A couple of vids for this week. As promised, one is from the 1985 countdown that played on SiriusXM last week.
“Do You Want Crying” – Katrina and the Waves
One of the areas of music esoterica I pride myself in mastering is knowing minor hits by bands that are widely considered One-Hit Wonders. “Well, actually they had another song that hit the top 20…” You know, that kind of bullshit about one in 50 people appreciate.
So I was freaking floored when I heard this song last weekend. I have no memory of it at all. I was 100% positive that Katrina And The Waves were one of the ultimate One-Hit Wonders. Turns out…this song hit #37, which doesn’t exactly make it a hit, but it did chart. And they had a song that cracked the top 20, “That’s The Way,” in 1989. My world is shook.
More importantly, this is an incredible song. I heard it Saturday morning and was like “Holy shit, this is amazing!” and quickly jotted down a note at a red light to listen to it when I got home. I put on the entire album that it comes from, Katrina and the Waves 2, and it’s a really solid disk. I was doubly blown away when I learned that Katrina and the Waves wrote and first performed the song “Going Down to Liverpool,” a song I know from the wonderful Bangles version. It was different from the Bangles version, but no less delightful.
Still, though, this song is the shit. I’m pissed I didn’t know it back in the day. I could have spent the last 33 years telling people, “Yeah, ‘Walking On Sunshine,’ is a good song, but have you ever heard ‘Do You Want Crying’?”
http://teamcoco.com/node/104596
“Motion Sickness” – Phoebe Bridgers
You can’t always trust everything you read on the Internets, kids.
Last year, while researching the songs on my Favorites of 2017 list, I came across several stories that suggested that any lyrical similarities between Phoebe Bridgers’ “Motion Sickness” and Ryan Adams’ “Outbound Train” were purely coincidental. 2017 ended, I turned my attention to newer music matters, and thus missed several stories earlier this year where Bridgers said that, in fact, “Motion Sickness” was very much about Adams. Apparently after working together in the studio, the pair hooked up for a brief romance. Adams, according to Bridgers, was not thrilled with her accounting of their relationship at first, but eventually admitted to her it was a good song. While I knew most of the lyrics to the song, I had never really caught the line “And you, you were in a band when I was born…” For the record, Adams is 20 years older than Bridgers, so, damn, that line was a little savage.
Anyway, this all popped up because Bridgers made her US, late night TV debut this week on Conan with this lovely rendition of “Motion Sickness.” Unfortunately the Conan vids don’t embed, so please follow the link above.