March 11, 2008 Earworm

Strawberry Switchblade were two Scottish beauties that came complete with songwriting skills, beautiful voices, and a look that seemed always to be described with day-glow as an adjective. In reality, their colors was more akin to cellophane; bright and shiny but only a minor distraction from the heart of the matter. Singles "Since Yesterday" and "Let Her Go" were such twinkling techno-pop gems that few seemed to notice just how dark the content was.

"Who Knows What Love Is?" toned down the clatter and moved the color from lite-brite intensity to Douglas Sirk lushness and searched for an impossible answer to a pointless question. Lovely...

Major label money ruined indie dreams and Strawberry Switchblade called it a day after one album and a clutch of singles that still have the power to instantly transport some of us back to 1985 and freeze us in a moment where neither the question, nor the answer, seemed so difficult.

March 10, 2008 Earworm

From 1961 through 1963**, Phil Spector's productions were tales of hearts aflutter romance and lustful angst. Midway through 1964, a melancholy mood began to descend, casting shadows on the wall of sound. The year was kicked off with The Ronettes' "(The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up" but ended with The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". Right in the middle you could find The Crystals announcing that they were "All Grown Up", and could do and go where they wanted to go and away they went from the Philles stable, leaving The Ronettes as the last chance of teeny bop romance but instead, we got the beautifully depressed yearning of "Walking In The Rain".

By the time that "Is This What I Get For Loving You?" was released in March of 1965, Ronnie no longer sounded like a girl waiting on the stoop for her dream boy, replaced by the voice of a woman who realizes that sometimes the best part of breaking up is actually breaking up. Where she once promised "I'll make you happy baby, just wait and see...", in less than two years she's now begging, "Don't leave me baby, don't tell me it's over, after I trusted you, and did my best to make you happy...", her longing vibrato clipped and her vocal bathed in so much echo that she sounds as though she's descended into a pit. A pit filled with angry bongos, to boot.

It's a hauntingly beautiful record yet it's disheartening to think that any women just barely twenty years old could sound as weary as this, particularly at the moment when, as the record fades to silence, you can just barely hear her sing "You know I love you baby" as the needle hits the run-out groove...


**
1961:
100 There's No Other Like My Baby - The Crystals
1962:
102 Uptown - The Crystals
105 He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) - The Crystals
106 He's A Rebel - The Crystals
107 Zip-A-Dee-Doo Dah - Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans
108 Puddin N' Tain - The Alley Cats
109 He's Sure The Boy I Love - The Crystals
1963:
110 Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Heart - Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans
111 (Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry - Darlene Love
112 Da Doo Ron Ron - The Crystals
113 Not Too Young To Get Married - Bob B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans
114 Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home - Darlene Love
115 Then He Kissed Me - The Crystals
116 Be My Baby - The Ronettes
117 A Fine Fine Boy - Darlene Love
118 Baby, I Love You - The Ronettes
119 Little Boy - The Crystals
1964:
120 (The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up - The Ronettes
121 Do I Love You - The Ronettes
122 All Grown Up - The Crystals
123 Walking In The Rain - The Ronettes
124 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - The Righteous Brothers
125 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
1965:
126 Born To Be Together - The Ronettes
127 Just Once In My Life - The Righteous Brothers
128 Is This What I Get For Loving You - The Ronettes
129 Unchained Melody / Hung On You - The Righteous Brothers
130 Ebb Tide - The Righteous Brothers
1966:
131 River Deep-Mountain High - Ike and Tina Turner
132 White Cliffs of Dover - The Righteous Brothers
133 I Can Hear Music - The Ronettes (produced by Bob Crewe)
134 Two To Tango - Ike and Tina Turner (produced by Bob Crewe)
135 I'll Never Need More Than This - Ike and Tina Turner
136 A Love Like Yours - Ike and Tina Turner

March 7, 2008 Earworm

The opening bass work is instantly recognizable as the hands of Peter Hook and sounds like something - or one - coming undone, which is usually the case when one person asks of another, "What Do You Want From Me". If that question has to be asked, your probably feeling as though you've given all that you can to a relationship but not being fairly compensated for your efforts. The next thing that should be said is, "This is what I want from you and from now on I plan to be less passive/agressive, you selfish dick/bitch".

