Popularity
"Khe Sanh" is one of the most popular songs ever recorded by an Australian act and one generally seen as a resonant symbol of the Australian culture. Allmusic describes it as, "a song that will forever epitomize this period of Australian music." The record reached number four in the band's home town of Adelaide but peaked on the national sales charts at number 41. In August 1978, censors gave it an A Classification, meaning that it was "not suitable for airplay", because of sex and drug references, such as the lines: "their legs were often open, but their minds were always closed". Walker said, "That was the reason they told us, which wasn't necessarily the real one." Barnes later commented "Every DJ in the country begged us to release "Khe Sanh" as a single. Then they banned it two weeks later. They had to ban something once a week to keep the Catholic Church happy." At the start of the Live at the Wireless album, Barnes thanks Double Jay for being the only station that played the song.
In 2001, members of APRA, the Australasian music industry's peak body, put "Khe Sanh" at number eight in a poll of the all-time best Australian songs. It still receives strong airplay on Australian radio stations with a "classic rock" format.
In August 2011, "Khe Sanh" re-entered the ARIA Singles Chart at #40, beating their previous peak position by one spot.
Read more about this topic: Khe Sanh (song)
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
“The nation looked upon him as a deserter, and he shrunk into insignificancy and an earldom.... He was fixed in the house of lords, that hospital of incurables, and his retreat to popularity was cut off; for the confidence of the public, when once great and once lost, is never to be regained.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“The popularity of disaster movies ... expresses a collective perception of a world threatened by irresistible and unforeseen forces which nevertheless are thwarted at the last moment. Their thinly veiled symbolic meaning might be translated thus: We are innocent of wrongdoing. We are attacked by unforeseeable forces come to harm us. We are, thus, innocent even of negligence. Though those forces are insuperable, chance will come to our aid and we shall emerge victorious.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)