Thursday, September 01, 2022

Song of the Day: 'Give Us Back Our Cheap Fares' by Bananarama


Day 4 of instrumentals I actually don't skip: This was one of my early lessons in the topic. My brother Bill had brought home the 12-inch single of Bananrama's "Shy Boy" (b/w "Don't Call Us") and I was instantly hooked. He then found "Really Saying Something" -- which actually came out first -- and I couldn't wait for two more songs by my "new favorite group." The A-side was an instant classic. But to have the B-side, "Give Us Back Our Cheap Fares," turn out to be an instrumental was a major blow -- that was about 25% of the band's material at that point, and it basically happened again when the B-side of their next single, "Cheers Then," turned out to be the three-worded "Girl About Town"(!) -- yet 40 years later it's music to my ears. 


Of note: The track is credited to these three women who supposedly don't play instruments and singer/songwriter Vaughn Toulouse, who has twice provided my Song of the Day. ("You See the Trouble With Me" and "Fickle Public Speaking.") Sadly, the openly gay Toulouse died at 32 in 1991 of AIDS-related illness

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