cargo

Men At Work recorded their second album quickly but kept it in storage while their debut continued to dominate charts around the world.  The sessions for 'Cargo' took place during the summer of 1982 and were produced by Peter McIan with Greg Ham on flute, keyboards, saxophone, background vocals, and lead vocals; Colin Hay on guitar, lead vocals, and synclavier; Johnathan Rees on bass and background vocals; Jerry Speiser on drums and background vocals; and Ron Strykert on guitar, background vocals, and lead vocals.  

With the massive success of 'Business As Usual'  the band was convinced to keep their new album on the shelf while the debut was making waves in the UK and the US.    Hay considers:    "We actually released 'Who Can It Be Now?' and then I think we released 'Down Under' and then 'Overkill' and then 'It's A Mistake'. But to me, they weren't that different at all, really. People's perceptions of other people's songs are very different. To me, all music is political in one way or another, either obviously or not so obviously. But 'It's A Mistake' was a very 'Dr. Strangelove' kind of thing. Men At Work were sugar-coated in lots of ways. In another light we were more subversive than a lot of people gave us credit for...I think we made the classic mistake of releasing 'Cargo' too soon in America. But, we were being loyal to all our fans. We'd been loyal to our Australian fans 'cause our first album had been out for a long time. We felt we should release the second album because people wanted it. "

Ham said at the time:   "I think that the basis of the success of our music is that the melodies that are in the songs are a universal thing.  I think that's the important thing about music is melodies that people can remember and sing along and that's the essence of the best songs that we've got." 

'Cargo' was conveyed to number eight in Sweden and the UK, four in Norway, three in the US, two in New Zealand, and number one in Australia.  It has been certified triple platinum in Australia, Canada, and the US.  







http://www.colinhay.com/







"Overkill"  hit number thirty in Germany, twenty-four in New Zealand, twenty-one in the UK, fifteen in the Netherlands, nine in Ireland, five in Australia and Norway, and number three in the US.  







"It's a Mistake" made it to number forty-three in New Zealand, thirty-four in Australia, thirty-three in the UK, nineteen in Germany, eleven in Ireland, and six in the US.  





"Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive"  went to number thirty-one in the UK, twenty-eight in the US, twenty-five in Ireland, sixteen in New Zealand, and number six in Australia.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0hplwgNtI





"High Wire"    
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vlSPRtZpQg



"Blue for You"  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p6ebaWdDys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqSBmqcfV6Q









'Cargo'
full album:





All tracks written by Colin Hay except as noted.


1. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" 4:38
2. "Overkill" 3:47
3. "Settle Down My Boy"  Ron Strykert 3:31
4. "Upstairs in My House" Hay, Strykert 4:03
5. "No Sign of Yesterday"  6:15
6. "It's a Mistake" 4:34
7. "High Wire" 3:02
8. "Blue for You" 3:55
9. "I Like To" Strykert 4:03
10. "No Restrictions" 4:31

down under

Men at Work had a worldwide smash with this cheeky celebration of their homeland. Colin Hay recalls: "It's a very important song for me. It always felt like a strong song, right from the start. Originally, the idea came from a little bass riff that Ron Strykert, the guitar player for Men at Work, had recorded on a little home cassette demo. It was just a little bass riff with some percussion that he played on bottles which were filled with water to varying degrees to get different notes. It was a very intriguing little groove. I really loved it, it had a real trance-like quality to it. I used to listen to it in the car all the time. When I was driving along one day in Melbourne, the chords popped out and a couple of days later I wrote the verses."

The song has become embraced as a patriotic anthem by his countrymen; but Hay says: "The chorus is really about the selling of Australia in many ways, the over-development of the country. It was a song about the loss of spirit in that country. It's really about the plundering of the country by greedy people. It is ultimately about celebrating the country, but not in a nationalistic way and not in a flag-waving sense. It's really more than that...It's ironic to me that so many people thought it was about a specific thing and that really wasn't the intention behind the song. If you listen to 'Born In The USA,' it's a similar song in that there's a lot of nuance missed because people like drinking beer and throwing their arms up in the air and feeling nationalistic. It's ultimately a song about celebration, but it's a matter of what you choose to celebrate about a country or a place. White people haven't been in Australia all that long, and it's truly an awesome place, but one of the most interesting and exciting things about the country is what was there before. The true heritage of a country often gets lost in the name of progress and development."

