Frank Kogan

Raf

Ricky Martin

Infernal

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Also, if you insist, here are Royal Gigolos (shitty rip), Soraya, Paffendorf, Dim Chris & Thomas Gold, Paralyzed Age, and Caramelle.

(Laura's is the one that touches me most: she's a klutzy stomper who overenunciates lyrics, but with a song this good it makes her charming, an everywoman in the vortex of the night. Raf (the original version, came out several months before the Branigan) is good bread-and-butter Italodisco, Ricky's version's got the most flair and flexibility but he's a bit too easy with it, Infernal are forceful though far too cold.)

Current Music: "Self Control"

From:

petronia.livejournal.com

I love this song!! Why is this googlebait? XD

Never knew there were versions other than the Laura Branigan one (the other day I found out by accident that "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" started life as waltz-time Neil Young, WTF!). That bass synth noise right after the first "oh-oh-oh" in the italo version is amazing.

From:

koganbot

I'm hoping that strangers will Google their way to this thread and start arguing - though this only rarely happens, e.g. Jonas Brothers vs. Busted; and then there was this ilX classic: Dave Matthews Band : Name Your Reasons Why They Are So Bad & Hated, which generated my all-time favorite ilX quote (though maybe you had to be there to truly savor it):

And comparing him to Hitler? I think that's the rudest, most iggnorant thing I have ever heard. Hitler killed 6 million people. Dave makes 6 million people happy every year by putting on amazing shows and for a few hours, making them forget about all the shit that goes on in the world.

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I'd never given Branigan's "Self Control" a lot of thought until Rob Sheffield in Radio On (#3, I think) jumped off from some hypothetical (very likely tongue-in-cheek) comparison I made between Madonna and Joy Division, in which he (Rob) claimed that such a pairing already existed in the form of of "Self Control," which I still think is absolutely true (though I wish I had the issue in front of me to quote what he actually said).

And speaking of '90s fanzines... Frank, didn't you once put a non-Anglais version of "Self Control" (the Branigan version) on one of your WMS blindfold tapes? Or am I confusing it with a non-Anglais version of "Tarzan Boy"? I always get those desperate-sounding woah-woah-woah songs mixed up.

From:

koganbot

Scott, for non-Anglais version of "Self Control" that appeared in the WMS #8 blindfold test, click on the YouTube embed that's third from the top.

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Ah, I clicked on the Raf, thinking that might be it... but now that I hear the Ricky, yes, I remember it. (I'm curious to find out what I said about it at the time, as I'm pretty sure I was one of the blindfolded in that issue).

From:

koganbot

"Tarzan Boy"... No, wait, it's a Laura Branigan song, the one Chuck Eddy said was like Madonna and Ian Curtis: "Self Control." I only realized last year what a truly great song "Gloria" is (better than the Van Morrison one, as good as the Patti Smith one, not as good as the U2 one). I was in a rather dingy Rochester bar, and this DJ (a friend of a friend) was playing a magnificent selection of mostly classic rock songs (magnificent because untypical), all on 45s, all incredibly scratchy and beat up, and he threw "Gloria" on for a bunch of people who arrived from a wedding party. **1/2. (Upped a notch for interesting lo fi AM radio quality, and for ending before the song was over.)
--Scott Woods, 1995

From:

koganbot

So now there's the question as to whether it was Rob or Chuck who formulated the "Self Control" = Madonna + Joy Division equation back in Radio On - think I'll let you do the research on that.

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Um, in case this is getting confusing: I'm not at home now, but I'm certain it was Chuck who made the JD-Madonna connection, Rob who said it equalled "Self Control." Me who later took credit for it all.

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Woah, faulty memory alert...

1) So it was Chuck who made the Madonna/Curtis comparison (how swell of me to think it was me. I also wrote *Ulysses* FWIW.)

