 1960s. He eventually started jamming with Steve Winwood, Dave Mason, and Chris Wood and they formed the influential rock/jazz band Traffic in 1967.

One of our favorite facts about Traffic concerns the way they wrote their songs.  Capaldi would write lyrics first and then Winwood would compose music that suited Capaldi's lyrics.

After Traffic broke up (for the second time in 1974), Capaldi married a Brazilian woman (Aninha Campos) and raised a family in Brazil, where he became interested in environmental and social issues (and Samba).  Although Capaldi remained active in the industry, his only real solo success came from his 1983 Fierce Heart LP.  That album hit #91 on the charts and generated two charting singles -  "That's Love" (#28) and "Living on the Edge" (#75). In typical ERV form, we are opting for the lower charting song, primarily because we like it better.  Additionally, it has a pretty far out there video with birds, motorcycles, and what appears to be some sort of Native American ceremony. 

[Note that the MTV has the wrong album title on their credits - Rock Art and the X-Ray Style is a 1999 album by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros.]

Jim Capaldi died from stomach cancer in 2005. 

Split Enz - I Got You

Split Enz (the NZ is a reference to New Zealand, where the band originated) formed in 1973 in Auckland.  The founders - Tim Finn and Phil Judd - wanted to create an eclectic pop band; hence the name (which was originally spelled correctly).

During the 1970s, the group went through a myriad of changes, both in terms of style and personnel.  The most significant change was Judd's departure; he was replaced by Tim Finn's brother Neil in 1977. During much of this period, Split Enz was a flamboyant art rock band, but they had little success outside of New Zealand and Australia.

This changed with their 1980 release, True Colours, which was something of a coming out party for Neil as a songwriter.  The resulting material had a stronger pop sound, and this combined with more straight-forward visuals allowed Split Enz to ride the New Wave (see what we did there?)

True Colours became a #1 album in Australia and New Zealand, and broke into the charts in the U.S.  "I Got You" also charted, though it only reached #53 on the U.S. charts.  However, it was top 40 in several countries, and hit #1 in Australia and New Zealand.

While the group continued releasing records for the first half of the 1980s, there seemed to be a growing musical disconnect between Tim and Neil, and Tim Finn finally quit the group in 1984.  Shortly afterwards, Neil broke up Split Enz and went on to even greater success in Crowded House.  The Finn brothers did work together on Crowded House's 1991 LP, Woodface, and more recently as The Finn Brothers. 

Cool trivia fact:  As mentioned above, Split Enz is a no hit wonder in the U.S.; "I Got You" (#53) was their highest charting single.  However, Neil Finn did have two top 40 hits with Crowded House - "Don't Dream It's Over" (#2) and "Something So Strong" (#7).

Cool trivia fact #2: "I Got You" was the 81st video played on MTV's first day; interestingly, it was the third Split Enz video played on MTV, after "History Never Repeats" and "One Step Ahead."