The Puddle - Thursday (2.63 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)
..it's Thursday, it's Thursday, my sweet little Thursday / I wouldn't swap you for the rest of the year..- The Puddle, Thursday
So what do I say? George D. Henderson's original amazing Dunedin band. Insanely pretty, soaring melodies and rollicking, propulsive rhythm. Fantastic pop lyrics, sung in plaintive, cracking, gorgeous kiwi accents. Catchy songs like you've never known, which won't leave your head for days and days. Legends about drugs and pharmacy burgs and prison time done hard. Fantastic. Sounds like a theme song for "Thirsty Thursday", at the very least.
Thursday is the eponymous A side from the Puddle's finest (possiby only actual) single, 1993's Thursday/Too Hot To Be Cool on Flying Nun. I've just got back from Mr. Inland Scenic's place where we digitised both sides, just so I could post this. The B side is so goddamn great I'm probably going to have to put that up as well.
The cover-star is "Rita". She does backup vocals as well.
..we were trying to impress / god and the devil at the same time
- The Puddle, Too Hot To Be Cool
8 comments:
You neglected to mention how good they are live - George's contortions as he plays his guitar in particular. They rock.
Oh yeah, and it's probably relevant to mention that, back in the good old days where this song's from, Thursday used to be dole day. Jeez Stephen, you're not one of these New Critic types, are you?
What. The fuck. Is. A "New Critic"?
And duh. It still is. Hence the collection of "interesting" "characters" I passed this morning (and pass every Thursday morning), hanging around in Lower Cuba Mall waiting for the bank to open.
In this context, at least, the song actually makes a useful counterpoint to The Chills' Doledrums.
(I know I'm commenting on the wrong post, but) I think the prob with Matterhorn is about 1/3 of the people that go there are tossers. The amount of people I've seen in there that are so far up their own arses I really don't know how they breathe.
I liked the old Matterhorn where you could hide in the corner and get no cellphone coverage.
Gosh - wasn't that a polite observation (cough). No wonder my mother is often disappointed in me.
For eight years, while living in Montreal, I hosted a show that started at midnight Wednesday night. To inaugurate Thursday, this was the theme song. I found out later that George H had once remarked at a show that he had just a received a cheque from Canada for 17 cents, or some piddly amount. I felt glad I could help.
Just found this today. I was looking for the group who did that song. I first heard it on CISM in Montreal, a student radio station. I don't know if iso g was the DJ back then. But I think the show was at midnight, every tuesday night. It was back in 1999. This resumes 6 years of research! hahaha I didn't know The Puddle until now. Thanks!
Can I just say... Thursday was inspired by Doledrums (thesis, antithesis) and Thursday by Fatima Mansions ("I'll be good till Thursday comes"), as well as the Club Nouveau, a teeenybopper's nightclub upstairs near where Arc is now, where the lyrics were ... ah, composed. I think doledays are now spread over Tues, Wed, Thu in alphabetical order (or they were soon after "Thursday" was written).
Powertools records in Auckland have released "Songs For Emily Valentine" just last week, it should be in shops now or can be mailordered from Powertools.com. this is thirteen songs by the lineup that did Thursday, very Hi-Fi, includes Southern Man, Season of the Wolf, The Power Of Love (figuring that songs with this title always make #1 - Franky, Deelite, Huey, Celine - I used it. Didn't get to #1 but I did get a big royalties check - seems that DJs don't know who writes the songs when they fill returns, so each POL got an equal cut of the pie. So it paid off in a different way). thanks Iso G; more than the money, the idea of being listened to regularly in Canada got me through many a long dark night of the soul.
Thursday has also been played on BBC Radio Scotland (I have the proof on cassette tape sent to me by a friend who heard it...).
I have a copy of the Puddle's Power of Love /Mamelons D'Amadou 7" single released on Acetone Records of Veretz France "La Nouvelle-Zelande, ses grands espaces, son air pur et... sa POP. Nouveau single avec deux morceaux inedits dont un chante en francais..."
Having some new Puddle stuff recorded so well (thanks Richard) will be a joy. Particular new favourites include "Saturday Morning Valhalla". It's not everyday you hear a slightly warped version of the Legend of dragonslaying Seigfreid set to music.
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