Rectify!
I always have kind of a Beavis and Butthead response to that word, so it's a favorite of mine. I imagine it said like a black Baptist preacher would scream "Sanctify" or whatever it is they yell a lot. (I'm pretty much Lutheran/Presbyterian and if anyone stands up and starts yelling in church, we assume s/he's having a medical emergency.)
Anyway, of course after I post my grousing "2006, what the hell?" post, I encounter two CDs from the year that are pretty damn good.
One kinda doesn't count because it's a soundtrack (but, hey, any grouping of good songs is a reason to indulge in a little snake-handling, to continue my religious references and if that's what floats your ontological boat), and the other I originally wasn't impressed, but upon a revisit, was duly impressed.
The soundtrack is "Marie Antoinette". I have yet to see the movie as it's not on DVD, but got the soundtrack and was really pleased. Beautiful mix of classical music, 80s rock and, dear Lord, the manufactured band with the hottie jailbait lead singer (I think she was 16 at the time), Bow Wow Wow.
"The Animal Years" by Josh Ritter, upon second listen, really opened up to me. Maybe my mood was off first time I listened to it. But it's a Dylan-esque set from someone who can actually sing. If you like thoughtful, folky stuff, you'll love this. One of the songs I like best, "Thin Blue Flame" (right-click and save as) is available as a free MP3 download on the site.
Enjoy.
4 comments:
More about "Dear Lord, the manufactured band with the hottie jailbait singer, Bow Wow Wow":
1) Annabelle Lwin was 14, not 16, when the band started up.
2) The band consisted of three former Ants (as in Adam and the -) plus Annabelle. They mostly wrote their own songs.
3) They are remembered as a one-hit wonder for "I Want Candy", which is unfair since they have at least three other excellent tunes: Do You Want to Hold Me; Baby Oh No; and Louis Quatorze. Thoroughly respectable output for a band that only stayed together for three years.
Overall, Bow Wow Wow was one of the better things to come out the 80's music scene. We'll never know what we lost when they parted ways, especially since their original guitarist died some years ago.
And yes, Annabelle "retired" from music at the age of 17, which bums me out because I love her voice. Nothing special about it, just a clear strong alto that she wielded with a cheerfully goofy style. I miss them.
Thanks for the updates, corrections, and history.
Though isn't it still true that they didn't form organically? Did some manager put them together because he discovered Annabelle and she needed a band and the Ants needed a new Adam?
Yes, it's true that the producer Malcolm McLaren, having recently parted ways with the Sex Pistols, discovered Annabelle and put her together with the former Ants. This does not necessarily make them a manufactured band, since by that definition the Beatles were also a manufactured band: remember that Apple Records insisted as a condition of signing that they fire their drummer and hire Ringo. Are you sure you can live with that definition?
I figure that Bow Wow Wow, like the Beatles, was real simply because they wrote most of their songs. Eh?
And there you have it.
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