James Reyne - Hammer Head (1987)

[xr6lad]

Never has a man who could only mumble his words risen so fast on the charts.....

[kidjdh1]

and yes it is def about heroin.

[kidjdh1]

loved this song since it came out..

[northerely]

he's singing about herion

[worknoplayplay]

i have listen to this song a thousand times.. but fucked if know what the fuck he is singing about hehe....but hay fruckn great tune.......happy australia day people...and australian crawl you rock......cheers..............­...............

[GOODGOOD1ABLE]

Great song made greater by The Best SINGER IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE Olivia Newton-John. loved this song as a chid still do, untill now I had frgotten it :) thanks for bring back my memories.

[TheCherokeelouise]

Hes a spunk that is for sure. Who cares about the mullet. Go Aussie Crawl..

[tremcg]

Go the mullet! Business at the front, party at the back.

[awakenlilrabbit]

thats some high pant action. im inspired to do the same look today.

[0hayesy0]

fucking best song ever <3

[djlad56]

got a hammer head and a himm...him...blew and he now now!

[1jackiea]

betcha James laid heaps of women .

[MrLincko1]

Gee, I always thought the song was just about sharks cause we got a lot of sharks here in Australia.

[1jackiea]

@MrLincko1 WRONG !!!

[yorkshiretractors]

@1jackiea IS IT RIGHT YOU HAVE BEEN BAND OF STATUS QUO "Two Way Traffic

[nasa72]

My little nephew is 3, and has a bloody mullett.. Begging my brother to keep it, and hopefully that and good music will come back to to this great country!

[jayall65]

love is the drug.

[pandaeyes42]

I would love to hear James Reyne do a duet with the lead singer of America band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

You wouldn't be able to make out a fucking word either of them was saying!!!

[alanbstard4]

Olivia Newton-John backing vocals

[JollyMunkie]

Dick like Mick Malloy pretended they didn't know about "Hammerhead. by James Rayne". That is why I like morons who listen to outer suburbs station. They live in the outer suburbs and we have our nice life here.

[sylphil51]

Thanks for putting this up - great track and I love your tag NZOZ.

[guruofpiano]

Fantastic!!! Excellent work!! Very enjoyable. Thumbs up!! Y.F. G.

[simonjohnheath]

Keep up the awesome work NZOZ!



[n7d7y4n7]

@spankMAbooTAY: Well done and more power too you...

[JackDoogan72]

great song

[TheKaBlamski]

Only took me 24 years or something to just workout what the song is about. Just thought it was a cool song as a kid lol - If you watch the clip and listen to the lyrics i'd say the comments are spot on.....

[TheMicturation]

geez i was niaeve @17...i had no idea this was about smack back then,but absolutely loved it...thought it was about a girl,specially with innocent Olivia on backing vocals..lol...absolute classic song.

[Stealthkeys77]

This song gives me memories of my youth. Crusing down the great ocean road before it became commercialized. Socializing in beer gardens, getting pissed, having fish and chips.... just having a "bonza" time in all ways that are truly Australian. These days, with all the political correctness and civil libertarians that "style" of life is gone. Some would be happy with that. I'm not ! But if insincere people and cafe late's is what you are after then "good luck to ya".

[KLOEDEN1]

But how beaut is Olivia on back up ...

[alwaysfeliz]

I was a little tacker when this came out and was just starting to watch music videos. I never understood why the 'pretty lady' got worse and worse through the video...NOW I get it!

[ThePhantomLash]

Top Song .... top era, remember my Dad clapping to this down the pub !!!

[soulkiss68]

@whylookyhere YEP OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN WAS ON BACKING VOCALS NEAR THE END OF THIS TRACK...

[Mega80sRocker]

this a great peice of australian talent

[ssjs1437]

Firstly - James Reyne, Australian Legend. great song mate.

Secondly - This video was uploaded in 2008, that's right, 3 years ago. And here there are comments from two Smackhead Junkies talking about who's less of a junkie than the other one. 3 houses, successful business LOL !! Who cares, you take SMACK you are a SMACK head. That's the only type of person that would come to youtube and talk about how f**k'd up they are.

[peteypete271]

I love this song. The melody is so beautiful and I love the heroin references as music and drugs go hand in hand. A timeless tune.

5 STARS.

[pollyyview]

what a brilliant song. awesome lyrics!! it is about drugs and the distruction of the body from drugs.

[NiceHeadMr]

I have no idea what the lyris he is singing but I just love the way he sings it.

