I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I think I am, without question, the biggest Thomas Dolby fan who ever lived. I think I have about thirteen different versions of Wireless. From Japan, France, Canada - all of the different British and American versions... I have many different versions of Dolby's Cube, the Puppet Theatre EP, The Jungle Line, Blinded By Science, The Flat Earth, Field Work with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Aliens, all on vinyl - I was embarrassingly obsessed... I was fifteen when She Blinded Me With Science was released in the US. I bought the single, because I loved the geeky weirdness of it, but when I flipped it over and heard Flying North, I knew that I had to buy the album. I actually watched an employee at Record World in Southbury, CT cut open the first box they received, and I paid for it before it was stickered. It changed my life. When my Berklee friend, schoolmate and occasional collaborator BT opened for him several years ago I thought, Tom chose the wrong guy. I've gone to only a handful of rock concerts in my life, but when he cancelled his concert at the Agora Ballroom in Hartford in 1983 I wailed and pounded the tile floor in our kitchen like a girl cursed with Beatlemania. I've never been that way before or since. When I realized that he was the reason I loved Waiting For A Girl Like You by Foreigner so much, and that no one before or since has ever made me feel so much from electronic machines, I knew that I had a job to do as an electronic musician and composer. Even more than the first time that I saw a poster of a Moog modular in the hallway of our school in a tiny town in Maine in third grade in 1976. Thomas Dolby changed my life. Thank you for sharing this.
HI Todd. Wow, great to hear from a serious Dolby fan. I've been into his music for well over 20 years now, a great artist and all-too often overlooked. Thanks for watching.
James Griffiths and thank you for the video. It's downright shocking how Thomas Dolby incorporated everything that mattered to me, and that moved me. The 1920's, early radio and shortwave, synthesizers, feeling alone and misunderstood and nostalgic and wanting to connect with others - just an extraordinary artist, and Golden Age remains an astonishing artistic accomplishment in every way.
James Griffiths p. s. It actually felt like he had made The Golden Age of Wireless just for me, and I didn't want to share the album with anyone else. I've never felt that way about any other album. Cloudburst at Shingle Street may be my favorite piece of music ever recorded.
I know what you mean. I had some hard times in my twenties (this was back in the 90s) and Golden Age on a scratchy old cassette used to keep my company a lot. I remember one particularly black, dark, rain-swept night when I was driving from Lancaster to Leeds, strung out and miserable, but with One of Our Submarines rattling the crap speakers of my car stereo. You're never alone with a bit of Tom.
I found him in my early twenties too, on my own just browsing the internet. Love his music and his songwriting makes me feel like a little kid with a renewed sense of wonder and he sings beautifully, too
Great video! I couldn't believe it when I saw his name on the credits of 4. So bizarre to see his name there. And don't diss Science. I thought it was Genius and even ordered it at our price when I couldn't pick it up easily. Wireless is such an amazing album. Windpower is sublime.
Hi James !!!!!!!! I really like his take on I Scare Myself......................I have this lp from back then.................... Thanks for taking the time to research Dolby's music and present to us.................................. take care
Fantastic video James. Really well put together. I have a couple of Thomas Dolby albums and I always liked his work. Outside of She Blinded Me With Science, he never took off here in the US which is a shame. I love the song Hyperactive and the video was put out here but most people are not familiar with it. I need to check out some of his late eighties work.
Hi Paul. Strangely enough, I thought of you when I heard that 2008 live album The Sole Inhabitant. It's very very cool electronic pop stuff, I think you'd love it. See if you can get hold of it, it's not expensive, at least not here in the UK. Think I picked it up for something like £15 on Amazon. Glad you enjoyed the video!
7 лет назад
Hi James, great video about a forgotten artist today. I remember when i heard "She blinded me with science" the first time i thought it was a very silly and too strange synthsong for me. But with the years it grew on me and today i love it. But i'm always late with discovering music. ;) I didn't know Dolby had played with Def Leppard, it was a combination i hadn't counted on. Great jobb! Take care! :)
The way you (both singular you and plural in reference to others in the VC) do these large career spanning videos, makes me jealous. When I sit down to think of an idea for a video, I couldn't possibly feel confident enough with my level of knowledge to do one of these. Lot's of respect coming from me on the amount of prep these take. Always good to see a new video from you!
