EDDY GRANT – "I Don't Wanna Dance"

You do wonder sometimes about the circumstances in which one particular track by a given artist reaches number one when others don’t – the quality of the opposition at a specific time, a hook that reaches more people than the next song. Here’s another case where you could nominate quite a few singles of his which would have made better number ones – wouldn’t it have been fun if “Gimme Hope Joanna” had been his contribution to this list? IDWD is OK I suppose, but a bit stodgy and not one you’d be too excited about hearing again.

“Electric Avenue” was placed in VH-1’s 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s – the list mentioned by James K the other day in which “Come On Eileen” was number one.

Someone else who wasn’t gonna dance no more (doubt if he ever did much, unlike one of his successors) – Leonid Brezhnev, whose death was announced the day after this hit the top.

Number 2 Watch – Dionne Warwick’s startling and classy comeback with “Heartbreaker”, followed by the Human League’s “Mirror Man”.

oops, xpost to Erithian, looks like we covered some of the same ground. Hard for me to decide which would be a more perfect #1 for Eddy, “Jo’Anna” or “Electric Avenue.”

After a few more moments’ reflection, the basic problem is that not only does he not want to dance, you don’t either – it’d make more sense if the song was a bit more uptempo so you could understand why someone would even be tempted. (Compare to “Jo’anna,” which is willing to pair its vicious lyric with a jaunty, optimistic tune.) Someone should try speeding this one up slightly and see how it turns out…

Singalongability on this was centred on “the feeling is baaaaad, the feeling is baaaaad” hook – this got a bit of playground adaptation.

I went on an ‘island safari’ tour when we were in Barbados a couple of years back. The driver made a big thing of hooting and hollering when we passed by Eddy’s ranch in the north of the island. We got waves back from the two gentlemen relaxing on the veranda, but sadly the house is set miles back from the road so I can’t confirm whether it was him or not.

Haha, we saw that too – she’s obviously not overly-concerned about the neighbours thinking she might be freeloading on Nigel’s fame. The tour was great, although we had to have two goes because it was absolutely tipping it down the first day. Very Britishly we insisted on soldiering on until the jeep could safely go no further – our driver seemed nonplussed at our lunatic stoicism.

I’m surprised this got to number 1 for all of the reasons already mentioned. EG doesn’t deliver much variety vocally – relying on a hoarse shout that is quite invigorating on Baby come back but overbearing on this tune.

i think there was also a sort of in-industry fondness for eddy, who had after all been around for a fair old time by now, without ever quite establishing a signature style — i think this era suited him because it gave slightly unfocused quirkiness more wiggle-room than usual, plus (possibly because the sudden caribbean tinge and pop’s mild reggaefication had shifted mainstream radio’s and the general public’s ideas of what black music could be) his own not-especially reggae-ish sound sounded like it might be the next “ethnic” thing (which in the event it wasn’t)

“Electric Avenue” being the only Eddy Grant I know (aside from a handful of Equals songs which I only learned existed because of Popular!), I’ve nothing to contribute here, aside from expressing an oft-felt envy that British folk my age got to grow up with all this great reggae (straight or off-brand) which went unknown in my own land. There’s not even a decent skinhead subculture here; reggae is basically Marley posters in dorm rooms and the COPS theme.

Thank God for record shops.

And, indeed as one of the kids of 1982, I can confirm that this was highly popular at my primary school. I suspect that, rather like ‘Ebony & Ivory’, this may have been the tastes of younger generations of parents being passed on to their children.

I imagine that the optimum circumstances to listen to this might be when drunk in the company of friends.

Someone mentioned above that “Jo-anna” was a little “heavy-handed”. It contains one of my very favourite bad lyrics – the phrase “weapons in the shape of guns”.

What could these weapons be? What other weapons are the same shape as guns?

Sorry, I can be a literalist tw*t sometimes.

I generally agree that this plods along a bit too much, unlike “Living on the Frontline” (Railton Road, Brixton, Waldo tells me and he should know), which is tremendous as the Doc says. In IDWTD Eddy seems to be in a permanent growl, which may or may not be intentional, as after all the guy DON’T WANT to dance. Well, nobody’s asking you to, you idiot!

As for Nigel Benn, wonderfully entertaining fighter but basically a typical bully. Very good when he was in with someone who wasn’t too keen. Different story when folk had a pop back. As much as I was rooting for him against Steve Collins, I’ll never forget the look of absolute horror on Nigel’s face when the supposed gentle Irishman with almost a twinkle in his eye started seriously dishing out violent and terminal correction and Benn suddenly looked about as intimidating as Tiny Clanger. Collins did for that posturing, lisping nancy, Mr Ewbank too, of course, fight fans will remember.

Never heard this song until just now – it’s not really an instant classic, is it? I can see how the melody might get lodged in your head after a while though. The feeling is baaaaaad, the feeling is baaaaad. Thumbs up to the video though, I might have to go and blog it RIGHT AWAY…

I remember at the time knowing this would get to number one.It is gentle and easy and a song that appeals to all generations.

I particularly enjoyed Lenny Henry at the time on “Three of a kind” doing “Eddie Grunt”. “I get a bill for from dee electric company.It keeps on gettin’ higher”

Actually, scratch that last comment. I just went and watched the video and he pronounces dance like an American unlike Jazzie B who always said darnce

Re Gorillaz: Eddy’s indignant rage seems a bit overdone, don’t you think ?

Meanwhile, I wonder if he noticed the rather more obvious similarity between these two songs:

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI6KTW0Z-4Y

This was very popular at the local community hall 1982 Christmas disco as was House of Fun and Come on Eileen, unsurprisingly. I always found this one a bit of a drag, especially the chorus, for me the other worthy Eddy hit is Do You Feel My Love?

Critic watch:

1,001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2010) 1002
Complete Book of the British Charts (UK, 2001) – Neil Warwick’s Top 10 Singles 9
New Musical Express (UK) – Singles of the Year 50