ABC, "The Look of Love"

I have a large and oft-professed love of a radio concept called “10@10”: a station plays 10 songs in a row from one year, interspersed with news clips and pop-culture ephemera from the period. The originator of the concept is San Francisco KFOG DJ Dave Morey, whose show I’ve been listening to since October 1998 (tip of the hat to fellow Schwab co-workers Thomas Growney and Mark Schroeder, who clued me in to the station’s greatness).

Recently Dave played a set from 1982 that included Brit synth outfit ABC’s first and cheeriest hit, “The Look of Love”. An absurdly overdramatic vocal performance from Martin Fry distracts attention from everything else: he’s a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, careening from knowing (“When the world is full of strange arrangements”) to hostile (“Look, for your information,” he sneers to his well-meaning friends who’d asked the innocuous question “What’s the look?”, seeming to momentarily prefer the look of Faye Dunaway), to meta (“Me, I go from one extreme to another”), to maudlin (his friends say “Martin, maybe one day you’ll find true love,” and he replies, “Maybe,” heaving a sigh like a weather balloon), to unhingedly celebratory (“hip hip hoo-ray-yay!”). It’s quite an exhausting listen.

But on hearing it, the song’s second line, “and gravity won't pull you through,” struck me as oddly familiar. Then later in the week, en route to work, I was listening to Nina Simone’s version of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” and there it was: “gravity fails and negativity won’t pull you through.” How utterly random for ABC to toss a sideways glance in Dylan’s direction in the midst of their glossy pop bombast. Yippie-yi, yippie-yi-YAY-YAY!!

PS: A belated Happy Father's Day to all to whom it's applicable, and happy b'day to Mwox.