Hi Mitch, thanks! I suppose it all depends on how much slow accumulative knowledge has built up over the years; as long as that's there, it's not too hard to fill up the gaps and get a time-line via wikipedia. I have tried to do these kind of videos in the past where I've not had that personal knowledge or history with an artist and it's much harder - I've had to abandon one or two ideas along the way - more homework needed!!
Thanks James for the history on T. Dolby. I did not know much about him. Mainly through "She Blinded Me with Science". I will try to seek out more of his stuff.
No mention of Dolby's early success -- Lena Lovich (Lucky Number, New Toy)? Both these hits preceded Dolby's Golden Age of Wireless. By the way, She Blinded Me with Science was not on the original GAOW UK album release, I had the album and it was definitely not on it. Perhaps later releases did.
Ha! Shows how much I know, I thought he was American. Great primer for a unique artist. Despite my general distrust of the synth, you've got me wating to sample more of his work. I remember Close But No Cigar, in fact that was probably where I heard him first.
I've typed this several times now to several people so i think I must actually believe it...but that live album The Sole Inhabitant might be the one to get. It demonstrates his synth artistry pretty well. Thanks Hedley.
What a fascinating spotlight James, this is where you excel with these well researched career overviews. She Blinded Me With Science, ah that takes me back to my very early days of discovering the radio and new music. I have the 12"of that, The Flat Earth LP and the Hyperactive single (which was the other well known song that got a good deal of airplay here) in my collection though for some reason I don't think I've ever picked up Golden Age Of Wireless in any format. Dolby's Cube, yes that rings some bells. Like many British artists who sort of broke through with one hit single I don't think we really got him as an artist beyond that. Then again there just wasn't the easy access to information at that time that we take for granted now, just the facts you've laid out here would be much more time consuming to gather. Cheers and have a great weekend James - another sunny and hot one here!
HI Doug. Thanks for the feedback. Glad you're partial to a bit of Dolby. He's one of those artists whose popularity is difficult to gauge, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the level of interest and prior knowledge on the VC. Btw, there is quite a nice looking collected CD box-set of all Dolby's albums available if it ever occurs to you to revisit him/and or dig a bit deeper. Weather's fine here today, time to dig out the old watering can.
I'm late to the dance on this one. Thank you for the excellent Dolby education, James! I was never a big fan of his only because his music was so extremely New Wave, and I agree that it really doesn't hold up today. That said, even though I don't care for the music at this point, I love learning more about artists. Thanks for sharing! Cheers, Tom
James, thanks for this great video. You hit the bulls-eye when you said that Dolby's music has a strong nostalgic undercurrent to it. It is almost transcendent in that it actually seems to "remind me" of places and times I have not even necessarily visited or experienced. Such an original nostalgic quality (i.e., even independent of my own experiences and memories) is very rare in music, for me at least, and the only other artist to whose music I might attribute a similar quality is Nick Drake. And you are astute also in detecting Dolby's multi-genre influences and his genius in incorporating them into his music in a way that contributes to the "familiar" nostagia mentioned before and also renders the music totally unique at the same time. Perhaps time will be good to Dolby's legacy, if enough people like you will bring him up in forums such as this.
Ha ha yes. It is odd that i sent you that one in particular, rather than the more representative ones (The Flat Earth, Golden Age of Wireless). Still, sometimes it's good to start with the joker in the pack!
Hi James - this was very enlightening for me, as I've little knowledge of Dolby overall. Somewhere in one of my 45 boxes does lurk my old copy of "She Blinded Me with Science," though - and "Steve McQueen" is one of my favorite albums of the '80s. Apart from those, and Joni's "Dog Eat Dog," everything else you mentioned was unfamiliar to me. If/when I come across some of his own albums, I'll want to check them out. Thanks! P.S. - nice touch with the Hyperactive video there 👍🏻
Hi Jeff. Be curious to hear what you think of Dolby's work if and when you get round to it. Hand on heart I'd probably say get that live album from 2008, it's terrific. The versions don't sound live as such - he has tremendous control over the sound. Don't know how much post-production there was, but the vocals in particular are stunning.
Great post with a lot of info about TD. You forgot to mention his involvement in the soundtrack of the movie Fern Gully (The Last Rainforest) Where he wrote and also produced songs for Robin Williams and Tim curry etc... Thanks... Ps. We will never leave the airwaves...
