Magic Jewball

Last week was a sad week over here but I’m ready to start fresh now. It’s August, the US Open will be this month, and, most importantly, my least favorite season will be coming to an end. Phew.

So let’s have a light, airy, carefree number by… The Clash. I know, how weird is that? But this is one of those songs that just makes you la la la in your head and feel delightful. It’s always fun to remember how you looked at things when you were a child and how mysterious and confusing the world seemed. See, Brother1 had this on a 45 (that was a a single, youngsters, on vinyl, not on mp3). This was actually the flip side and I can’t even remember what the A-Side was. No matter. But even as a child, I knew the lead singer of the Clash (well, there were a few) was a man. And the person singing this was a woman. Try as I might, I could never wrap my mind around the idea that if you already had a lead singer, why on earth you’d have someone not even in the band sing the vocals on your song.

Brother1 told me sometimes it just sounded better, plus the woman was the lead singer’s girlfriend. I still didn’t get it. Nowadays, it’s mostly hard to understand how this pop gem could end up on an album called Sandinista! amongst such political tunes as The Call Up and Washington Bullets. But the music and production are straight out of Motown and it has nostalgic lyrics about what the music industry used to be like. Apparently, it used to be like this:

No expense accounts, or lunch discounts
Or hyping up the charts,
The band went in, ‘n’ knocked ’em dead, in 2 min. 59

Wow, those were the days. But, here’s something I did not know. It turns out, the chick in the song is the same one from Paradise By the Dashboard Light! Who knew? (The Internet, that’s who). Also, she appeared on Night Court for twenty episodes. Rock and roll!

Napster:
The Clash – Hitsville U.K

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.