All this talk about Olympic medals had me thinking "Gold He Said," one of my favorite Bow Wow Wow songs that appeared on the group's "Your Cassette Pet." (It's since been on numerous collections, including the must-have "12 Original Recordings.") So imagine my surprise when YouTube -- which has virtually everything -- only had the song uploaded playing backwards. (Nobody tell Tipper Gore!) As a consolidation I did find a rather random live performance, recorded in 2013 at the Viper Room, from one of Annabella's solo performances. Enjoy!
With some bootleg version of Bow Wow Wow running around with just one original member -- bassist Leigh Gorman, who I'm sure everyone is dying to see -- I'm happy to report that Annabella Lwin has announced some upcoming tour dates. Now if we can just get her to NYC ...
Picked this for the Song of the Day because I wanted to bring to fellow '80s music fans' attention that Bow Wow Wow bassist Leigh Gorman has taken to touring as "Bow Wow Wow" with zero other members -- including Annabella Lwin. (Singer Chloe Demetria may look the part from a distance, but there's only one Annabella.) To fight back against this foolishness, Ms. Lwin has started a new Facebook page that you can like HERE, where she has started to announce fall tour dates. With original guitarist Matthew Ashman having passed away, and drummer David Barbarossa moving on from music -- he recently wrote a novel -- a true Bow Wow Wow reunion will never happen. But if anyone has the right to tour as Bow Wow Wow, it's Annabaella. Show her your support HERE.
I've written about my musical OCD before, but really hadn't had a major flare-up until over the weekend, which involved the Shangri-Las, among others. Like most fans of the coolest girl group ever, I have a few compilation CDs, containing all of the girls' best-known songs. But as I went to listen to one on Saturday, I was suddenly overcome by the urge to have everything -- in order -- which included recreating the band's first two albums -- the non-compilation "Leader of the Pack" and "Shangri-Las '65!" -- and subsequent singles, ripping and buying each track and sequencing them in iTunes until all was right in the world again. While "re-creating" old albums in iTunes that were never issued on CD makes some sense, I had never owned these Shangri-Las albums in the first place, which had even me wondering: Why am I doing this? Why go to all of this trouble when you have the songs and can listen to them just fine as is? (See also: "Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica.")
From there, it started to unnerve me that Bow Wow Wow's "Your Cassette Pet" and "See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over, Go Ape Crazy" were never issued on CD, so I went on a hours-long binge trying to get those together -- which also included ripping songs from YouTube that were not on any of my Bow Wow Wow compilations CDs or for sale on iTunes.
The infamous cover, which was later used in the U.S. for the EP called "The Last of the Mohicans."
The U.S. cover of "See Jungle ..."
As I went to grab the artwork for the "See Jungle" album -- the U.S. artwork, like I had in '81 -- I learned that Cherry Red had actually reissued "See Jungle" as a 2-disc collection a couple years ago, which led to some ambivalent feelings. The old me wanted to instantly buy it. (Those liner notes were calling!) Then the new me said, "Do you really need another CD [or book, or DVD] in this cramped apartment when you already have it electronically?" -- and I held off. I was proud of myself for showing a little restraint, but it made me kind of sad too. Because as much as I hate bringing more clutter into my home, I couldn't help but think to myself, "If I'm not buying this, who is?" -- and I felt like I was turning my back on an old friend.
The last I heard of Annabella Lwin was when I saw her perform at the Black Cat in Washington with a partially reformed Bow Wow Wow back in the '90s. Turns out the band recorded "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" for the 2007 "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before: A Tribute to the Smiths" album -- and even performed it around the corner from my house! -- but I just never got the memo. Now that I'm more on top of things, though, I see they're touring with Midge Ure -- but with no New York City dates are on the sked. What gives, girl?
