A Mini-Series, A Random Song, and This Week's Statistics #21

It's Olympics' time and there's been a lot of swimming and diving recently. I've also been watching a very good Australian 4-part mini series which is about competitive swimming and is of gay interest. I've just finished watching part 3, but even if I haven't seen the final episode yet, I feel that it's a good time to talk about it. The show is called Barracuda.

The hero of the show is Danny Kelly (Elias Anton), a talented swimmer who attends a prestigious Melbourne private school on a sporting scholarship. His father is Neal (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor), an Irish long-distance truck-driver and his mother is Stephanie (Victoria Haralabidou), a Greek hairdresser. He is taken under the wing of tough and highly regarded Hungarian coach, Frank Torma (Matt Nable) and develops a friendship/crush/rivalry with wealthy and privileged teammate Martin Taylor (Ben Kindon).

The series is based on Barracuda, the 2013 novel by Greek-Australian author Christos Tsiolkas, who also gave us gay-themed Head On (I had reviewed it a couple of months ago) and The Slap.

It's actually a very good show for this time of year. Lots of eye candy of gorgeous young men in their speedos, and lots of good acting, especially from Matt Nable as the coach, Rachel Griffiths as Martin's emotionally constipated mother, as well as Victoria Haralabidou and Jeremy Lindsay Taylor as Danny's parents.

Elias Anton as Danny is subdued but effective, plausibly portraying a youth who struggles with social and sexual politics. The gay theme is hinted at in the first episode, is definitely there as subtext in the second, and is made quite obvious in the third. It's not Breaking Bad, but it's a good choice for summer entertainment. Check it out. Here's the trailer:

This week's random song choice is a song by South African singer and songwriter John Kongos (b. 1945). He had a couple of big international hits in 1971. There was Tokoloshe Man and there was today's featured song: He's Gonna Step on You Again (#2 Australia, #2 South Africa, #4 UK, #9 France, #22 Netherlands, #26 Germany, #51 Italy, #70 US and #77 Canada).

The song is co-written by Kongos and Cypriot Christos Demetriou and it was cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first song to have used a sample. However, according to the sleeve note of the CD reissue of the Kongos album, it is actually a tape loop of African drumming, and the use of tape loops and instruments using prerecorded samples such as the Mellotron and Optigan were well established by this time.

The unusual thing about it is that the song is being propelled by its rhythm section (drums & bass) and the vocals are understated, especially in the chorus, where the title is being repeated in the background, hardly audible under the layers of percussion. I dare say that it might have been the inspiration (where the song structure is concerned) for this Fleetwood Mac super classic:

Tusk was Lindsay Buckingham's A Day In The Life, a very ambitious and bold composition made possible by the best production money could buy. If not the best, it's up there among Fleetwood Mac's best songs.

The He's Gonna Step on You Again / Tusk connection is a personal theory of mine which may or may not be so. The following song, however, was a proper remake of the Kongos hit: the Happy Mondays, the Manchester band formed by the Ryder brothers, was one of the most influential bands to come out of the UK in the early 1990s. In late 1990, Paul McCartney stated: I saw the Happy Mondays on TV, and they reminded me of the Beatles in their Strawberry Fields phase. Step On, as they titled their version of the John Kongos' song was their biggest hit, in 1990. (#5 in the UK, #46 in the Netherlands, #57 in the US and #64 in Canada). It was played in every rave party, ever.

Now, to this week's statistics. It's been a very exciting week: unlike the last couple of weeks, where we had Russia dominating and challenging the US and Greece for the first two places, this week there's a different pattern. Russia has slowed down to earlier levels, the US and Greece have their usual strength, Germany, the UK, Spain and the Netherlands have a constant daily presence that adds up well. Then there were countries who had one day of glory each: first came Ireland, then Portugal, then Italy.

This week's chart has Spain at #10, just one visit behind Russia, at #9. Two countries tie at #7, having 2 visits more than Russia: they are the UK and the Netherlands. At a relatively safe distance, with 7 visits more, Ireland is at #6. With a surplus of 5 visits, Portugal is at #5, which is separated by only 3 visits with the two countries that tie at #3, Germany and this week's pleasant surprise, Italy. Greece returns to #2 and the US hold the top spot. Also being in our jolly company are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Latvia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Ukraine and Vietnam. So nice of you to visit!

The all-time list was also interesting day to day: 4 different countries occupied #10 during the week. First there was Australia. Then there was Spain. Then came Portugal, and finally, Italy entered the Top 10 for the first time and it's still there today. It's now only 6 visits behind Cyprus at #9. Cyprus, which has been inactive a few weeks now, is in danger of being overtaken not only by the four aforementioned countries, but by countries like the Netherlands, China and Ukraine, all not far from the Top 10. An exciting time indeed.

Ireland is still at #8, but has considerably closed the gap (only 5 visits) with Canada at #7. The UK at #6 has also inched closer to France at #5, but it's still a 25-visit difference. Germany sits comfortably at #4, Russia has slowed down but has no problem being at #3 (it has exactly 4 times the visits that Germany has). Greece with a 1000 visits more is safe at #2 and the US, with almost 4000 visits more than Greece, is our #1. Bravo to all!

Finally, a word about the posts: since I have posted about Labi Siffre, a fairly little known artist, I have noticed that people were reading about him at a steady pace week after week. It's already been 45 days since and it has climbed slowly but steadily and has now tied with George Michael at #5 of the all-time list. I'm always routing for the underdog, so I am excited with this, although I'm at a loss to explain it. If any of you have some thoughts as to why this is, please do share. Till tomorrow...