A straight teen girl when the video of this song came out, my reaction was very different from yours. Yeah, the song was fun and bouncy and the setting was medieval, which was cool to me, but mostly, WHO’S THE EXTREMELY CUTE GUY SINGING AND DANCING IN THE FIELD??? I assumed the group was just another part of “the second British invasion “ that ruled MTV at the time. I only learned now that they’re Canadian! They did another fun song, “Pop Goes the World”.
Another great post Sunny. One thing about Safety Dance, those first jangly notes are quintessentially eighties. I did not know the etiology of the song and the pogo dancing story! It does make me re-evaluate my feelings about the song, not musically per se, but thematically. Bit of sad trivia. Ivan Doroschuk now lives in Victoria, B.C. A friend of mine, who lived in his neighbourhood, saw him occasionally. He appeared to be mentally ill. Sad. Thanks again for another fun write up of a song I remember so well. One thing though, LOL, I don't hate disco music, well, not all of it (with any zeitgeist, you get a lot of derivative crap and there was a lot of that with disco). But I'll leave that discussion for another time or perhaps articulate why I have re-evaluated my feelings about the disco era on my own bloggy thing. Thanks again Sonny. Always enjoy your posts!
Thanks Nadine! Always great to hear from you! I had no idea Ivan is living in Victoria now, and am sad to hear that he’s not doing as well as he could be. Fingers crossed he can get the help he needs. As for disco, LOL, my reason for feeling that way is far too long a story to get into here. I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the genre, though, and will keep my eyes peeled for any future posts of yours that touch upon the subject. :)
I also had thought it was a Brit song. Anything that was strange, new, or cool I just assumed was British. I did not have MTV in '82, when the song came out, so I would hear it on the radio or secondarily when I was at a friend's house who had MTV. And then, we really didn't listen to the vee jays. But I do distinctly remember my friend David W. having the album, a 12" single!, and how entranced I was with the idea of them having invented their own symbol--the bowler hat dude with the "anti" slash through it.--and then, a few years later was "Ghostbusters" ALSO with the anti-slash. And then there was mid-80s trend of anti-slashing everything. (I remember that as a trend, but don't see anything after a quick google search.)
Thanks for taking the time to share that great story, David! I found the symbol kind of cool as well, to be honest. And I suppose I should have mentioned it in the article, but the actual name ‘Men Without Hats’ came to be because the singer Ivan, along with his brothers/bandmates Colin and Stefan, refused to wear hats during the brutal Montreal winters.
I was also around when this song was a hit. I never knew it was a protest song against disco - especially since the disco era had pretty much ended by the time the song came out. I always thought of it as another quirky MTV hit!
As for the timing, the song charted in ’83, but was released in ’82. So my guess is the ‘incident’ happened in ’80 or ’81? I guess disco was still clinging to life then, what with Blondie, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, etc. Either way, I thought it was interesting, so I figured I’d share. :)
A straight teen girl when the video of this song came out, my reaction was very different from yours. Yeah, the song was fun and bouncy and the setting was medieval, which was cool to me, but mostly, WHO’S THE EXTREMELY CUTE GUY SINGING AND DANCING IN THE FIELD??? I assumed the group was just another part of “the second British invasion “ that ruled MTV at the time. I only learned now that they’re Canadian! They did another fun song, “Pop Goes the World”.
Yeah, I remember the girls at my school going ga-ga for Ivan. When they weren’t fainting over Simon Le Bon, lol.
An underrated karaoke song — if there ever was one.
Another great post Sunny. One thing about Safety Dance, those first jangly notes are quintessentially eighties. I did not know the etiology of the song and the pogo dancing story! It does make me re-evaluate my feelings about the song, not musically per se, but thematically. Bit of sad trivia. Ivan Doroschuk now lives in Victoria, B.C. A friend of mine, who lived in his neighbourhood, saw him occasionally. He appeared to be mentally ill. Sad. Thanks again for another fun write up of a song I remember so well. One thing though, LOL, I don't hate disco music, well, not all of it (with any zeitgeist, you get a lot of derivative crap and there was a lot of that with disco). But I'll leave that discussion for another time or perhaps articulate why I have re-evaluated my feelings about the disco era on my own bloggy thing. Thanks again Sonny. Always enjoy your posts!
Thanks Nadine! Always great to hear from you! I had no idea Ivan is living in Victoria now, and am sad to hear that he’s not doing as well as he could be. Fingers crossed he can get the help he needs. As for disco, LOL, my reason for feeling that way is far too long a story to get into here. I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the genre, though, and will keep my eyes peeled for any future posts of yours that touch upon the subject. :)
I also had thought it was a Brit song. Anything that was strange, new, or cool I just assumed was British. I did not have MTV in '82, when the song came out, so I would hear it on the radio or secondarily when I was at a friend's house who had MTV. And then, we really didn't listen to the vee jays. But I do distinctly remember my friend David W. having the album, a 12" single!, and how entranced I was with the idea of them having invented their own symbol--the bowler hat dude with the "anti" slash through it.--and then, a few years later was "Ghostbusters" ALSO with the anti-slash. And then there was mid-80s trend of anti-slashing everything. (I remember that as a trend, but don't see anything after a quick google search.)
Thanks for taking the time to share that great story, David! I found the symbol kind of cool as well, to be honest. And I suppose I should have mentioned it in the article, but the actual name ‘Men Without Hats’ came to be because the singer Ivan, along with his brothers/bandmates Colin and Stefan, refused to wear hats during the brutal Montreal winters.
I dislike the song much less after reading your post. Thanks.
You just made my day. Thank you for reading!
I was also around when this song was a hit. I never knew it was a protest song against disco - especially since the disco era had pretty much ended by the time the song came out. I always thought of it as another quirky MTV hit!
I had no idea either!
As for the timing, the song charted in ’83, but was released in ’82. So my guess is the ‘incident’ happened in ’80 or ’81? I guess disco was still clinging to life then, what with Blondie, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, etc. Either way, I thought it was interesting, so I figured I’d share. :)