1. The dame on the drums.
2. The clapping!
3. The “grrrrr” in the lead singer’s voice on occasion. It gives the pop song a sense of sexual urgency, but always joyful. It makes you think, “Hell, yeah, I’ll come rrrrright back to you, big boy. Not a problem.”
I don’t know how I have never heard of this band before. I came across mention of them in this phenomenal excerpt from Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! (which Dan, if you’re reading, you recommended to me!)
It’s from a chapter on two revolutionary record producers, Joe Meek and Phil Spector.
The First Record Producers. The Rise and Fall of Joe Meek and Phil Spector.
I have most of Phil Spector’s stuff but there are so many bands mentioned in that excerpt that I have not heard of, and I have had a ton of fun tracking them down. The Honeycombs, so far, are my favorite. This song!
Wow. Welcome to Joe Meek. The only record producer crazier than Phil Spector. Maybe there really was something about the times! Love the Honeycombs and love to know what you think of my other Meek fave if you come across it on Youtube (or wherever you’re looking), which is Glenda Collins’ There’s Something I’ve Got To Tell You. It’s not quite like anything else…but then none of Meek’s best stuff ever is.
BTW: Very excited by the way things are going in L.A….Keep on pushing!
NJ – I know about Joe Meek and love Joe Meek. I follow the Joe Meek Society on Twitter, which is one of my geekiest follows, and I love it. Just didn’t know about The Honeycombs. (Or a lot of the other bands mentioned in that piece. Have been having fun tracking them down.)
and yes! Things going really well!
https://twitter.com/joemeeksociety
Ah, my bad…I’ll have to look into the society! In that case, welcome to the Honeycombs!
Cool, I’m glad you’re enjoying it! Such a book for sending the reader scurrying to the computer and down musical rabbit holes. And of course when the narrative got the point of overlapping with my own remembered experience, I wound up having mental arguments with the author.
The Paris Review ran a couple of excerpts this past summer, if anyone is intrigued and wants some further samples before committing…
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/06/25/highs-in-the-mid-eighties/
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/07/14/islands-in-the-stream/
Awesome, Dan – thank you!