"Workin' so hard like a soldier | Can't afford a thing on TV..." In a scene straight out of A Clockwork Orange, a guy with dreadlocks named Eddy sits on his couch watching disturbing imagery on his TV. He stands up to change the channel (where's the remote?) and miraculously falls through the floor, which is somehow made of water. Cut back and forth to images of the guy with dreadlocks falling through the floor with a couple of punks cruising through the streets aimlessly on motorbikes. What's the point of all this? Who the hell knows? Who the hell cares?

The success of "Electric Avenue" helped make Killer on the Rampage Eddy Grant's breakthrough album. The song itself was upbeat and appealing; the special effects cheap but memorable. The video's infectious energy served to mask its base stupidity.

Born in Guyana, Edmond Montague Grant started his musical career as a member of a London-based, Caribbean-style band called the Equals. As a solo artist, Grant scored a couple of catchy hits during the early '80s and then crashed and burned quicker than Chevy Chase's stint as a talk show host. Eddy has stayed busy over the years, however, writing the theme song for Romancing the Stone, hosting the first annual Caribbean Music Awards and starting up his own record label. As for the song in question? It seems to have gotten more mileage than Eddy himself. For instance, "Electric Avenue" has been used in a Montgomery Ward and a Pantene Pro-V commercial, among others.

User Comments - Add a Comment