Nice song

[gooberwench]

Very strange to hear all this sung so politely to the camera in a nice collared shirt! I do recall heroin being a terrible problem in Sydney at this time..... even as a middle-class kid, everyone knew someone affected

[Denexen]

A note from Sydney's heroin flood 1984 - 87 Just a touch of you Just a taste Like kissing god is what we do Let's go to waste Take food from my mouth Take my sex Take my friends take my lovers Here take this You'll never know what you do to me Five times a day My self destruction you'll oversee Don't go don't go away

[spoddog1]

magnificent  stuff,

[toy200sx]

Awesome intro, haunting despairing. A fretless bass or keyboard perhaps?

[Aerialgrrl]

Love this track! The model used to be in Dolly all the time.

[TheLOUIE1973]

GREAT SONG ONE OF THE BEST LIVE ACTS I HAVE SEEN

[fionajamesau]

to nzoz1987 thanks for putting these up on here it great 2 see the original its brought back many memories

[pandaeyes42]

Needs a speech therapist!

[wallacejunior15]

Que falta faz a Antiga Rádio 94,9 Fluminense " A Maldita" , depois a Rádio Cidade! Hoje o Rio de Janeiro NÃO tem uma Rádio decente para que gosta de Rock!

[LOOKSABUCKET]

@wallacejunior15 and a jaffle iron because spanish didn't come out in greek and dairy products, 19191 and another one

[TVCSD]

geez i love it

[iwillknifeya]

Love the song, love the hair! :D

[punji73]

1987, another cool year for music, you had your hudu gurus make their debut and old james reyne with his hammer head hit and im also lead to believe a certain animated movie made in new zealand was doing the rounds at the local cinema...footrot flats lol!! the soundtrack was pretty cool!

[Psymongg]

i loved this song when I was 10... Never got what "hammer head" was about until now! thanks for posting!

[oldredun]

@trickynic66 - you again . . . . sad old thing . . . te he he !!! Just messin' with you Trickster !!

[CheekyMinx111]

great song :)

[livvynut]

olivia's vocals can just lift any song well done livvy

[Sirocco97]

the queen of australia on backing vocals .great song

[pandaeyes42]

English, James, English!

Needs a speech therapist!!!

[oldredun]

@pandaeyes42 - I bet you enjoy Celine Dion and Johnny Farnham . . .

[bigmaxy07]

Thank god for the wardrobe change at 1:54

[shmuli9]

Australian music from the 80s sounds VERY much like Canadian music from the 80s (sort of rock, but with a definite "new wave" sound) as compared to American and British music from the same period, which was either rock or new wave, but generally not both...

[TheMickRoz]

heard this today and was like i gotta add it to my joy muso collection

[ShavedBunny]

i never realised it before, but after jerrying to the title of the song, reading the lyrics (and some of these comments) its clearly about heroin. awesome track.

[327aussie]

MULLETHEAD!

[joelwarmachine1991]

HAHAH! i love how you put fivecougarsoz comment in the description! thats actually awesome! hahaha a fantastic song too! take that 2010! try top this!

[porrigehater]

great song.

[enquvist]

Ahhhh this is back when teens supported Australian music as much as overseas stuff, check the top 10 on ARIA these days it's pretty much always 10 american artists. Sad.

[iwillknifeya]

Legendary song and mullet. I love Australian Crawl as well.

[AYEJAY666]

Respect the Mullet!

[glassfranger]

mullethead

[johnnyinlaunie]

so are we taking a vote? heroin usage or uneducated courier? If it is about a courier then it has more clever drug references than any other aussie song except boys light up. Nzoz...whatcha say ?? smack song or fastway? be my ritual certainly cannot be about most couriers in relation to reliability ! LOL.

[wildon85]

this is great a song - james was ahead of time - his unusual singing style is very aussie - everytime i hear this song i have to head to the pub

[phileustace]

How I long for these days to come back !!

The 80s were such a great time !! Mullet hair cuts,

pub beer gardens, getting pissed on pinacoladas ...

admiring beautiful girls ..... having slumber parties .....

thinking "big" ...... would happily trade it for the

current shit on the radio and hip hop glorifying times that

we live in today !! "Aint no oonce oonce in the 80s !!"

[woolyhairs]

@phileustace Oh yes bring back the 80's, the great music but not the horrible fashions

[mdmdawg]

go the mullet!!!! u rock

[EddieAlda]

nice mullet, James.

[riceandme]

james i love you soooo much!!!

