Ballroom Blitz
I'm ashamed to say I watched the last 15 minutes or so of Bordello of Blood, where this song was featured during the credit roll. Just before that, I saw this Conan O'Brien skit where Frankenstein and Wolfman modelled their summer beach clothes; as they strutted across the stage, the band played them a little surf rock tune. What is it about horror movies and beach pop? I wondered. I love beach pop, and I love camp, but I can never get behind the monsters (even the campy ones), mostly because they still scare me.
These reflections might have colored the way I heard "Ballroom Blitz," because I surely heard something different when Cassandra's band covered the song in Wayne's World. In fact, I couldn't even remember where I had heard the song before, as much as it sounded familiar (so imdb search, etc.). In Wayne's World, I guess I heard hard rock, whereas in Bordello of Blood I heard Cramps-like bubblegum pop. No wonder I was baffled when I researched Sweet and found out they went down in history as glam/arena/album rock...70s masturbation...like Queen but far inferior! Then I sampled "Fox on the Run," and oh, it started to make a little more sense. Apparently Sweet underwent a massive vision-reconstruction between 73-74, when they got rid of their songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman ("Hey Mickey you're so fine you're, so fine you blow my mind!"), and started writing their own heavy Albums.
Go figure. Because of the way I heard Ballroom Blitz this time, I will always think of it as camp.
These reflections might have colored the way I heard "Ballroom Blitz," because I surely heard something different when Cassandra's band covered the song in Wayne's World. In fact, I couldn't even remember where I had heard the song before, as much as it sounded familiar (so imdb search, etc.). In Wayne's World, I guess I heard hard rock, whereas in Bordello of Blood I heard Cramps-like bubblegum pop. No wonder I was baffled when I researched Sweet and found out they went down in history as glam/arena/album rock...70s masturbation...like Queen but far inferior! Then I sampled "Fox on the Run," and oh, it started to make a little more sense. Apparently Sweet underwent a massive vision-reconstruction between 73-74, when they got rid of their songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman ("Hey Mickey you're so fine you're, so fine you blow my mind!"), and started writing their own heavy Albums.
Go figure. Because of the way I heard Ballroom Blitz this time, I will always think of it as camp.
posted by Rex at 3:02 AM
5 Comments:
If you're into serious 70's/80's pund, The Damned do a nice version of Ballroom Blitz also.
er... that should be "punk"
And also, somewhat hilariously I think, by Blue Oyster Cult.
Ah, the two faces of the 70s/80s.
Whose cover of Ballroom Blitz would Jack Tripper have been listening to?
Jack Tripper would listen to the cover done by that guy who sang the "Do you like pina coladas?" song.
Post a Comment
<< Home