Friday, April 13, 2007

What's on the iPod? The Rupert Holmes Edition

Sadly the only Rupert Holmes songs I could find on iTunes were "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)"; "The People That You Never Get to Love" (recorded not by Holmes but by Susannah McCorkle); and "Timothy," the Holmes-penned tale of cannibalism in verse originally recorded by The Buoys.

I was looking for selections from perhaps his most famous solo-artist albums "Partners in Crime" from which "Escape" and "Him" became hits--and the later "Adventure." I had others, but those I owned in their 8-track versions and listened to repeatedly in my car in the early '80s.

The tracks on those are almost all story songs and they were a significant piece of the soundtrack of my life and probably a subconscious creative stimulant.

I was reminded of that because I was watching "Where the Truth Lies" on cable, the MPAA-challenged film based on Holmes novel of Martin and Lewis-like performers with an unsolved murder in their past.

It's not a surprise Holmes went on to write for the Broadway stage, television and finally novels given the narrative nature of his tunes.

"Escape" is basically flash fiction and "Him" has something of a narrative arc as well. Ditto the lesser known "The O'Brien Girl." It's the tale of a mysterious transfer student, her presence at her new school never quite explained.

"The People That You Never Get to Love" is slice-of-life, and it played well in the background of my early single life with its lament of missed opportunities. Your perfect love is in a "passing Buick" when you've "been pulled over by a traffic cop," the song observs.

It would have been nostalgic to get some of those onto my pod for replay.

I guess I'll need to buy one of Holmes greatest hits albums on CD, or at the very least get the audiobooks version of his newer mystery "Swing" to have Holmes stories in my car again.

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I'm still flashing back after your mention of 8-track. I had one of those, and the two tapes I particularly rememmber was "Night Moves" by Bob Segar, and "Hush" by Deep Purple.

Clifford said...

I checked Yahoo Music (I'm a diehard subscription user) and no dice. They only had Escape by Holmes and it was from one of those "Hits of the 70s" collections. Funny how all the music services seem to have pretty much the same stuff.

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