12/25/2023 0 Comments Ultravox vienna viola bathroomI liked those songs, but apparently not enough to prompt me to explore further. I was seeing the "Vienna" video on MTV, along with I think "Reap the Wild Wind" when I first started getting into popular music. Ultravox was one of those bands that kind of snuck up on me over time. Voted for "Sleepwalk" in the past few rounds, though I do like its synth riff. Seeing and hearing Ultravox was a revelation to us. I did not leave his home without a mono cassette tape dub of this song. We watched this repeatedly for the better part of an hour. The next day, after school I went to my friend Dave's house and he had a VCR and had taped it, of course! We were both Numan fans. The middle eight of "Passing Strangers" is still my go-to for Synth Rock Riffage. The instrumental middle eight with all of those synths meshing together and electric viola on top of it was flat out thrilling to me. And here was a band with more synthesizers than I'd ever heard in one place before. The music video made even Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" look bad in comparison, but it was the song that was burned into my brain like nothing else I'd ever heard. The clip came in the last segment of the show and it was riveting. This looked like the best music video yet! Letterboxed, B+W and shot on 16 mm film! This show aired at 1:30 in the morning on Sunday, but I watched it since it was music videos, and it followed Saturday Night Live, which was must-see TV at the time. They used the striking clip from Passing Strangers" in the opening credits as a teaser and I was hooked. It remained until I was watching " Hollywood Heartbeat," one of the late 70s "music video" shows as hosted by Bob Welch. Their records were not prevalent in the market, even though their first and third albums were released here. I first heard of Ultravox when interviews with Gary Numan in the press had them dropping their name. "All Stood Still" was like the apocalyptic, amphetamine-laced sequel to "Fear In The Western World." Given a heavy dosage of La Düsseldorf/Neu DNA. Aargh! "All Stood Still" was my 2nd favorite! Over the 42 years, it's become my favorite of the singles due to its ability to really put the boot in! It was the one track on "Vienna" that could legitimately call back to the sheer unbridled aggression of the "Ha! Ha! Ha!" album, which has really risen in my esteem over time from being my least favorite of the first four albums to something far more than that.
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