The one question I always ponder when I hear Book of Love is just how it's possible they could be from rough-and-tumble Philadelphia, the very same city that pushed glam rockers Cinderella and the mandolin-playing Hooters on an unsuspecting public at the same time. You never would have guessed Book of Love could be from anywhere other than the other side of the pond.
Their sound may be soft, but I have to give the band props for taking on issues. They sang about the AIDS epidemic and a girl-likes-boy-boy-likes-boy relationship triangle. Pretty heady stuff for the era. As you would have guessed, Book of Love did very well on the U.S. dance chart, and "Boy" was even remixed and re-released as a single in 2001 to coincide with the release of a hits collection. The song raced to No. 1 on the dance chart 16 years after it was first released. I had no idea about that before today.
"Boy" (Extended Mix)
"Boy" (Dub)
"I Touch Roses" (Long Stemmed Version)
Note: Mrs. LTL is in Germany, and we have been using Skype. In order to do this, I have had to mess with many audio and video settings, as well as disable quite a bit in Audacity, the software I use to rip my vinyl. What a pain in my bottom. I'm not 100 percent certain I have everything back to the way I did before. If today's recording sounds different than previous offerings, please let me know. Now I get to change it all back so we can chat in a couple of hours. Ain't technology great?
6 comments:
Mrs LTL's out of town Brian? I'm surprised that you haven't skipped straight to the 'S' section :-)
Skype her to come over to my place, so then she and Mrs Loser can do some nice bitching about how bad their husbands' taste in music is ... Mrs Loser will be WELL pleased, I tell you!
Dirk, after that, Brian's wife could catch a quick flight down to here for some more eye-rolling-what-the-hell-are-these-bloggie-boys-like with Jo. I think much wine would be consumed by the pair of them.
As for the music, Brian, I can hear no loss in quality of recording. As you say, there's no mistaking when these songs were made.
Swede, She has had to travel so much this year that the blog could easily become a Scritti fan page, but I do enjoy readers stopping by once in a while. So, no, I'll just wait until the letter S to scare everyone away.
Dirk, When I found out she was going to Germany I immediately told Mrs. LTL there was someone she had to meet. I mapped your address from the Hoboken to Athens mix that was mailed out, but she couldn't be much further from you. She is in Munich.
George, Hey, you never know. One of these days we may swing by. Thanks for letting me know about the sound. Seemed OK from here but wasn't sure. This post isn't one of my prouder moments, but Book of Love had its time and place... and that time was 31 years ago. Time to go back on the shelf. I'll do better next time.
At least you were brave enough to put it out there Brian
If it's on the shelves it should go on!
Never heard of this lot before. Have dipped in to play the extended mix of 'Boy' as I type these words.
Can understand why they were regarded in the States....it could almost be seen as cutting edge over there back in the days. I bet at some point they will have appeared on the soundtrack of a John Hughes movie....it's that sort of sound I associate with his 80s movies.
Not awful but it has dated awfully.
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