Hello James, like you I'm a huge fan of Prefab Sprout. I didn't noticed TD produced the three albums from them. Thanks for that. I like them all so much. I've got only one album from Thomas Dolby, The Flat Earth. I will spin it soon. I'm sure it will sound different now ! Thanks for this video. Bye. Bruno
Hi Bruno. So glad you decided to stop by. I think you will hear a stylistic link between the Flat Earth and Prefab Sprout, though it is a different kind of music really. Dolby and Paddy McAloon shared the same sense of melody and harmony I think - a creative match made in heaven! Thanks for watching.
Hey James, Quite interesting. He's someone I'd been curious about for a while, being keyboard-oriented myself, though hadn't dove in before. Quite accomplished for sure. Nostalgic and melancholy....often pulls me in... I like Fairlight CMI stuff too.... 'Howard the Duck'....ehh...I actually remember that, ha. 'Aliens ate my Buick', I find hard to resist those kinds of titles. 'Gate to the Mind's Eye' also sounds quite appealing. Ringtones, quite interesting too....makes sense though. As with many other things, ears further open here. Thanks for sharing this. -Carm
Thanks Carm, glad you found it of interest. I wish I'd been able to do longer and deeper needle-drops; my original cut of the video did contain more, but when I uploaded the video I got a message saying it had been banned in 179 countries, so I had to go back and edit stuff out. The clips that ended up in there were probably not all that representative. It's worth checking out the music on the live album 'The Sole Inhabitant'...if you're interested in keyboards and synths etc. Dolby is one of the foremost synth-sculptors (is that even a thing??) of modern beat-driven music. Some of the chord sequences and textures he goes for are really quite profoundly beautiful in their way. Thanks for watching!
Hello there Professor, First off, well done with all of the info. Wow, you really know your Dolby. I think that most people who were around during the early MTV boom remember his videos. The song 'Hyperactive' was huge. As was the Flat Earth. I never knew that he wrote that for Michael Jackson. I can actually see him performing that song. Really interesting stuff. Are you sure that you never taught any college music courses? Your a natural behind the lens~ Rob/Boston
Thanks Rob...I was curious what your knowledge of Dolby would be, but I had a suspicion that he wouldn't be unknown to you. I guess the earlier MTV part of his career did make a kind of star of him, but for a variety of reasons his solo career never really evolved beyond cult status. Ha ha, no I never taught college music courses, although I'd have loved to!
Like many, I am not too aware of Dolby's overall career. I know the hits etc. but little else. Although I do remember him being prominent on the soundtrack to the silly movie Wierd Science in the 80's. This video was fantastic because it gave me a ton of information and sparked interest in him. Thanks James.... Matt
Thanks Matt, you never know when you make these kind of videos if anyone's going to be interested enough to tune in, and it's always mind-blowing when they do. Dolby is well worth checking out if you're a Beatles/powerpop fan.
Thanks I will. I appreciate learning about artists that I have limited knowledge of. It can inspire me to check them out for the first time, even after they've been around for many years. All the best...and enjoy the rest of your weekend....Matt
Interesting and thought-provoking video James, thanks for the education. I have seen Thomas' name around and vaguely recall 'airhead' hovering around the lower reaches of the charts when I was about 9. That, coupled with the title and cover of 'Aliens Ate My Buick' (along with Weird Al coming into view at the same time) had me pigeonholing him as a comedy/novelty act. But your description of jazz chords wrapping up melancholy and nostalgia has me intrigued! A lot of great info here, and again your passion shows through. Another great video, cheers - Dean
Hello James, I have the cassette of Dog eat Dog and I believe he sings on there too I think////...wow 82? Time passes////great review James I really only knew the MTV music so it seems there is so much more to him than I knew////enjoyable vid and info packed!!! good to see you and hope you are well --- Lis
Hi James, Nice vid as always...... Picked up Langley Park and Jordan today as both produced by Dolby ... £3 each.......Plus a couple of Buddy Rich too, also £3 each ...as a drummer yourself do you have any Buddy Rich in your collection?
Hi, I used to have a couple of LPs of Buddy Rich but I don't seem to have them anymore. I have various tracks by the Buddy Rich band on different jazz and big-band comps. Great drummer but a complete b***** I believe!
