Post by The Records.
The song, obviously, is on the power pop Mount Rushmore, and often covered. But this particular version is supernaturally good, and the video -- which nobody has seen in over thirty years -- is, in Woody Allen's immortal coinage, transplendent.
Seriously -- words fail me. These guys -- and I was lucky enough to see them in their prime -- were beyond great.
5 comments:
that was great. I've heard concert boots from that period which showed what a great live band they were too. I'm sorry I missed them the first time around.
I too missed them in their time, but I loved their music then, and still do today. And this video shows them in top action. Where'd you see them, Steve?
The band's web site (www.TheRecords.com) contains some great band info as well as CD versions for sale of their original albums, which to me means one or more original band members have control of the licensing of their recordings.
Other artists should be so lucky.
Finally, one of my all-time favorite rock song lines, a great play on words, and one I use whenever possible to this day. is the final line in the final stanza of Starry Eyes.
While you were in the pool, we were meeting with the boys upstairs,
Talking to the money men, and carrying out affairs.
We had no time for cocktails, or working up a tan.
The boys have all been spoken to. The writ has hit the fan.
Whichever band member wrote that song should be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, tout de suite.
Mark --
I saw them do a set at one of the then fashionable rock discos in NYC at the time "Starry Eyes" came out -- can't remember the name of the place.
I also saw them at the Bottom Line one one of the Stiff Records package tours -- they were the backing band for all the Stiff solo artists (except Ian Dury) and they also did their own set.
I remember turning to my date at the show and saying "What I wouldn't give to see these guys backing John Lennon."
:-)
Yeah, Steve, you actually used a similar line when you wrote about their first album (the one with "Starry Eyes" on it) for STEREO REVIEW. You said something like: "In a better world, the Records would be the band John Lennon was fronting/working with, instead of raising cows or whatever the hell he's doing". (At the time, Lennon was on that five-year break before the "DOUBLE FANTASY" LP came out).
If you get a chance, you might want to investigate/post some of the tracks from the E.P. that came with some pressings of that first Records LP - they cover Blue Ash ("Abracadabra: Have You Seen Her") and the Kinks ("See My Friends").
J. Lag
I love that EP.
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