The Left Banke
Listen/Download – The Left Banke – Lazy Day
Greetings all.
I hope the new week finds you well.
Like most of my friends, I was certainly aware of the Left Banke’s big hits, ‘Walk Away Renee’ and ‘Pretty Ballerina’ (both 1966) as they were fixture of oldies radio when we were growing up.
It wasn’t until the mid-80s mod/garage days that we all tuned into their larger discography, every one of us marveling at the amazing sounds they made.
Though most of their best stuff was finely crafted, somewhat delicately rendered baroque pop, the Left Banke, like pretty much every other rock group at the time, had some fuzz to get out of their system.
This was demonstrated on their somewhat uncharacteristic, yet very groovy 1966 45 ‘Lazy Day’.
Written by Michael Brown and Steve Martin, ‘Lazy Day’ states it’s business – that being a fuzzed out Left Banke tune – in the first few seconds of the 45 where a tinkling piano is juxtaposed with a fuzzed out guitar.
Though some folks might try to convince you that the only thing different about ‘Lazy Day’ is the fuzz guitar, I’d say that the overall delivery is much more rocked out and aggressive than pretty much anything else in the band’s catalog.
‘Lazy Day’ was met by broadcast indifference when it was released, but this isn’t at all surprising considering the fact that the audience was waiting for another ‘Pretty Ballerina’ (which was sitting on the other side of the 45, anyway…) and got themselves two and a half minutes of freak out instead.
Their loss. I love it.
I hope you do, too, and I’ll see you all next week.
Peace
Larry
Iron Leg 