Comments on: CULTURE CLUB – “Karma Chameleon”

By: Brooksie

Brooksie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:45:14 +0000

This had legendary school disco appeal. The fact that they had several decent hits prior to this just made this seem even bigger. It’s almost insanely catchy, and thus deserves it’s high mark, but its lack of depth is its Achilles Heel. It didn’t matter at the time though, ‘Colour By Numbers’ was right behind and it had a few songs which at least attempted some more substance. There was a little of everything in that cake, and Karma Chameleon was just the very sweet cherry on top.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:15:34 +0000

NME Watch: Single of the week from Danny Baker, 10 September 1983;

“Karma: Quite literally, any act that appears in consecutive single colums with the same author. Chameleon: A thin sneaky lizard that absorbs its current background and grins a lot (though slap one on a piece of kilt and they cry like babies). And Culture Club chameleoze the West coast. Lying long in the sun they become as the sound of the surf. It’s ‘Marakesh Express’ and Todd Rundgren and The Eagles and the opening beats of ‘You’re So Good To Me’ by Beach Boys. It’s peace and love, team; perky, free and easy, clever and crafty and this country’s very next number one hit single. I love it pretty much to pieces and seem to play it all the time. Ha! So it wasn’t a mystical man-dress after all George. You’ve been wearing a kaftan, you silk-voiced foul mouthed old she-wolf.”

Also reviewed;

Will Powers – Kissing With Confidence
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Let Them Talk
Donna Summer & Musical Youth – Unconditional Love
Neil Young – Wonderin’
Kajagoogoo – Big Apple
Bee Gees – Someone Lovin’ Someone
Status Quo – Ol’ Rag Blues

By: Erithian

Erithian — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:51:46 +0000

Channel 4 Top 100 Watch: ths is number 29 on the UK’s all-time best-sellers list. 1983 has three entries in the top 100 – this, “Uptown Girl” (93) and “Blue Monday” (76) which of course never got anywhere near number one but whose sales were a different phenomenon altogether.

By: DV

DV — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:28:48 +0000

I increasingly think that Culture Club were complete talentless no-marks, with all their supposedly great hits being utter rubbish. Though I suppose I liked them at the time, meaning that they did the job then, if not now.

By: MikeMCSG

MikeMCSG — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:52:32 +0000

Never liked CC – I always thought they used an outrageous image to sell really bland music which my mum liked to kids. To me they closed the door on punk (as Dave Rimmer noted in his book “As If Punk Never Happened”) and opened it to Stock, Aitken and Waterman and Westlife.

I have some time for George as a cultural commentator but when he slags off Simon Cowell he ignores his own responsiblity for letting the likes of him back in the game.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:18:09 +0000

Mmm, my comment was a bit garbled at the end. Apologies.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:21:35 +0000

“Boy George admitted in one of his autobiographies that this was ‘the sort of record that everybody bought but nobody really liked’.”

I like that line. Pretty much sums up my feelings about KC (except I refused to buy it.)

With that song, they went from being my favourite pop band of the period to the one band to ‘what was I thinking’?

By: thevisitor

thevisitor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:04:38 +0000

The thing I remember being offputting about Victims was the sense of “You thought Karma Chameleon was good? [I didn't] Wait till you hear THIS!” Victims is just a little bit too pregnant with a sense of its own importance. I can think of certain other songs by artists at their commercial peak whose arrangements and delivery radiate a sense of Really Thinking They’re It, but it would be premature to bring them up at this point (if you know what I mean).

By: crag

crag — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:12:40 +0000

Whoops! Did i just say Beth Gibbons? I clearly meant Beth Ditto-sorry…

By: crag

crag — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:18:32 +0000

Never been a fan of this one-much prefer “Church of the Poison Mind” with its modernised motown sound and Helen Terry’s prominent proto-Beth-Gibbons backup vocals. KC strikes me as very contrived, its nonsense lyrical hook sounding like an updated take on the late 60s Katzen-Katz Bubblegum ethos but without any of the charming faux-naivety.
I had a black friend who a few years back informed me he had a particularly strong dislike for the song due to the “red gold and green” line which he saw as an example of the white man’s cheap appropriation of Rastafarianism for their commercial benefit. I told him i figured he was barking up the wrong tree but, when pushed, couldnt think of a non Rastacentric meaning for the line. Obviously one of us had got the wrong end of the stick but does anybody have any idea which one? What DOES the line mean??

By: abaffledrepublic

abaffledrepublic — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:03:57 +0000

Boy George admitted in one of his autobiographies that this was ‘the sort of record that everybody bought but nobody really liked’. My view of it now is along those lines, that it’s not bad but not brilliant, catchy but not very substantial.

I remember it fondly for another reason though. This wasn’t the first no.1 I can remember, but the first time I realised that there was such a thing as a chart, and that this was at the top of it. You know that feeling you get as a child (I was 8) when you discover something that was there all the time, but you never knew existed up to that point.

