Dolby promoted himself as a kind of mad scientist, an egghead that had successfully harnessed the power of synthesizers and samplers, using them to make catchy pop and electro-funk. Before he launched his solo career, Dolby had already worked as a studio musician, technician, and songwriter. After starting out as a teenaged live sound man, mixing The Fall, The Members and others using a PA he built himself, he formed the arty post-punk band Camera Club (also known as Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club) with Bruce Woolley, Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn and Matthew Seligman. Within a year, he had left the group and joined Lene Lovich’s backing band and gave her his song "New Toy", which became a British hit in 1981. That same year, he released his first solo single, "Urges", on the English independent label Armageddon. By the autumn, he had signed with Parlophone and released "Europa and the Pirate Twins", which nearly cracked the UK Top 40.
Dolby started playing synthesizer on sessions for other artists in 1982. That year, he played keyboards on Def Leppard’s Pyromania and Joan Armatrading’s Walk Under Ladders. His most distinctive session credit is that keyboard line after the chorus on Foreigner’s "Waiting for a Girl Like You". In that eventful summer, Dolby also collaborating with New York rappers Whodini to create "Magic’s Wand" – a pivotal early hip hop track (the first rap single to shift 1 million copies), and it also single-handedly started the new jack swing movement.
Even with all of these achievements, 1982 was most noteworthy for the release of Dolby’s first solo album, The Golden Age of Wireless, in the summer of 1982, the landmark album reaching number 13. "Windpower", the first single from the record, became his first Top 40 UK hit in the late summer. Other cuts from the album include "The Airwaves", and "One of Our Submarines", a meditation on the futility of empire.
In January of 1983, Dolby released an EP, Blinded by Science, which includes what would become his most well-known track, "She Blinded Me with Science" featuring a cameo vocal appearance by the notorious British eccentric Magnus Pike, who also appeared in the song’s video. "She Blinded Me with Science" was a minor hit in England, but the EP and the single became a major American hit in 1983, thanks to MTV’s heavy airplay of the video. Eventually, the song reached number five on the US charts and it was included on a resequenced and reissued version of The Golden Age of Wireless, which peaked at number 13 in America.
The Flat Earth, Dolby's second album, appeared in early 1984, and harkens back to a time when songs mattered more than the video, even as MTV was discovering its strength. Opening with "Dissidents", conjuring up images of blacklisted authors and ugly snow, gray from oppression, with Matthew Seligman’s bass at the fore, lavish, growling, popping through octaves, funk-a-fied and twinkling with harmonics throughout the album. The title track is an R&B daydream of piano and Motown stabs of rhythm guitar. "Screen Kiss" has a similarly ethereal quality, and the lyrics are lush with imagery. The cover of Dan Hicks’ 1967 "I Scare Myself" is a balmy jazz club cocktail – faithfully nostalgic, right down to a bittersweet trombone solo from Peter Thomas. "Hyperactive" is one part bizarre to two parts infectious; guest vocalist Adele Bertei fuels the fire to what was already destined to be a memorable diversion beyond the reach of Top 40. The single became Thomas’ biggest UK hit, peaking at number 17.
During 1985, Dolby collaborated with artists including Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield and Herbie Hancock; and notched up some more high-concept production credits. George Clinton's Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen, and Joni Mitchell’s Dog Eat Dog were all midwifed by Dolby, who also was musical director for David Bowie at Live Aid. Also in 1985, he began composing film scores, starting with Fever Pitch. In 1986, he composed the scores for Gothic and Howard the Duck, for which he credited himself as Dolby's Cube. (That credit led to a lawsuit from the Dolby Labs, who eventually prohibited the musician from using the name "Dolby" in conjunction with any other name than "Thomas.")
Aliens Ate My Buick, Dolby's long-delayed third album, appeared in 1988 to a mixed reaction, although "Airhead" became a minor British hit. That same year, Dolby married actress Kathleen Beller. For the rest of the late 80s and early 90s, Dolby continued to score films, producing and building his own computer equipment.
