Tuesday, 26 September 2023

The Fantastic Mr Foxx


Cheekbones. Whatever happened to them?

Another day, another shudder goes down my spine as I realise how old everyone is getting (including me).

For today it is the 75th birthday of Mr Dennis Leigh - better known of course as synthesizer aficionado, original vocalist and founder-member of Ultravox, John Foxx!

It seems like only yesterday that I almost fell off my chair - electronic music freak that I was (am) - when I first heard this, his magnificent debut solo hit [and almost immediately had to go to Roxcene Records in Newport to buy the 7" single! I still have it.]:

On investigating his career [prompted by the fact he had been cited several times by none other than my idol Gary Numan as being as great an influence on him as Kraftwerk], I came across - and immediately fell in love with - this [the best song Ultravox ever created, in my opinion]:

Somehow we drifted off too far
Communicate like distant stars
Splintered voices down the 'phone

The sunlit dust, the smell of roses drifts, oh no
Someone waits behind the door
Hiroshima mon amour

Riding inter-city trains
Dressed in European grey
Riding out to echo beach

A million memories in the trees and sands, oh no
How can I ever let them go?
Hiroshima mon amour

Meet beneath the autumn lake
Where only echoes penetrate
Walk through Polaroids of the past

Future's fused like shattered glass, the sun's so low
Turns our silhouettes to gold
Hiroshima mon amour

Nostalgia. It ain't what it used to be... Sigh.

Many happy returns, John Foxx (born 26th September 1948)!

12 comments:

  1. The second is devastating.

    Grateful for his cheekbones. Didn't he do an underwear ad?

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    Replies
    1. Well there is this, but I'm pretty certain it's fake. Jx

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  2. I was mad on Kraftwerk and the electronic music that was coming out of Germany when I was a youngling.
    Then Ultravox, Gary Numan and others came along. The music is pure joy to me
    happy 75 Mr fab cheek bones

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    Replies
    1. The turn of the 70s into the 80s was the most radical period of time for new music, as the synthesizer went from room-sized contraptions to a manageable and affordable size so everyone had access to the technology.

      And didn't they use it well? My lifelong obsession with all things synth began the moment I heard the unmistakable opening chords of Are Friends Electric? by Gary Numan/Tubeway Army on The Old Grey Whistle Test, and the rest is history... Jx

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  3. It really was the sound of a whole new world.

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    Replies
    1. I loved that new world! I was sweet seventeen, and had everything to look forward to. Jx

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  4. Exits, stage left, very quietly...

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    Replies
    1. Note to self: revert to "Nat King Cole mode" whenever Dinah's around. Jx

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  5. I haven't heard Underpass in years!
    The Ultravox one would have scared the living daylights out of me.
    Sx

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    Replies
    1. It's a beautiful song, despite its gloomy video. I love 'em both! Jx

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  6. I'm back having just to a big catch up and had to play 'Underpass' again.
    Fabulous, another time another era. I had a 27 inch waist then !

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    Replies
    1. Worth a revisit! Ah, a 27-inch waist... Gone the same way as the cheekbones, more's the pity. Jx

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