Artist: Quantum Jump
Album: Quantum Jump
So this coming Saturday happens to be my birthday, and I'm getting to the age where I sort of can't believe I've gotten to be this old, and yet realize I'm young enough to have older friends that would hear that, roll their eyes, and give me a good natured, "Ummm.... shut the fuck up."
But this isn't about getting older... but as always, in between whatever current dance-pop hit I'm currently obsessed with, I like to reach back in time and share some stuff that life has placed into my life. I like to think that it means something, but admit it's probably a bit random. So here is a semi-meaningful completely random discovery I actually made late last year, but suddenly has some funny odd circumstances...
(Man the buildup is way too great for this silly song.)
Okay so the year I was born, the British band Quantum Jump released their self-titled debut album. The band was named after lead singer and keyboard player Rupert Hine had a convo with an ex-Cambridge student and friend whom told him about a recent discovery at the school about how electron energy increases and decreases which would later be called "quantum leap." He liked "Jump" better as it had "a more soul/funk music connotation." Okay.
In general, Quantum Jump's 70's progressive rock is NOT my bag... at all, but their most well known song, and mildly controversial, "The Lone Ranger" stood out when I randomly came across this record. As it was being recorded, a label rep said it had potential, but needed a better beginning... so Hine looked up the longest word in the Guinness Book of World Records, and hence that opening. (the word is Maori, the name of hill in Murray's Bay New Zealand.) Man, the 70's right?
So the song first gets released in my birth year but is pulled from the radio by the BBC because of concern for drug and get this... homosexual references. (The Lone Ranger in this song is possibly "a poofter" who has a crush on Tonto.) After this, guitarist Mark Warner leaves the band to join Cat Steven's on the road, and Hine and the rest of the Jump soldier on with an expensive and less popular second album, called "Barracuda," which rendered them penniless, so they split.
Two years later the band would reform unexpectedly and play Top of the Pop when "The Lone Ranger" became a surprise hit. They released a third record comprised of remixed versions of the best stuff from the first two records. It wasn't successful, and Quantum Jump would disband for good. Hine would later become a pretty successful producer for the likes of Tina Turner, Bob Geldof, Suzanne Vega, Rush, Stevie Nicks, the Thompson Twins, and the list goes on.
And all I've got is the start to the last half of my 30's.
High-ho silver away!
Enjoy.
The Lone Ranger
No comments:
Post a Comment