Culture Club

One Liner: Classic 80's band with a surprisingly short lifespan

Wikipedia Genre: New wave, pop, soul, blue-eyed soul, dance-rock, sophisti-pop (that is a new one!)
Home: London

Poster Position: 7
Weekend Two Only.  Saturday.

Thoughts:  The addition of this band made me think about who are the bands that I want to see brought out of the 80's dust bin and shoved back up onstage for me to enjoy.  I know you wanted to hear about Culture Club, and I'll get to that, but first let's remember some things that would be fun to see in future years to bring up some heavy nostalgia points.

We have already enjoyed some 80's groups: Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Lionel Richie, The Replacements, Dwight Yoakum, David Byrne (although a real Talking Heads show would have been more better).  And likely more that I am not remembering.  You could probably lump LL Cool J in there.  AND, those are much bigger artists than Culture Club - Depeche Mode has many hits, which CC really only has the two.  So we need to step it down even a little bit from those that I am saying we had in the past.

• Def Leppard.  I don't want to dive in to a whole hairband argument here, but I don't really give a damn about most of them coming.  Poison, Whitesnake, KISS, Warrant, Motley Crue - none of those would really interest me.  But Def Leppard rules.  Although, I guess by my own rules above, they have way too many hits to be on the level of Culture Club.
• Tears for Fears.  A million percent.  Let's do this.  3 hits, right?  That is perfect for this slot.
• Cyndi Lauper.  I'm honestly shocked that she hasn't already done it, unless she is like dead or something.  3 hits and then some almost ones like the Goonies theme.
• Speaking of which, Wham! would have been the perfect thing here, except for George Michael having passed on.  Also, The Cars would have been SICK!  Or INXS!  Stupid death!
• Hall & Oates!  I'm actually shocked that they haven't already been on the poster, since they seem to have a good bit of hipster cachet in movies and TV shows.
• The Bangles!  One of them even lives in Austin!  How has this not happened?
• The Police would be amazing.  I love that band.  But I don't think they do reunions... and they are huge, not just a little two hit wonder.  I was just thinking of 80's stuff.
• Other random ones from my personal childhood jukebox of happiness: The Outfield, DEVO (I can do a full-on dance and lip-synch to "Whip It"), New Order, B-52's, Simple Minds, Crowded House.  Lots more good ideas that would bring back some good nostalgia.
• I don't think we would get much recognition or traction from a lot of the one-hit-wonder bands like Dead or Alive, The Buggles, Kajagoogoo, Thompson Twins, Flock of Seagulls, Men Without Hats, Glass Tiger, Psychedelic Furs (actually, maybe they would be legit?), etc.

OK, enough of that.  This is the band with Boy George at the head of it.  The name came from them having a gay Irish man, a black Briton, a blond Englishman, and a Jewish drummer in the band.  From looking at their ten most popular songs, only three of them ring a bell.  Two were huge hits, and then one more sounds familiar further down the list.  We'll start with the mega hit.  "Karma Chameleon" with 441.8 million streams.

Oh wow.  Ye olde tyme slave trade is happening, but also a super weird guy with feathers in his hair and extreme eye makeup is there singing and making the slaves dance with the awkward hookers and soldiers and aristocrats.  What in the hell does that video think it is getting at?  And then a poker game!  Ah, he's a cheat!  Walk the plank!  "I'll get you for this!!!"  "Boy George once explained about the song: "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren't true, if you don't act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that's nature's way of paying you back."  WTF does that even mean?  If you don't act like you feel, then nature will get you back?  Mmmmkay.

That track was from their second album, 1983's Colour by Numbers.  Their first album had that track that seems familiar (I feel like it was on a movie soundtrack or something), "I'll Tumble 4 Ya," with 10.5 million streams.

 

I was going to say Wedding Singer, but it ends up that was actually in Billy Madison.  What a weird movie.  Fun song and fun video, but man the 80's were a weird time, right? But then that first album also had their second biggest hit, the excellent "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" with 109.4 million streams.  

I frequently still sing this song to my family members in a voice that is a cross between Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and Marilyn Monroe's happy birthday song.  Never creepy at all.  But the track is fantastic still - that little reggae riddim and his voice combine to maker something indelible.

After Karma blew up, I'm sure they thought their ticket was punched and it was nothing but huge albums, but 1984's Waking Up With The House on Fire does not appear to have been much of a hit.  Next, because this is what people did back in the day, they went ahead and released a greatest hits album, in 1987, featuring all three of those tracks up above.  Next, a collection of remixes in 1991.  This feels sad.  Is it sad?  Why aren't they making new music here?  2002 was another Greatest Hits and collection of demos and outtakes.  2011 sees another, called Essential.  2012's was called All The Best.  What went on during this period?

They were formed in 1981 with four dudes, and were considered part of the "New Romantic" scene.  In the UK they amassed twelve top 40 hit singles, including two #1s with "Karma Chameleon" and "DO You Really Want to Hurt Me."  Karma hit #1 in the US in 1984 as well.  Wikipedia claims that "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.  That song rings zero bells to me.  Weird.  But right about now (1984) this was the perfect thing for MTV - a flamboyantly designed pop group with some hits, which led to winning a Grammy for Best New Artist and some other awards.  Right about now is when George was one of the stars in "Do They Know Its Christmas."

But with that third album, it was a commercial flop.  Boy George claims that it was the result of the labels forcing them to put music together after they were exhausted from a huge world tour in 1983/1984.  But also, George and the drummer, Jon Moss, had a romantic relationship at the time that had unraveled (with alleged physical and verbal abuse from both sides), which apparently led to George hitting the drugs even harder.  By 1986, George was seriously addicted to heroin.  Apparently there was a fourth album made during this time, but it is not even available on Spotify.  Wikipedia says it performed terribly as news about the heroin addiction became widespread and he was arrested in 1986.  The band broke up and George went solo.  Since then they have done a handful of reunion attempts - Wikipedia lists 1989, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2011, and 2014-present - but that last one was apparently successful enough to create Life, a 2019 album of new songs.  It is, unfortunately, not very good.  George kind of sounds like an old Mavis Staples or if Seal was 98.  The top track is "Let Somebody Love You," with 4.6 million streams.

Oh boy.  Reggae, mon!  That ain't it.  I won't be there on Second Weekend Saturday anyway, but I might have run by to check out some of the classics.