Somehow I missed this album in 1988. Maybe I was too busy
\nshaking my head to “Sweet Child o’ Mine” or hitting the dance floor
\nwith “Funky Cold Medina.” Whatever the case, there just wasn’t room
\nfor that “adult contemporary stuff” — and wasn’t Don Was a big
\nshot producer,
\nnot<\/i> a recording artist? I probably only heard snippets of
\nthe two singles from
\nWhat Up Dog?<\/i> and got a fleeting glimpse of the video for
\n“Walk The Dinosaur.” I wasn’t impressed.<\/p>\n
I recently found the cassette in my possession and decide to
\ngive it a shot on the deck. Wow! Perhaps I’m older now and can
\nappreciate a wider range of music styles or perhaps Was (Not Was)
\nis one of those bands that once you’ve got it pegged, it screams,
\n“Not!” with an album full of witty, humorous and totally unexpected
\ngems. As much as I tried to shove this album under the heading of
\n“adult contemporary,” I found that it was pretty much impossible
\nwith such alternative and down right strange “songs” like “Earth To
\nDoris” and “Dad I’m In Jail” and writing credits by Marshall
\nCrenshaw and Elvis Costello.<\/p>\n
The album starts out with a smooth, jazzy number called
\n“Somewhere In America There’s a Street Named After My Dad”, a song
\nabout escaping from the greed, corruption and artificiality of
\nsociety and living a life of integrity: “No more bland TV dinners \/
\nNo ten car collisions \/ No showbiz beginners \/Making global
\ndecisions.”<\/p>\n
The lyrics to “Spy In The House Of Love” are too damn clever: “I
\ntold her I am a spy in the house of love \/ Gathering clues to be
\nused in a war of the affections \/ I am a spy in the house of love \/
\nI won’t be refused, I’m waiting for your heart’s defection.” It’s
\nalso got a driving tempo that’ll have you shakin’ it on the living
\nroom rug within seconds.<\/p>\n
“Out Come The Freaks” is an early hint at the dark side that
\nsurfaces on a lot of the songs. The song introduces us to a few
\nincorrigible lowlifes such as Tara Venus, the rent-a-stripper,
\nBobby Maggot, the big attorney and a rapist. The dysfunction of
\n“Earth To Doris” is almost palpable. It’s a spoken word piece that
\nopens up with “trashy” brass dripping with seediness. You’ll be
\nshaking your head trying to dislodge the images it’s planted. There
\nare two more of these “tone poems”: “What Up Dog?” and “Dad I’m In
\nJail.” The former is about a depraved individual who uses his pit
\nbull as a credit card to get what he wants and the latter is a
\nphone call from the clink.<\/p>\n
“Wedding Vows In Vegas” features Frank Sinatra Jr. on vocal
\nduties. He has a bit of a lisp but that doesn’t detract too much
\nfrom the great lyrics and ethereal lounge effect. It almost comes
\noff as a novelty song. “Boy’s Gone Crazy” and “Walk The Dinosaur”
\nare good carpet cutters. If your head’s not bobbin’ to the opening
\nlines of “Dinosaur” than you need to see a chiropractor.<\/p>\n
“Anytime Lisa” is a poignant and beautiful song with a doo wop
\nfeel to it. The lyrics reveal a sensitivity towards a young woman’s
\nself esteem problems: “Anytime Lisa \/ Just couldn’t refuse them \/ A
\ngirl wants love \/ And the guys just abuse them \/ To be in their
\narms beats being alone \/ But it wasn’t like having \/ Someone of her
\nown.”<\/p>\n
The calypso-sounding “Shadow And Jimmy” was co-written by Elvis
\nCostello and is a great ditty about two guys on the fringe who just
\ncan’t get women: “Men without women are like fish without \/ Water
\nto swim in \/ With their eyes bugging out \/ They flop on the beach \/
\nAnd look up at the girls \/ Who are just out of reach.” There’s a
\ncover of Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose” that seriously
\ncompetes with the fire and vivaciousness of the original.<\/p>\n
The only song I found which didn’t work well was “Love Can Be
\nBad Luck”. This song was co-written by Marshall Crenshaw. It just
\nseemed to drag and was probably recorded at half the tempo of any
\nCrenshaw song I’ve ever heard.<\/p>\n
Overall, this is an impressive little nugget from the ’80s by a
\nband who decided to find it’s own niche and fill it with some
\npretty quirky stuff. Give it a spin in your disc player. It’ll do
\nit some good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":25209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6216],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36414","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-was-not-was","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36414"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36414"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}