Week Twenty-Eight: New Romantic - a-ha - "The Sun Always Shines on TV" - Hunting High and Low

From Wikipedia: New Romanticism (also called blitz kids and a variety of other names) was a pop culture movement in the United Kingdom that began around 1979 and peaked around 1981. Developing in London nightclubs such as Billy's and The Blitz and spreading to other major cities in the UK, it was based around flamboyant, eccentric fashion and New Wave music.

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The first time I remember hearing this song was during my sophomore year of college. I was all too familiar with “Take On Me” (included below the lyrics), but somehow I had missed this track. So one evening, my friend, who was the coolest gay guy I have ever known, declared that he must hear the song, “Take On Me”, or he was just going to die!

You would have thought that surely with all of the 80s compilations that I owned, I would have had at least had three or four different mixes of the song, but I didn't even have the original version of it.

So this began our quest to find a-ha's album, Hunting High and Low, at around midnight that night. Since most places were closed, our only hope at the time was the music department at Walmart, since it was a 24-hour operation.

We naturally started at the Walmart in Denton and had no luck. We then made the twenty minute drive to the Walmart in Lewisville with still no luck. I cannot remember if we finally located it at the Walmart in Carrollton, Grapevine, or Farmers Branch, but we did eventually acquire a copy in the wee hours of the morning.

Once we got back into his truck, we were met with the problem that he only had a cassette player, and we purchased a CD; so we had to patiently wait until we arrived back in Denton. When we finally made it back, I was too exhausted to even consider driving back to my apartment; so I stayed the night. He popped in the CD, fully expecting to hear “Take On Me”, since it is the first track on the album. Instead, we were greeted with this gem, since his CD player was set to shuffle. Our expedition turned out to be well worth it because we listened to this one a few times before finally hearing “Take On Me” and then crashing at around 4:00 am so that we could make it to our 8:00 am classes. How I ever managed that kind of lifestyle is completely baffling to me these days!

I am also including the track, "Blue Sky", under the lyrics because it is yet another that was overshadowed by the success of "Take on Me".

Touch me
How can it be
Believe me
The sun always shines on TV
Hold me
Close to your heart
Touch me
And give all your love to me
To me...

I reached inside myself
And found nothing there
To ease the pressure of
My ever worrying mind
All my powers waste away
I fear the crazed and lonely looks
The mirror's sending me
These days

Touch me
How can it be
Believe me
The sun always shines on TV
Hold me
Close to your heart
Touch me
And give all your love to me

Please don't ask me to defend
The shamefull lowlands
Of the way I'm drifting
Gloomily through time

I reached inside myself today
Thinking there's got to be some way
To keep my troubles distant

Touch me
How can it be
Believe me
The sun always shines on TV
Hold me
Close to your heart
Touch me
And give all your love to me