I’m saddened to say that my favourite Mondo Rock song, and their most successful, never registered on my musical radar during my younger years. By the time I was discovering this great Aussie band, Mondo Rock had long since left the forefront of modern music and it wasn’t until many years after I had left high school that I started to unearth their musical gems.
“Come Said The Boy” is a fantastic tune about a young boy losing his virginity to an older girl on the beach and, funnily enough, was banned by several conservative radio stations at the time of its release. I’m not sure if those blokes have figured it out yet but banning a song is a sure fire way to make it popular, especially with the young’uns. In fact according to the song’s writer Eric McCusker, it became the most played song on radio that year.
“It got banned by [Catholic Church-owned] 2SM. They wouldn’t play it and it was the biggest station in Sydney. I’ve got a little plaque on my wall saying, ‘Most Performed Australian Work 1983’.”
Regardless of whether the banning had anything to do with its popularity I’m sure it would have still made it to the top of the charts because it’s a great song.
In fact the only reason it didn’t make it to the #1 spot was a little song from INXS called “Original Sin” which was also a little controversial at the time. In all fairness though, I don’t think Mondo Rock would have been too upset about running second to that one.
I also remember reading somewhere (can’t recall where) that the film clip was shot on a shoestring budget and that they used a couple of young interns from the record company as the boy and girl seen in the video. I also believe the band’s part of the clip was shot in one take because the sun was going down and the car was illegally parked meaning they had to get in and get out quickly. You can see in this Google Maps screen shot of Sydney’s beautiful Maroubra Beach the location of where the clip was shot even though it’s had a bit of a facelift since then.
Even the photo shoot for the cover was apparently thrown together on the fly with a few things they had lying around. But I’d be more than happy for someone from the band or record company to shoot me a message and confirm or correct this.
Anyway, check out the song and film clip and let us know what you think. Did you prefer another Mondo Rock song that you thought was better? Did you agree that “Original Sin” was a better song and deserved the number one spot? Let me know in the comments below.
