----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com>
> At Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 23:01:19 Stewart wrote:
>
>>Huh.  No, the EBN-OZN song was actually sort of a spoken monologue 
>>(not at all a rap) by this Eurotrash-lookin' dude, with a chanted 
>>chorus of the vowels.
>
> Man...it's like I lived in a parallel universe from my fellow 
> American pop buddies. The "AEIOU" track never even dented the Top100 
> here. EBN OZN's Top40 hit in Canada was...."Bag Lady (I Wonder)".

Oh, sweet Jesus.  I had completely blocked out the painful memory of 
that one.  If anything, that one's even worse than "AEIOU."  I think 
if you were going to fight for the title of Worst Album Released By A 
Major Label In The 1980s, you would have to go far to beat that one, 
on the basis of those two songs.

Hm, what are some of the other hardcore obscurities of that era, ones 
that don't make me want to plunge a fork into my eyeball...

Ah, I know.  Last night for work, I did a web search to see if I could 
find out whatever happened to Tracie Young.  She was Paul Weller's 
teenage protegee circa '82/'84 -- the story was that she was 
discovered in a talent contest by Smash Hits, but it's more likely 
that that was a publicity stunt.  Anyway, she sang on the Jam's last 
two singles, "The Bitterest Pill" and "Beat Surrender," and she had a 
Weller-produced album in '84 called FAR FROM THE HURTING KIND that was 
really much better than it had any right to be.  Anyway, she's now a 
morning show DJ on a local radio station in Essex -- I caught about 45 
minutes of her show last night, actually.  Very heavy on the early 
'80s New Pop stuff; it was a treat to hear "Time (Clock of the Heart)" 
for the first time in ages.  Terrific song.  And she's still quite 
cute in a Lauren Grahamish way.  (That's her on the cover of the "Beat 
Surrender" single.)

Anybody else remember "Bop Girl" by Pat Wilson?  Australian, I 
believe, and only managed an EP on Warner Brothers circa early 1984. 
Great little gimmicky song in a sort of Josie Cotton style.

And did anyone else think it was admirably forthright that not one but 
both albums by Slow Children included "President Am I"?  It's like RCA 
said "let's just come right out and admit this is their best song by a 
factor of 100."

See, this is what iTunes and the like should be doing: a CD by Pat 
Wilson would sell 13 copies, but how many people would download "Bop 
Girl" if they had the opportunity?

S