Do All The Things You Never Dared

“Drop your trousers and pee in the I.F.E.Z. lake,” was not one of The Human League’s suggestions in Things That Dreams Are Made Of, but it scans well and it even fits the quirky, tongue-in-cheek mood of Norman Wisdom and ice cream.

As you may have guessed, No.16 in my Sony Walkman Countdown is The Human League with 35 songs. Actually, they share this spot with Sting. However, I don’t listen to Sting very much these days. He sounds old and seems more like a professor of literature than a rock star. The Human League, at least their early material, sounds icy, edgy, raw and exciting even today. Dare was one of those albums that, as soon as the first few notes issued from the speaker, I was enraptured. I had never heard music like this before and I still maintain that Dare is one of the ten greatest pop albums of all time. Could they top that? Yes, they did, with Love And Dancing by League Unlimited Orchestra. Magic!

Things That Dreams Are Made Of (Dare)

Things That Dreams Are Made Of (Love And Dancing)

Funny thing. One of the main protagonists in the book I am reading at the moment, Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, is a vagabond named Half-Cocked Jack. He is so named due to a nasty incident which occurred with a red hot poker. If ever Hollywood makes a movie of Quicksilver, all three of these chaps would be anatomically suited for the Jack role.