Now Playing on the iPod: Feed It

Tweet

When I have the combination of the computer or the iPad and the iPod going there's a discussion on what's playing at the moment. And, at this particular moment, that's "Feed It" by the Candyskins. First, the joke: this is probably their best-known song in the U.S. (And everyone in the U.S. is going, "Huh???") This song was used on the soundtrack of the Adam Sandler movie The Waterboy. So how did I find this British band that, quite honestly, wasn't all that big in their own country, let alone the U.S.? In order to explain that I have to go back 40 years to being a teenager in Daytona Beach, Florida. An independent TV station aired a lot of British TV shows from the ITC studio. Some were, and remain, well-known: The Saint and The Prisoner remain iconic television programs from that studio. There were others, however, that weren't all that well-known in the U.S.: The Baron (starring Steve Forrest before he became the star of the mid-70s series S.W.A.T.), Department S (one of my favorites, which featured Joel Fabiani, who went on to play King Galena in Dynasty), The Champions (featuring Stuart Damon before his General Hospital role as Alan Quartermaine), and The Persuaders (which had Roger Moore, from The Saint, teamed up with Tony Curtis). The shows had a bit of a formula: they were all crime dramas, they all had a healthy dose of British humor (sorry, humour), and they all had an American actor in them to help sell them to American syndication. The exception to that rule was the series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), which aired in the U.S. as My Partner the Ghost. As a 15-year-old I was struck by Kenneth Cope, who played Hopkirk (or "the ghost"). Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) did not feature any U.S. actors in lead roles. It was also more "fantasy" than the other series (well, maybe except for The Prisoner). Kenneth Cope (who'll be 85 next month) has three children. His two sons, Nick and Mark, were the nucleus of the Candyskins. When Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was released on DVD (by an Australian company called Umbrella Entertainment, [released region-free, although that doesn't matter because I own a region-free DVD player]) it sparked a renewed interest in a show I hadn't seen in over 30 years. And, in reading about the show online (things I didn't know when watching it as a kid), I discovered the Candyskins. So, I bought all their CDs (they have four). They are in and out of existence, technically broken up but reuniting occasionally for a show or two. They were an eclectic mix of influences ranging from the Clash to the Beatles. "Feed It," for whatever reason, was, as I said, used in The Waterboy. While I've never seen that movie, I have to wonder if they listened to the lyrics before they decided to include it. The song is about Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate, a religious cult that committed mass suicide because they believed they were going to be transported to Heaven by a spaceship coming with the Hale-Bopp comet. If you listen to the song without knowing it's about that, though, it's quite a catchy song. Once you realize what the song is dealing with, however, the line "we're not saying goodbye, we're just saying hello to a better life" is chilling. I haven't listened to all of their material in quite a while, so I loaded it on my iPod for my road trip this week. "Feed It" has been on there from the beginning. Feed It Written by Nick Cope, Mark Cope, and Nick Barton Recorded by the Candyskins From the album Death of a Minor TV Celebrity, 1998