Song 331: This week on the playlist you can hear In a Different Light by The Bangles, written by Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson. When The Bangles came along in the mid-‘80s, they may very well have been the group that ended the argument over whether an all-female band could rock and roll to the same degree that an all-male outfit or a mixed group could — they certainly had me rocking. This song, which is a sort of title track for their second LP Different Light, appeared as the second cut on side 1, coming right after the opener Manic Monday. That opening Prince composition, credited to the pseudonym Christopher, justifiably took the quartet to the top of the charts, but when I put the album on the turntable, I always liked track two better, particularly savoring the lyrical metaphors that playfully hint at the differences between the singer’s romantic imagination and the disappointing reality of the you who is the song’s subject. Between the lines, I could easily picture a lover who left the singer feeling like she would rather sit in a darkened room and only look at her old squeeze from a distance.
No comments:
Post a Comment