2) The DJ was a "friend of a friend"? I guess that's possible... the "friend" would've been an at-the-time girlfriend who previously went to school in Rochester, though I seriously don't recall her being friends with the DJ (maybe her friend who took us to the bar -- and still lived in Rochester?? -- was friends with the DJ. But if I was so impressed with him why don't I remember meeting him or saying hi?).

3) Odd how those "magnificent but untypical" rock songs (in '95) becomes "good but just kind of pleasant" (in '09).

The "wedding party" part does come back now, though.

From:

koganbot

OK, word is in from ROB:

I think you have it backwards -- FIRST Scott, in a Radio On review of Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable" (her duet with the late Nat "King" Cole) said he looked forward to Madonna teaming up with Ian Curtis on "She's Lost Control." Then (next issue, ie a year later!) Chuck wrote that Laura Branigan had already done this with "Self Control." Both points are incredibly brilliant, and I can lay no honest claim to them, though I wish I could!

So, Scott, your original memory is correct.

From:

koganbot

I mean, correct as to your own role, but it was Chuck not Rob who followed up on the desire for a Madonna-Ian duet by saying that the equivalent had already occurred on "Self Control."

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Er, yeah (though I have no idea if this is the proper place on this thread to "respond"), it was definitely me who formulated the "Self Control" = "She's Lost Control" equation (I'd actually forgotten that Madonna was ever part of it, to be honest.)

From my second book (which came out later than Radio On obviously):

[i]Flashdance's queen was Laura Branigan, a parttime actress from New York who scored five top-50 hits between mid-'82 and mid-84. Laura sang about hearing voices, and her own voice was hoarse and VERY BIG--even as operatic pop, "Gloria" went way overboard (and, in 1996, foperatic British popsters Pulp combined its melody with guitars from Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and words about a woman friend who used to ignore the singer in high school, sort of like the mom and dad on my all-time favorite TV show *My So-Called Life*). In "Breaking Out," Laura's "caught in the trap of the workaday world," but breaking free at night; in "Self Control," basically Joy Division's "She's Lost Control" made more lurid, she lives "among the creatures of the night," pacing the streets of her soul. Her near-metal "Heart" comes from "The hour of nighttime when the demons come to call," when sleep is the only way out.[/i]

I have no idea how to make Italics on this board, by the way.

And *My So-Called Life* is no longer my all-time favorite TV show. (*Friday Night Lights* probably is.)

Also (assuming nobody has mentioned it), isn't "Gloria" actually a cover of an earlier European hit -- In Italian, I think, presumably by some Italian singer?

By the way, I hate to keep plugging this brilliant ILM thread that I started a few weeks ago that it both pisses me off and dumbfounds me that people keep criminally ignoring (should have boycotted this one because of that!), but I'm pretty sure a couple other Euro- proto-Branigans are mentioned on the thread below, notably German diva Helen Schneider (of Helen Schneider and the Kick Kraut-fame) and apparent 1975 Eurovision contestant Joy Flemming (whose video is embedded):

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?action=showall&boardid=41&threadid=68741#msg337518

From:

koganbot

Oh, now I'm upsetting everybody I can by not getting around to commenting on (a) Lily Allen downloads, (b) Tinchy Stryder embeds, and (c) now Euroschlagerpop. So "Ein Lied Eine Brucke Sein" is playing as I type, and the melody in the chorus is a hyped-up "Let It Be Me," though the verse is more the galumphing gallop I'd expect.

From:

Turns out the 1978 Gene ("Duke of Earl") Chandler disco track "Lovequake" sounds a lot like Branigan's "Gloria," chorus-melody-wise, as well. Not sure if that's an accident.

From:

koganbot

Also, I was inspired to post these tracks by a convo on one of my friend's lj that unfortunately is on a friends-only thread. Friend asked, in regard to "Gloria" and "Self Control": "'Gloria' and 'Self Control' are such great songs, piling catchy hook upon catchy hook but with somewhat troubling lyrics - Gloria is on the verge of a breakdown and Laura Branigan hectors her for trying to pretend that she's OK, but in 'Self Control' she seems to have given up on everything herself and only lives to go out and get wasted while looking tragically beautiful. Spotify informs me that nothing else Laura Branigan did was particularly good, so I wonder where these two amazing nihilistic synth-pop songs came from."