1992’s Astronauts and Heretics, features guest stars such as Eddie Van Halen, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ofra Haza. The album opens with "I Love You Goodbye", one of Thomas’ most evocative songs, and ends with "Beauty of a Dream" which is also a contender for that honour. Highlights found inbetween include "Cruel" (a duet with Fairground Attraction’s Eddie Reader), "I Live in a Suitcase" and "Close But No Cigar".
The following year, Dolby founded the computer software company Headspace in Silicon Valley, releasing The Virtual String Quartet as its first program, and also pioneered technology for music on mobile phones. For the rest of the 90s, Headspace occupied most of Dolby's time and energy. In 1994, he released The Gate to the Mind’s Eye, a soundtrack to the animated short film Mind’s Eye. Also that year, Capitol released the greatest-hits collection, Retrospectacle.
Thirteen years after Astronauts and Heretics, Dolby returned to live performance in 2006 with his solo Sole Inhabitant tour, which covered North America and the UK, with Thomas recreating the highlights of his earlier work from scratch, with a camera mounted like a miner’s lamp on his head, and a big screen showing the view from the artist, turning what would be a fairly dull one-man-and-a-rack-of-synths into a fascinating audio visual experience and an unintended masterclass for music technology students.
UK indie label Invisible Hands Music released a CD and DVD box set recorded on the Sole Inhabitant tour. These fresh and modern reinterpretations of Thomas’ work to date precedes a new studio album due in 2008, which is as-yet untitled, but does include a song about Britney’s ex Kevin Federline (“K-Fed”) who used an uncleared sample from "She Blinded Me with Science" and did not respond to legal approaches until a ‘cease-and-desist’ was posted in the comments field of his MySpace page. That song is called "My Karma Hit Your Dogma", and bodes well for a mighty return to form, combining Thomas’ humour and intelligence with a unique musical vision.
2011 saw Dolby get busy by returning with a new studio album A Map of the Floating City on 29 October. The album is broken down into three genres of Urbanoia's tales of city experiences; Amerikana as Dolby's take on his years living in America and it's roots music; and Oceanea: songs of life by the sea in his home country of England. The music was debuted first as download EPs to Dolby's online community and then previewed by a transmedia interactive game also called the FloatingCity.com.
Thomas Dolby is taking the music back on tour as a solo artist and with varying line-ups of bands, doing two tours of the UK in 2011, and has his first trip to Australia in February 2012 followed by dates in Japan. In March Dolby kicks off the Time-Capsule.tv tour at the SxSW Festival in Austin playing dates in USA and Canada through April. He will have a trailer parked at venues on his tour where you can produce a 30 second video offering words of wisdom to whoever will be walking the earth in the future. Dolby wants to give people a chance to “explain to an alien visitor what went wrong with our civilization. Our species may not be around on this planet much longer, so you might as well leave a welcome message for the next guys.”
Hyperactive!
Thomas Dolby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
At the tender age of three
I was hooked to a machine
Just to keep my mouth from spouting junk
Must have took me for a fool
When they chucked me out of school
'Cause the teacher knew I had the funk
But tonight I'm on the edge
Better shut me in the fridge
'Cause I'm burning up (I'm burning up)
With the vision in my brain
And the music in my veins
And the dirty rhythm in my blood
They are messing with my heart
And they're messing with my heart
And they're messing with my heart
Won't stop messing with me
Ripping me apart
Hyperactive when I'm small
Hyperactive now I'm grown
Hyperactive and the night is young
And in a minute I'll blow
Semaphore out on the floor
Messages from outer space
Deep heat for the feet
And the rhythm of your heartbeat
'Cause the music of the street
It isn't any rapattack
It isn't any rapattack
I can reach into your homes
Like an itch in your headphones
You can't turn it up
I'm the shape in your back room
I'm the breather on the phone
And I'm burning up
But there's one thing I must say
Before they lock me up again
You'd be safer at the back
When I'm having an attack
Hyperactive when I'm small
Hyperactive now I'm tall
Hyperactive as the day is long
Hyperactive in my bones
Hyperactive in your phones
Hyperactive and the night is young
Hyperactive when I'm small
Hyperactive now I'm grown
Hyperactive 'til I'm dead and gone
Stand up, hyperactivate
Get up, hyperactivate
Wise up, hyperactivate
London, hyperactivate
The song "Hyperactive" by Thomas Dolby portrays the artist's journey from his childhood to present life. The lyrics of the song reveal his experiences and feelings of being a misfit in his earlier years. The song starts with the artist talking about his childhood, where he was always full of energy and had an overactive imagination. He talks about being ostracized by his teachers and peers for being different, but now he embraces his uniqueness as he experiences "dirty rhythms in his blood" and "visions in his brain."
