A-Ha ~ Take On Me
(written: 29 March 2004)
Wouldn't it be unfortunate if I used every entry to talk about how great Neil Finn & Friends was?
So to avoid this, I'll also avoid my next choice and focus my love for another completely unrelated song. A song that has delighted generations since the mid-80s and spawned possibly the greatest music video of ALL TIME.
Now, assuming this song actually did come out in 1984, I was a whopping 3-4 years old at the time. However, I did have older cousins who were into the "pop music" back in those days, who's influence rubbed off on me a little even then. I musta been the only 6 year old to know who Belinda Carlisle was.
When I was a wee kiddie, my biggest thrill was to see animation mixed with live action. I kid you not. I used to be obsessed with Roger Rabbit. I bought the cassingle (!) of Paula Abdul and MC Scat Cat (I still have the video... shhhh) and dreamed that I too, would one day have a cartoon home-boy cat boyfriend. To me it seemed to symbolise that anything was possible, and that one day, if I was really good I WOULD get to go on a camping trip in a caravan with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy and we'd eat corn. And get into danger. But be oblivious. Etc.
So you can probably understand my fascination with the video for Take On Me. First of all, you have the gloriously handsome Morten Harket, with his shiny sweaty perfect face, his spikey mullet and his undying love for the girl with the big cardigan.
I wanted a comic strip to come alive and dance with me. I wanted an Ian Browne lookalike to love me enough to risk pain and maybe even death to bash himself constantly on my hallway walls. I didn't ask for much. Just unrelenting love from a drawing.
*Looks pointedly at the drawing...*
Ahem.
Like all 80s things, the flashiness of videos to come came and wowed the plebs, overshadowing the greatness that was A-Ha. Dire Straits and their crazy computerized world. Rod Stewart and his stationary patterned jacket. Michael Jackson and his amazing morphing races. Er... I mean the Black and White video with all the faces. What did YOU mean?
It loomed on the horizon. Everyone loved A-Ha. Why WOULDN'T they attempt a comeback? The question should have been... WHY SHOULDN'T THEY? They ruined the mystique. No one wants to see Morten Harket aged 40. No one. Not even his mother.
But the good times kept on rolling. Pop-up Video even featured the song on it's show (did you know that they didn't have a drummer, so the drummer in the video you only see as a cartoon, not as live action?!). Space here in NZ screened the video for the sake of being retro. And then Dawn bought her mother the best-of album and put Take On Me onto a car tape for me.
Finally. I learned the words and could relive the fantasy. Oh rather, relive wanting the fantasy to come true. No remake could ever do it justice. No one, save for maybe Eddie Vedder singing Oceans, can sing such an unnervingly perfect high note. The beauty of the song also lies in the fact that everyone knows this song, yet few people know what the hell it is he's actually singing.
So, consider this my tribute to A-Ha.
"I'llllll beeeeeee gooooooone, dee dooooo deeeeee doooo DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"