Friday, March 30, 2012

"AEIOU Sometimes Y" by EBN-OZN - March 30th 80's Quest Song/Band of the Day


(Click on link above and scroll down to the second screen for video).


EBN-OZN (pronounced Eeb-en  Oh-zen) formed in New York, NY in 1981 when Ned Liben (EBN – the dark haired one on synthesizer) was introduced to Robert Rosen (OZN – the blond haired one on vocals) by record producer Jay Aaron Podolnick.  At the time OZN was dating an Australian fashion model who was friends with the Polodnick.  Surprisingly the EBN and OZN had grown up in New York only blocks apart, but had never met before.  When he was 14-years old EBN had founded a recording studio which he still owned called New York’s Sundragon Recording Studios.  OZN was an actor on Broadway appearing in the original casts of Shenandoah and Marlow.  The two shared a love of punk and hip-hop and began hitting the clubs together, being influenced by all they heard.

The London branch of Arista-Ariola and Elektra Records in New York signed the music duo in 1983 and released their only album, Feeling Cavalier.  The album featured a wide range of music styles and spawned two singles, “AEIOU, Sometimes Y” and “Bag Lady (I Wonder)”—the video for this single starred Tony Award winning actress Imogene Coca and became a hit in the dance clubs and in the US, Canada, and Europe.

In 1985 EBN OZN broke up.  EBN went to work as a musician, composer, arranger, and producer working with the band Scritti Politti, The Ramones, Ravi Shankar, and The Talking Heads at his Sundragon and Sound Over Soho recording studios.  Tragically, he died in Manhattan in February1998 from a sudden heart attack at the age of 44.  He was survived by his widow Sallie Moore Liben and a baby son, Max. 


OZN formed a house music act called Dada Nada and started his own record label, One Voice Records. OZN changed his name from Robert Rosen to Robert Ozn and began working as a script analyst, screenwriter, and producer.  He started out working for free at Ixtlan Films (owned by Oliver Stone and Janet Yang) so that he could learn the development and production processes of the movie business.  From there he went on to a paid position as first call reader for A-list material for Oliver Stone.  Then he went to work at Miramax Films and was the reader for the smash movie Pulp Fiction.  At Miramax he also became the contract development executive for much of their European films, as well as in the horror division of Dimension Films.  He worked as a script analyst for Creative Arts Agency on projects for movie directors, Sydney Pollack, Louis Malle, and James Cameron.

Ozn had worked with Colin Greene on a script called God’s Witness which was one of the favorite un-sold spec scripts in the industry.  In 2003 their script was finally made into a movie for Universal Pictures called I Witness starring Jeff Daniels, James Spader, and Portia de Rossi.  That same year Ozn left the business for a little while to raise a family, but returned to work again in 2008 to produce a UK documentary about war hero and British aristocrat, Micky Burn.  He also wrote a science-fiction film, Earth’s Final Hour for the Sy Fy Channel.  Ozn is now divorced and lives in Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro.
Lyrics:

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore....
I was walking up Broadway you know
and there's this incredible looking Swedish girl having a
Cappuccino across the street from Lincoln Center, I started
talking to her you know - She said her name was Lola,
Her English wasn't too good you know - but we wound up spending
about 5 hours together just hanging out you know.
So We go back to my place - we get high - we get really into each other man.
It was love about to happen...I'm serious.
And then all of a sudden she gets up and she says, she says "Hey, I really gotta leave"
Damn
A E I O U Sometimes Y
There are 178 parent languages on our planet with over 1000 dialects...
It's amazing we communicate at all.
Languages and dialects - with this one thing in common:
A E I O U Sometimes Y
Ahhh!
A E I O U A E I O U A E I O U A E I O U
Sometimes Y!!
But you know I was really flipped out you know and she asked me
if I'm angry or something I said of course I'm angry man this
isn't high school or anything you know so I'm feeling really
cavalier and I say ah...call me if you want to...
huh, yeah...call me if you want to
So she rang me up and she says, "Hey! Do you wanna go out?"
Huh, Do I wanna go out
A E I O U Sometimes Y
A E I O U Sometimes Y
Operator! Operator! What's happening operator?!
Mommy? Mommy Mommy!! Where are you
Mommy? I can't see you
I can't see you Mommy!
All artists, potentially, are the victims of their desire to be unique
Just observe it
Don't fight it
Work it. Work it. Work it. Work it. Work it.
Yeah she took me home man she threw me all
around the room man
I mean this chick was really hot she was nice
to me you know
She let me keep on my cowboy boots and everything...she was
Allright... oh! oh! yeah! oh! oh! oh! oh! ohhhhhh!!!
I dare you to play this record
A E I O U Sometimes Y
A E I O U Sometimes Y
Anyway so she took me home and she
splattered my brains
Yeah there I am there I am what happened what happened
Where was I oh here I am
I told her I wouldn't sleep with her friends - she
Doesn't sleep with my friends Anything else you do
You know...Don't you tell me
Lola        

1 comment:

  1. I remember Robert Ozn was the principle producer and director of Eben Ozen's music videos "A, E, I, O, U sometimes Y' and Bag Lady. I ran a boutique production company in NYC at the time, Small Wonder Video Services and I edited the first video with Robert and made changes to ending of the second. Robert was great to work with.

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