The chorus of the song features the artist talking about feeling like he is being ripped apart and tormented by something, possibly society's strict expectations of conformity. Despite this, he continues to be hyperactive, unable to control his energy or his passion for music. The artist paints a vivid picture of his musical prowess, possessing the ability to reach into people's homes, influence the rhythm of their heartbeats, and leave an imprint on their minds.
Overall, "Hyperactive" is a song about being different, embracing one's uniqueness, and transcending societal expectations. The song encourages listeners to stand up and "hyperactivate" their lives, living boldly and passionately regardless of what others may think.
Line by Line Meaning
At the tender age of three
When I was only three years old
I was hooked to a machine
I was connected to a machine against my will
Just to keep my mouth from spouting junk
So that I wouldn't say nonsense
Must have took me for a fool
They underestimated my intelligence
When they chucked me out of school
When they expelled me from school
'Cause the teacher knew I had the funk
Because the teacher knew I had rhythm and style
But tonight I'm on the edge
But today I'm excited and anxious
Better shut me in the fridge
You might want to cool me down
'Cause I'm burning up (I'm burning up)
Because I'm feeling intensely excited
With the vision in my brain
With a vivid idea in my mind
And the music in my veins
And the music flowing through my body
And the dirty rhythm in my blood
And the funky rhythm that is part of me
They are messing with my heart
They are affecting my emotions
Won't stop messing with me
They won't stop disturbing me
Ripping me apart
Causing me distress
Hyperactive when I'm small
I was hyperactive when I was young
Hyperactive now I'm grown
I'm still hyperactive as an adult
Hyperactive and the night is young
Feeling hyperactive and excited because it's still early
And in a minute I'll blow
And soon I will be very expressive and lively
Semaphore out on the floor
Many dancing signals are being sent out on the dancefloor
Messages from outer space
It seems like I'm receiving communication from outer space
Deep heat for the feet
The powerful and alluring rhythm of the music makes you want to dance
And the rhythm of your heartbeat
The music and your heartbeat seem to be working together
'Cause the music of the street
The music from the world outside
It isn't any rapattack
It's not just a rap attack
I can reach into your homes
I can affect you even in your own home
Like an itch in your headphones
Like an annoying feeling or sensation in your headphones
You can't turn it up
You can't ignore it
I'm the shape in your back room
I'm like an unexpected form that you find lurking in your back room
I'm the breather on the phone
I'm the unseen person breathing on the other end of the phone line
But there's one thing I must say
But I have one important thing to say
Before they lock me up again
Before they institutionalize me again
You'd be safer at the back
You will be out of the line of fire if you stand at the back
Hyperactive as the day is long
I'm hyperactive all day long
Hyperactive in my bones
I feel hyperactivity deeply within me
Hyperactive in your phones
I can cause hyperactivity even through your phone
Hyperactive 'til I'm dead and gone
I'll be hyperactive until I die
Stand up, hyperactivate
Get up and be hyped
Get up, hyperactivate
Stand up and be hyped
Wise up, hyperactivate
Become more knowledgeable and be excited
London, hyperactivate
People in London, get excited and hyped up
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Thomas Dolby
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind