When I grew up, my parents bought this amazing collection of double LPs of the history of rock'n'roll. We are talking 50 double albums here. It was brilliant to grow up with. I started with listening to a lot of the 60's pop up until I was about 10-12 and then progressed into the more gloomier part of the collection. One of the tracks that really caught my eye was Remember (walking in the sand) by The Shangri Las. And as time has progressed I have grown to love them more and more. They are the backstreet, crazy, raw, ruff and tuff version of The Supremes.
The fantastic changes in rhythm and arrangements and the feel of the thing really does it for me... It's so lovely gloomy, sad, desperate and melancholic, but at the same time the kind of melancholy that you just want to enjoy and soak in. You really feel for the poor gal and her hopeless destiny.
The most famous song is without a doubt The Leader of The Pack, and again there is the classic story about a bad boy, a good girl gone bad and her family. It's never been my favourite, but is a great pop tune.
A few years back I found a even sadder song by them: I Can Never Go Home Anymore, about a teenage girl who leaves her mother for a boy and never can go home. "Life is so lonely, like a child without a toy, and then a miracle and then - a boy". The storytelling of this songs is like any sad classic story we have heard in gypsy songs and similar.
And then the fantastic Past, Present and Future that has none other than a spoof of Beethovens moonlight sonata in the background. That's should say something about drama and gloom!
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