Talking (A Flock of Seagulls song)

"Talking"
Single by A Flock of Seagulls
B-side	"Factory Music" (First Issue) "Tanglimara" (Second Issue)
Released	May 1981 (1981-05) (First Issue) 12 August 1983 (1983-08-12)(Second Issue)
Format	7", 12"
Recorded	1981
Genre	New wave, darkwave
Length	5:00 (album version) 3:34 (single version)
Label	Jive
Writer(s)	A Flock of Seagulls
Producer(s)	Bill Nelson
A Flock of Seagulls singles chronology
"Talking" (1981) "Telecom- munication" (1981)
"Transfer Affection" (1983) "(It's Not Me) Talking" (1983) "The More You Live, the More You Love" (1984) "(It's Not Me) Talking" (1983) Music video "(It's Not Me) Talking" on YouTube

"(It's Not Me) Talking" was the debut single by British new wave band A Flock of Seagulls, recorded in 1981 and taken from their second album Listen. The song is about a man who hears voices in his head, who believes that he is being contacted by aliens from outer space, and who cannot run away from his emotions; wherever he goes, the voice is there.

Track listing

Original release

1. "(It's Not Me) Talking" (Remix) – 4:25
2. "(It's Not Me) Talking" (Instrumental)
3. "Factory Music"

Re-release

1. "(It's Not Me) Talking" – 3:34
2. "Tanglimara" – 4:30

Music video

This music video was based on an old science fiction classic film called The Day the Earth Stood Still.^[1] The producers wanted to use special effects that would be current, yet recall the look of 1950's cinema. The music video was filmed at Dawn's Animal Farm in New Jersey. With hundreds of acres of land and many exotic animals used in television commercials and film, it made for an interesting shoot. They hired Talking Dog Productions to build the spaceship. Talking Dog built the props used by Pink Floyd. For the lasers, they retained the services of holographic pioneer, Jason Sapan, of Holographic Studios in New York City.^[2] At that time, Sapan was also doing laser light effects. As they negotiated the laser effects, they realized that Sapan himself had the right look to act in the music video and hired him right there. Jason Sapan built the red laser ray gun that Mike Score used. If you look very carefully, you can also see his blue and green argon laser beams shooting from the spaceship.^[3]

First credits in a music video on MTV

This was the first music video shown on MTV to use on screen credits for the actors. The credits were shown next to the images of the actors at the end of the video. The credits listed were ...

• Jason Sapan as "Sparks" Hopkins
• Peter Reynolds as Joey
• David York as Sergeant McGuire
• Ali Score as Prof. "Scottie" Frost
• Paul Reynolds as Duane
• Larry Friel as Major Dick Docherty
• Frank Maudsley as Rex Nolan
• Mike Score as "The Alien"

Chart positions

Re-release

Reception

• "Their recently release album, called "Listen," features their recent British hit, "Wishing (I Had a Photograph of You)" and a new version of their first English hit, "(It's Not Me) Talking," once again produced by Bill Nelson (Be-Bop Deluxe). By the way, in the year since that first album, the band has earned gold and platinum discs from around the world." (Barbara Lewis, The Free Lance-Star, 1983)^[5]
• "There are a couple of high quality songs. (One) is the Bill Nelson-produced "(It's Not Me) Talking." Nelson's involvement is quite evident, the only flaw being that it drags on for too long." (Henry Everingham, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1983)^[6]

External links

• "(It's Not Me) Talking " at Discogs (list of releases)
• Plot Summary of the Talking video
• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

References