Wednesday, April 26, 2006

"Physical (You're So)"

A Big Day here a SongsWithoutWhich, folks. Break out the milk, let joy be unconfined. According to the technologists at Sitemeter, this blog has racked up 5,000 visitors and 10,000 page views. Sadly, the lucky persons who took us over the line didn't stop to say hi or anything, so I don't know where to send the money, but in any case I've a hot tune to share with y'all in celebration.
Adam Ant always seemed to me to be some sort of confection for the girls, a sort of tasty morsel they could consume and sigh over while waiting for a regular boy to prance up to their door wearing warpaint and tight trousers. As history recalls, that fashion came and went in a hurry, so a lot of us boys never quite got round to the make-up. Shame.
But if you care to delve a little deeper than the patented Adam & the Ants tribal drums and the ooh-matron videos, you come across some real gems. I've already been through the "Deutscher Girls" earlier, but recently I came across this track again and it really knocked me out.
For a start, any song title with the word "physical" makes me think of Olivia Newton-John, for some vague reason which we shouldn't go into here. But then I wonder what it would sound like if Olivia were to sing this song: "I want the touch of your charms/The heat of your breath/I want to say all those things (those dirty things)/That would be better unsaid." Songs about sex is a recurring theme through SongsWithoutWhich, I know, but then music is often just the tonal expression of a horizontal desire; something like this: "I want you hard in my arms/So soft in my bed", as Adam sings.
This is just a terrific piece of raw, throbbing desire, and when you listen to the song you'll agree, I hope, that the word "throbbing" is pretty accurate. Marco Pirroni makes his guitar grind like a good old fashioned eight-cylinder engine, the feedback fades in and out like your senses when you're in the grip of something animal, and the steady, pounding rhythm suggests more than dirty dancing. It's half-way between Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" and something Black Sabbath might have knocked together when they were taking downers. A real treat.

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