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Today's ear X-tacy: Men Without Hats "The Safety Dance"

Today's ear X-tacy features a classic track or deep-cut from the Alternative era every weekday at 10:10.

Who could forget "The Safety Dance"? Canadian new wave/synth-pop band Men Without Hats released it in 1982 as the second single from their debut album, Rhythm of Youth. The song was written by lead singer Ivan Doroschuk after he had been ejected from a club for pogo dancing. Speaking about the message of the song, he said, “I was telling people it's OK, you can slam dance if you want to."

He also responded to two common interpretations of the song. For those thinking it was a call for safe sex, he said that it was "people reading into it a bit too much." Regarding those who felt it was an anti-nuclear protest song because of the nuclear imagery at the end of the video, he said: "it wasn't a question of just being anti-nuclear, it was a question of being anti-establishment.”

John is the mid-morning host on WFPK. Email John at jtimmons@lpm.org