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.”
Hot Sauce
Thomas Dolby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She's hot and spicy
But twice as nicey
Although she burn me up
They call her Hot Sauce
She's hotter than pepper
I would have kept her
Although she burn me up
What if fire didn't burn (burn)
How would the lesson get learned? (learned)
You sit there like a dope until you choke on all the smoke
(Smoke gets in your eyes)
Cover me in your sauce baby
Bury me in all that sauce
Smother me in your hot sauce, woman
Till smoke come from your thighs
They call her Hot Sauce
She's hot and spicy
But twice as nicey
Although she burn me up
They call her Hot Sauce
She's hotter than pepper
I would have kept her
Although she burn me up
The brother in the codpiece
I seen him on the TV
I think he likes his ladies
All sweet and sugary
Now I'm partial to a pudding
But that's for second course
The main meal and the hors d'oeuvres
Must be smothered in hot sauce
They call her Hot Sauce
She's hot and spicy
But twice as nicey
Although she burn me up
They call her Hot Sauce
She's hotter than pepper
I would have kept her
Although she burn me up
What if steam didn't scald (scald)
How would the story be told? (told)
She sat and smoked a fag
While I was gagging on the shag
(Shag gets in your eyes)
Lemme get lost in your sauce baby
Cover me in your sauce
Lemme get lost in your hot sauce woman
There was a fire truck attending
The smoke pouring from her nose
Her state of mind depending
On which way the wind blowed
Chili and Tabasco
Dripping on my shirt
I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see
I had to call a smog alert
The song "Hot Sauce" by Thomas Dolby revolves around a woman who is hot and spicy, just like the sauce. She is referred to as "Hot Sauce," and despite her intensity, the singer implies that he can't get enough of her. He describes her as being "twice as nicey," which suggests that although she can be overpowering, she knows how to balance it with her charm. As the song progresses, the lyrics become more metaphorical, talking about the power of heat and smoke to teach life's lessons. The singer calls for the woman to cover him in her hot sauce and suggests that he wants to get lost in it.
In the second verse, Dolby refers to a man on TV who seems to have a particular taste in women. While the singer has a sweet spot for desserts such as pudding, he realizes that his appetite leans more towards the burning hot sauce. He emphasizes this by describing how the main course and appetizers should be smothered in hot sauce. The song's bridge returns to the metaphorical reference to heat and smoke, implying that it is necessary to experience the heat to learn life's lessons. The chorus repeats as the song ends, with the singer still entranced by the hot sauce lady.
Line by Line Meaning
They call her Hot Sauce
This woman is commonly referred to as Hot Sauce
She's hot and spicy
Hot Sauce is attractive and exciting
But twice as nicey
In addition to being hot and spicy, she is also good-natured and charming
Although she burn me up
Despite the fact that her energy is intense and overwhelming
She's hotter than pepper
She is even more exciting and engaging than other spicy things
I would have kept her
The singer wishes he could have had more of Hot Sauce in his life
What if fire didn't burn (burn)
The hypothetical situation where fire didn't cause pain
How would the lesson get learned? (learned)
The lesson in this case is having to deal with uncomfortable things like smoke and spice, which would not exist if fire didn't burn
You sit there like a dope until you choke on all the smoke
(Smoke gets in your eyes)
When dealing with the uncomfortable aspects of life like smoke, we tend to wait too long to get away from it, which leads to us being consumed by it
Cover me in your sauce baby
Bury me in all that sauce
Smother me in your hot sauce, woman
Till smoke come from your thighs
The singer desires to experience Hot Sauce even if it means being consumed by her spice
The brother in the codpiece
I seen him on the TV
I think he likes his ladies
All sweet and sugary
Now I'm partial to a pudding
But that's for second course
The main meal and the hors d'oeuvres
Must be smothered in hot sauce
The comparison of two different men who enjoy different types of women and the singer himself prefers a main course of spicy food
What if steam didn't scald (scald)
How would the story be told? (told)
She sat and smoked a fag
While I was gagging on the shag
(Shag gets in your eyes)
The hypothetical situation of no pain caused by steam and how stories would be different then. Also, a comparison between the act of smoking and trying to keep up with Hot Sauce's intensity
Lemme get lost in your sauce baby
Cover me in your sauce
Lemme get lost in your hot sauce woman
The singer desires being consumed by Hot Sauce's spice even more so, to a point where he loses himself in it
There was a fire truck attending
The smoke pouring from her nose
Her state of mind depending
On which way the wind blowed
Chili and Tabasco
Dripping on my shirt
I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see
I had to call a smog alert
A humorous depiction of Hot Sauce's overwhelming nature, where she caused the singer to nearly lose it and had to call for help
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: George Clinton, Robert Johnson, William Collins
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
jumbledFox
I'm 15 and discovered Thomas Dolby through "She blinded me with science", I love his music so much!!
Serena - 空気のような
We've got great taste, don't we?
jumbledFox
@Serena - 空気のような We sure do! You around 15 as well?
Serena - 空気のような
@jumbledFox Yup! Music from the 80s rocks, so it’s always nice to see people my age appreciate it as well.
jumbledFox
@Serena - 空気のような Oooh nice! What other groups do you like? I really like Genesis, Supertramp, and Oingo Boingo, as well as Pink Floyd, The Police, Steventhedreamer, Men Without Hats, ELO, and Kraftwerk. just to name a few... haha
chucku00
@jumbledFox Check out Cameo "Candy", "the brother in the codpiece" in "Hot Sauce" lyrics is Larry Blackmon, Cameo's leader.
Also check out Prefab Sprout, their "Steve McQueen" album was produced by Thomas Dolby.
Guillermo Del Noche Studios
This album gets tons of airplay in my house to this day! This is one of my favorites! So funky and killer horns!
Kelly Howard
ditto!
Michael
To this day?, omg,a strange household I must say,lol
Michael
@Kelly Howard you too?, omg