I Got You (N Finn) and One Step Ahead (N Finn) 1980 and History Never Repeats (N Finn) – Split Enz 1981.
By 1978 the band was broke and hadn’t filed tax returns for years, they had failed to find a commercial niche for their arty, quirky, idiosyncratic songs, and as an ensemble who rejected standard pop star looks and sounds for something more flamboyant and whimsical, they had failed to build a strong fan base here or overseas.
Tim Finn had been the undisputed leader, front man, and creative force within the band since its inception, but with the arrival of his younger brother Neil “Ant” Finn, a gifted songwriter with natural commercial instincts, there was a gradual power shift within the Enz towards the younger sibling, much to the chagrin of the increasingly insecure Tim Finn.
At this time the brothers were house-sharing with their respective partners, Tim’s Liz Malam and Neil’s Sharon (Dawn) Johnson (above) at New South Head Rd. in Rose Bay (Syd). While the girls went to work to support the brothers, Tim and Neil threw song titles and snatches of lyrics at one another. Tim came up with “I Got You”, Neil with “What’s the Matter With You”, and the songs that would become the True Colours album gradually evolved. David Tickle (below) who had produced I See Red, was Aussie Mike Chapman’s sound engineer and had worked with producer Chapman on the classic Blondie album Eat to the Beat as well as the debut smash hit by the Knack, Get the Knack, he was the only producer that the Enz wanted to work with on their new album.
In 1979 the band with producer Tickle assembled in Armstrong’s Studios (South Melbourne) to record their fifth album. During pre-production at the Play Room on Queensland’s Gold Coast, I Got You had continued to evolve, Neil riffed on several guitar chords, Mal Green liked what he heard and chimed in with his kick drum, Neil recalled a chorus he had written for another song “ I don’t know why sometimes I get frightened” but admitted that he didn’t have a bridge, “Oh yes you do” chipped in Eddie Rayner reminding him of something they had already written and shelved, the strange alchemy that produces a hit record, had just been conjured.
The influence of the Beatles was evident, Lennon could be heard in Neil’s neurotic, anxious, paranoid lyrics, and McCartney in its instantly memorable melody, the main protagonist in the song wrestles with the complexities of a troubled relationship, all driven along on the back of synth-laden chords, and an insistent chorus, which Neil didn’t originally like, but sounds as fresh today as it did over fifty years ago. The strange and rather eerie promo clip featured Neil as a twitchy new lead singer, with thick caterpillar-like eyebrows and greasepaint slathered over his face, he stands and sings in a darkened room, Crombie’s camera pursues him like a stalker, the rest of the band appears in a picture frame behind him, until Neil simultaneously appears with the band in the frame, and cowers as he watches himself perform in the foreground, at the end of the clip.
I Got You became the band’s breakthrough single, it charted #1 in Aust and NZ, top 20 in the UK, Ireland and Canada and #53 in the US, to became the biggest selling single of the year locally, clocking up global sales in excess of 300,000 copies. The album True Colours was also a genuine international hit, charting #1 in Aust and NZ, and top 40 in the UK and USA, and selling over 700,000 copies. The Enz were now starting to cross the bridge from cult status to genuine new wave commercial success, and not before time, if True Colours had failed they would have disbanded.
David Tickle would produce the band’s sixth album, alternatively known as Waita (which means “celebratory song” in Maori) or Corroboree, it’s development was rushed as the band was still promoting True Colours and subsequent singles lifted from the album – Shark Attack, I Hope I Never and Poor Boy, fared poorly, with only I Hope I Never climbing to #18 in Australia. The vibe in the sessions was poor, Tim accused Tickle of favoring Neil’s songs over his and Tickle responded by plainly stating that Neil responded well to his creative suggestions and unlike Tim he didn’t interfere in the overdubbing process. Eddie Rayner felt that Tickle had become arrogant and full of his own self-importance and so he played cruel pranks on him, the good – natured days of Enz camaraderie, which usually manifested itself in nothing more destructive than water pistol fights and paper airplane skirmishes, had become darker and more strained, Tim sacked drummer Malcolm Green because of “musical differences” before the album was released, the end of the Enz was looming.
Waita/Corroboree seemed like True Colours revisited, but Neil’s exemplary songwriting was again to the fore with the twin success of the quietly addictive One Step Ahead and the up tempo new wave of History Never Repeats , the album would benefit from the residual goodwill still flowing from True Colours and duly sat atop the Aust and NZ charts in April 1981. One Step Ahead, may have been a provocative dig by Neil at his songwriting brother, but musically it had an unusual lyrical structure and lacked a definable chorus, parts of the chorus were embedded in the verses throughout the song. It was also a more somber piece than other tracks on Waita having been inspired by the Beatles Glass Onion, a track from the Fab Four’s Double White album.
The video clip for One Step Ahead has keyboardist Eddie Rayner performing “Marche sur place”, a pantomime illusion walk created by Decroux and Barrault as seen in the 1945 French film Children of Paradise, and would be the technique on which Michael Jackson would base his ”moonwalk”, the song charted #5 in Aust and top ten in NZ.
History Never Repeats was more catchy, new wave rock, from the Enz, with a song that revolved around the expression, often attributed to Mark Twain, “that history never repeats itself, but it often rhymes”. The title is therefore ironic or an incomplete version of the remark that history should teach us to prepare for the future, and the lyrics suggest that we often fail to learn from past mistakes in human relationships- “There was a girl I used to know/ She dealt my love a savage blow/ I was so young, too blind to see/ But anyway that’s history.”
The promo clip featured Neil singing the song in bed, then fronting the band wearing Buddy Holly-style glasses and singing to a TV screen on which Tim appears in clown makeup, the band bounces around on coloured balls and Noel Crombie plays a military snare drum as the video fades out. It charted #4 locally and #5 in NZ when lifted off the Waita album, and despite the fact that Neil Finn’s pop sensibility was producing chart success for the band, and they had emerged as a more commercially accessible group without their previous eccentricities and arty pretensions, internally the band was falling apart.
4The Record 