Very interesting James. I knew much of this from looking around on the net but your vid is much more informative. The only thing I have heard from him is She Blinded Me with Science and Hyperactive. His vocals on that album remind me of Howard Jones and also the synth sounds. Interesting about the aliases. And I have heard about him via Prefab Sprout as Producer. Like you I love Prefab Sprout certainly the earlier albums. I did buy Jordan the comeback on CD but haven’t really listened to it that much - at the time I lost interest in them as a band.
Hi Jon. Jordan is a patchier album than Steve McQueen (probably too long), but there are a handful of tracks that are up there with anything the Sprout ever did - check out Moondog, Carnival 2000 and Looking for Atlantis. Cheers.
I hate She Blinded Me With Science, But that album is amazing. I picked it up in a guitar shop, and I've loved it since day one. I was a teen in the 90's so I knew about him via that stupid pop hit, but I loved the dark, brooding stuff on that record. Europa and the Pirate Twins, and Airwaves are on par with anything Genesis put out.
Always liked Dolby's songs and also really like the instrumental in the Foreigner song Urgent you said he worked on. makes sense. Incidentally in the 80s (before internet) I had heard and was convinced that Dolby died in somekind of accident. I didn't realize until a few years ago that he's alive and well. Maybe a Mandela Effect thing?
Why is "She Blinded Me with Science" annoying? Thomas is a great musician and writer, but Science is a great pop song. My favorite song by him is Airwaves.
Great video as always James. My first introduction to Thomas Dolby was via the single Windpower and of course his work with Foreigner. After Hyperactive he fall off my radar. I don't know if you have heard The Word podcast. Thomas Dolby was interviewed recently and he came across as very humorous. I enclose the link for you wordpodcast.co.uk/2017/05/25/word-podcast-269-thomas-dolby-on-the-most-varied-career-in-pop-and-technology/
Hi Ethan. I did once see it in a charity shop and that was quite some time ago now. God knows why I didn't grab it, maybe it wasn't in very good condition or maybe I was just being complacent.
This was surprising James. Thomas Dolby is one of those names like Murray Head. Most people have heard the name in connection with other things but few people know who they are. Thomas Dolby has hardly ever been a headline act has he, and he's not really what you would call 'alternative'. He did however do a fantastic job with the Steve McQueen album. How would you pigeon hole him though? As a musician, a producer, song writer? He is not what you would call a pop star is he. Did you know he was asked to produce Mainstream by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions? He turned it down.
Hi John. Ah no, I didn't know the Cole connection. I think Dolby is very difficult to pigeon-hole. He's a kind of one-man music and technology entrepreneur who has adopted different guises as he's moved through his career(s). I think his music was quite 'alternative' in its way, at least earlier on. I didn't mention this in the video, but there was rather a telling quote from Trevor Horn in the early nineties where he said something like 'For years I watched Dolby and waited for him to release something so mind-blowing and game-changing that it would basically put him up there with Prince, but he never did'. I think that's true really - he never fulfilled his potential, probably because he was interested in other things beyond music. He made a lot of terrific music but there's no one 'game-changing' album that you can point to. An interesting artist anyway.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I think I am, without question, the biggest Thomas Dolby fan who ever lived. I think I have about thirteen different versions of Wireless. From Japan, France, Canada - all of the different British and American versions... I have many different versions of Dolby's Cube, the Puppet Theatre EP, The Jungle Line, Blinded By Science, The Flat Earth, Field Work with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Aliens, all on vinyl - I was embarrassingly obsessed... I was fifteen when She Blinded Me With Science was released in the US. I bought the single, because I loved the geeky weirdness of it, but when I flipped it over and heard Flying North, I knew that I had to buy the album. I actually watched an employee at Record World in Southbury, CT cut open the first box they received, and I paid for it before it was stickered. It changed my life. When my Berklee friend, schoolmate and occasional collaborator BT opened for him several years ago I thought, Tom chose the wrong guy. I've gone to only a handful of rock concerts in my life, but when he cancelled his concert at the Agora Ballroom in Hartford in 1983 I wailed and pounded the tile floor in our kitchen like a girl cursed with Beatlemania. I've never been that way before or since. When I realized that he was the reason I loved Waiting For A Girl Like You by Foreigner so much, and that no one before or since has ever made me feel so much from electronic machines, I knew that I had a job to do as an electronic musician and composer. Even more than the first time that I saw a poster of a Moog modular in the hallway of our school in a tiny town in Maine in third grade in 1976. Thomas Dolby changed my life. Thank you for sharing this.
