# The Golden Age of Wireless - Thomas Dolby
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 24, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576 "2013-09-24T13:04:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/21 "2013-09-25T12:57:39Z")
_Europa and The Pirate Twins_ is my favourite track, with _One of Our Submarines_ close behind it, but I don’t think there are any duds on the album (even _She Blinded Me With Science_, which is on my version, isn’t _just_ an 80s novelty track.)
\*
Europa\*, in my head, is a re-imagining of _Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)_ for the 80s. Which is a good thing - I mean, WDYGTML is a great classic.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/22 "2013-09-25T14:30:07Z")
Hmm… No love for _Aliens Ate My Buick_?
It has some of my favorite Dolby songs on it. My Brain is like a Sieve, The Ability to Swing, The Key to her Ferrari.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/23 "2013-09-25T14:58:50Z")
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> IIRC both of our albums had the same cover art (the pulp magazine cover) and same track listing, just different versions of Radio Silence (track #2). I can’t say when my brother bought his copy but I’m thinking I bought mine around summer of 1983.
>
> And now that you mention it, I do remember seeing/ hearing the version with Leipzig and Urges. I had forgotten about that one!
If your brother’s copy has _Radio Silence_ as the 2nd track and has the pulp mag cover, it’s likely the second US release, from 1983. The first US release did not have _She Blinded Me With Science_ on it at all; that song wasn’t released until late 1982.
Once the song became a hit, Capitol released another version of the album with _Science_ as the lead track (in addition to some other song changes, like removing _Leipzig_ and _Urges_ and adding the _Science_ B-side _One of Our Submarines_) and they changed the cover art back to the pulp magazine art.
If the cover art on both your copies is the same, he bought his copy in 1983 and you bought yours in 1984. If you have the CD, I’d bet that the catalog number is Capitol CDP 7 46009 2. Your brother’s copy should be Capitol ST 12271.
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/24 "2013-09-25T15:13:23Z")
_Leipzig_ is a really great song from this album.
"Another misty bus-queue morning
Faces smile down from a hoarding
Stoop to the bin, drop something in
Well you’ll soon feel yourself again
Everyplace is just the same, isn’t it? "
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### Author:  [@\_xiao\_wenti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_xiao_wenti)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/25 "2013-09-26T15:49:26Z")
Some people are very talented in some areas and are not passionate about working in them. He’s a very talented person - I have Golden Age, Flat Earth, and the very delightful Aliens Ate My Buick, which I’d dearly love to have seen performed.
He’s moved on to other pursuits.
I caught something on NPR - Fresh Air? - about his studio, which I seem to recall, is a reconverted tug.
> **[BBC News - Today - The man behind the polyphonic ringtone](http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9622000/9622785.stm)**
>
> As he marks the release of his first album in two decades, the 1980s synthesiser pioneer Thomas Dolby talks about his other, lesser known, achievement - creating a revolution in mobile phone ringtones.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2013, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/26 "2013-09-26T16:45:27Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#):
>
> Great album. My favorite track is “Europa And The Pirate Twins”. Hauntingly beautiful, and the lyrics make me melancholy.
>
> Dolby was on Marc Maron’s [WTF podcast](http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_397_marshall_crenshaw_thomas_dolby) a few months. Really an interesting guy all around.
I loved that song, too- and it was semi-autobiographical, though the end was fictionalized.
Dolby’s real name is Thomas Robertson, and his father was an Art professor who specialized in antiquities. The family spent long periods in places like Italy and Greece when Professor Robertson was doing field research. When he was a kid, his first case of puppy love came with a diplomat’s daughter he used to play with on the beaches in Greece. Eventually, their families both returned home and they never saw each other again. The song is a nostalgia piece about her.
But he added a fantasy sequence at the end of the song, in which he imagines she’s become a big star, and he gets roughed up by her entourage when he tries to see her again.
But since he married starlet Kathleen Beller, we needn’t feel too sorry for him.
Trivia: the liner notes for Foreigner’s\*\*\* 4\*\*\* album credit the keyboards to “Tom Dolby.”
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/27 "2013-09-26T16:59:06Z")
I love his stuff - his construction of music, the synth arrangements juxtaposed up against solid songcraft, funk beats (Airhead; Science).
He was a good, what, 20 years ahead of his time?
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/28 "2013-09-26T17:19:25Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> Trivia: the liner notes for Foreigner’s\*\*\* 4\*\*\* album credit the keyboards to “Tom Dolby.”
Aye, that was him. IIRC, it was really notable because prior to that Foreigner’s albums proudly stated that no keyboards were used.
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### Author:  [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/29 "2013-09-28T05:14:35Z")
MY version of the vinyl has an extended drum break at the end of _Science_, while my CD version doesn’t.
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### Author:  [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2013, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/30 "2013-09-28T06:19:56Z")
I must admit that I found out about Thomas Dolby because of “she blinded me with science,” but “wind power” is one of my favorite tracks from the retrospectacle collection.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/31 "2013-09-28T13:21:56Z")
> [@lawoot](#):
>
> MY version of the vinyl has an extended drum break at the end of _Science_, while my CD version doesn’t.
Your vinyl is likely the 2nd US release from 1983, it contained the extended mix of _SBMWS_ (also known as the American Mix). Your CD is prolly the 1984 US release, which restored the regular mix of the song to the album.
I’d bet that your vinyl also has the guitar mix of _Radio Silence_ (discussed above), while your CD has the regular synth version.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/32 "2013-09-28T14:39:26Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> From the standpoint of releasing pop albums, this statement is true. However, he moved away from focusing on that in the early 90s, and was one of the pioneers in developing digital music formats (particularly for mobile phones). He’s also been the music director for the TED Conference for the past 12 years. It looks like he’s a busy, and very successful, guy, even if he rarely releases his own music any more.
>
> [Thomas Dolby - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dolby)
Yeah, he ain’t hurtin’ none. But he’s a Flat Earther?
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/33 "2013-09-29T06:34:13Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#):
>
> _Leipzig_ is a really great song from this album.
> "Another misty bus-queue morning
> Faces smile down from a hoarding
> Stoop to the bin, drop something in
> Well you’ll soon feel yourself again
> Everyplace is just the same, isn’t it? "
It’s one of my favorite songs by him too (up there with [Europa and the Pirate Twins](http://youtu.be/UPZHYXgTjr8)\*). If you’re into covers [this is a nice one](http://youtu.be/xMXNZgr2Nf8), by Dave “not that one” Stewart and Barbara Gaskin. They must be friends because Dolby appears in the [video of their cover of “It’s My Party”](http://youtu.be/a_GITrFmZB4) as Johnny.
- I never noticed that XTC’s Andy Partridge is on that song/album and I thought I knew it well.
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### Author:  [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/34 "2013-09-29T22:28:51Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> Yeah, he ain’t hurtin’ none. But he’s a Flat Earther?
He made a song (album?) called “Flat Earth Society,” I thought it was just an elaborate ruse!
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### Author:  [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/35 "2013-09-29T23:13:33Z")
Yes, I’ve been a fan since the album came out in the early 80s.
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2013, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-golden-age-of-wireless-thomas-dolby/669576/36 "2013-09-30T09:03:28Z")
I discovered Dolby (apart from “She Blinded Me With Science”) through his Sole Inhabitant live CD, which is absolutely astounding. I really should listen to TGAOW.
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