Music Box February 15th 2025

We start with 80s LA post-punk band Afterimage (website) and Just a Laugh (Demo) from 1981, collected on compilation Faces To Hide (Independent Project Records 2024).  Buy here

Next up, probably one of the finest Australian bands of all times, The Go-Betweens, and the beautiful He Lives My Life, from their seventh LP, their comeback after 11 years apart doing solo work, The Friends Of Rachel Worth (Circus 2000), with help from American indie rock bands Sleater-Kinney and Quasi as well as new bassist Adele Pickvance.

Royal Family And The Poor. Originally formed 1978 by Michael Anthony Keane (sound effects) and Arthur McDonald (vocals), their sound was created by dismantling a radio receiver and wiring it up to a small analog synthesizer & connecting them both to an old stereo gram. This could then be manipulated by moving magnets around the receiver in the radio. In fact the oblique band moniker soon became the identity of just one man, Michael Anthony Keane, whose chequered history is a complicated tale of perseverance in the face of adversity. After sending a tape with sound frequencies and rap, they were signed by Factory. This is debut single Art On 45 (Factory 7" 1982 cat no. FAC43)

The Sound were a post-punk band from South London, UK active between 1979 and 1988 an dled by the great songwriter and guitarist Adrian Borland (R.I.P. April 26th 1999). This is Winter, from their fourth LP Shock Of Daylight (Statik Records 1984).

We conclude with two originals that The Beatles covered for their second LP "With The Beatles" (Parlophone 1963). First, The Donays, a 1960s R&B girl group from Detroit. They released the original recording of the song Devil in His Heart (Brent 7" 1962), with Bad Boy on the B-side. The record was discovered by George Harrison and recorded by The Beatles in 1963 as Devil in Her Heart.  Note change in gender, composer was Richard Drapkin. Lastly, Barrett Strong, an American singer and songwriter. Strong was the first artist to record a hit record for Motown, though he is best known for his successful songwriting collaboration with Norman Whitfield, which produced hits like "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby", "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", "Ball of Confusion", and "War". Barrett Strong was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004. This is Money (That's What I Want) (Tamla 7” 1959) which he did not write, composers were Janie Bradford, Berry Gordy. Until next week ...