The Angel With Good News - Zumpano - Goin' Through Changes - 1996

I was coming home from a birthday dinner at a Mexican place in my hood last night, when I saw something that basically proved that humanity lives for Schadenfreude. Walking down Union St. I saw a middle aged balding man in sweat pants and a t-shirt awkwardly carrying a deli bag in one hand and a granny cart in the other. As he was walking it was clear that he was either crazy, drunk, or having an exceptional bad day that was effecting his public composure. He seemed to have trouble carrying his two belongings, and he was continually muttering in an angry whisper at whatever boogie monsters he was seeing.

As he walked, he was attempting to unfold the granny cart and the handle got snagged on his pants. All the sudden the baggy sweat pants were around his ankles. Thankfully he was wearing boxers. But instead of the obliviousness you usually get from the half naked crazies in the city, he was totally mortified. He immediately dropped everything and started struggling to pull up his pants, but whatever condition he was suffering some made this extremely difficult. He pulled at his sweats while the angry mutters of "Ohhh geez, ohhhh man" got louder.

We were probably less than 10 feet behind him when it happened, and 3 of the 5 people in our party were lovely young women, which probably did not help his extreme embarrasment. We did our best to make it to the other side of before we burst out into laughter...but I had to think he heard us.

Anyway, due to the coincidences of song titles, I've already had plenty of opportunity to complain about what I a disappointingly limp album I find The New Pornographer's Challengers to be...but it was not completely unprecedented. The second Zumpano album was something of a disappointment to those that loved the bouyancy of the first. Songs like The Angel With Good News might have pleased the fans who wanted Zumpano to persue its more Harry Nilson/Burt Bacharach vibes...but for those of us who loved the power pop drive of the first album, it was, with a few exceptions, something of a snooze fest. This song is a prime example of said snooze fest.

Do

All the Madmen - David Bowie - Man Who Sold The World - 1970

Man this is just first class, grade A, batshit-crazy early Bowie. This is the genesis of Labyrinth Bowie. Okay, lets tick off the items to support my thesis:
* - Strummed acoustic beginning a la Space Oddity - check
* - Distopyian lyrics ("The thin men stalk the streets/while the sane stay underground...the far side of town/where it's pointless to be high/cause it's such a long way down...day after day/they take my brain away/then ask me how I feel) - check
* - Searing Mick Ronson guitar solo that comes in after the first verse - check
* - Flute part that would clearly have been done on a synth if this album was created 3-4 years later. - Check
* - Spoken word bit...let me repeat that SPOKEN WORD BIT - check
* - Prog rock synth riffs - check
* - Hand claps - check

Really you just can't pay for this kind of wackiness...