In Praise of....."Kids in America" by Kim Wilde

The Muffs did and it was excellent.

(look him up on amg)

It's on the Clueless soundtrack.

the organ solo/breakdown thing after "music go round" just kills

They're rockin' in Bishop, Alex!

Lookin' out a dirty old window, down below the cars in the city go rushing by
We sit here with no dosh and wonder why?
Should we catch the bus to Newcastle, we can't be bothered with the hassle
going down, to search for some bread in this dirty town.

DOWN DOWN IT REALLY IS NO JOKE, DOWN TOWN EVERYBODY IS BROKE...

[Chorus:]
WE'RE THE KIDS IN TYNE & WEAR WOOO
WE'RE THE KIDS IN TYNE & WEAR WOOO
EVERYBODY LIVES IN THE HOPE O' SOME CASH!

Bright light & music gets faster, in the disco we can't afford to have a dance
We could never pay two quid, not a chance
Pig sick, down the Job Center, much later we will be thinking never mind
you know life is cruel, life is never kind.

FIND TIME TO EARN AN EXTRA BOB, FIND TIME TO DO A FIDDLE JOB.

[Chorus]... NA NA NA....

Looking round the Metro Centre, gotta get a brand new experience feeling rich
We can't stop, we're skint and we've got the itch.
Sunderland South Shields & Gateshead, not a bleedin' chance to make bread
anywhere, We don't want to go baby.

WHITLEY BAY ACROSS TO CUMBRIA, YOU'LL BE BROKE IF YOU COME 'ERE.

http://www.deepyoung.org/radio once had 20 covers
kids in america previously amazing!

That said, NOBODY out-Debbie Harrys Debbie Harry.

I don't mind Kim Wilde too much at all..."View from a Bridge", "Cambodia", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", this...not bad, methinks.

I never really thought about the East California thing until now. It's a little weird. But props to Barstow, I guess..

No, but there was a cover of this song on the "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius" soundtrack.

My googling tells me it got to 25 in the U.S. charts but I sure don't remember it that way. Don't recall it making much of a splash here, actually - I certainly didn't hear it on the radio. The only place I remember hearing it at the time was bits on T.V. for whatever reason, but this was before MTV was widely available, so for those who had MTV back then maybe it was a different story.

Here's a quote I found from Kim herself:

That's the fun about music: it should wind people up a bit. I mean, "Kids in America" really wound people up. It was such an infectious song that people really hated liking it. It was sung by an English girl whose father had written the lyrics and whose brother had produced it. And it was on RAK Records to boot. "From New York to East California..." Where the hell's that? I still don't know! And everybody loved it.

http://www.lodgerecording.co.uk/enid/images/bandafn.jpg

Not quite the spunky young pups who backed her on Top of the Pops.

New york to east california
There’s a new wave come, I warn ya (i'm pretty sure it's not "and i warned")

is that lovely Kim is IN west california and that this wave goes in reverse back to it's source. I've always imagined she just really hated on west california.

The D-Bop's Bright Lights remix on her Best of is grebt. I heart water on glass and four letter word too.

Fortunately, I was playing GTA Vice City at the time.

um, yes

I love, love, love 'You Came', too. And 'Four Letter Word'. And 'Never Trust A Stranger' (of which there's a new remix doing the rounds).

Has anyone else ever noticed that on 'Sleeping Satellite', Tasmin Archer sometimes sounds exactly like Kim Wilde?

Kim currently has a weekly gardening column in The Observer.

Fortunately, I was playing GTA Vice City at the time.

BAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Due to having Cool Older Siblings, I was aware of things that were probably somewhat punkier or perhaps slightly less obviously "manufactured" as punk--Ramones, Clash, New York Dolls etc. I doubt that at age 12 or 13 I would have gone as far as to think that Kim Wilde was a poseur (as if I would have known what that meant). My thought was more like, "gee, that's an awfully catchy song that fits right in on Casey Kasem's weekly Top 40; time to be sick of it now."

Now it fills me with a rather warm nostalgia and I think it deserves reassessment--along with a lot of pop that seemed disposable at the time. I mean, I thought the Human League was disposable at the time, now I can't help but get teary-eyed over "Keep Feeling Fascination."

I had a similar thing happen with the Bangles. "Manic Monday," yawn central. Then I saw their cover of "Hazy Shade of Winter" on an SNL compilation and I thought, damn. They rocked every bit as hard as the Go-Gos ever did.

Eh, I'm sure it was just would-be evocative imagery that goes wonderfully wrong. Kind of like Diesel's "Sausalito Summernight." Still, given how popular the Beach Boys were in England, it's hard to believe no one said, "Uh, Marty? Ricky? I think you mean WEST California."

And Sweet Fuckin' Buddha on a Pogo Stick was it ever GODAWFUL!

Here you go! Took me a few days to find it but it's pretty sweet.

2/some of the music on the 1st album is played by robert john godfrey and steven stewart of english ultra-cult prog rockers the enid.

I think she's great, and "kids in America" especially so. She is often on the radio over here, talking about gardening.

...also, strong associations to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which made teenage life seem very glamourous and dangerous to me....what great song this is.

"The Kid's American" was hardly as great though...

works better than it should! if memory serves me, the WHOLE TAPE was cut from the same mold!!

As mentioned on the Yvonne Elliman thread, I heard "Chequered Love" by Ms.Wilde in The Gap yesterday, and it was so bad that it made me want to torch the entirety of the boot-cut jean department (and, y'know, it's all boot-cut these days. What's a white man who only wants simple straight leg jeans to do? The answer: Pop-music-inspired ARSON, that's what!)

"Chequered Love" sounds like something a fictional pop star on The Love Boat would come up with, kinda like Sonny Bono's character, Deacon Dark when he sang "Step, Step, Step on Toads" (which Gopher totally dug).

Alex - hit American Eagle Outfitters. They still do straight-leg.

The day I wear an article of clothing manufactured by a brand called "American Eagle" is the day I also sport a lobster bib and a viking helmet.

Loving "Cambodia" right now. Could have almost come out on Mute. OK, maybe not, but it's got some great sounds on it.

Mr Carlin said all that could have been said (better than I could) in that link upthread but I just wondered who was responsible for her music? Wiki suggests Micky Most created KIA from Marty and Ricky's demo, so where do the aforementioned Enid fit in? Were they Most regulars? And what about her other stuff, particulary the first album and Cambodia?

is it really kim drunk on a tube singing a greatest hits set ?

why yes it is ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ij8BpOa-Pg

Haaaaaaa, this just made my day, thanks!

its ace .. love the miserable buggers who clearly did not go to the same party as kim did

Some of the windows in my house are real dirty and old. Whenever I see my kids looking out of them, I feel pretty bad.

Kim Wilde is the only person I ever got an autograph from as a kid.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5757/kimtwitter.jpg

aw that's awesome

i like kids in america a whole lot. i was at a kind of lame birthday party a while back; the kind where everyone goes into these little huddles and does their own thing. then this came on and for some reason the room was transformed for three and a half minutes.

Just came here to post that very same youtube clip. Brilliant.

Fans of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., who call themselves and the team "yids," (it's a long story) have adapted the tune into a terrace chant in light of the two prominent Americans on the team this year. "They're the yids from America..."

one of the best pop songs ever

the no secrets version

Yes! I was drinking wine and making cookies last night to this song.