Where do you start with ‘Was Not Was’? These Guys have got to be the craziest musicians known to humanity but at a risk of sounding like I come from L.A – I LOVE THEIR WORK!!
I was first introduced to them on a trip to London back in 1986 when I was lucky enough to come to London with my friend Tom. Tom is now an actual musician and you can buy his stuff on itunes (and very good it is too) but back in 1986 he was just a sixth former who wanted to start a band – just like me. During the summer holidays we had recorded a few songs on a four track cassette recorder (which was state of the art at the time) and had come to London to stay with Tom’s auntie and see a few record labels (seriously!).
While Tom’s auntie was out working her partner who was a very talented young actor working for the BBC and the National at the time took us for a drink in the pub on the corner of the street before taking us back to play a few records and ‘chill out’ as they say these days. Once we were back he pulled out a cassette of the ‘Was Not Was’ Album ‘Born to Laugh at Tornedos’ and said ‘Man, you have just got to listen to this shit – it’s amazing!’ So we did and it WAS!
After we came back home I searched and searched for a copy of this album, which by that time had been deleted. In the end I managed to get an imported American copy from a specialist shop by the local market and will never forget the first time I laid this baby on the turntable. The whole album, which includes guest appearances by Ozzy Osbourne, Mel Torme and Mitch Ryder to name a few is just so gloriously weird that I have loved it ever since and this track (apart from ‘The Party Broke Up’ which includes the immortal line ‘His girlfriend Gloria wore metal shoes that emitted poison gasses from the heels’ and the equally weird ‘ Man vs The Empire Brain Building’) is pretty strange too.
Now listen to the song……
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