I was gifted a piece of artwork called "My 90's Tapes" by an artist named Jeff Klarin (https://www.bughouse.com/wall-of-sounds/choose-a-tape-collection-print.
It looks like one of my own collections at that time, a mix of rock/classic rock, pop, new wave, punk, dance, heavy
metal and soundtracks. I decided to use this artwork as a writing prompt to review all 115
albums pictured and share some personal anecdotes along the way.
Consider this me dipping my toe back into the Basement Songs pool.
After a slight delay (more like a hiatus), we're back. Let's get right to it, shall we?
Column 1, Row 3: Cyndi Lauper She's So Unusual
Cyndi Lauper is a Grammy Award, Tony Award, Emmy Award winning singer, songwriter and actress who, despite her many accolades, will likely be best known for her upbeat, female positive anthem, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." Born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, she began writing songs at an early age. As a teenager in the 60s, she was unafraid to express her individuality with different hair colors and clothing styles that didn't conform to what her peers wore. Considered an outsider and bullied by classmates, she was expelled from high school at 17 and left home soon thereafter.
In the 70s, after getting her GED, she tried art school in Vermont, worked odd jobs to support herself, but eventually returned to New York and began performing in cover bands. By the end of the decade, frustrated by only singing covers, and worried that she was wasting her God given talent of a four octave vocal range, she formed a new wave band called Blue Angel. They recorded a self titled album that came and went and broke up. Down on her luck, Lauper began working retail and catching solo gigs at clubs. At one of those shows, she caught the attention of David Wolff, who soon became her manager. Wolffe got her a record deal with Portrait Records, and in the spring of 1983, they entered a recording studio to begin work on her debut solo album, She's So Unusual.
She's So Unusual is a pop, new wave charmer produced by Rick Chertoff, who would also find success a producing The Hooters, whose be-bob baby "And We Danced" was a summer hit in 1985. Two of the Hooters, keyboardist Rob Hyman, and guitarist and hooter, aka melodica, player Eric Bazilian, were part of the band Chertoff put together to back Lauper. Anton Fig, future drummer for the World's Most Dangerous Band, provided the machine like back beat to the entire record. Fig is one of the music industry's most celebrated drummers, but the direction he was given for She's So Unusual makes him sound lifeless. An unusual choice by Chertoff.
The album opens with a cover of the song "Money Charges Everything," originally recorded by the American new wave band The Brains. It has a poignant, anthemic melody that hooks your emotions. The lyrics are slightly cynical, yet sad, as a relationship is ending. There's a guy waiting for Cyndi out in the street and he has me the cash to give her the things she wants. It's a plot out of an a silent era film drama about a flapper who loves a working class guy, but he can't sustain her needs, even though they love each other. Those movies always ended tragically. In high school, I'd never seen one of those "message" films (as they were called), and the plot of this song didn't resonate with me. But the ringing chords did speak to my lonely, romantic heart that pined for the pretty girls the who barely knew I existed. Man, I'm glad I grew out of that phase.
Song number two is the monster hit, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," one of the most female positive hits of the 80s. This song was inescapable in the fall and winter of 1983 /84, and deservedly so. At a time when conservatism was once again trying to suppress women and conform to an antiquated image of how they should look and act, here was a big middle finger to the patriarch, delivered in an upbeat, positive way. The message of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" resonates to this day. It remains a staple on 80s stations and some contemporary pop hits stations.
After a strong opening, She's So Unusual takes a hit with a lifeless cover of the Prince song, "When you Were Mine." I don't know what was going on when they recorded it, but this is fucking Prince, and Chartoff produced the whitest dance song possible. Track down the purple one's version and you'll agree. Lauper redeems herself at the end of the first side with one of two ballads on She's So Unusual, "Time After Time." co-written by Lauper and Hyman, who also sings harmony, it remains one of the most beautiful songs of the end of the 20th Century. Pun not intended, it's a timeless classic and shows the tenderness Lauper could convey with her quirky voice. You've heard it; you love it; it's a masterpiece.
Side two begins with Lauper's successful ode to masturbation, "She Bop." This hit song (it reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100) is full of double entendres and an ear worm of a melody. I must've been really clueless when this song came out, because it never registered to me that it was about self satisfaction. If I had, maybe it would have sparked a conversation about pleasure with some of the girls I liked.
Me: Huh-huh. So, have you heard that song, "She Bop" by Cyndi Lauper?
Girl: Of course! It's really catchy.
Me: Huh-huh! Do you know what it's really about?
Girl: Of course! Boys don't get to have all of the fun, Scott.
Me: Really? Tell me more.
Girl: What would you like to know?
Me:Uhhhhhhh.....
WHO AM I KIDDING! Nobody talked about those things, especially in the era of Tipper Gore crusading against naughty lyrics in rock music. "She Bop" was so controversial, that Tipper and her pals at the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) placed it on their "Naughty Fifteen" songs as an example of lyrics that were harmful to young minds (thus leading to the Parental Advisory stickers on records now). Listening to it 40 years, it's not a great song. If our country wasn't afraid of human sexuality, "She Bop" would be all but forgotten. I'm unsure if it was a hit because it was riding the success of the first two singles, or if millions of teenage girls were embracing a song that did for them what the Who, Vapors and Violent Femmes had done for young men earlier in rock history. Nevertheless, in the age of "WAP," it's very quaint.
After "She Bop" comes a wonderful cover of Jules Shear's "All Through the Night," the second ballad on She's So Unusual. What deters this one is the obnoxious synth solo that sounds like an air horn. Still, one of the best songs on the record and another big hit. Side two continues with "Witness," a new wave reggae song that is more memorable for copping the keyboard sound from Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" than anything else. That's followed by "I Kiss You," which is just as mischievous as "She Bop." Replace "kiss" with the another word and we all know what Cyndi is talking about. The girl wants some.
We finish this entry with the one two punch of "He's So Unusual" into "Yeah Yeah." The former is a throw back to vaudeville with Lauper doing her best Betty Boop and pulling it off with ease. That flips into the later, a goofy new wave rocker. It's the kind of forgettable song that ends many albums before the automatic reverse switches the album back to "Money Changes Everything."
Overall, She's So Unusual is a landmark album from the 80s. Lauper took risks and did it her way, resulting in a huge hit and a career that carries on to this day.
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