A little internet detective work, combined with reading between the lines in our DJs' comments, leads me to believe that this is not the first LP copy of Sandra Bernhard's double LP Without You I'm Nothing to grace the shelves at KCMU. There's no date on this record, but it was originally released in 1989. A couple commenters mention the film of the same name, based on the same body of work (full title of the stage show: Without You I'm Nothing, With You I'm Not Much Better), which was released a year or so later. There's also the fact that one person says "Don't be stealin' this record!" Praise is due to Riz for re-introducing this record to the KCMU library. (If you want to put a smile on his face, try requesting one of these tunes next time you catch him on air.)
Why would people steal this particular record, you might ask? Here Wikipedia offers a little bit of insight: It seems that one of the backup singers on the version of "Little Red Corvette" that closes this record was a then-unknown Tori Amos. Back in the early '90s, before you could plug a few words into an internet search box and find just about any recording you might want to hear, if you found out your favorite singer-songwriter appeared on a semi-obscure comedy/music album, pretty much the only way to hear the song would be to find the actual record and pay exorbitant amounts for it. (Wikipedia claims, without citation, that this particular release once fetched upwards of $300 at auction.) Now that I think of it, I remember scoring weird import Tori Amos CDs in the UK for my girlfriend at the time. Sad to imagine a KCMU DJ falling so low as to steal a record and sell it - let's just assume it was an unscrupulous/impecunious visiting band, forced to steal valuable albums and sell them for gas money.
"Donated by Riz who thinks that Me & Mrs. Jones rules." "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You! If you haven't seen the movie, you ought to. This is a recording of the theater version (a few of the numbers were cut for the film and a Nina Simone parody was added). Play 1.1, 2.2, 4.1 without fear; the rest are red dots, a few of which can be edited, but be careful. She is a truly brilliant observer of American pop culture. There is a high spm ration (spm = sarcasm per minute)." "Freshly yellow-dotted. Dig in, you late-nighters! Go to the show!" "Her band includes a member of the Voidoids (Ivan Julian)" "Don't be stealin' this record!" "Riz - you rule! This is the coolest. I wish I could of seen her live but I've only seen the movie. Can we get a cart of 'Mighty Real'?" "Hey - where does 'Me + Mrs. Jones' start anyway?" "Aughh - I forgot - she swears constantly." |
History seems to have mostly forgotten the London band Birdhouse - or The Birdhouse, depending on whom you consult - with references to their work turning up at baseline music information sites such as Allmusic and Discogs, but not much analysis or information beyond that. The only way I even found…
