From a reader:
Jonah,
The moment I read your Corner entry and saw the filename, I knew. I just
knew in my gut what I was downloading.
Whatever horror part of you must have felt (no doubt overwhelmed completely
by your amusement), it can only pale in comparison to the awful feeling of
recognition I felt as a Dane. For I too once hummed along to the strains of
Apache, as interpreted by Tommy Seebach.
The song – taken from the public TV-channel DR2, presumably as part of a
recent series of retrospective programming to commemorate 50 years of
public television – is sadly only too familiar to those of us forced to
endure out childhood in Denmark in the 70s. Apache was a big hit for Tommy
Seebach (the grinning idiot at the keyboard), a musician who was probably
best known in Denmark for his multiple appearances as the country’s
representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. And if that isn’t the
sorriest summation of a career imaginable, I would hate to see what is.
He passed away a few years ago, as I recall, and I suppose a bit of pity is
due to that young man making a video in 1977, completely unaware that he
was documenting the total and utter hideousness of 1970s for posterity.
And it wasn’t even one of his own songs, but a lame cover of the original
by the Shadows, shot in the untamed wilderness of someone’s back yard.
Love your stuff.
Happy Fourth of July!!!