Illustration by H. Gerbault from Mac-Nab's Chansons du Chat Noir, 1890
So, you can glance at the bottom of this post and see what looks like an uneven match-up. CCR versus who? Well, it's the Moth Wranglers, a little-known drama-pop combo from NYC composed primarily of Magnetic Fields vocalist LD Beghtol and Chris Xefos of King Missile. In 2001, these two oddballs got a bunch of friends together to record an excellent album of skewed Vaudevillian pop called Never Mind the Context. I was initially interested in this record because of guest lead vocals by Stephin Merritt and Ken Stringfellow, but I ended up enjoying some of the other tracks just as much. One of my favorites was "Don't Look Now!", a song with a tremendous dramatic build from a scratchy-turntable intro to a soaring chorus by LD Beghtol.
The problem with the song, though, is that it inevitably reminds me of Donald Sutherland's penis. If you've seen the 1973 thriller Don't Look Now, you probably know the scene I'm talking about - they even have a shot of it on the movie's Wikipedia page! The movie's title warns us not to peek at Sutherland's weiner, but we all did it. My point, I guess, is that if a song is going to remind me of that, it had better be sung by John Fogerty.
Winner: CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
"Don't Look Now" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Don't Look Now!" by the Moth Wranglers
1 comment:
wow - we didnt write it, mark dumais of the band crash did. it's about the gays of course - anyhow, i love them and wnated more people to know the song, so we recorded it as epic'ly as possible. glad you like it. funnily enough, there's also a fairly terrific version by kurt ralske's band ultra vivid scene... ralske was the guitarist fomr crash when he was a barely-legal kiddie from long island. it never ends. xox uncle ld
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