HI Todd. Wow, great to hear from a serious Dolby fan. I've been into his music for well over 20 years now, a great artist and all-too often overlooked. Thanks for watching.
James Griffiths and thank you for the video. It's downright shocking how Thomas Dolby incorporated everything that mattered to me, and that moved me. The 1920's, early radio and shortwave, synthesizers, feeling alone and misunderstood and nostalgic and wanting to connect with others - just an extraordinary artist, and Golden Age remains an astonishing artistic accomplishment in every way.
James Griffiths p. s. It actually felt like he had made The Golden Age of Wireless just for me, and I didn't want to share the album with anyone else. I've never felt that way about any other album. Cloudburst at Shingle Street may be my favorite piece of music ever recorded.
I know what you mean. I had some hard times in my twenties (this was back in the 90s) and Golden Age on a scratchy old cassette used to keep my company a lot. I remember one particularly black, dark, rain-swept night when I was driving from Lancaster to Leeds, strung out and miserable, but with One of Our Submarines rattling the crap speakers of my car stereo. You're never alone with a bit of Tom.
Nice work James. It'd be worth mentioning Screen Kiss which I believe is one of the most beautiful pop songs ever written.
Agreed, probably my favourite song on The Flat Earth. I did a review of the album a while back.
Ive just discovered Dolby. Always knew of him but never delved in. So glad I did! What a composer!
I found him in my early twenties too, on my own just browsing the internet. Love his music and his songwriting makes me feel like a little kid with a renewed sense of wonder and he sings beautifully, too
Thanks Eric, great comment.
GREAT JOB!!
THANXX FOR SHARING!!
Great video! I couldn't believe it when I saw his name on the credits of 4. So bizarre to see his name there. And don't diss Science. I thought it was Genius and even ordered it at our price when I couldn't pick it up easily. Wireless is such an amazing album. Windpower is sublime.
Sorry Graeme, don't know how I missed this comment of yours. It's happening more and more nowadays. Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi James !!!!!!!! I really like his take on I Scare Myself......................I have this lp from back then....................
Thanks for taking the time to research Dolby's music and present to us..................................
take care
You're very welcome!
Fantastic video James. Really well put together. I have a couple of Thomas Dolby albums and I always liked his work. Outside of She Blinded Me With Science, he never took off here in the US which is a shame. I love the song Hyperactive and the video was put out here but most people are not familiar with it. I need to check out some of his late eighties work.
Hi Paul. Strangely enough, I thought of you when I heard that 2008 live album The Sole Inhabitant. It's very very cool electronic pop stuff, I think you'd love it. See if you can get hold of it, it's not expensive, at least not here in the UK. Think I picked it up for something like £15 on Amazon. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Hi James,
great video about a forgotten artist today. I remember when i heard "She blinded me with science" the first time i thought it was a very silly and too strange synthsong for me. But with the years it grew on me and today i love it. But i'm always late with discovering music. ;)
I didn't know Dolby had played with Def Leppard, it was a combination i hadn't counted on. Great jobb! Take care! :)
Thanks Jorgen, glad you enjoyed it. Hope also that you can track down some Dolby LP's on your continuing travels!
The way you (both singular you and plural in reference to others in the VC) do these large career spanning videos, makes me jealous. When I sit down to think of an idea for a video, I couldn't possibly feel confident enough with my level of knowledge to do one of these. Lot's of respect coming from me on the amount of prep these take. Always good to see a new video from you!
Hi Mitch, thanks! I suppose it all depends on how much slow accumulative knowledge has built up over the years; as long as that's there, it's not too hard to fill up the gaps and get a time-line via wikipedia. I have tried to do these kind of videos in the past where I've not had that personal knowledge or history with an artist and it's much harder - I've had to abandon one or two ideas along the way - more homework needed!!
Thanks James for the history on T. Dolby. I did not know much about him. Mainly through "She Blinded Me with Science". I will try to seek out more of his stuff.
Thanks Jolly Roger!
No mention of Dolby's early success -- Lena Lovich (Lucky Number, New Toy)? Both these hits preceded Dolby's Golden Age of Wireless. By the way, She Blinded Me with Science was not on the original GAOW UK album release, I had the album and it was definitely not on it. Perhaps later releases did.
