"One of Our Submarines"

It's criminal that Thomas Dolby hasn't recorded any new records since 1992. Well, maybe he has; some video game music or a record to listen to while looking at a Magic Eye book on tigers, or something similarly obtuse. He's one of those poor souls like the Pet Shop Boys (of whom much, much more at another time, but I will pause here to call them the electo-Beatles and say they are the best pop* songwriters of the last 25 years) whose first hit is all the plebes know, and is relegated in the US to noon-hour "80s lunch" formats on the stations that normally play Crying Admin Rock [see earlier post]. Good heavens, Miss Okomoto, it's a travesty.

The best of Dolby's songs (that is most of them) have a cold wintry touch about them, and he was not afraid of complex narratives. "One of Our Submarines" is purported to be about his uncle's dying on maneuvers in a WWII-era submarine, for instance, and when I was 14, and had this song, borrowed on the cassette Blinded By Science ep [worth seeking out] from my brother, it was the just the saddest thing in the world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUHzvMkkDFc

(the actual promo video for this is one of those 1982-era "live performance" things, like "Slit Skirts" by Pete Townshend, and live music is never superior to studio versions, ever [c and p Patrick Bateman, yes], except possibly here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--pSWLEVGhY)


* pop. Not rock, nor even pop-rock. Pop.