Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXI--Clocks: She Looks a Lot Like You

 This week we have another tune discovered during the early days of my first marriage, when my ex-wife and I used to listen to free singles from CBS for an evening's entertainment because we were too poor to afford actually going out....

Clocks is one of the few bands featured here on Friday Night Jukebox to not have a Wikipedia entry, and as such, here is what I learned about them:  they're the greatest (only?) band to come out of Wichita, Kansas, and they released two albums.  Their first album debuted in 1982, and oddly enough, twenty-two years later Zip Records decided to give them another shot at fame and fortune, and they were no more successful than they had been after their first album.  That's it--but it's proof positive you don't have to be the Beatles to get your moment in the sun here on FNJ.

"She Looks a Lot Like You" was the first single released on their first album, entitled appropriately enough, Clocks.  Near as I can tell, neither the single nor the album reached the Billboard charts, though the single did garner a bit of airplay on MTV  when the station was still musically relevant.

"She Looks a Lot Like You" tells the tale (I think) of a man who while looking at a magazine cover sees something in the woman featured that reminds him of his absent or deserted lover, not all that odd of a happening when the heart is aching.  The Clocks play a mean power pop, with the odd synthesizer thrown in, and with just a hint of the new wave sound that had its heyday in the early to mid-eighties.  They make great use of the requisite three guitar chords, have a simple but catchy repeated chorus (basically the song's title is the chorus), and the lead singer sings it with just enough ooomph to make for a nice little hit.  I actually find it kind of surprising that the Clocks didn't get another shot at making a new record for twenty-two years--there have been plenty of artists to get two or three albums out of a shitty song, let alone a bitchin' bit of power pop.  So the boys from Wichita will have to settle for a guest appearance on Friday Night Jukebox, and my undying thanks for another piece of pop magic to add to its ranks.

Lyric Sheet:  "I don't know if I should feel the way I do/What else could I do?/I had her and not you/She looks a lot like you..."

Enjoy:

324,000+ Dead Americans Because of Donald Trump's Incompetence

Biden:  306 EV's, Trump:  232

emaycee

Two Americas

Good America:

After fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for um, building a clock, there was an outpouring of support for the young man, including President Obama who invited him to the White House, Hillary Clinton who sent a supportive tweet, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who asked to meet him.  At one point, tweets for #IStandWithMohamed reached two thousand per minute.  Those who understand that Mohamed is symbolic of the best of what America is rightfully called into question the actions of his school and police in Irving, Texas.

Seriously Fucked Up America:

And then there were those for whom the thought that someone with brown skin and a religion not toeing the Christianity line couldn't possibly be up to any good.  An American kid amazingly turning a pencil box into a clock becomes a Muslim terrorist making a bomb.  And they actually defended the absolutely ludicrous actions of both the school and local police.  A perfect example of this is this nonsensical piece written by--who else?--Sarah Palin in which she manages zero coherent sentences and about as much inventiveness and logic as could be created by your average earthworm.  And, as Digby notes in the above link, there were plenty of comments in support of her blaming everything that's wrong in America on Muslims and President Obama, instead of on the backs of folks like her whose hatefulness and ignorance are truly to blame.

There's a meme going around that the support for candidates such as Donald Trump and Ben Carson is merely a reflection of the fringe right and not indicative of the republican party as a whole.  Nothing could be more decidedly wrong--the Tea Party is the republican party in its entirety.

They're just more honest about their beliefs and aims than establishment republicans.

Peace,
emaycee

Clocking out

Why am I not surprised that police in Irving, Texas this week arrested fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed for making a clock that some seriously misguided teacher thought was a bomb?

Because mixing police officers with the state of Texas is a recipe for stupid.

And the folks in Irving absolutely nailed the recipe.

Peace,
emaycee