You're right, in fact I picked up the original version of GAOW recently - will be showing it in a video later this year.
I don't understand why he isn't more famous and known :(
Have you read his autobiography, 'Speed of Sound'? Incredible life the guy had.
Ha! Shows how much I know, I thought he was American. Great primer for a unique artist. Despite my general distrust of the synth, you've got me wating to sample more of his work. I remember Close But No Cigar, in fact that was probably where I heard him first.
I've typed this several times now to several people so i think I must actually believe it...but that live album The Sole Inhabitant might be the one to get. It demonstrates his synth artistry pretty well. Thanks Hedley.
What a fascinating spotlight James, this is where you excel with these well researched career overviews. She Blinded Me With Science, ah that takes me back to my very early days of discovering the radio and new music. I have the 12"of that, The Flat Earth LP and the Hyperactive single (which was the other well known song that got a good deal of airplay here) in my collection though for some reason I don't think I've ever picked up Golden Age Of Wireless in any format. Dolby's Cube, yes that rings some bells. Like many British artists who sort of broke through with one hit single I don't think we really got him as an artist beyond that. Then again there just wasn't the easy access to information at that time that we take for granted now, just the facts you've laid out here would be much more time consuming to gather. Cheers and have a great weekend James - another sunny and hot one here!
HI Doug. Thanks for the feedback. Glad you're partial to a bit of Dolby. He's one of those artists whose popularity is difficult to gauge, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the level of interest and prior knowledge on the VC. Btw, there is quite a nice looking collected CD box-set of all Dolby's albums available if it ever occurs to you to revisit him/and or dig a bit deeper. Weather's fine here today, time to dig out the old watering can.
I'm late to the dance on this one. Thank you for the excellent Dolby education, James! I was never a big fan of his only because his music was so extremely New Wave, and I agree that it really doesn't hold up today. That said, even though I don't care for the music at this point, I love learning more about artists. Thanks for sharing!
Cheers, Tom
Hi Tom. Appreciate you watching and commenting despite Dolby not quite being your cup of tea. Always great to hear from you.
Well, I do like tea. ;-)
Check out the Kinks song Have A Cup Of Tea...it'll make your day.
It worked! Now I have to track down a copy of Mussel Hillbillies ... LOL
James, thanks for this great video. You hit the bulls-eye when you said that Dolby's music has a strong nostalgic undercurrent to it. It is almost transcendent in that it actually seems to "remind me" of places and times I have not even necessarily visited or experienced. Such an original nostalgic quality (i.e., even independent of my own experiences and memories) is very rare in music, for me at least, and the only other artist to whose music I might attribute a similar quality is Nick Drake. And you are astute also in detecting Dolby's multi-genre influences and his genius in incorporating them into his music in a way that contributes to the "familiar" nostagia mentioned before and also renders the music totally unique at the same time. Perhaps time will be good to Dolby's legacy, if enough people like you will bring him up in forums such as this.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
I enjoyed that!
I was expecting you to send me a list of all my mistakes.
Sorry, meant to say 'thanks'!
"Astronauts & Heretics" probably one of the strangest and unexpected albums in my collection. _I wonder who sent me a copy?_ Ha ha ha !
Ha ha yes. It is odd that i sent you that one in particular, rather than the more representative ones (The Flat Earth, Golden Age of Wireless). Still, sometimes it's good to start with the joker in the pack!
Hi James - this was very enlightening for me, as I've little knowledge of Dolby overall. Somewhere in one of my 45 boxes does lurk my old copy of "She Blinded Me with Science," though - and "Steve McQueen" is one of my favorite albums of the '80s. Apart from those, and Joni's "Dog Eat Dog," everything else you mentioned was unfamiliar to me. If/when I come across some of his own albums, I'll want to check them out. Thanks!
P.S. - nice touch with the Hyperactive video there 👍🏻
Hi Jeff. Be curious to hear what you think of Dolby's work if and when you get round to it. Hand on heart I'd probably say get that live album from 2008, it's terrific. The versions don't sound live as such - he has tremendous control over the sound. Don't know how much post-production there was, but the vocals in particular are stunning.