'Down Under' went to number one in Australia in December of 1981 for four weeks. A month later, it hit number one in New Zealand. Eight months later, it went to the top of the charts in Canada. It was at number one simultaneously in Ireland, the UK, and the US on January 29, 1983. It also hit number one in Denmark and Switzerland.

Traveling in a fried-out Kombie

On a hippie trail, head full of zombie

I met a strange lady, she made me nervous

She took me in and gave me breakfast

And she said,

"Do you come from a land down under?

Where women glow and men plunder?

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels

He was six-foot-four and full of muscles

I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"

He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

And he said,

"I come from a land down under

Where beer does flow and men chunder

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover."

Lyin' in a den in Bombay

With a slack jaw, and not much to say

I said to the man, "Are you trying to tempt me

Because I come from the land of plenty?"

And he said,

"Do you come from a land down under?

Where women glow and men plunder?

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover."

Yeah!

Living in a land down under

Where women glow and men plunder

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover!

Living in a land down under

Where women glow and men plunder

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover!

In case you're wondering:

"A Fried out Kombi" is a broken-down VW Kombivan.

"Head full of Zombie" refers to a powerful type of marijuana.

"Vegemite" is a fermented yeast spread popular in Australia.

"Chunder" is Aussie slang meaning to vomit.

Larrakin Music sued Hay and Strykert in 2009, claiming they took the flute riff for the song from Marion Sinclair's children's rhyme 'Kookaburra'. They eventually were given a judgement to pay out five percent of royalties earned since 2002. Hay says:

"I'll go to my grave knowing 'Down Under' is an original piece of work. In over twenty years no one noticed the reference to 'Kookaburra.' Marion Sinclair never made any claim that we had appropriated any part of her song, and she was alive when 'Down Under' was a hit. Apparently she didn't notice either." See what you think.

business as usual

When this local Aussie favorite first released their debut album, their label refused to release it in the States. Men at Work had built a loyal following in Australia; but Columbia Records didn't think that their success in their home country would translate to American audiences, despite the fact that it was produced by American Peter McIan. 'Business As Usual' quickly hit number one in Australia; but it took six months for it to be released in the UK and the US.

Colin Hay remembers: "It really happened in lots of places before America. America was the last place to pick up on the band. It was actually about a year after the record was successful in other parts of the world that the American record company released it. They certainly weren't looking to Australia for guidance as to what was going to happen in America. It was only really after it started to sell records in different parts of the world and people started playing it in America, that the record company decided that they could make it work and released it. But, I don't really know about things like that, what would've happened if that hadn't happened, what would've happened then. I don't really tend to think much of that, because I actually go on what did happen. But we were very confident because we could feel it right from day one when we could play in front of people. People liked what we did. It was very simple, we had a very simple approach."

'Business as Usual' was a worldwide smash, selling over fifteen million copies and topping album charts in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, the UK, and the US. It took a Juno Award in Canada for "International LP of the Year." Men at Work eventually won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983.





https://myspace.com/menatwork

http://www.colinhay.com/

The paranoid pop perfection of 'Who Can It Be Now?' became a worldwide smash hit, going to number two in August of 1981 and number one in the US in October of 1982.  






The cheeky celebration of their homeland 'Down Under' became a sensation around the world and has been embraced as an anthem by the people of Australia.  It went to number one in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR9iY5y94s

The escapist daydream of 'Be Good, Johnny' was a cheeky reference to 'Johnny B. Goode'. It wasn't released as a single in the US; but it made it to number three the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It also made it to number eight in Australia and number three in New Zealand.

'Business as Usual' 
full album 



Side one
1. "Who Can It Be Now?"   Colin Hay 3:25
2. "I Can See It in Your Eyes"   Hay 3:32
3. "Down Under"   Hay, Ron Strykert 3:45
4. "Underground"   Hay 3:07
5. "Helpless Automaton"   Greg Ham 3:23
Side two
6. "People Just Love to Play with Words"   Strykert 3:33
7. "Be Good Johnny"   Hay, Ham 3:39
8. "Touching the Untouchables"   Hay, Strykert 3:41
9. "Catch a Star"   Hay 3:31
10. "Down by the Sea"   Hay, Strykert, Ham, Jerry Speiser 6:53