Live and learn. I found the source for my Wicked Lady post. Dangerous Minds.
There was also a band called Wicked Lady in the Netherlands in the late 70s. This clip is from 1981.
If you listen to the songs linked in the Dangerous Minds story you’ll find some good sounds with some pretty weak songs. This might be the best of them, if you don’t count Girls cover of Cherry Bomb. Plus that’s a nice guitar solo. Not that punk.
I don’t really know how I found this. I think it was a story about girl rock bands from the 60s, though when I found a short biography of the band it was quickly clear that these were blokes in this band.
These were Englishy blokes who got together in 1968 and quickly had a following of bikers who discouraged club owners from booking the band. After too much drinking and too many drugs they broke up, then reformed with a new bass player and recorded their songs, which were then pressed in a very limited run for band members and their families.
They seem to have had a bad attitude, they reportedly played the same song over and over again at one gig until the owner threw them off the stage, and once again broke up, this time for good. All this biography is from a page at AllMusic.com.
At some point a compilation of Wicked Lady’s song was released by Kissing Spell Records, which is when the band went from anonymous bangers to psychedelic revival candidates. One of their newly found fans created this excellent home made video on YouTube in 2012. You can find their tunes on Google Music and Spotify. In the end, it looks like Wicked Lady is kind of immortal.
Another home made video for this song.
Seems that the music is now licensed to YouTube by a Spanish record company called Guerssen.
When I worked in midtown in the early 80s I’d visit the various discount record stores and buy cut out records for a buck or two based on a track or a name that I recognized from something I’d read or heard about on the radio.
That’s how I found the Dixie Cups Chapel of Love and Iko Iko. Two of the great cuts of the 60s.
Today I found on Google Music an album called the Dixie Cups versus the Shangri Las. Now, apart from the fact that this is a bogus contest, because of it I found a bunch of Dixie Cups songs I don’t think I’d ever heard before.
Are the Dixie Cups greater than the Shangri Las? Here’re two songs to go with their big hits that make me say, maybe!
Stuart Murdoch, the lead singer and songwriter for the excellent Scottish band Belle and Sebastian, wrote and directed a movie some years back. The movie is called God Help the Girl. And this clip is a song called God Help the Girl performed by the band in the movie called God Help the Girl.
God Help the Girl!
If you want to watch the movie on Kanopy, here’s the link: https://bklynlibrary.kanopy.com/video/god-help-girl.
I’m sure it’s available elsewhere, too.
Here’s a video that should give you all the information you need to decide if this movie is for you. I’m charmed by it all, this is the Scotland of Bill Forsythe and the Vaselines, but more mature now. And more innocent, too. Your mileage may vary, but I highly recommend it.
There are so many angles to Devo. I think the one that fits best is that this is a terrific rock ‘n’ roll band that plays terrific rock ‘n’ roll music always, even when the gimmick level is high. I never saw them live. My loss.
I found this album today on a list of bad album covers. It’s weird art for sure.
But what’s surprising is that the music on this elpee is pretty solid retro hip hop and soul, a throwback to 1980 in one way or another. But with lyrics that have some future knowledge.
In any case, well worth checking out.
I loved the Association. Such great harmonies. And Windy!
But this clip does a good job showing the musicianship of the band and presages Devo. Of all things.
