One of the few covers I've ever heard that are close enough to being as good as the original. And Debbie Harry was a childhood crush no only for the body but for the voice and attitude as well.
Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
This song used to be impossible to find (except live versions). Whatever company produced it did a great job of yanking it down whenever it popped up on youtube, but they seem to have relaxed that vigilance.
It's got a great sound to it.
When I was young, my parents were cross-country truck drivers, and we'd listen to what was 'trucking music' back then (now a days, it would be called country), and this song reminds me of the great music from those days.
Having just finished listening to the new Morrissey album, "World Peace Is None of Your Business", I thought I'd share my first impressions.
The opener and title track, co-written by guitarist Boz Boorer, Morrissey's best collaborator now that Alain Whyte is gone, is everything a Moz fan could want -- great tune, great vocal (he's in good voice throughout the album), lyrics that are sharp, witty, and timely.
The next track, "Neal Cassady Drops Dead", has nothing going for it other that its clever title. Co-written by keyboardist Gustavo Manzur, it's a plodding rocker with childish gross-out lyrics.
On the other hand, "I'm Not a Man" has great lyrics which find Morrissey demolishing the male stereotypes that he has never been able to live up to (best bit: rhyming "T-Bone steak" with "cancer of the prostate".) The music, written by guitarist Jesse Tobias, doesn't quite compliment the lyrics. At almost eight minutes, it's the album's longest track and a missed opportunity at a grand epic.
"Istanbul", co-written by Boorer, is a heartbreaking ballad about a father in the title city losing his son to senseless violence.
"Earth Is the Loneliest Planet", the second and final Manzur co-write, is, surprisingly, driven mostly by synthetic beats which do no favors to the Morrissey-by-numbers lyrics.
Things look to be moving back in the right direction with the frisky opening minutes of "Staircase At the University", co-written by Boorer, until the lyrics take a tragic turn that is ham-fisted where "Istanbul" is graceful, and the song meanders its way to the end.
Some much-needed levity follows in the next two tracks, both co-written by Tobias. "The Bullfighter Dies" is two solid minutes of blackly comical Shadenfreude, while "Kiss Me A Lot" is an uptempo joy despite Morrissey's surprisingly banal lyrics.
Then come the worst two songs on the album, also Tobias co-writes. "Smiler With Knife" is both lyrically and musically tedious, failing to mine the black humor inherent in the premise that Morrissey actually wants the title character to kill him. As for "Kick the Bride Down the Aisle", the title pretty much says it all; it's not as offensive as Morrissey's previous flirtation with "ironic" misogyny, the previous album's "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore", but it comes depressingly close.
"Mountjoy", is, surprisingly, the most forgettable song on the album, despite being co-written by the usually dependable Boorer. I can remember very little about it, other than it didn't have much of a tune and the lyrics were familiar Morrissey tropes.
The closing track, "Oboe Concerto", is, thankfully, not an instrumental. In fact, it's not clear exactly what the title phrase has to do with Morrissey's mourning of friends and people he admires who have passed away. But Boorer writes a decent melody which wraps up things on a moderately positive note.
The production on this album, by Joe Chicarelli, is a quantum leap over the late Jerry Finn's awful job on Morrissey's previous album, "Years of Refusal." The sound is full and rich, and the rhythm section of brothers Matt Walker and Solomon Walker get an overdue chance to strut their stuff in the studio.
Overall, the Morrissey album that the new one reminds me of the most is 1995's "Southpaw Grammar", which was also very uneven and had a tendency to meander. But unlike 2009's "Years of Refusal", this one at least has some songs I will be listening to again (and again and again) in the future.
"World Peace Is None of Your Business" is the first fruit of a two-album record deal. If nothing else, it proves that Morrissey can still deliver an album that has its shining moments. I'm hoping that the second one is an outright triumph rather than a qualified success.
I heard Charlie Haden's Wayfaring Stranger for the first time on NPR's Fresh Air a few days after his recent passing. Quite a lovely and moving rendition, especially knowing that it was the first time he'd sung in public since he was 15 years old.
"Everything about this is going to feel different." (Saturn Girl, Legion of Super-Heroes #1)
I probably heard Japanese Whispers in bits and pieces numerous times before I ever got a copy. Come to think of it, I heard the Head on the Door even more, and didn't own a copy of that for quite a while. There were always Cure fans around if I wanted to listen to it.
"...not having to believe in a thing to be interested in it and not having to explain a thing to appreciate the wonder of it."
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