The immediate answer from one of her commenters was, "Italy. Both are covers of Umberto Tozzi numbers." Actually, only "Gloria" is an Umberto Tozzi number, "Self Control" being sung and co-written by Raf. But a co-writer on both "Gloria" and "Self Control" is Giancarlo Bigazzi, at least according to Wiki.

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I have to say, for me, "Gloria" is a much superior record, one I never tire of, though I've never (unfortunately) given a second's thought to the lyrics (well, maybe a few seconds; I've always been fairly certain it isn't about some deity or other, like U2's... I think I might've heard somewhere that it had a lesbian sub-context, but I've no idea if this is even remotely true). I remember trying hard to hate it while I was in high school -- I'd hear it at weddings and such -- but finally relented several years later (early '90s) when I heard it in this really grungy bar in Rochester NY, mixed in among a whole pile of '70s and '80s songs -- mostly rock stuff -- which all sounded good but just kind of pleasant. When "Gloria" came on the room lit up; some people were semi-mocking it, but everyone was moving in some way to it.

From:

koganbot

I prefer "Self Control" because it's flimsier.

From:

koganbot

By the way Scott, you should add

poptimists, not to mention me, to your lj user "friends list."

From:

koganbot

Ah, you have added me. That was lightning fast!

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Just like my hands on the wheels of steel. (Um, sort of.)

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Okay, I see that Frank did mention that Italopop connection for "Gloria" (and, I'd forgotten, "Self Control") too. Those were *not* the only good things Branigan ever did, though. I mention "Heart" in the passage from my second book I quoted above, and others are mentioned elsewhere in the book I believe (including "Imagination," from the *Flashdance* soundtrack itself, in the immediately subsequent paragraph.)

Plus, her masturbation-as-abyss song "Solitaire" (#7 pop in 1983) is obviously great, too. Also really like "Spanish Eddie"; in fact, anybody who doesn't already own her 1995 Atlantic set *The Best Of Branigan* is really missing the boat.

From:

Just heard this 45 tonight, and posted this on that 45s from Metal Mike thread on ILM:

Roby & Brina "OK Disco Italia"/"Canta Anche Voi OK Disco Italia (Instrumental)" (Baby Germany, 1986) OK, this is more like it. This duo looks cuter, for one thing. He's pretty nerdy looking in his glasses and all, but with an ironic Confederate flag truckers' hat (?) a couple decades early almost, and she's got a short bob haircut and an oversized T-shirt that says "BOY" on it in really big letters like in one of those old Wham! videos. And they have Italian flag colors behind them, and the music is Italo disco. But not what would be called Italo disco now, probably. It's a medley of hits, in Italian -- starts with a short snippet of "Gloria" which Laura Branigan had covered, followed by a snippet of "Ti Amo" which Laura Branigan had also covered, but they don't boom the song out like Laura would have, and then there are other songs I never heard before, one of which goes "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma Maria" or something, and in between there's a chorus about it all being "OK! Disco Italia!", just like the title says. And the B-side is the same thing, except with no words beyond the chorus, though it does keep the tune parts to "Gloria", et. al.

From:

more:

So, just noticed (not sure how I missed this before) that that Roby & Brina 45 breaks down the elements of its medley on the back: "OK Disco Italia/Gloria/ Ti Amo/La Bombola/L'Italiano/Felecita/OK Disco Italia/Mamma Maria/Sara Perche Ti Amo/OK Disco Italia." The eat keeps pumping ("Stars on 45"/"Hooked On Classics" style sort of) and Brina keeps things happy and chirpy throughout, but gets especially joyous on the OK!" parts, as she should. My favorite part otherwise is probably "Mamma Maria"; need to track down the original someday.

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