|
 Could
Have Been a Lifeguard
The
drummer for Blotto drools out of both sides of his mouth,
and remembers the genesis of his band’s most famous song
By
Paul Rapp
Why,
I remember it like it was 30 years ago. We were squat-rehearsing
in an unheated loft on Sheridan Avenue, in the building where
the Skyline is now. Our artist friends Ed and Cathy were living
on the top floor, and they’d let us in the freight elevator,
and we’d sneak our gear up to the third floor and plug everything
in an electric outlet we found in one of the few working industrial
lights hanging from the ceiling.
I
think we only rehearsed there a couple times, and two memorable
things happened. One, my dog Sam-O peed in Bowtie’s open guitar
case, which resulted in Sam-O being barred from future band
rehearsals. Two, we wrote a song there.
It was a weeknight in late October 1979. It was cold—I think
I was wearing gloves, which made drumming a little difficult.
Cheap Trick or somebody was playing at the Palace; I remember
people yelling up to us from the street.
We were getting ready to record a couple songs with Art Snay
at Arabellum Studios out on Sand Creek Road. But before we
started working on the songs we were planning on recording,
Broadway said “I’ve got this idea for a new song. A summer
song. I wanna start it with kind of a surf beat.” So I played
a little bastardization of “Wipe Out” and “I Think We’re Alone
Now.” Everybody thought it was OK. The song came together
almost instantly, with Broadway’s insanely catchy melody and
silly lyrics, Sarge singing in his ’60s Mark Lindsay voice,
Bowtie and Blanche layering horn-like three-part harmonies,
and a whole lot of bounce. We got the cheesiest Freddy Cannon
organ sound we could for the intro. For the verses, Cheese
suggested a stripped-down vamp, stolen from Joe Jackson’s
“Is She Really Going Out With Him?”
For the choruses, Broadway said, “We need something here,
a call and response thing . . .” I said, “How about we all
sing help, help, help”?
We finished the song in about 30 minutes, recorded it the
next weekend, and have played it pretty much the same way
for the past 30 years.
That’s the story of “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard.”
>>
Back to 2009 Local Music Guide
|
Site
Search 
