Looking for a long lost song

June 22, 2007 6:12 AM

A friend of mine has searched for years for a song he heard on vacation in France as a child. He can only remember a part of the chorus, which was "which side of the line are you".

This was probably in 1976/77, but maybe earlier, and possibly as late in 1981. It was played again and again on the radio. He describes it as "new wave", 1975 - 1979, possibly Ska, or even reggae, male lead vocal, heavy on keyboards/synths.

He thinks it was not a native English speaker who sang, it was a European accent.

It is not a song by Jamie Marshall, which you can find by a google search for the line in the chorus. Also, this line is most probably not the title of the song.

I guess this is an almost impossible task, but maybe some of you can recommend other resources to find the song.

posted by magnusbe to society & culture (5 comments total)

This is a bit later than your timeline, and a total shot in the dark, but what about the band Matt Bianco? They released an album called Whose Side Are You On with a single of the same name, and it was supposedly a huge hit in Europe in the early 80s. I have the mp3, and it's a bit Latiny and very synth.
posted by iconomy at 7:28 AM on June 22, 2007

ack! Memories of highschool art class flooding back!

This is going to nag at me now - I haven't thought about that track in years.
posted by avocet at 8:02 AM on June 22, 2007

Not "Magnificent Five" by Adam and the Ants which has a similar line repeated in it? It's about the right time and I remember going to France with my school at the time and being very pleased that the French were also as nuts for the Ants as my 10 year old self was. ;-) Hit the Listen To Samples link to find out for sure.
posted by merocet at 9:36 AM on June 22, 2007

Thanks for the answers so far! I'll check with him if any of these are the correct ones.
posted by magnusbe at 11:19 AM on June 23, 2007

Sadly, none of these hit the jackpot.
posted by magnusbe at 12:51 PM on June 30, 2007