Electric Avenue

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GoogaMooga
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Electric Avenue

Postby GoogaMooga » 07 Nov 2018, 21:20

Digging Eddy Grant's original version of "Electric Avenue", his smash single from 1982, which peaked at #2 in the UK and the US the following year. Electric Avenue itself is a street just behind Brixton Station, in South London. Brixton is the home of many Caribbean immigrants, and Grant wrote the song in response to the 1981 Brixton riot, which we heard about as far away as Tokyo. It's a terrific song, as close to rock as reggae ever got. On such a song, a whole career is built, and the song itself was one of the first by a black artist to get heavy rotation on MTV. Strong enough to get a charting remix in 2001. I think I own both, but I am not sure. In any case, the original single is absolute killer, a revved-up slice of electro-funk.

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby Hugh » 07 Nov 2018, 22:15

I think his career might have been built on Baby Come Back in the sixties.

And Don’t Wanna Dance, the single that preceded Electric Avenue was a bigger hit.

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby sloopjohnc » 07 Nov 2018, 22:22

Hugh wrote:And Don’t Wanna Dance, the single that preceded Electric Avenue was a bigger hit.


The first one didn't get any play in the US. Electric Ave. did, however.
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby GoogaMooga » 07 Nov 2018, 22:31

Hugh wrote:I think his career might have been built on Baby Come Back in the sixties.


But that was when he was in The Equals.
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby Hugh » 07 Nov 2018, 22:49

sloopjohnc wrote:
Hugh wrote:And Don’t Wanna Dance, the single that preceded Electric Avenue was a bigger hit.


The first one didn't get any play in the US. Electric Ave. did, however.


Fair point.

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby Ranking Ted » 08 Nov 2018, 00:13

Hugh wrote:I think his career might have been built on Baby Come Back in the sixties.

And Don’t Wanna Dance, the single that preceded Electric Avenue was a bigger hit.

Agreed. He’d a string of hits with the Equals and solo before this - EA was where it more or less ended, the dire Give Me Hope Johanna aside.

Anyway, back to the point - an absolute banger of the first order.

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby trans-chigley express » 08 Nov 2018, 00:31

I love it. I remember using it in a Cup once and recall it went down pretty well giving me a rare win so it seems to well liked across the board. It's got good cross-over appeal. He had a clutch of good singles - Walking On Sunshine, Living On The Frontline, Do You Feel My Love - and was a bit of a one man band playing all the instruments himself and producing too. A talented guy but I do feel he never really made enough quality songs as I think he should have, too many limp things in his catalogue.

Nobody's Got Time is another song of his I really like. It was not a single though.

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby fange » 08 Nov 2018, 03:27

Love it!
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby Minnie the Minx » 08 Nov 2018, 03:29

I’m gonna go down to
K mart and get some shoes
They only cost a dollar

Yeah, I’m gonna go down to
K Mart and get some shoes
They come in every colour

GOOD GOD
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby GoogaMooga » 08 Nov 2018, 03:59

Ranking Ted wrote:the dire Give Me Hope Johanna aside.


I quite like that one, but for different reasons. It's got a simplistic quality about it, especially in the exclamatory chorus, and I tend to lump it with things like "Help Me, Rhonda". Uplifting, but in an unsubtle way. That approach can pay off very well, but it can also be a dead end, like with "Barbara Ann", one that you are more likely to tire of because it's even dumber.
"When the desert comes, people will be sad; just as Cannery Row was sad when all the pilchards were caught and canned and eaten." - John Steinbeck

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby Diamond Dog » 08 Nov 2018, 13:00

Of course very closely connected to "Living On The Frontline" by the same artist, which was the area in London where the 81 riots started.... The Frontline being Railton Road/Atlantic Rd (Electric Avenue being just around the corner).
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby GoogaMooga » 08 Nov 2018, 13:04

I forget whether Electric Avenue was the sidestreet running diagonally down to the back street, the one with the food market, or whether it was indeed the back street.
"When the desert comes, people will be sad; just as Cannery Row was sad when all the pilchards were caught and canned and eaten." - John Steinbeck

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby GoogaMooga » 08 Nov 2018, 13:09

Google maps says the one with the market.
"When the desert comes, people will be sad; just as Cannery Row was sad when all the pilchards were caught and canned and eaten." - John Steinbeck

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby bobzilla77 » 08 Nov 2018, 20:22

I liked it a lot.
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby sloopjohnc » 08 Nov 2018, 21:30

GoogaMooga wrote:I forget whether Electric Avenue was the sidestreet running diagonally down to the back street, the one with the food market, or whether it was indeed the back street.


You turn left at the stall with the Bob Marley t-shirts.
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby The Modernist » 09 Nov 2018, 09:57

GoogaMooga wrote:I forget whether Electric Avenue was the sidestreet running diagonally down to the back street, the one with the food market, or whether it was indeed the back street.


It's literally just below the station and you've all the little arches with stalls and so on. I think it was one of the first roads with electric lighting hence the name. Railton Road is a much bigger road that runs off it.
Brixton has changed massively in the last few years though.

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby Diamond Dog » 09 Nov 2018, 10:21

The Modernist wrote:
GoogaMooga wrote:I forget whether Electric Avenue was the sidestreet running diagonally down to the back street, the one with the food market, or whether it was indeed the back street.


It's literally just below the station and you've all the little arches with stalls and so on. I think it was one of the first roads with electric lighting hence the name. Railton Road is a much bigger road that runs off it.
Brixton has changed massively in the last few years though.



Electric Avenue was indeed the first street in the country with lighting, I believe. *

Railton Rd becomes Atlantic Road at just about where Electric Avenue is... at the other end it becomes Herne Hill (I think).

I was actually born at 81 Atlantic Road - it's easy to find, look for the blue plaque with my name outside.

* just checked - first street in London (not the country) to have lighting, installed in 1880.
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby The Modernist » 09 Nov 2018, 10:39

Diamond Dog wrote:
I was actually born at 81 Atlantic Road - it's easy to find, look for the blue plaque with my name outside.


It was bulldozed down last year Pete as part of the slum clearance programme. They left 79 and 83 as they thought they were alright.

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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby Diamond Dog » 09 Nov 2018, 10:44

The Modernist wrote:
Diamond Dog wrote:
I was actually born at 81 Atlantic Road - it's easy to find, look for the blue plaque with my name outside.


It was bulldozed down last year Pete as part of the slum clearance programme. They left 79 and 83 as they thought they were alright.


Shit. You'd have thought they'd have told me!
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Re: Electric Avenue

Postby ` » 09 Nov 2018, 12:45

Minnie Cheddars wrote:I’m gonna go down to
K mart and get some shoes
They only cost a dollar

Yeah, I’m gonna go down to
K Mart and get some shoes
They come in every colour

GOOD GOD


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"Where there used to be some shops"

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