Premier Rock Forum

Strawberry Switchblade - Since Yesterday is a tragi-pop classic

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:

blunderbuss wrote:"Baker Street" Gerry Rafferty

No offense, but that song drives me up the wall. It's almost as bad as Al Stewart. And I like Stealer's Wheel quite a bit.

None taken. The production is ridiculous. But what I think is compelling is the way huge sax hook slams into the pop song proper not one once but three times before the gtr solo outro. It not only punctuates the verse/chorus but also cleaves the song into mirroring halves. This cleaving, I think, mirrors the overwrought and at times almost grating sentimentality of the lyrics. Two pop songs weirdly reflecting one another.

Hart Crane wrote: ...but we have seen
The moon in lonely alleys make
A grail of laughter of an empty ash can,
And through all sound of gaiety and quest
Have heard a kitten in the wilderness.

Somehow "Baker Street" is like that for me.

I think most of these cracked the Top 40, not that I like them or anything:

The Tubes "I'll Talk to You Later"
Prince "Let's Go Crazy", "Kiss", "Alphabet Street"
When In Rome "The Promise"
Midnight Oil "Beds are Burning", "Forgotten Years"
Rob Base and DJ EZ-ROCK "It Takes Two", "Joy and Pain"
Grandmaster Flash "White Lines"
a-ha "Take on Me"
B-52s "Rock Lobster"
David Bowie "Modern Love"
Tracy Chapman "Fast Car"
Hall & Oates "You Make My Dreams Come True"
Fine Young Cannibals "She Drives Me Crazy"
General Public "Tenderness"
Eddy Grant "Electric Avenue"
OMD "If You Leave"
Pretenders "Brass in My Pocket"
John Fogerty "Centerfield"
Bonnie Tyler "Total Fucking Eclipse of the Heart"
Poison "Talk Dirty to Me"
Skid Row "I Remember You"
George Michael "Freedom"
Faith No More "Epic"
Cardigans "Lovefool"
Dee-Lite "Groove is in the Heart"

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go rock down to Electric Avenue...

Air - all I need
Mc 900 feet Jesus - the city sleeps
Noir Desir - lost
U.N.K.L.E. feat. Thom Yorke - rabbit in your headlights

I second Grauzone!

ooh and "99 Luftballons" is a terrible terrible song.....

ctrl-s wrote:Neneh Cherry, "Buffalo Stance"

I vote for "Trout". the Steppenwolf sample is one of the finest loops ever.

bassdriver wrote:ooh and "99 Luftballons" is a terrible terrible song.....

Incorrect. It contains the lyric "Super hi-tech jet fighters". N/C, WF 0.

daniel robert chapman wrote:

bassdriver wrote:ooh and "99 Luftballons" is a terrible terrible song.....

Incorrect. It contains the lyric "Super hi-tech jet fighters". N/C, WF 0.

damn. the german lyrics go like: "99 Duesenflieger - Jeder war ein grosser Krieger"

google translator wrote: "A 99 nozzle flier of everyone was a large Krieger"

could you like that?

bassdriver wrote:

google translator wrote: "A 99 nozzle flier of everyone was a large Krieger"

could you like that?

Um................................... yeah!

If I get a chance later, I might try and make a YouSendIt of the 'club mix' of this, as featured on a 'Dance Hits' compilation I own. It features one of the most absurdly undanceable breakdowns I have ever heard.

Here you go; '99 Red Balloons', the Club Mix. This is from a compilation called 'Don't Stop Dancing', and I defy to not stop dancing when it hits the breakdown section around 2:30. Why would you do this to a 'club mix'? Why would you do this to anything?

http://www.yousendit.com/download/VnBvc ... TGg1VEE9PQ

Two from Imagination: 'Body Talk' - my favourite, which I was giving a minor revival before Christmas by playing it everytime I DJ'd - people danced! People cheered!

- and 'Just an Illusion', which can provide ours of entertainment if you change the lyric to:

"What the fuck was that?
It's just an illusion..."*





*(c) Joseph O'Sullivan