Line Out - Comments on "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant

Comment by Jason Josephes

Jason Josephes — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:29:46 -0800

Have you ever heard Grant's old band The Equals? Story and mp3 here:
http://ironleg.wordpress.com/2007/11/22/the-equals-my-life-aint-easy/

Can we expect a followup post on the theme from Romancing The Stone?

Comment by cosby

cosby — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:50:55 -0800

awesome re-contextualization (re-re-contextualization?) of this song. i never thought of it more than a reason for mid-30's lotharios to get their groove on at a club med circa 1986.

as a side anecdote, my family was not even close to affluent when i was growing up, so we didn't have a cd player until the mid-90's (a slap in the face when you watch 'full house' and kirk cameron's sister has her OWN PERSONAL cd player - total bullshit). we bought it at montgomery ward and the stereo system came with a 2cd promo which included the song 'electric avenue' (which, not so oddly enough, was the name of their electronics department - how is that for re-contextualization?). it got played second most often (after 'everybody wants to rule the world') until i bought my first cd a few weeks later.

Comment by ryko72

ryko72 — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:54:36 -0800

nice tome and good points...but please correct the spelling of his name, Eddy.

Comment by jz

jz — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:57:10 -0800

@3--whoops! nice catch. done and done.

Comment by Dougsf

Dougsf — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:23:51 -0800

I LOVE me some Equals, though 15 years previous, a lot it is analogous to that 1st EG solo album - totally catchy and radio ready, but really stood out musically, and also peppered they're songs with the same themes (class and race issues) in Electric Avenue.

Also, that LP came out in '82, long before MTV was in more than a just a handful of homes, which makes it pretty incredible as something that would likely just get shelved outside of the few outlets that actually showed those little artist promos. Making videos for singles was standard practice for big artist since the 60's, but most were little more than just Beatles Help-era type goofing around. This might be one of the earlier, or at least better, early, political videos made. (The Clash having and Arab and a Jew skanking together in the desert? Who fucking cares, nice try guys.)

Liked that song when I was a kid. Still holds up.

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:00:38 -0800

It's a great song, but those are some seriously brain-dead lyrics. "They still can't feed everyone" -- wow.

It's more pertinent to note that Electric Avenue is in Brixton, the capital of black London, than just "London".

Comment by PdxRitchie

PdxRitchie — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:17:13 -0800

For the last couple of years I've been enjoying this song more than when it first came out.

That usually doesn't happen.

Comment by Flossie

Flossie — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:07:09 -0800

This is the best post ever.

Comment by Brandon Ivers

Brandon Ivers — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:41:52 -0800

he also beat More Fire Crew and Dizzee Rascal to the Oi! punch... for whatever that's worth.

Oi!