[xitplm]

TO ALL YOU BOGANS the song is about "fellatio", quoted by J.Reyne on tv interview on ABC last night. Nice chord changes

[SuzyTrippa]

@xitplm Ummm we're bogans ....You're an idiot ....the show you are talking about is Talking heads on ABC and l just read the full transcript of it then (easily found on google) The boys light up is the song he says is about fellatio NOT Hammerhead... So get your facts right before you call ppl names ....Who is the fool now lol

[Beanick]

Always loved this song but hadn't heard it for years. Beautiful evocative music. Never knew those sweet backing vocals starting at 3.00 were Olivia. Fascinating! Always thought the lyrics had something to do with that most bizarre creature the hammerhead shark, now I know better! Thanks so much for posting this gem.

[brontechook]

For those who dont know Hammer is Rhyming slang for heroin as in hammer and tack... smack. originally the term hammer and tack was aussie slang for a bad back or carpenters back.

[CheekyMinx111]

@brontechook thank you for that explanation! i never would have got it otherwise. good song none the less.

[brontechook]

@CheekyMinx111 No worries CheekyM in Oz we have lots of heads petrol heads hemp heads footy heads I think this song sends the right message to the hammer heads.

[elvenwishes]

I have never seen the video of this song, not that I can remember,,,either way James is just a sexy man...sorry guys it's a girl thing ;p and our Olivia adds that something to the backing vocals.....Thanks again for having this clip...:)

[scottclements78]

cant understand a word James is saying but this song is awesome.

[mrsgritoli1]

@scottclements78 try listening with headphones

[malice1488]

the guy who posts all these songs is a junky immigrant loving fag

[oldredun]

@malice1488 - you are a sick neo nazi fuck and you and all your buddies would be well served by instant death . . . the chance that you might breed is truly horrifying . . . the rest of us won't let it get out of hand a second time, fuckwit !!!

[SECOMMARICA]

Beautiful song, i knew five years later in Brazil, memories of and old girlfriend...

[cambon007]

hammer is heroin

[riceandme]

love him, love this song!

[malice1488]

the songs about heroin

[MIZONE65]

Id love to see a live version of this with ONJ !

[johnnyinlaunie]

Nzoz....you should do this for a living mate...what a great collection of aussie music...still growing the list?

[neonurse41]

Great song..agree with everyone, it is about heroin. But what's with that shirt, James?

[meitagh]

Simply beautiful voice James, stunning.

[KylieDumbleton]

ventti74 you are correct!

The song, is indeed, about smack! The line "some silken slip of evil" kind of gives it away.

[pandaeyes42]

English, James, English !!!

[ventti74]

lol,ffs ppl,its about smack,i know for a fact as i was mates with his cousin,talked with him ova a bbq about the song

[wiggo4]

man, back in the 80s i passed up an opportunity to see oz crawl and dragon down at the local racecourse.I bin kickin my own ass ever since. James looks remarkably like guy mcdonough in a few of these scenes. same expression.

[EvolvingLogic]

l read a comment back at the start saying no reference in lyrics to it being about Heroin ...It definately is about heroin the lyrics maybe can be read differently but reguardless its about heroin smack hammer lol

[Marquinhos32]

Muito bom! Brasil!

[JuanitaMaraki]

I love this song to bits he has a beautiful voice

[Gerardus1970]

Olivia Newton-John on backing vocals...

[bigb6056]

Its the little things like the "h" from "hollywood" behind him at 1min 50 something that make this a cool video

[steverob66]

You people of today dont know how good this classic Aussie music was....And now you reap the benifits!!!!....Always remember....bloody awesome James.

[scottclements78]

Australian music was so good back then. I think we lost it somewhere since.

[toy200sx]

Only 2 people pulled of the mullet succesfully

- MacGyver

- J Reyne

[Greysouthen]

You forgot  a 3rd !!

Iva Davies (Icehouse)

[kcud1962]

great song good production, james is and always will be a total tosser, forget the first 2.4 minutes listen to livvy

[nzoz1987]

He is a fan of mine, so he couldn't be that bad! :-)

[malice1488]

@nzoz1987 ur a faggot

[oldredun]

@nzoz1987 - dead right nzoz, toured all of Qld supporting the Crawl and Dragon when James and the lads were putting Semantics together and Dragon had just released "Rain" . . . James and the entire band were cool guys and especially James, sadly, given I'd been a fan since "I'm in the Sunshine", Marc Hunter, a truly gifted vocalist and performer, was a complete cock . . . may his troubled soul rest in peace.

[oldredun]

@nzoz1987 . . . as usual nzoz, well articulated, did an entire Qld tour with Aussie Crawl, Jimmy Reyne is a top bloke, don't believe the hype . . . . reeks of jealousy !!!!

[123thebird]

moron,

this is the 2nd best song ever (after dragon's RAIN)

but do agree with one point livvy is the greatest most beautiful ever

[Squabbles10]

Hey man,  i have tears in my eyes. I think Rain is the best song ever too and this is second...... What a song hey ...... Great taste brother !!! Fischer Z - Perfect Day is 3rd !!!!!

