Sunday, March 27, 2011

Too shy, shy

Last night I spent my evening blowing my nose like crazy and coughing enough to hack up a lung – pre-school virus. I hope you all spent your Saturday night in a much more entertaining way.


I also had a run through all the channels to check what was on and settled in on MTV’s One Hit Wonders from the '80’s. As I remember the '80’s from the first time around, a lot of memories of childhood came flooding back as I listened to those old hits. I also like to watch those kinds of programs with Misiu and hear his memories of the 80’s. We have a lot of similar memories and excluding one crucial potassium iodide incident, you’d hardly suppose we’d been brought up on different continents. Oh, the uniting influence of pop music.


My favorite video from last night’s line-up was Kajagoogoo’s hit “Too Shy”. Who could forget that song? (Who could figure out what they were actually singing?) And who could forget Limahl’s hair?


Misiu has a memory connected to this characteristic hairstyle…and no, he did not wear this style himself, but an older boy from the village did. Can you imagine what an influence music has that young boys in England, in the US, in Poland and all around the world were sporting the same crazy hair-do after one hit video. So it was not Misiu who was sporting this do but rather his friend Tadek. Misiu to this day is convinced that Tadek, armed with his Limahl hair, was able to single-handedly score all the chicks from DDR (Eastern Germany) who were in Poland on kolonia (camp).


Who could resist?



PS Do you know Shakin’ Steven’s song “Kła czas tu lulbe”? No? You’ve never heard Misiu’s friend Danka’s version? The actual title is…..??? Anybody venture a guess?

15 comments:

Zuzanka said...

I grew up in the middle of 80. too ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78HaK8Brc6U

Kasia said...

That's an easy one :) A few years later there was a song that everybody in Poland new started with words Osiem zapałek. Now, try to guess this one, Chris!

Kajagoogoo where actually the ugliest band of the 80s. Nobody would pay any attention to them if not for their crazy hair :)

girri said...

You know, I'm polish, my boyfriend is english, and what you said about uniting influence of pop music actually applys for the both of us :) the best for me is the fact, that my boyfriend actually comes from the town, where Limahl and Kajagoogoo started! And he remembers that time all too well lol...

Chris said...

Zuzanka - Have you tried to wear any of the 80's clothes that are out now? I have a rule - If you remember the style trend in the original context, then you cannot wear it full out the 2nd or 3rd time it comes around. That means for us, we can only add a hint or 2 of the 80's to our wardrobe.

Kasia - I must admit that I had to google it. Oh, how I loved Richard Marx. Did you figure out the Shakin' Steven? It was the karoke favorite of Misiu's friend who of course knew no English.

girri - Whoa! Your bf comes from Limahl's hometown. Rispekt! Did you see Limahl at Sopot Festival a year (or 2 or 3) ago? His performance was a real crowd-pleaser esp. The Never Ending Story :)

Kasia said...

In the 80's the only English I knew was from the song titles on Lista Przebojow Trojki. I had a notebook and I wrote down the top 20 every week - sometimes using a magazine that had song titles, sometimes as I heard them:)
Anyway - I thought Limahl was singing: too shy, shy, choć choć I do I ??????
Two of my high school friends were in love with Limahl:) I thought his hair was cool:)
I have just googled Shakin's songs and have figured out kla czas tu lulbe:):)

Chris said...

Kasia - Do you still have your top 20 notebooks? If you do, I think you just might be Misiu's soulmate :)

Kasia said...

Chris - sure I knew SS - I'm sure I pronounced it in a similar way. He def mispronounces the r anyway ;)

Well done for finding Richard Marx - no clue how poeple figured out it sounded like osiem zapalek :)

The other Kasia - and Misiu - welcome to the club. I still have my notebooks and I'm sure so does my 10 yrs older sister, who taught me all about music :)

Kasia said...

Oh, and BTW the best mispronounced lyrics I've ever heard was someone singing In the air tonight by Phil Collins: I've been waiting for this snowman all my life. It's even better than one-winged dove from Stevie Nicks' The edge of seventeen - I wonder why people think it makes sense?

Kasia said...

@Chris - unfortunately I can't find my notebook. I still hope it is somewhere in my parents' apartment. I thought about my notebook when I listened to LP3 last Friday:)

@Kasia - I started mispronouncing lyrics when I listened to Boney M in the 70's. And nothing made sense then because I did not know a word in English:) Well - maybe I knew "senkju"...

Unknown said...

Chris, you sure did bring back a lot of memories... I could not resist clicking on youtube and watching Too shy again :-)

Chris said...

So we have Zuzanka to thank (or maybe "senk") for the link :)

Maybe Misiu will let me take a look at his notebooks. I know Sandra played a prominent role in his countdown :)

Pan Steeva said...

There was an English cartoon in which the same favourite song was sung differently by various people. The best version was "Don't cry for me Auntie Tina".

małgośka said...

Wpisz w google "łiłe" i zobacz co podpowiada :)

Chris said...

łiłe, łiłe rakju! I love Queen :)

tranikowa said...

I remember telling my american boss that when I was young, and didn't know English, I didn't worry and kept making up words to English language songs. Many of my friends did the same He loved that story. He said that he couldn't imagin listening to songs with lyrics you don't understand.
Li le rakju rocks.