Another day, another Johnny.
Top Johnny in a Google search is Johnny Depp, as I said last week when I started this. I have no real strong opinion on him. He seems alright. His previous girlfriends include Winona Ryder, Kate Moss and Vanessa Paradis. Vanessa is best known here for her 1988 hit Joe Le Taxi and her gap toothed smile. And pictured above last year seems to have opted out of the aging process, despite smoking.
Fine Young Cannibals' Johnny left home and headed for the big city which sadly didn't live up to his expectations. The verses are Johnny's ('what is wrong in my life if I must get drunk every night?'). The chorus is his parents ('we're worried, won't you come on home'). Pop songs in 1984 didn't shy away from real life stuff and despite the uptempo pop-ska the song is defiantly gritty. The bouncy guitar and bass, piano riff and trumpet are very good and there's a great little shift from the verse to the chorus. The guitar, bass and rubber legged dance moves were provided David Steele and Andy Cox (both formerly of The Beat, who recruited singer Roland Gift from a support band). Roland had one of the most distinctive voices and faces of the mid 80s and moved into films- Sammy And Rosie Get Laid sticks in my memory but I haven't seen it for donkeys.
For years online I was (still am in some places) known as Johnnywas. That's my other fave Johnny song, the SLF version, not the original. Nor the Pogues version which is pretty ropey to be honest.
ReplyDeleteGreat track Simon!! I much prefer it to the Marley original - which is probably sacrilegious track in some corners of the interweb.
ReplyDeleteAs for Johnny Come Home - it was interesting at the time, as was the first FYC album, but it just doesn't wear well with time to these ears...