If you're looking for an underappreciated example of sheer, shredding guitar virtuosity, you need Another Girl, Another Planet, a late 70's scorcher from England's The Only Ones. Peter Perette's boyish vocal may not be to everyone's liking, but guitarist John Perry's lead work on the song crushes the competition. Crank the speakers to eleven, people:
Back in high school, I worked in the local deli, and my boss got this notion in his head that he would start lunch deliveries to local businesses. One of the offices in the vicinity was staffed by a bunch of cheapskates. These were the sort of people who wouldn't give enough of a tip to cover one's gas. The second time I pulled into their parking lot, this song was playing on the venerable, lamented WLIR, and I sat in the car in the parking lot until the song ended. Hell, those wankers could wait- their tip for the first delivery was so crappy. As it turned out, the delivery was for thirty-three dollars and some-odd cents, and they gave me thirty-four bucks and said, "Keep the change." It was actually insulting- it wasn't a tip per se, they were just too lazy to come up with exact change. I returned to the deli, and my boss asked, "So, did they give you a tip?"
"Rick," I replied, "They gave me the whole shaft." I put all of the money into the till, not stooping to pocket their pennies. To his credit, the boss discontinued the whole delivery thing after that.
The t00bz tell me that The Only Ones reformed in the noughts to capitalize on a revival of Another Girl, Another Planet due to its featuring in an ad. The song has been covered numerous times, but the only cover that matters is this one:
I KNEW you would do the Placemats version! Ku-dose.
ReplyDeleteI saw the 'Mats live around this time in their career, and it was glorious- small club, large pit, much beer.
ReplyDeleteBack in high school, I worked in the local deli, and my boss got this notion in his head that he would start lunch deliveries to local businesses.
ReplyDeleteBefore I got into the lucrative business of delivering the Washington Star door to door, I worked in a pet store.
No tips, but I did teach an Oscar fish to jump out of the water to snatch his and/or her hapless goldfish dinner from my fingers. And I got bit by chinchilla, along with just about everything else that lived in the store.
Good times!
~
Hey, BBBB, I saw that same era, and that was my Second Replacements show.
ReplyDeleteFirst one, was definitely the Placemats. Chris Mars played the entire show dressed as a clown, and Westerberg got so drunk he had to sit on a chair for the second encore, which he did as a solo mashup of "Fuck School" and "Skyway".
Anyway, I finally tracked this down, recorded at the show I was at, and I was one of the ones "helping out" on "Here Comes A Regular".
Saw them a third time at Summerfest, just before they hung it up. Have also caught Tommy Stinson solo, being backed up by the Figgs.
I was able to buy this in an independent record store (**SIGH**). The 'Mats covering Robyn Hitchcock made me happy as a clam.
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