But in the case of this song, we'll let it slide 'cause somebody is on shaky ground here and those delightfully sunny shalala lalalala's are probably not helping. Rumour has it that Peter Hook and David Potts may be giving us a new Monaco album and that's exactly what I want from them. "What Do You Want From Me" is a perfect single from an album of perfect music with the added bonus of a seven page fold out of a photograph that still provides surprises after more than ten years.

Have a great weekend.

March 06, 2008 Earworm

Before T Bone Burnett became synonymous with taste and distinction, and before The BoDeans became synonymous with the theme song from "Party of Five", the former produced the latter's debut album, "Love and Hope and Sex & Dreams", and its scathing side two opener, "Misery".

Meaner than a snake but far funnier, "Misery" is a list of a trollop's wrongs delivered in a snarling nasal twang that borders on parody and surpasses snide. By the time that he calls her a tramp, you may find yourself cheering. It may not be the gentlemanly thing to do - airing your girl's dirty laundry, or in this case, soiled panties, in public - but he does pack her bags and call her a cab so...

It's not hard to see how T Bone got from this stage of his career to that "Old Timey Music" but the Party of Five thing still has me scratching my head.

March 05, 2008 Earworm

I love a good conversation and I love a song that contains conversation so I love Club Nouveau's "Why You Treat Me So Bad". So much so that I probably burned through three or four copies of the 45 before finally buying the cd.

"Why You Treat Me So Bad" wraps one of the grooviest beats around a battle of accusations which essentially allows you to eavesdrop on the arguing couple at the edge of the dancefloor. The only thing you miss is the look on his face when she drops the bomb that's she's found another man.

Club Nouveau's Denzil Foster would go on to mastermind En Vogue so I have two things for which to thank him.

"Why You Treat Me So Bad" was treated to one of the worst videos that I've ever seen:

March 04, 2008 Earworm

Speaking of lumpy old broads, I woke up with that Duane Eddy in red sauce guitar riff of Boy George's take on "The Crying Game" this morning. Then I wondered why George went with a Roz Russell circa "Auntie Mame" wig for the video. Then I remembered the reaction "the big reveal" got from the elderly woman seated behind me at the movie theater - "Oh, dear..." And then I remembered being in Turtles Record Store to buy the soundtrack when a dude with a gun came in to rob the place - my reaction was pretty much the same as the elderly woman's.

Is it any wonder that I love this song?

March 03, 2008 Earworm

The flowers were officially dead on Saturday - it was nice of them to hold on for so long - so Valentine's is over. I can't think of a more fitting song than "The Big Hurt" by Miss Toni Fisher to start the month. As much as it is admired for its sound, it's the image that the sound conjures that nails me to the wall: A bawdy blond, just past the point where lush turns to lumpen, in a dimly lit diner drinking from a lipstick smeared coffee cup. In front of an overflowing ashtray, she clings to the memory of the aftershave on another woman's husband, and while the world moves past her, she waits while wondering if that was the last time that she would see him.

Of course, you're free to create your own scenario because "The Big Hurt" is a piece of art, textured and layered, yet open to interpretation. It's been widely reported that Jimi Hendrix found this record to be an inspiration for his own artistry but I've not yet seen it in quotations.

For the less imaginative, "The Big Hurt" is recognized as the first record to use a phasing effect, the result of an accident, in this case. When hearing the playback, Miss Fisher's husband, songwriter Wayne Shanklin, felt that her vocal was buried too deep in the mix. Since the track was cut in mono, engineer Larry Levine made a copy of the tape and then fed them both through a third recorder. Fiddling with the frequencies, the slightly out of sync tapes created a staggered - some say staggering - effect and an innovation was born.