[thetigerbenji]

@kcud1962 you sound like the tosser pal

[RoMpErStOmP3R]

one of the all time great mullets

[71kimd]

absolutely love James Reyne. and Olivia Newton John singing backup on this.towards end of song.

[lovosazul]

Top song!=D

[Sdblahm67]

one of the all time great heroin songs

[RoMpErStOmP3R]

LMFAO  Sdblahm67

[mrsgritoli1]

whats that in english?????

[bruchesco]

@mrsgritoli1 LMFAO...laugh my fuckin ass off.

[LOOKSABUCKET]

@mrsgritoli1 Incorrect grammer.

[mrsgritoli1]

@LOOKSABUCKET What ??????

[amakdissi79]

yes, gotta luv olivia newton john!

[burgobusdriver1]

great backing vocals by livi the voice of an angel. only delta can match her.its great the way aussie artists help each other .typical aussie way.

[mignonhenne]

is that the babe from icehouse 'electric blue'?

[ladydimoore1234]

Sorry no comment on vid trying to contact fionajamesau. For whatever reason youtube canceled my username chazzesgirl. I recived message this am 10oclock eastern time

In cocoabeach,fl.If anyone can pass this along,please do. Much appreciated

[mdf072]

Hammerhead is a heroin user. Comes from rhyming slang "hammer and tack" for smack which is another word for heroin.

[VansenandWellsCo]

Great Australian song.

Whatever happened to great songs and great singers from the land of Oz?

[bruchesco]

Poker machines invaded the clubs and pubs where bands used to get discovered..

[newromantic888]

thats the man. Thats the song...

[fivecougarsoz]

you should mention Olivia Newton-John in the video description, because she adds to icing to this beautiful cake at the end with her heart-melting backing vox!

[nzoz1987]

done

[fivecougarsoz]

lol, thanks mate :)

[fivecougarsoz]

@nzoz1987

haha thanks mate :)

seriously though, she does put such a nice touch on this song, i love it

[mrsgritoli1]

@fivecougarsoz  Well said.Olivia sounds great in this

[ThePhantomLash]

@fivecougarsoz What a song ...... What a singer !!!

[123thebird]

one off,if not, the greatest songs ever, olivia just puts it over the top

[4FtHawaiian]

That is some great fucking mullet. Great vid! Thanks!

[fionajamesau]

yeah see how she goes on the nod at tha end but look close her pipils aint pinned.cause this songs bout the itchy ans scratchy "silken slip of evil hammer head"

[shi3]

who was the girl in this filmclip? she look familier

[jhmagna]

It's Delta Goodrem's older sister

[hillary3623]

Great song, what a spunk, great choice with Olivia singing backup vocals, guitarist isn t bad either!!

[newromantic888]

Aussie Crawl forever......

[barrelofagun08]

He perfected the mullet, business at the front, party at the back!

[fadiwrx]

If you listen to lyrics, you will know that this song

is about hammer = heroin

[philby971]

I always wondered what this song was really about. Thanks for clearing that up for me! JR is brilliant!!

[fivecougarsoz]

awesome song, but what always stood out for me is the beeeaaauuuuuuutiful backing vocals by Olivia Newton John towards the end ... voice of an angel right there

[fivecougarsoz]

btw ... what sorta middle name for a chick is "Newton", anyway !?!? random thought! :)

[anfnifarr]

Newton isn't her second given name, it's the first half of her hyphenated surname.

[mignonhenne]

oli-iv-ia new-ton jo-hn is the correct spelling .lol.

[anfnifarr]

Should we think that's funny? Let us know when to laugh.

[anfnifarr]

Her name is Olivia Newton-John. Her father is Brinley Newton-John. "Newton" is part of her surname, not her given names. Check her website (olivianewton-johndotcom) or her wikipedia biography to confirm that fact.

[anfnifarr]

BTW, I was replying to an old comment by fivecougarsoz. The totally random youtube server stuck my reply out on its own, where it lost its original context. It happens all the time and explains most apparently meaningless comments. OTOH some comments are just plain meaningless.

[raywise]

Olivia sounds sooo sweeet, you are right.

[cartheym]

what a great mullet james....I used to have one of them too - ahahaha

[KnoTTeD777]

Its a song about a shark ...noobs

[nzoz1987]

Hammerheads like nice people too.

[woolyhairs]

@nzoz1987 Thats funny, no really I love comments like that

[LOOKSABUCKET]

@KnoTTeD777 mong

[aronpedersen]

do you have an mp3 of this song

[fivecougarsoz]

Yes.