One less Man At Work

Men at Work were my first modern favorite band. The haunting sax work on Down by the Sea still transports me to that magical musical realm where this corporeal world vanishes for a bit. There was a lot of excellent music that moved well beyond commercial pop (although there was plenty of that). It's sad to hear one of their members who had a high hand in their music is gone.  They were also my first concert sans parents at age 12. I remember the guitarist looked stern and kinda pissed off the whole show but Mr Ham was happy, smiling and joyful. I'll hold on to that memory in honor of him.

HolyMoly wrote: topographicbroadways wrote: I'd read that he was depressed after they got sued for plagiarism a few years ago over the Flute melody in Land Down Under. Pretty horrible money grabbing move. RIP, Men At Work were legends, Colin Hay still is The thing is, the song he supposedly plagiarized was "Kookaburra sits in the old Gum Tree", which I think is kind of the Australian equivalent of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", in that it's so engrained in the culture that it seems ridiculous for anyone to claim ownership of it -- it's a folk melody that conjures images of Australia, which is the point of the song.  Geez Louise.  You're from there, so please correct me if I got any facts wrong, but I think that's what I read.

Yep that's about it. A big company did somehow have ownership of it, and took them to court. All about greed that.

Also, they barely sound similar


Edited by topographicbroadways - April 21 2012 at 18:34

I always loved their hit single "down under", and Greg is responsible for the nice flute passages.

HolyMoly wrote: I was a teenager when the band appeared on the scene, and paid attention to popular/Top 40 music.  I remember I was at a friend's house when "Who Can it Be Now?" appeared on MTV, and remember how fresh and original they sounded.

yes, also Big Country, Simple Minds

I was a teenager when the band appeared on the scene, and paid attention to popular/Top 40 music.  I remember I was at a friend's house when "Who Can it Be Now?" appeared on MTV, and remember how fresh and original they sounded.  They made great videos, which helped differentiate them in the early MTV days.  I remember for the goofy song "Dr Heckyll and Mr. Jive", Greg Ham acted out the character's role, going from the meek scientist to the smooth party animal thanks to a potion he concocted.  Having a regular sax and flute player also made them different from what was around then (though Huey Lewis and the News enjoyed a similar distinction).  The albums "Business as Usual" and "Cargo" still sound great today.