The Icicle Works: Birds, Screams, Drums And Whispers.

One of the all time great eighties tunes, and thirty five years (!) later, I still don't know what the heck it's about. Fun to dance yourself around the room too, though.

"Birds fly down upon us till we flow like water." Yeah, I got nothing. Do you know what any of this song means. Maybe it's not supposed to mean anything. Maybe the lyrics are like colors, there to express a feeling or an emotion and not to be taken literally. I remember Vince Neil saying that about the lyric "the church struck midnight" from the song "Shout At The Devil", that the words are just another instrument, designed to be syncopated verbal color, and not to be taken as literal. Or maybe it's just a bunch a hooey that spilled out of a 23 year old's brain that sounded good at the time and just kinda stuck. "Inside, feathered, with bright elation." Pick your meaning, the song remains the same. To, er, coin a phrase. And what or whoever "The charred children" were, by the end of the song I was in righteous solidarity with them, as they fought their way around...indecision.

The band's U.S. record label, Arista, the home to Barry Mannilow, were real corporate nutjobs when it came to the release of this song, going so far as to dropping the THE from the band's name, flip flopping "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream) to "Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)" and eliminating a cool spoken part over the intro because...Americans hate spoken word intros? The video was amazing, however, picturing the band enveloped in a hurricane of dead leaves and some questionable British orthodonture. And oh those pounding drums, that tribal feel, which to that point was virtually unheard in pop music, unlike today when you can't throw a shocked cat  without hearing Imagine Dragons do the same thing in every car commercial ever. So then, bit of a pioneer, were The Icicle Works.

So, with all that said, please now turn on The MTV and enjoy your-

-K101.7 SONG OF THE DAY!

P.S: If you enjoyed this, perhaps you would also like a large serving of MEXICAN RADIO?