over and over...
tonight, whilst canoodling (well, maybe canoodling isn't the right word. snuggling? no. snuggling sounds too...i dont know. we were sitting close. intentionally close) with a lovely girl at barnes and noble (and yes, i know, i know. i'm supposed to be against such corporate behemoths. and i am. dont get me wrong. but 10pm on suday in birmingham doesnt leave you with many options) a song came over the house speakers. its a song ive liked since the first time i heard it, but a song that is often seen as a trifling and silly 60's sugary psychadelic pop semi-hit. and what song is this you ask? well, it is in fact THE best trifling and silly 60's sugary psychadelic pop semi-hit: Tommy James and the Shondell's CRIMSON AND CLOVER.
The first time i heard CRIMSON AND CLOVER was sometime in the summer 1986 or 87...i was 9 or 10 years old and somewhere in the middle of 18 holes of putt-putt golf. my family enjoyed the occasional evening at the putt-putt course, i always used a red ball, my brother a blue, and we generally finished with scores descending in family rank...dad first, mom second, big brother 3rd, little brother last. we frequented a course unlike those fancy places with windmills and waterfalls. instead, it was putt putt generic- i.e. matted green indoor/outdoor carpet bounded by hollow metal barriers welded at right and 45 degree angles. i can still hear the PING! sound the ball would make upon contact of those orange painted railings. the course was located back behind the chuck e. cheese pizza out on centerpoint parkway, next to the steak and ale restaurant, and it was illuminated by large halogen lamps on high poles around which millions of knats and moths and mosquitos would hover, creating buzzing clouds of chaos bent on infiltrating the halogen energy or breaking down the invisible armor of deep woods OFF bug repellent we had showered in before embarking on our evening's excursion. in various places large loud speakers (think the kind of loud speakers found on a high school football field) spat out flat sounds of oldies radio in mono. but depite the general monochromatic feel of the place and sound of the speakers, CRIMSON AND CLOVER came out in technicolor that night. no, not technicolor. it blasted out of those speakers in bright neon hues, and it was like nothing else i heard before. my mom and dad thought i was ridiculous for liking it. but i was so into it that i think i might have even skipped my turn on one hole so i could listen all the way through the entire 5 minutes and 32 seconds of the song. i dont know what grabbed me so. maybe it was tommy jame's moaning/groaning vocals or the plodding, chugging rhythm or the wah-wah solo or the background vocals going "nah nah nah nah nah nah" or the distorted repetitive rhythm guitar. and if it wasnt any of those things, then it was the break somewhere near the end where the music drops out and the vocal changes to a trippy, watery echo effect that gets layered and built up to a crescendo. i thought it was cool then, and i think its cool now. and just as i skipped a hole to hear the song back in '86, i completely dropped out of the conversation i was having at the bookstore tonight just so i could listen (which is saying a lot because i think that the girl i was warming up to is awfully cute). its just that somehow CRIMSON AND CLOVER grabs my attention, over and over...
The first time i heard CRIMSON AND CLOVER was sometime in the summer 1986 or 87...i was 9 or 10 years old and somewhere in the middle of 18 holes of putt-putt golf. my family enjoyed the occasional evening at the putt-putt course, i always used a red ball, my brother a blue, and we generally finished with scores descending in family rank...dad first, mom second, big brother 3rd, little brother last. we frequented a course unlike those fancy places with windmills and waterfalls. instead, it was putt putt generic- i.e. matted green indoor/outdoor carpet bounded by hollow metal barriers welded at right and 45 degree angles. i can still hear the PING! sound the ball would make upon contact of those orange painted railings. the course was located back behind the chuck e. cheese pizza out on centerpoint parkway, next to the steak and ale restaurant, and it was illuminated by large halogen lamps on high poles around which millions of knats and moths and mosquitos would hover, creating buzzing clouds of chaos bent on infiltrating the halogen energy or breaking down the invisible armor of deep woods OFF bug repellent we had showered in before embarking on our evening's excursion. in various places large loud speakers (think the kind of loud speakers found on a high school football field) spat out flat sounds of oldies radio in mono. but depite the general monochromatic feel of the place and sound of the speakers, CRIMSON AND CLOVER came out in technicolor that night. no, not technicolor. it blasted out of those speakers in bright neon hues, and it was like nothing else i heard before. my mom and dad thought i was ridiculous for liking it. but i was so into it that i think i might have even skipped my turn on one hole so i could listen all the way through the entire 5 minutes and 32 seconds of the song. i dont know what grabbed me so. maybe it was tommy jame's moaning/groaning vocals or the plodding, chugging rhythm or the wah-wah solo or the background vocals going "nah nah nah nah nah nah" or the distorted repetitive rhythm guitar. and if it wasnt any of those things, then it was the break somewhere near the end where the music drops out and the vocal changes to a trippy, watery echo effect that gets layered and built up to a crescendo. i thought it was cool then, and i think its cool now. and just as i skipped a hole to hear the song back in '86, i completely dropped out of the conversation i was having at the bookstore tonight just so i could listen (which is saying a lot because i think that the girl i was warming up to is awfully cute). its just that somehow CRIMSON AND CLOVER grabs my attention, over and over...
posted by Jared Ragland at 11/03/2005 02:13:00 AM
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