Great post with a lot of info about TD. You forgot to mention his involvement in the soundtrack of the movie Fern Gully (The Last Rainforest) Where he wrote and also produced songs for Robin Williams and Tim curry etc... Thanks... Ps. We will never leave the airwaves...
Thanks!
Hello James, like you I'm a huge fan of Prefab Sprout. I didn't noticed TD produced the three albums from them. Thanks for that. I like them all so much. I've got only one album from Thomas Dolby, The Flat Earth. I will spin it soon. I'm sure it will sound different now ! Thanks for this video. Bye. Bruno
Hi Bruno. So glad you decided to stop by. I think you will hear a stylistic link between the Flat Earth and Prefab Sprout, though it is a different kind of music really. Dolby and Paddy McAloon shared the same sense of melody and harmony I think - a creative match made in heaven! Thanks for watching.
Hey James, Quite interesting. He's someone I'd been curious about for a while, being keyboard-oriented myself, though hadn't dove in before. Quite accomplished for sure. Nostalgic and melancholy....often pulls me in... I like Fairlight CMI stuff too....
'Howard the Duck'....ehh...I actually remember that, ha. 'Aliens ate my Buick', I find hard to resist those kinds of titles. 'Gate to the Mind's Eye' also sounds quite appealing.
Ringtones, quite interesting too....makes sense though. As with many other things, ears further open here. Thanks for sharing this. -Carm
Thanks Carm, glad you found it of interest. I wish I'd been able to do longer and deeper needle-drops; my original cut of the video did contain more, but when I uploaded the video I got a message saying it had been banned in 179 countries, so I had to go back and edit stuff out. The clips that ended up in there were probably not all that representative. It's worth checking out the music on the live album 'The Sole Inhabitant'...if you're interested in keyboards and synths etc. Dolby is one of the foremost synth-sculptors (is that even a thing??) of modern beat-driven music. Some of the chord sequences and textures he goes for are really quite profoundly beautiful in their way. Thanks for watching!
Hello there Professor,
First off, well done with all of the info. Wow, you really know your Dolby. I think that most people who were around during the early MTV boom remember his videos. The song 'Hyperactive' was huge. As was the Flat Earth. I never knew that he wrote that for Michael Jackson. I can actually see him performing that song.
Really interesting stuff. Are you sure that you never taught any college music courses? Your a natural behind the lens~
Rob/Boston
Thanks Rob...I was curious what your knowledge of Dolby would be, but I had a suspicion that he wouldn't be unknown to you. I guess the earlier MTV part of his career did make a kind of star of him, but for a variety of reasons his solo career never really evolved beyond cult status. Ha ha, no I never taught college music courses, although I'd have loved to!
Like many, I am not too aware of Dolby's overall career. I know the hits etc. but little else. Although I do remember him being prominent on the soundtrack to the silly movie Wierd Science in the 80's. This video was fantastic because it gave me a ton of information and sparked interest in him. Thanks James.... Matt
Thanks Matt, you never know when you make these kind of videos if anyone's going to be interested enough to tune in, and it's always mind-blowing when they do. Dolby is well worth checking out if you're a Beatles/powerpop fan.
Thanks I will. I appreciate learning about artists that I have limited knowledge of. It can inspire me to check them out for the first time, even after they've been around for many years. All the best...and enjoy the rest of your weekend....Matt
Interesting and thought-provoking video James, thanks for the education. I have seen Thomas' name around and vaguely recall 'airhead' hovering around the lower reaches of the charts when I was about 9. That, coupled with the title and cover of 'Aliens Ate My Buick' (along with Weird Al coming into view at the same time) had me pigeonholing him as a comedy/novelty act.
But your description of jazz chords wrapping up melancholy and nostalgia has me intrigued! A lot of great info here, and again your passion shows through. Another great video, cheers - Dean
Thanks Dan! It's a shame that Dolby acquired that 'comedy' nutty professor tag early on. There was a lot more to him than that.
ps sorry for calling you Dan, Dean!
Hello James, I have the cassette of Dog eat Dog and I believe he sings on there too I think////...wow 82? Time passes////great review James I really only knew the MTV music so it seems there is so much more to him than I knew////enjoyable vid and info packed!!! good to see you and hope you are well --- Lis
Hey Lis, great that you stopped by. I am well thanks, though my ears are ringing a little from last night's gig. Hope you have a peaceful Sunday!
