Was (Not Was) - Born to Laugh at Tornados (updated 09/18/17)
Once again I have to give thanks to my old friend Ed for turning me on to these guys. I had a TDK cassette with Sparks crazy album Angsts in My Pants on one side and Was (Not Was) Born to Laugh at Tornadoes (1983). Wikipedia calls Was (Not Was) an "art-funk" band but I never really knew how to categorize them. I do know that a lot of people are probably more familiar with their song I Feel Better Than James Brown, which I think is a pretty funny and cool song, or Walk the Dinosaur, which I´m not too crazy about. The album I want to recommend, Born to Laugh at Tornadoes, comes from years before and IMHO it is their best work. One thing that makes the album special is that there were guest vocalist for all but one of the songs including Mel Torme and Ozzy Osbourne.
Ozzy´s song, Shake Your Head (Let´s Go to Bed) is probably one of the most "normal" of the bunch although hearing Ozzy sing a song in this style is weird enough in itself. I have just noticed that Madonna is also credited for vocals on the song. Well you learn something new every day. I had no idea.
UPDATE: I was shocked and chagrined when I noticed that the link below is NOT for my beloved version of the song that I grew up with but instead a 1992 re-recording which is quite different. I have looked everywhere on YouTube and I only found one video that had been removed which leads me to believe that the disappearance of the original version has something to do with song rights (probably Madonna but I have no confirmation that she is the one to blame): I will leave the link to the new version up but if you can listen to the original song I think that you will hear how much better it is. Here is a link to a short snippet that is available on Amazon. That is the best that I can do for now.
Ozzy´s song, Shake Your Head (Let´s Go to Bed) is probably one of the most "normal" of the bunch although hearing Ozzy sing a song in this style is weird enough in itself. I have just noticed that Madonna is also credited for vocals on the song. Well you learn something new every day. I had no idea.
UPDATE: I was shocked and chagrined when I noticed that the link below is NOT for my beloved version of the song that I grew up with but instead a 1992 re-recording which is quite different. I have looked everywhere on YouTube and I only found one video that had been removed which leads me to believe that the disappearance of the original version has something to do with song rights (probably Madonna but I have no confirmation that she is the one to blame): I will leave the link to the new version up but if you can listen to the original song I think that you will hear how much better it is. Here is a link to a short snippet that is available on Amazon. That is the best that I can do for now.
SHAKE YOUR HEAD (LET´S GO TO BED)
(1992 inferior re-make of song)
The second song I will recommend is The Party Broke Up. Here we have David Was speaking the lyrics rather than singing, the same as on I Feel Bettern Than James Brown. The lyrics, spoken in a deadpan voice, are absurd and I find them hilarious.
THE PARTY BROKE UP
The Mel Torme song is the slowest song on the album. It always makes me think of my friend Ed who was in the military like the character in the song. However, as far as I know, Ed never turned blue.
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