Waiata
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Waiata is the Māori word for song. See also Māori music.
| Waiata (Corroboree) | |||||
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| Studio album by Split Enz | |||||
| Released | April 1981 | ||||
| Recorded | AAV Studios, Melbourne, 1980 | ||||
| Genre | New Wave | ||||
| Length | 37:20 | ||||
| Label | Mushroom Records | ||||
| Producer | David Tickle | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Split Enz chronology | |||||
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Waiata is a 1981 album by New Zealand New Wave band Split Enz. Its Australian release was titled Corroboree. Waiata is the Māori term for song and singing, while corroboree is the Aboriginal term. According to Noel Crombie the intention was to name the album using a word from the natives of every country it was released in. This did not go ahead and the only country to adopt this change was Australia. The rest of the world kept the New Zealand title Waiata.
Although the album hit #1 on the Australian charts and was successful elsewhere, it could not match the huge sales of band's previous release, True Colours. Indeed, many fans regard it as hurriedly produced and uneven compared with True Colours and Time and Tide. A lot of this was due to internal conflicts between the band and their producer/engineer David Tickle, whom they chose not to use again after the album was complete.
Three singles were lifted from the album. Two of them, "One Step Ahead" and "History Never Repeats", were both Top 10 hits Australia and New Zealand. A third, "I Don't Wanna Dance", failed to chart.
"Ships" was originally titled "Up to the Nines"; "Clumsy" started life as "Cheated".
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[edit] Miscellanea
- The guitar bridge in "History Never Repeats", played by Neil Finn, originally was featured in an old Phil Judd song, "Bergen Aan Zee". The band only ever played the latter song live.
- Noel Crombie was annoyed about the album cover change for the American market, as they had an aversion to the colour brown.
- "One Step Ahead" has been covered by numerous artists, most notably Amiel and The Like (whose version curiously was unavailable to Australasian markets until 2007 when it became available on iTunes).
- The video clip to "One Step Ahead" has keyboardist Eddie Rayner performing a moonwalk two years before Michael Jackson made it famous. Eddie performed the move walking slowly forward rather than backwards.
- Their English drummer Malcolm Green, in spite of his strong performances, was fired before the album's release due to musical differences between himself and Tim Finn. While the split was not amicable at the time, Malcolm rejoined the group for their 2006 reunion.
[edit] Track listings
All songs written by Tim Finn, except where noted.
[edit] Original 1981 release
- "Hard Act to Follow"
- "One Step Ahead" (Neil Finn)
- "I Don't Wanna Dance"
- "Iris" (N. Finn)
- "Wail" (Eddie Rayner)
- "Clumsy"
- "History Never Repeats" (N. Finn)
- "Walking Through the Ruins"
- "Ships" (N. Finn)
- "Ghost Girl"
- "Albert of India" (Rayner)
[edit] 2006 re-release
- "Hard Act to Follow" - 3:21
- "History Never Repeats" (N. Finn) - 3:00
- "I Don't Wanna Dance" - 3:35
- "One Step Ahead" (N. Finn) - 2:51
- "Walking Through the Ruins" - 4:08
- "Wail" (Rayner) - 3:10
- "Iris" (N. Finn) - 2:51
- "Clumsy" - 3:33
- "Ghost Girl" - 4:39
- "Ships" (N. Finn) - 3:04
- "Albert of India" (Rayner) - 4:24
- "In the Wars" - 3:33
[edit] Personnel
[edit] Split Enz
- Tim Finn - vocals
- Neil Finn - vocals, guitar
- Noel Crombie - percussion
- Malcolm Green - drums
- Nigel Griggs - bass
- Edward Rayner - vocals, keyboards
[edit] Technical
- Produced and engineered by David Tickle.
- Assistant Engineer Scott (Blackhand) Hemming.
- Recorded at AAV Studios, Melbourne
- Mixed at AAV Australia and Farmyard Studios, UK
