here's april fool - take a listen and buy the album on patti's site [link]. then follow my neuroaudial (yes I made it up) path and visit some old friends.
"come, be my april fool" - unmistakeable voice.
but mistake it I did, as the sound carried me back to an LA band I first heard in france. I loved french record shops in the late seventies - you could ask to listen to the record before you bought it! the clerk would nod toward one of the glass-walled booths, you would go in, and as near as I can recall, you could stay until the whole side was over.
that's where I was introduced to rory gallagher, telephone, and the motels, whose eponymous debut album included this track (sadly, I couldn't find a copy of "porn reggae," my favorite song of theirs). listen to martha davis' vocals and you will see (hopefully) why patti's voice on the april fools track put me in mind of her. debbie harry of blondie has it too, especially when she shows off her jazzier side. I think it's the torch singer effect - plaintive on top, but with a reservoir of strength below...
motels, total control
ok, back to april fools. toward the end of the song another ghost appears in the distinctive guitar figures. richard lloyd was another one of those french record store discoveries. his work on alchemy led me to discover television's 1977 classic marquee moon and tom verlaine. 35 years later, the smith tune was bringing back memories of verlaine? a look at the album credits solved the mystery - verlaine, in fact, plays guitar on the track. listen to him at 2:30 on april fool and tell me it doesn't hearken back to marquee moon at around 8:45, when the television cut takes a brief detour into some kind of garcia-esque noodle party.
television, marquee moon
crazy how the mind works.