I've heard of that, but I am not familiar of any currently where I live.

mrp's note in the "Meanwhile ..." thread a few minutes ago that "research shows listening to music before, during and after surgery helps speed recovery..." prompted me to pay particular homage to these 2 songs, one exuberant & one elegaic, which I know I listened to dozens of times leading up to & then following up on my surgery on June 24 --





I suppose I'll never be able to listen to either song again (& again, & again ...) without experiencing goosebumps. Both recent discoveries, as it happens. The Dollyrots I got into big-time only a month or so before I got sick (I already owned one album but hadn't paid much attention to it), & while I've been listening to Killing Joke since 1980 (yes, they long predate Alan Moore's infamous Batman story), I only began exploring their work from the last few years in maybe early summer.

My work here is done ...

The song that prompted me to look into the Dollyrots in the first place was the title track of their 2nd album, "Because I'm Awesome," which I'm pretty sure I encountered on one of the Little Steven's Underground Garage: Coolest Songs in the World comps a few years back. As noted above, the album didn't blow me away (in fairness, from a musical standpoint just about nothing new blew me away over the last decade or so ... way to go, anhedonia), though upon going back I discovered it's a pretty solid effort, especially the cover of Melanie's "Brand New Key." A couple of months ago I went on a spree & bought the rest of their discography, though IMHO their 1st (Eat My Heart Out) & 3rd (A Little Messed Up) discs were not, as the kids say, all that*. The 4th & 5th, though -- Dollyrots & Barefoot & Pregnant -- in my eyes (or, more apropos, ears) recapture the irresistible vitality of Because I'm Awesome & then some, especially B&P, which is where "Get Weird" comes from. 


*Or maybe I just need to give them a few more spins. That happens to me a lot. Any number of LPs that I number among my all-time favorites didn't do a thing for me the first few times I listened to them; Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings & Food & the Vibrators' Pure Mania come immediately to mind, along with the Ramones' first few.

I somehow never heard the Fun Boy Three take on "Our Lips Are Sealed" till it showed up on a CD of '80s British New Wave hits I bought for a then-gf some years ago, & even then I think I listened to it only once, gleaning no impression whatsoever. The video below, though, popped up yesterday in an '80s New Wave-oriented FB group I'm on, & this time the performance stuck with me. Interesting how much more ... well, not really mournful, but let's say subdued .... this version is.

As for the band itself, or at least their look, it borders on quintessential early '80s non-punk. And for the first minute or so I truly did not recognize singer Terry Hall, who was much better-served by his short haircut during his tenure with the Specials. Wasn't even sure he was male at the outset of the video, so poorly (IMHO, of couse) does his long face mesh with the, uh, tall hair. Looks more like New Order's Gillian Gilbert to my eyes.



At times Hall's vocals remind me of Robert Smith's, but then after some 30 years of listening to the Cure a lot of pop vocals remind me of him. (Case in point: Kevin Rowland's performance on "Come On, Eileen" [echoing in my head much more than usual because of the great dance scene in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which I just watched] -- dead ringer, at least to my admittedly battered ears.)

The earlier Go-Go's version (their Jane Wiedlin & Hall co-wrote the song) is a huge personal fave. I remember early one morning about 20 years ago spinning my 45 (procured at the Mesa, Arizona, Kmart closest to where we were living in Tempe back in '82) probably 2 dozen times in a row.

I've been listening to the Madonna Extended mix of "Burning Up" played at 33, instead of 45.

It's really the only way I enjoy this song, as it used to be used as the closing song (near 5am) for the Alternative Club I used to hang out at in Austin, called Ohm's.