“I’ve Been To Bali Too” the 80s Music Video Goes Viral This Week.

Redgum - I've Been To Bali Too - promo video 1984 - YouTube

More info abot Bali: Bali Travel Info.

This song caught my interest in my Facebook news fed this week when local surfing magazine Bali Belly posted the music video to their Facebook page, in a version complete with lyrics.

This song about Bali island in 1980s.  I have been listening to this song over and over again.  This brings me back to my childhood era.  This time I was spending a lot of time at the Kuta beach with my uncle, when he was a hotel manager in one of the Hotels there (I remember of the quiet and mellow beach, very few tourists, and a lot of palm trees).  I cannot believe next month my uncle will be cremated in a special cremation ceremony.  This song has made a viral comeback, prompting “netizens to remember the island’s golden days before “it got too crowded.”

“Making waves in 1984 when it was first released, Australian singer-songwriter John Schumann with his floppy hair and thick beard, takes us to his upbeat tune through Poppies in Kuta before it got so hectic, out on a boat ride in some very peaceful waters, along green-terraced rice fields in Ubud, and other nearly unrecognizable spots that have now been built up with the arrival of mass tourism to the island.”

The song gets its name from the lovely lyric, “You can’t impress me, because I’ve been to Bali too.”

One of our favorite lyrics, alludes to the time Paul McCartney was locked up in Japan in 1980 for nine days for trying to bring in half a pound of marijuana into the country—which is still relevant given Indonesia’s own obsession with drug smuggling:

“Went through my bags like McCartney in Japan, I didn’t have a thing, so I didn’t give a damn.

“You can’t trick me, because I’ve been to Bali too.”

“Since posted on Wednesday, the video has been viewed over 400,000 times, shared over 6,000 times, and has a couple of thousand comments, reminiscing about Bali back then.”

Enjoy!