What? Did I miss yesterday? Sheesh? I was completely prepared too. The day just kind of slipped by. Oh well, back on track now.
Most of the songs that remind me of a particular place have to do with concerts. I hear Over My Head by Fleetwood Mac and I’m immediately back in the Boston Garden seeing them live for the first time on the Tusk Tour. ‘Til Tuesday’s Maybe Monday puts me at the UNH show nursing my not-so-secret crush on keyboard player Joey Pesce.
When I think of the band Spider, and this song in particular, I think of a time, a place, and specific people. Spider’s 1980 debut album, featuring the minor Top 40 hit, New Romance (It’s a Mystery) was a defining collection of songs for me. I loved Spider, featuring Amanda Blue on lead vocals, future hit-making songwriter Holly Knight on keyboard, Keith Lentin on guitar, Jimmy Lowell on bass, and future David Letterman session player Anton Fig on drums. I turned my friends on to Spider. Sue, Becki, Anne… they all loved Spider nearly as much as I did. We each had our favorites on that first album.
When, a little over a year later, their second album, Between the Lines, was released, we were momentarily taken aback. There were some real dance grooves there… almost disco! It took us a couple of listens to accept songs like Going By, although Change, later covered by John Waite, was an instant hit with us. I have such a distinct memory of having my three friends pile into my 1974 Pontiac Ventura and driving down to Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, parking by the banks, and instead of making out (what, I was gay, and there were three of them!) we listened to the new Spider album over and over again. One song in particular resonated. It’s a song you all know as performed by a different artist, but Spider performed it first, and Amanda Blue’s commanding vocals were certainly the template for the much more popular artist who eventually turned it into a hit. I still ahve a very vivid image of Sue sarcastically spitting out the lines, “But did you think I’d just accept you, in blind faith? Oh, sure baby! anything to please you, but you better be good to me!”
This is not the complete kickass song. Much of the amazing instrumental break is edited out unfortunately. Even the CD version doesn’t include the full-length song, which is why I still own the vinyl.