So I happened to hear Cyndi Lauper's signature hit in the supermarket yesterday, and it occurred to me that I had never listened to the original version by its composer Robert Hazard. Which led me to finding it on YouTube.
And I shouldn't have bothered.
Man, that sucks. Seriously, even as a New Wave period piece, that's just flat out awful, and kudos to Lauper for realizing the song's potential nonetheless.
Meanwhile, here's a sort of obscure Lauper song that I've loved since forever, or at least since I chanced across Vibes -- the very underrated comedy 80s Lauper starred in with Jeff Goldblum and the late great Peter Falk from whence it comes -- one afternoon on HBO.
You know, it's funny, but as recently as five years ago I used to tell everybody -- and I mean that literally; I used to stop strangers on the street and rant at them -- that it was really really unfair that Lauper hadn't had Madonna's career. Since the success of Kinky Boots, however, I've had to stop doing that.
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5 comments:
Reminds me of why I detest most of music of the eighties. Yeccch. The production, the synths, the mechanical beats .... noooooooo!
VR
Reminds me of why I detest most commenters. Rather than saying nothing, they have to crap on someone's small pleasures, just to be seen and heard.
SN
Funny. I had the same sentiments back in the day. I always thought Lauper was the more talented, provocative and inventive of the two and would have a greater career than she actually did (up until Kinky Boots).
And she had the added bonus of not taking her self so seriously (in further contrast to that M woman)
Her first two albums are as good as eighties pop music got.
SN: Don't you see? You're doing exactly what you think you're preaching against.
I never crapped on anyone. I was the only person who responded on the day Steve posted. And the reason I did was because I felt kinda bad for Steve that no one had commented yet. Honest.
Look, I'm not qualified to comment about Cyndi or Madonna because I try real hard to keep them out of my world. It's not my thing. But the demo for Girls Just Wanna Have Fun sucks big donkey dicks.
Still, I have to admit that if someone approached me on the street ranting about it being unfair that Lauper didn't have the career that Madonna had, it would certainly mystify me, to say the least. But weirder shit has happened.
Get some tonic for that and quit being such a misanthrope. This can't all be about "hyperbole," can it?
VR - back to the Jungle Room
Robert Hazard (RIP) and the Heroes were a great up and coming band in the Philly area in the early 80s and I was lucky to see them play at their peak. Great live band and Hazard had a presence on stage that was just ... cool. (Parts of the Heroes later wound up in the Hooters.) I can hear this demo as limited but it's in keeping with Hazard's new wave/power pop sound of the time. So put me down as a fan of this anyway.
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