They followed up with an ultra-slow cover of "Rock Around the Clock", a hilariously relaxed and dispassionate version of one-hit-wonder Plastic Bertrand's punk song "Ça Plane Pour Moi", and a perversely mechanical cover of "Dance to the Music", originally by Sly Stone.
Like Kraftwerk, Telex built their music entirely from electronic instruments, and the sounds of the two groups have a certain similarity. However, unlike Kraftwerk's studied Teutonic irony, Telex favour a more joyously irreverent humour.
Their debut album, "Looking for Saint Tropez", featured the worldwide hit single "Moskow Diskow", one of the first ever electronic dance/pop songs.
In 1980 Telex's manager asked them to enter for the Eurovision Song Contest. They entered, and were eventually sent to the finals, although they apparently hoped to come last: "We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise. We got ten points from them and finished on the 19th spot." (Marc Moulin)
Their song "Euro-Vision" was a cheerful bleepy song with deliberately banal lyrics about the contest itself.
The Eurovision audience seemed unsure how to react to the performance, and after the band stopped playing there was mostly stunned silence, with scattered polite applause; Michel Moers took a photograph of the bewildered audience. A mark of the confusion caused by the performance was when vote-counting began, and Greece awarded Belgium three points, the announcer thought she had misheard and tried to award the points to The Netherlands.
All of this was clearly bad news for the band's English record label, Virgin Records, who were trying to pass them off as part of the New Romantic movement. The self-mockery of tracks like "We Are All Getting Old" didn't help either.
For their third album, Sex, Telex enlisted the suddenly hip US group Sparks to help write the lyrics. However, the band still refused to play live and preferred to remain anonymous — common practice in the techno music artists they later inspired, but unusual in 1981. The fourth Telex album, Wonderful World, was barely distributed.
In 1986, Atlantic Records, perhaps surprisingly, signed Telex and released Looney Tunes. By then, the band's earlier sound had influenced many other groups, but they had abandoned it in favor of sampling and a more up-tempo humorous style. "Temporary Chicken", for example, was a strange joke track about a man so desperate for work that he accepts a part time job in a chicken costume.
In 1989, Telex revisited all of their old tracks and remixed them to resemble the house music and other genres that had followed in the wake of Telex and others' early pioneering work in electronic pop. The result was Les Rhythmes Automatiques, which apparently inspired Kraftwerk to do the same for their album The Mix in 1991.
After almost two decades of silence, Telex made a come-back in March 2006 with How Do You Dance on EMI. It comprised five original compositions as well as five covers. Their last release, as of 2006, is a cover of "On the Road Again", originally by Canned Heat. They also began producing remixes for other artists' single releases, including "A Pain that I'm Used To" by Depeche Mode and "Minimal" by the Pet Shop Boys.
There are other artists ith the same name:
2. A Turkish Heavy Metal band from Istanbul.
3. Telex is also a Czech oldschool punk band from Strakonice. They were one of the first bands playing punkrock in former Czechoslovakia. Their songs such as Skateboardova Ruzena show (in late 80s in eastern Europe!) a strong hardcore influence as well. The band never became a commercial or a major label band, so their fan audience is still very strong and they are one of the most respected rare punk bands in CZ.
Rock around the Clock
Telex Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, rock,
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, rock,
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight.
Put your glad rags on and join me, hon,
We'll have some fun when the clock strikes one,
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.
When the clock strikes two, three and four,
If the band slows down we'll yell for more,
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight.
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.
When the chimes ring five, six and seven,
We'll be right in seventh heaven.
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight.
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.
When it's eight, nine, ten, eleven too,
I'll be goin' strong and so will you.
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight.
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.
When the clock strikes twelve, we'll cool off then,
Start a rockin' round the clock again.
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight.
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.
Telex's song "Rock Around the Clock" is a joyful, upbeat tune. It is a song about dancing the night away, enjoying the company of friends, and being carefree. The lyrics are a countdown of the hours that lead up to a night of dancing and rocking out. This song is all about having a good time and forgetting your troubles, if only for a little while. The song is written in an AABB rhyme scheme and repeats the phrase "We're gonna rock around the clock tonight" several times to emphasize the fun, carefree mood that the song is meant to convey.
The song begins with the line "One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, rock". The song counts the hours leading up to a night of dancing and enjoying oneself with friends. The song's lyrics mention putting on your "glad rags" and joining in for some fun. The lines "When the chimes ring five, six, and seven, we'll be right in seventh heaven" means that when the clock strikes those hours, the band will still be playing, and they will be "in seventh heaven" with the music. In the final verse, the song's lyrics mention cooling off when the clock strikes twelve before starting "rockin' round the clock again."
Line by Line Meaning
One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock, rock,
Let's start rockin' from one to four, non-stop.
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, rock,
Keep rockin' from five to eight until we drop
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, rock,
Rockin' through nine to twelve, not gonna stop
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight.
We are going to rock our hearts out all night long
Put your glad rags on and join me, hon,
Get dressed up and come join me, sweetheart
We'll have some fun when the clock strikes one,
We'll start having fun once it hits one
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna party all night long
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight.
We'll keep rocking until the sun comes up
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.
We're gonna keep rocking all the way through the night
When the clock strikes two, three and four,
When it's two, three, and four, let's rock some more
If the band slows down we'll yell for more,
If the band slows down, we'll ask them for an encore
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We won't stop dancing until we see daylight
When the chimes ring five, six and seven,
When the clock chimes five to seven, we'll be in heaven
We'll be right in seventh heaven.
We'll be very happy and having a great time
When it's eight, nine, ten, eleven too,
From eight until eleven, we'll still be rocking with you
I'll be goin' strong and so will you.
We'll both still have lots of energy and keep rocking too
When the clock strikes twelve, we'll cool off then,
At midnight we'll take a break and cool off for a minute
Start a rockin' round the clock again.
Then we'll start the clock over and rock again until the end
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna keep on dancing until the dawn's early light
We're gonna rock, rock, rock, 'til broad daylight.
We'll keep on dancing until the sun shines bright
We're gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight.
We're gonna rock all through the night until it's light
Contributed by Liam G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@Amarok365
This track, played on the radio back in 1980, started my love for Telex.
@janpetersen8606
Thank You for bringing this back to life. The quality is excellent.
@mgzcom
Mind blower when I first heard this version.
@joezava8257
Dan Lacksman uno de los máximos desarrolladores y productores de la Electrónica Post Concreta, Moog, Experimental & Soundtrack de los 70s y parte del conjunto de los productores pilares más sofisticados y revolucionarios de aquella decada junto a Giorgio Moroder, Jean M. Jarre, Ryuichi Sakamoto (YMO), Tangerine Dreams, Vangelis, Klaus Schulze...(entre otros pocos pilares de la electrónica moderna).
Esta es la EDM Concreta 70s bajo los 3 géneros matrices y primarios de esta escena electrónica (HI-NRG, Synthpop y Electro) en su primera fase de desarrollo (1977-1980).
Dan Lacksman legendario.
@PrimitiveInTheExtreme
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