That was expressed quite clumsily. But I hope you know what I mean!

By: peter goodlaws

peter goodlaws — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:51:09 +0000

Never really cared too much for this soft little pop song. Never really had too much of an opinion of Boy George either, although, like many, I found much credit in “Victims” and “Church”. KC, though, seemed to spin itself off in to a MOR hinterland where the chorus is all-consuming and you either sing along to it a la “Yellow Submarine” and “Lily the Pink” or you keep your mouth shut and the record off. CLICK!

By: Rory

Rory — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:14:21 +0000

I think you’ve nailed it, Conrad – somehow I merged the two videos into one in my memory. Stupid memory.

By: Snif

Snif — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:44:14 +0000

>>Rory – “For some reason I remembered the video as having George on an open-topped bus” maybe you are muddling this with the “Church of the Poison Mind” video where they are in an open top car? Ok, a convertible…

Didn’t The Style Council’s “Speak Like A Child” come out around this time? Seem to recall the video for that having Paul, Mick, Tracoe et al motoring around the countryside in an open-topped double decker…though mistaking P Wellerl for B George is a bit of a stretch :-)

By: Conrad

Conrad — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:49:45 +0000

Rory – “For some reason I remembered the video as having George on an open-topped bus” maybe you are muddling this with the “Church of the Poison Mind” video where they are in an open top car? Ok, a convertible…

It’s funny this one. I didn’t warm to it at the time; I have a lot of affection for it now, partly because it is so, well so Culture Club. Pink Champale nails it for me in 44 – it is a unique concoction, and very effortless-sounding.

I love that listing the colours Red Gold and Green works so well as a hook.

And I love that this is the one and only pop record my Nan bought in the 30-odd years I was privileged to know her.

So, an 8 from me.

Not as good as Time though, but better than Victims, which like a lot of Number 1s from next year, turns the trick (largely through scale of production, hype/genuine or manufactured, sense of event) of seeming more interesting/important than it actually is

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:49:36 +0000

The “titanic scale of its moochiness, woundedness and sulkiness” (very nice!) didn’t impress me about Victims when it came out. It was regarded as an “important” record by djs, press, C Club fans, and – not least of all – by George himself. I agree with Tom on its scattershot melody – I’ve heard it dozens of times and I still can’t remember how it goes beyond the opening lines. It’s no Say Hello Wave Goodbye, at any rate.

By: pink champale

pink champale — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:10:51 +0000

this is a great record. what i particularly like is the way the whole thing seems to have been conjured up out of thin air. most times thre’s an inevitability that sooner or later someone will have decided to do a particular type of music only louder, or quieter, or faster, or slower; or with a brass band added; or with everything taken away except the cymbals. but culture club don’t seem to be answering a question that anyone has ever asked. if this particular group or people at this particular time hadn’t decided to sound and look the way they did then I can’t see anyone else ever would have done.

By: Matt DC

Matt DC — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:01:00 +0000

This is pretty much the first pop song I can remember but I have never liked it. There’s a very naff jauntiness about it that I find incredibly offputting.

By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît

a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:00:10 +0000

a morphic field recoil that went BACK IN TIME to plink out into g.orwell’s brane!

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:41:18 +0000

1984 is YEAR OF WAR, probably as a morphic field recoil to the unknown crisis Rory just posted about.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:30:49 +0000

Am I the only person who’d defend ‘The War Song’, by the way? I mean, obviously, its a stupid lyric, but I’m always glad when I hear it, and I rather admire the scale of the naievity.

Hm, just realised that this topic might perhaps be witheld until summer 1984. But when we get to the Liverpool chart sensations, it will be interesting to think about them in relation to ‘The War Song’, ‘The Lebanon’ and the possible influence of U2′s ‘War’.

‘Move Away’ is also very good indeed.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:25:50 +0000

‘Victims’ is great, not because of its noodliness, but because of the titanic scale of its moochiness, woundedness and sulkiness. If you think that the best thing about Boy George’s songwriting is in its portrayal of lovers hurting each others feelings – and the best thing about his singing is the ability to convey this hurt with a smoothness that belies the pain – then ‘Victims’ must be the definitive Culture Club song.

By: Rory

Rory — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:07:21 +0000

#35 – I’ve whipped up a suitable end-of-days album cover.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:59:44 +0000

“Church” is great but I’m a bit surprised at the consensus regard on this thread for the noodly “Victims”.

By: Matthew H

Matthew H — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:37:46 +0000

Got all the time in the world for George and his warm, soulful voice, but – and I always feel like a Traitor of Pop here – I never thought much of this and still don’t. The melody is thin to these ears; it’s got a hook, obviously, but no “catch” (although I might be applying my own definition here – I mean, there’s nothing that hits the spine for me).

I don’t hate it, I just find nowt to love. Yeah, ‘Victims’ was better. And, ahem, ‘Church Of The Poison Mind’.