Hate it. It's music for 90s quasi wiccan 15 year olds to read Anne Rice to when they left their Tori Amos at a friend's. CB blowed.

trey wrote: Wed Jun 04, 2025 1:38 pm Not Crap. I've had a soft spot for Concrete Blonde since I first heard them, around 1983. Johnette seems like a super interesting person. I like 'Joey', but I like 'Happy Birthday' more. I saw them play in a tiny bar in Statesboro GA around 1989. Pretty amazing show.

Happy Birthday is a fantastic song and vocal performance. Love that one.

Joey is a meh song at times and a really good one other times. Just depends.
It being about Marc Moreland's (Wall of Voodoo) alcohol abuse before he died does get me. Always loved that band and his playing.

kerble wrote: Wed Jun 04, 2025 12:08 pm "Then Joey took a dump right on the floor/
And Joey, I'm not hungry anymore"

This would back the theory that it's about a baby wallaby.

Not my favorite Concrete Blonde song (count me among the “Happy Birthday” fan club) but far, far from crap. I’ll never not be amazed that a song this unsparing made it into the Billboard top 20. (Top 3 that week? Mariah Carey, M.C. Hammer, and Vanilla Ice.)

Gorgeous Mankey guitar solo, too.

Didn't know about this, but I like it!

I know this isn't the case, but Concrete Blonde always seemed like hair-metal dorks trying to be goth and failing. Bad song, bad band.

CRAP.

Jacques wrote: Tue Jun 10, 2025 10:21 am I know this isn't the case, but Concrete Blonde always seemed like hair-metal dorks trying to be goth and failing.

The guitar solo is way over the top. Harkens to a time where random pop songs had squealing pinch harmonics and whammy bar dives.

losthighway wrote: Tue Jun 10, 2025 11:35 am

Jacques wrote: Tue Jun 10, 2025 10:21 am I know this isn't the case, but Concrete Blonde always seemed like hair-metal dorks trying to be goth and failing.

The guitar solo is way over the top. Harkens to a time where random pop songs had squealing pinch harmonics and whammy bar dives.

Concrete Blonde sounds like a standard late, 80's early 90's rock sound in the vein of The Pretenders, Replacements or something like that, more influenced by classic rock than Siouxsie Sioux. I listened to that whole record and it doesn't sound terribly dated to me. The goth angle seems a bit imposed just because they had an Anne Rice Vampire song, and that one record cover looks gothy, but their music is pretty Viper Room-ready, yeah. I can't imagine goths actually listened to this band. But yeah, in that era, everybody from Danzig to to Descendants were using pinch harmonics.

The name of the band was suggested to them by Michael Stipe. I like that bit of info.

trey wrote: Wed Jun 04, 2025 1:38 pm Not Crap. I've had a soft spot for Concrete Blonde since I first heard them, around 1983. Johnette seems like a super interesting person. I like 'Joey', but I like 'Happy Birthday' more. I saw them play in a tiny bar in Statesboro GA around 1989. Pretty amazing show.

Rockin Eagle?