Men at Work Guitarist Threatens Singer
Posted by John D. Luerssen on Feb 19th 2009

Men at Work guitarist Ronald Strykert was taken into custody by L.A. County sheriff's deputies last Friday (February 13) after he allegedly threatened to kill the band's singer, Colin Hay (pictured - right).

The incident dates back to December 2007, but Strykert (pictured - left) had apparently missed his May 2008 arraignment on the misdemeanor charge of making criminal threats. The guitarist -- who played on the band's early '80s hits "Who Can It Be Now?," "Down Under" and "It's a Mistake" -- denied making the threat and was hauled on an outstanding bench warrant.

According to L.A. Times reports on Wednesday, Strykert supposedly made the threat over the phone from his residence in Bozeman, Montana. Sheriff's officials sent Strykert a letter in April ordering him to appear in Malibu court on May 30th.

Hay reportedly told investigators that he didn't believe the guitarist would carry out the threat.

What an odd story. I did a little more searching and I found the following quote apparently from Ron Strykert on his myspace page:
"With Regards to a Men at Work reunion it will not happen and I have strong reasons for this. Colin Hay was part of a situation with CBS Sony Records NY and also along with our manager back then when Colin did a solo album Looking For Jack CBS gave him $400,000 to make it as they do to help you make a CD album. The record didn't sell much, it wasn't that good and so CBS wanted the $400.000 back or most of it, so they got that money back from the rest of the Men At Work royalties sales which they legally should not do but Colin and manager helped legally for this to happen or helped in some way back in '84-'85. So then now legally it's too old to go back and make a court case about it and costs a lot. My share could have been say from $300,000 one sixth share or so $50,000. Maybe Colin would like to pay me back now just to be a good guy. Sadly at this time I have no respect for Colin Hay."

I hope Strykert did not threaten to kill Colin Hay over $50,000 in lost royalties. I am a big fan of Hay's music and the music Men at Work made in the early 80s.

Men at Work is an Australian band which achieved incredible success in the early 80s winning the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1983 and reportedly selling over 30 million albums worldwide. Another key member of the group originally formed by Hay and Strykert is Greg Ham who played the keyboards, saxophone, harmonica and flute which are almost as distinctive as Hay's voice. Men at Work only released 3 studio albums though two were multi-platinum and the third was gold. Their debut album released in 1981 was Business as Usual.

Business as Usual was one of the most successful albums internationally by an Australian group. It spent an unprecedented 15 weeks at #1 on the U.S. album charts from late 1982 to early 1983 and five weeks at #1 in the UK in early 1983. Business as Usual was one of the most commercially successful albums in the early 1980s, with 6 million copies sold in the US (certified 6x Platinum) and 15 million sold worldwide. They followed that up with Cargo in 1983 which would go 3x Platinum, but only reach #3 on the U.S. Billboard album charts. I can still remember purchasing the cassette for Cargo back when I was 10 years old.

I am going to take this opportunity to publish my top 10 for Men at Work songs, but similar to when I did the Pet Shop Boys, I am only going to publish a top 6 in this case. I could fill the other slots, but there are 6 that I truly love and I decided that should be the list. This will not include any of Colin Hay's solo work which I will touch on after the list. As usual, there will be video links for each song, too. Here is OLD SCHOOL'S TOP 6 SONGS BY MEN AT WORK:

6. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" (1983) from Cargo [link to somebody's homemade video] - Derived from the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

5. "Be Good Johnny" (1981) from Business as Usual [link to video] - The title of the song is a reference to Johnny B. Goode.

4. "Down Under" (1981) from Business as Usual [link to video including pop up facts] - This song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It contains many memorable lyrics including "He just smiled and he gave me a Vegemite sandwich." In case you were not aware, Vegemite is a dark brown food paste made from yeast extract, used mainly as a spread on sandwiches, toast and cracker biscuits in Australia.

3. "It's a Mistake" (1983) from Cargo [link to video]

2. "Who Can It Be Now?" (1981) from Business as Usual [link to video] - This was the band's first single launching their popularity, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and really fueling the major success of the album.

1. "Overkill" (1983) from Cargo [link to video] - Ranks at #2 on my popular Top 80s Songs with One-Word Titles list.

There's my list. All excellent in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier, I continue to be a fan of Colin Hay's music. The now 55 year old Hay is actually Scottish and moved to Australia with his family at the age of 14. He has released 9 solo albums and my favorite of those is 2003's Man @ Work which is heavily acoustic and includes solo versions of many of the songs on the list above as well as some of his solo work.

One of my very favorite songs of all time by any artist is Hay's "Waiting For My Real Life to Begin." I just love this song and you can listen to it here:

Another great song from that album is an acoustic version of "Overkill." I am a big fan of acoustic music and acoustic re-makes of songs. This version is one of my favorites and it was featured in an episode of the television series Scrubs (season 2, episode 1, originally aired September 2002) called "My Overkill." The episode actually featured Colin Hay performing his song and you can watch it in the video below:

Men at Work did briefly re-unite already 1996-2000 which included a tour, a live album release and a performance at the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. If the rest of the group decides to a reunion, you can probably bet that Ron Strykert won't be included. Men at Work made great music in the early 80s, Colin Hay is still making great music today and I love it all.

That will put the wrap on another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks much for reading. If you are interested in reading more of my 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. If you are interested in reading more of my Top 10 lists, please click there for a summary. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the new Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Check this out: Some ingenious folks out there have put together literal videos for some 80s songs. By literal I mean that the words of the song are changed to more describe what is happening in the video. I have included literal videos for a-Ha's "Take On Me," Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels" and even Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" in past issues of Kickin' it Old School (you can use the search box in the upper right hand column to find them if interested). I find these both creative and entertaining. And now there is another one. Here is "White Wedding" by Billy Idol. Enjoy...

Quote of the day: "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." -Anatole France