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Jamie LePage (1953-2002)
http://www.spectropop.com/Jamie.htm
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There are 4 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Nobody's Baby Now
From: phoenix
2. The Sugar Plums
From: David Bell
3. Re: Tracey Ullman
From: Mark Frumento
4. Lyrics Help/ The Gestures?
From: Lia
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 22:54:17 -0000
From: phoenix
Subject: Nobody's Baby Now
I've listened to this song some 50 times in the past day, i just
can't get enough of it. I'd always been on the fence about Reparata
and the Delrons, but not anymore. 'Teenager' might have been a bit
drippy and 'Tommy' might have been marginally better ('Look in My
Diary' is really a terrific song) but this one is firmly in my to
10. And the success to my ears is not just in Jeff Barry's
spectoresque production (JB did NOT producer the track, the Jerome
Borothers did - Ed.), the lead vocals almost veer towards a
Skeeter Davis country style and the backing vocals remind me of the
Shangri-Las 'Train from Kansas City'. I'm going to quote Dave
Marsh from his book 'The Hear of Rock & Soul: the 1001 greatest
singles of all time wherein he gives 'Nobody's Baby Now' place #1000!
"You can talk metaphorically about the bangles and Go-Gos and even
the Three Degrees as the last of the girl groups. But "I'm Nobody's
Baby Now," an obscure Ronettes/Shangri-Las pastiche, is the only
record I've ever heard whose sound and substance actually deserve that
designation. Spectorian atmospherics, Blaine-like percussion
crescendi and Shangri-Las-style recitatives build a sentimental
protrait of a teenage love affair that's met its end. Reparata and
the Delrons, who hit a year earlier with the almost-redeemably
sappy "whenever A Teenager cries," never sang better. The sexual
innuendo flies thick and fast, a world of touches and lessons in
love ("all the things we did together") in which the true meaning is
even more thinly concealed than it has been in previous Barry tunes
like "then He Kissed Me." But that's not all. It's the combintion of
how and what that marks the end of an era. "I'm nobody's baby now,"
Reparata sings and then, echoing her own words as an afterthough, "I'm
on my own. Nobody's baby now - I've got to find my part alone". And
so we did, and so we have"
I find the placement of the single at the strategic/symbolic
position of 1000 to be highly telling. Obviously he holds the
single in high regard, but he seems to suggest that it is final
benchmark for the 'lighter' sixties pop that preceeded it and more
than likely is better than many of the preceeding 999 singles. In the
end the whole book has great respect for girl-groups and early sixties
pop of which 'Nobody's Baby Now' might just be the final great blast.
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 21:36:27 +0100
From: David Bell
Subject: The Sugar Plums
I've been listening tonight to a record new to my collection. It's a
fabulous slab of girl group 45 singing, which is mesmerising me. It's
"Lovers Wonderland" by the Sugar Plums on Phi-Dan. I love the sub-Toys
genre that it belongs to.
Does anyone know the personnel of this group and did they perform under
any other name? I'm hoping that a West coast expert may be able to help
me out on this one.
It's obviously a record I missed out on in the 60's but am happy to be
catching up on in my approaching old age!
David.
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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 22:37:32 -0400
From: Mark Frumento
Subject: Re: Tracey Ullman
Ian Chapman wrote:
> The best of the (Tracey Ullman) non-covers came
> from the pen of the much-missed Kirsty MacColl: "They Don't
> Know", "Terry" and "You Caught Me Out".
Agreed! Tracey's versions of all of these are great except "You Caught
Me Out". For some reason it doesn't capture the melody like Kirsty's
(sadly) unreleased version does. What was great about the TU versions
was that they finally got KM's name out to a wider public. She wrote
some great girl group type stuff among her many talents as a song writer.
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 00:44:00 -0300
From: Lia
Subject: Lyrics Help/ The Gestures?
Does anyone here know where can I find the lyrics to 'Run Run Run' by The
Gestures?
Thanks!!!
L.
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