Ballarobot : David Zed

Born in the USA but seemingly spending much of his working life in Italy, David Traylor's day job is in film & television as an actor, comedian and voice-over artist... and of course a robot known as Mr Zed. But it's his musical output I'm interested in. This will be David Zed's third and final feature on 101 Songs About Robots... unless of course he releases another robot song. From 1983 is Ballarobot, which is a re-recorded version of his 1980 single Balla Robot.



Here's the original (which is from 1980 and not '81 as stated in the video's title)...

Irumbile oru Irudhaiyam : A R Rahman

Today's robot song is taken from one of the most successful Indian movies of all time. Enthiran (AKA Robot, AKA Robo) was filmed in Tamil (AKA foreign) and dubbed into Hindi (also foreign) and Telugu (very foreign). The film and its soundtrack garnered worldwide critical acclaim, topped tons of charts and made sh!t loads of money.

Obviously it's a science fiction film with a plot that revolves around a scientist, his fiancée, and a robot called Chitti, whom the scientist created in his own image. Things backfire when Chitti, programmed to interpret and exhibit human emotions, falls in love with the scientist's fiancée, then, after numerous song and dance routines, tries to destroy the world too!

The film's soundtrack, by A H Rahman, features a number of robot songs, most of which will be posted in due course. I've been changing my mind on an almost daily basis as to which song I should post first, and eventually I settled on this one... Irumbile oru Irudhaiyam, from Enthiran; the Tamil version.

The Robots : Kraftwerk

After yesterday's disaster of a robot song, it's high time I let the Germans demonstrate how to do 'it' properly. What can I say about this seminal robot song that you won't already know?  It's one of the greatest and best known robots songs of all time... and space. The Robots was originally released Kraftwerk's 1978 LP 'The Man Machine', but this version is from their 1991 LP 'The Mix'.

Monsieur le Robot : Les Lutins

Les Lutins hail from Canada, so why they feel the need to sing in foreign I've no idea... what's wrong with the Queen's English eh?! Canada is part of the Commonwealth after all.  I can only assume that the swinging sixties swung so much in Canada that Les Lutins forgot which language they spoke and just made up a new one on the fly. I'm joking of course, but I know so little about this band I don't know what else to say. From Quebec, Canada, singing in foreign on their 1968 single, it's Les Lutins with Monsieur le Robot.

Robot : t.A.T.u.

Here's one by the Muscovite faux-lesbots t.A.T.u. From their 2001 début album and rolling their Rs better than anyone I've ever heard, it's Robot.   Let's all have a sing along!

Bionic Skillz : Bassi Maestro

Here's another of those songs that leaves me wishing I'd paid a bit more attention at school... if I'd listened in language class I'd have a much better understanding of Foreign. I'd be able to tell you all about Bassi Maestro's Bionic Skillz. I'd talk endlessly about its themes and perspectives, its setting, how it offers a critique on contemporary culture as so many robot songs do... but I can't because it's foreign.



What can I say? Foreign rap-hop at it's most average... it does get better... honest :)

Cyborg 009 : Italian Anime Theme

I've no idea who's performing this theme song, nor am I entirely certain which particular version of Cyborg 009 it's from, apart from the fact it's from the Italian airing. According to wikipedia, Cyborg 009 first aired in 1966, but this theme sounds more recent than that. The 1979/1980 anime TV series was popular in Italy, so it could be the theme from that, or possibly from a 1980 movie version of the series. There was also another remake of the TV series in 2001, and another film in 2012, and with little information to go on, I'm not sure what the actual year of this theme song should be. I'm guessing 1979 or 1980, but it could well be from 2001*... if anyone can shed light on this, I'd be grateful.

Anyway, enough of my inane ramblings, here's the song...





*from the info on Wikipedia and from what i can gather from the title sequence in the video, it is from 2001... but I've still no idea who the artist is. Clearly I need all the help I can get, so please don't be shy :)

Electric Lady Land : Fantastic Plastic Machine

A wonderful robot song by a wonderful band... in fact Electric Lady Land by the Fantastic Plastic Machine is so good I have to post it twice. First off, we have the Foreign version:




Followed by the English version, which retains the infectious up-tempo easy listening vibe yet allows those of us not programmed to understand Foreign to fully enjoy the song:


Now all we need is a binary version for the older robots.

Rock 'n' Roll Robot

Two versions of Rock 'n' Roll Robot for your listening pleasure. The first, which I assume is the original is sung almost entirely in Foreign, apart from the words 'rock' and 'roll'... and 'robot' (and of course 'and'). I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for the cover of the single that features strongly in the 'video'... you might think you're 'eye candy' Alberto, but you're not... in fact, looking at you makes me love the eighties a little bit less. Nice robot song though.



The second is a cover version by Ustmamo', released in 2003*. I know nothing about this band/artist other than the fact they've turned Alberto Camerini's camp pop-lemon into a smooth and slinky slice of synthesised bliss cake. It's even got a nice video too. It'd be handy to know what the lyrics are, but that's my own fault for not paying enough attention in language class.



* This song appears on their 2003 compilation album UstBestMamo and was their final release before the group split. Their version of Rock 'n' Roll Robot may well be earlier than 2003, but I'm yet to find any evidence... please let me know if I've got my facts wrong :)