This week's tune takes me back to Camelot Music in the mid 1980's and one of my all-time favorite employees, Kathleen. Can't quite remember if she had heard it on one of the St. Louis radio stations or if she'd heard it through a friend's copy, but she asked me to open the LP so we could play it in store...and sure enough it was a hell of a song. Couldn't begin to tell you the first thing about any other tune on the album, but this week's song is one, once you've heard it, you're unlikely to forget.
The Nails got their start in Boulder, Colorado in 1976. After spending the first couple of years learning their chops on the road, the band released its first single in 1977, its first EP in 1981, and its first album in 1984. A second LP followed in 1986, but the band was dropped by its label shortly thereafter. They made one more album--for which they promptly got screwed out of any royalties (they encourage fans not to buy the record as they make zero money for it)--and would call it a career. Over the course of their dozen or so years, the Nails released three albums, one EP, and six singles. Near as I can tell, the late eighties were their end time, and the band does not do any golden oldies reunion tours.
Fun Fact: The band had a roadie named Eric Boucher...who went on to some fame as Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys fame.
"88 Lines About 44 Women" was originally released in 1981, on their only EP, Hotel for Women. The song, however, would not be released as a single until its appearance on their first album, Mood Swing. The only version of the song to chart was a dance mix (highly not recommended). The band has said in later years that the only money they made from the song was from commercials and lawsuits.
"88 Lines About 44 Women" is exactly what the title says it is: a song about forty-four women that's eighty-eight lines long (each woman gets a tidbit of herself that lasts two lines--writer Marc Campbell says some of the women are real, some fictional). The first several stanzas are followed by a buzzing hum which is quite catchy considering how short it is, and the instrumentation involves a non-stop drum (the more I listen to it, the more I realize the drumming is what makes the song such a gem) and a synthesizer, though I could swear I hear a saxophone or trumpet in the background (and possibly both). "88 Lines About 44 Women" could easily have devolved into a novelty song (and some might say it is one), but the deadpan delivery of the lyrics, the power and rhythm of the drumming, and the vignettes about each woman (I find them to be clever but respectful) makes for a hell of a song and another fine quirky addition to the annals of Friday Night Jukebox.
Lyric Sheet: "Cathy was a Jesus-freak/She likes that kind of misery..."
Enjoy:
It Was an Insurrection--the Blood of Those Killed on January 6th Is on Republican Hands
Peace,
emaycee
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