Hi James,
Nice vid as always......
Picked up Langley Park and Jordan today as both produced by Dolby ... £3 each.......Plus a couple of Buddy Rich too, also £3 each ...as a drummer yourself do you have any Buddy Rich in your collection?
Hi, I used to have a couple of LPs of Buddy Rich but I don't seem to have them anymore. I have various tracks by the Buddy Rich band on different jazz and big-band comps. Great drummer but a complete b***** I believe!
Very interesting James. I knew much of this from looking around on the net but your vid is much more informative. The only thing I have heard from him is She Blinded Me with Science and Hyperactive. His vocals on that album remind me of Howard Jones and also the synth sounds. Interesting about the aliases. And I have heard about him via Prefab Sprout as Producer. Like you I love Prefab Sprout certainly the earlier albums. I did buy Jordan the comeback on CD but haven’t really listened to it that much - at the time I lost interest in them as a band.
Hi Jon. Jordan is a patchier album than Steve McQueen (probably too long), but there are a handful of tracks that are up there with anything the Sprout ever did - check out Moondog, Carnival 2000 and Looking for Atlantis. Cheers.
I hate She Blinded Me With Science, But that album is amazing. I picked it up in a guitar shop, and I've loved it since day one. I was a teen in the 90's so I knew about him via that stupid pop hit, but I loved the dark, brooding stuff on that record. Europa and the Pirate Twins, and Airwaves are on par with anything Genesis put out.
Always liked Dolby's songs and also really like the instrumental in the Foreigner song Urgent you said he worked on. makes sense. Incidentally in the 80s (before internet) I had heard and was convinced that Dolby died in somekind of accident. I didn't realize until a few years ago that he's alive and well. Maybe a Mandela Effect thing?
He is a bit of shadowy figure in the music industry! Thanks for watching.
Why is "She Blinded Me with Science" annoying? Thomas is a great musician and writer, but Science is a great pop song. My favorite song by him is Airwaves.
Great video as always James. My first introduction to Thomas Dolby was via the single Windpower and of course his work with Foreigner. After Hyperactive he fall off my radar. I don't know if you have heard The Word podcast. Thomas Dolby was interviewed recently and he came across as very humorous. I enclose the link for you wordpodcast.co.uk/2017/05/25/word-podcast-269-thomas-dolby-on-the-most-varied-career-in-pop-and-technology/
Thanks Steve, I will check out that link...never heard The word podcast.. Glad you enjoyed the video, have a good week.
I managed to pick up Aliens ate my Buick on vinyl for £5. Im sure its an easy find
Hi Ethan. I did once see it in a charity shop and that was quite some time ago now. God knows why I didn't grab it, maybe it wasn't in very good condition or maybe I was just being complacent.
James Griffiths very good album sadly quite underrated. Really good video!:)
flat earth is great a lot of great cuts
It is indeed. Thanks John.
I watch you all the time
Thanks.
This was surprising James. Thomas Dolby is one of those names like Murray Head. Most people have heard the name in connection with other things but few people know who they are. Thomas Dolby has hardly ever been a headline act has he, and he's not really what you would call 'alternative'. He did however do a fantastic job with the Steve McQueen album. How would you pigeon hole him though? As a musician, a producer, song writer? He is not what you would call a pop star is he. Did you know he was asked to produce Mainstream by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions? He turned it down.
Hi John. Ah no, I didn't know the Cole connection. I think Dolby is very difficult to pigeon-hole. He's a kind of one-man music and technology entrepreneur who has adopted different guises as he's moved through his career(s). I think his music was quite 'alternative' in its way, at least earlier on. I didn't mention this in the video, but there was rather a telling quote from Trevor Horn in the early nineties where he said something like 'For years I watched Dolby and waited for him to release something so mind-blowing and game-changing that it would basically put him up there with Prince, but he never did'. I think that's true really - he never fulfilled his potential, probably because he was interested in other things beyond music. He made a lot of terrific music but there's no one 'game-changing' album that you can point to. An interesting artist anyway.
Definitely. You do a great job with this sort of thing.
Diolch yn fawr!
Croeso!
You really must stop making videos about people I'm not interested in and making them interesting. I will now call him polyphonic dolby.
Hi Martin...Dolby is definitely worth your interest! Thanks for watching, hope you are well.