Friday, May 15, 2009

Neil and Tim Finn in Split Enz


Split Enz was an excellent band from the 1970's and 80's and the first group from New Zealand to become a worldwide success. The band began in 1972 and would go through many changes, but they were primarily led by brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn up until they disbanded in the mid-1980s. While Tim had a successful solo career, Neil would go on to form Crowded House, which became much bigger than Split Enz. Tim reunited with Neil on the Crowded House record Woodface, and they went on to work together on two Finn Brothers albums as well as each other's solo work.

Split Enz is fondly remembered as an amazing group that was ahead of their time. It was in this band that Neil and Tim Finn refined their craft for writing great lyrics with incredibly catchy hooks. They have a huge and rabid cult following and have been a major influence on many of the great bands of today. Most notable of these would be Pearl Jam and in particular, Eddie Vedder, as you'll see from a few of the great covers at the end of this post.

Here are some classic videos and mp3s of some of my favorite songs from Split Enz.



Split Enz - "I See Red"




Split Enz - "I Got You"




Split Enz - "History Never Repeats"




Split Enz - Six Months in a Leaky Boat


Here are two really cool live covers of Split Enz tunes by Pearl Jam:

Pearl Jam - I've Got You (From the bootleg comp 2000 Tour Live Rarities)

Pearl Jam (w/ Neil and Tim Finn) - History Never Repeats (from a PJ Ten Club Christmas Single)

To see more Split Enz, Crowded House, and Finn Brothers videos, check out this blog I made a few years ago, Neil Finn Videos.

Buy History Never Repeats: The Best of Split Enz from amazon.com

3 comments:

  1. Nice one David! I'm never really sure just how popular Split Enz were outside NZ (a lot of my friends here in the US don't even know Crowded House, and it doesn't help that the Aussies at work claim them as theirs...)

    You should check out this radio documentary about the band if you haven't already: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/documentaries/enzology

    Would love to hear Adam & Dave cover I See Red!

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  2. Thanks for the link on the documentary. I will check it out.

    Bloodline covering "I See Red" would be cool, but I'd really like to see them do "History Never Repeats." They are working on some cool covers for the shows this summer so I'm looking forward to some cool surprises.

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