Friday, September 20, 2013

Ooee what a lovely pair (Citizen Band) #86 - 87

Citizen Band The Ladder SongMartin: Spaceman (Pete's Best) (Mandrill Drill 8,  1978)

Citizen Band Somebody Else/ Holy Fulele (Mandrill Drill 11,  1978)

Clearly the boys were huge Beatles fans (Pete Best was the drummer before Richard Starkey). This pair of singles are examples of superior hero worship at work.

The Ladder Song is my favourite CB song. It has great lyrics with hints of naughtiness, it has a stonking riff by Greg Clark, it has a brilliant vocal from Geoff Chunn, and I'm a sucker for stop start dynamics in a song.

Somebody Else is a worthy single but it wasn't a hit at the time. It's from the melodic Beatle inspired heart of the band and wasn't included on either of the first two albums.

Hidden gems: Martin etc is quirky and a B side is its rightful home (like You Know My Name by The Beatles), but Holy Fulele is the real deal. It's a great dumb pop song. It knows it (Mike Chunn has a certain Louie Louie vocal style) and it doesn't try to be anything but a great dumb pop song. Like My Pohutakawa it revels in its kiwiana clothes.

Neither song appeared on albums so I guess you'll have to take my word for it.


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