MUSIC FOR MODERNS: RACHEL SWEET'S "CUCKOO CLOCK"

I typically won't back away from my strong new wave (a.k.a "modern music") fandom during my junior high & high school days. While I'm proud of being a strong real-time supporter of THE CRAMPS and assorted hardcore bands (uh, SIN 34?) during their heyday, the truth remains that during 1978-1984 or so I was a huge fan of rock and roll that was far less cool. I was a teenager; I turned 12 in 1979, so the fact that I even knew where the left of the dial was is remarkable in & of itself, I guess. My favorite bands in coming years were Siouxsie & The Banshees; Bauhaus; Simple Minds; Cramps; Xmal Deutschland (who??); the Dead Kennedys (I'm far more embarrassed by that than the Smiths 45s I stockpiled around 1983-84); etc.

One song that totally stands up for me now & then is "Cuckoo Clock" by RACHEL SWEET, one of the Stiff Records mafia in the late 70s and a total Midwestern American girl. Yes, despite the fake British accent on this one. Hey, you might totally hate it, but it still brings a chortle to my belly every time I give it a spin. I've written before about how I'd sit by the radio and listen to boring FM rock, just hoping that I'd hear something even vaguely "new wave". Then I'd write down the name of the song, and when my parents would take me to Musicland or The Record Factory or Tower Records, I'd spend hours searching the stacks for those records, and generally lusting after records in general. I got the RACHEL SWEET "Fool Around" LP from 1978 (I bought it a year or two later) around the same time I got LOU REED's "Transformer" (because I heard "Vicious" on KSJO or KOME) and ROXY MUSIC's "Greatest Hits" (because I heard "Virginia Plain" and "Love Is The Drug" on some Casey Kasem countdown show).

See what you think about the track "Cuckoo Clock". I think it rules. I wish someone besides "The Mr. T Experience" would cover it.

Play Rachel Sweet, "Cuckoo Clock"

Download RACHEL SWEET - "Cuckoo Clock" (from 1978 "Fool Around" LP)