Thursday, August 30, 2012

Dark Romance #7 ~ "Be With You" by The Jack Rubies

Image info below.
I dunno what I was reading online the other day, but as my eyes took in the words, "...hung, drawn, and quartered," the gears of my brain cranked to life. That'd tickled the memory of some long-forgotten song, one I could have heard only on my most beloved alternative radio station, WLIR (the station that dared to be different!). And in a rush it all came back to me—those words were used in the opening line of Be With You by The Jack Rubies, back in 1987.

I immediately scrambled to the Interwebs to see what I could dig up but, apart from a fan-made video with unpleasantly distorted audio, a fan-made vid with better audio but cut short just after a couple of minutes, and this myspace page which I think must also be fan-made, I got bupkis. There's no official band Web site or page and, alas, it seems the poor lads have faded into obscurity, though the warm words of fellow fans of the tune, devilhoppin and Dan Seeger, and this hater's backhanded praise, have given them some little presence online.

Apparently taking their name from the guy who murdered the assassin of JFK, the British band (::swoons::), led by chocolatey-voiced (woof) singer Ian Wright, melted my heart with Be With You, back in the day. Check out the lyrics:
To be hung, drawn, and quartered
would be uncomfortable and awkward
but a fate I would endure to be with you.

You see, my idea of torture
is not a beating of the harshest order,
but the day when I'll no longer be with you.

And I hope the hour never comes
when you leave the table and I pick up the crumbs.
And I hope I never see the day
when you leave the table and I put your plate away.

To be drowned in murky water
would, of course, make my life shorter
but I would gladly sink below to be with you.
And then it just basically lathers, rinses, and repeats.

The dark romance of it all:
  1. Yes, those lyrics are melodramatic (and, to me, adorably goofy), but being hung, drawn, and quartered ain't no walk in the park, y'all. And I'm damned if I don't want the right fella to feel this way about me.*
  2. Did I mention the velvety vocal stylings of Ian Wright? (OK, from time to time he dances around the melodic line like it's got the cooties, but still...) ::shudders with dark delight::
  3. The band's British—that automatically makes them sexaaaaay. (Don't question me on this; just learn it, live it, and love it!)
  4. Hearing Be With You again inspired a dramatic, dark, and romantic series of "scenes" for one of my WIPs, currently titled There Are Monsters.
  5. This groovalicious tune took me back to the "me" who spiked her hair, spritzed Poison on her wrists, and dreamed of a future in which she made magic. Given my recent batches of crises, this was a much-needed reminder.
*Even though I'm romantic enough to want to reclaim my long-shelved dreams, I'm pragmatic enough to understand that folks aren't guaranteed soul-mates. I don't believe I've been called by God/fate/the Universe to experience a true, enduring, passionate romantic love, which makes it all the more imperative for me to get on with realizing my creative visions, wouldn't y'all agree?

Because the video I'd found on YouTube had such badly distorted sound, I decided to buy a used copy of the CD (which is out of print, le suck) and see if I could make my own vid (a first for me!). Unfortunately, the audio on the CD, for this song at least, is also distorted. It sounds perhaps marginally better than the one on the 'Tube, so I'm uploading it here. Raspy audio notwithstanding, hope you can enjoy the jangly goodness as much as I do:





Image info: Eternal Spring by Rodin, chillin' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, pic inexpertly snapped by me.

30 comments:

  1. "Even though I'm romantic enough to want to reclaim my long-shelved dreams, I'm pragmatic enough to understand that folks aren't guaranteed soul-mates. I don't believe I've been called by God/fate/the Universe to experience a true, enduring, passionate romantic love, which makes it all the more imperative for me to get on with realizing my creative visions, wouldn't y'all agree?"

    Yes, I agree with you. I'm in my forties now and have never met my soulmate. I live alone and wish it were otherwise. But I type and dream up stories where I can have a taste of happiness.

    Thanks for sharing those lyrics. Some of the best stuff (music, books, etc.) is British.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Michael: Thank you. Whenever I've said something like this to certain people, they always chime back with the usual annoying and meaningless platitudes about everybody's got a soulmate, when you're not looking for love it comes, you've gotta kiss a lotta frogs till you meet your prince, yadda yadda yadda. Maybe those things sometimes happen for some people. But you can't really live by pinning your hopes on the things over which you've really no control. Turning our dreams into good stories we can share with others - that's fulfilling, that's something we can control. PS: I just got my Kindle today and your book's on my wish list. Soon as I get to downloading, it will SO be mine! :-)

      Delete
  2. Great post (as always) Mina - I would agree. You don't have to be British to be sexy (but it's obligatory, lol) - yes listening to the Black Eyed Peas is lowering my cholestrol...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, David. You know the only reason I follow your blog is 'cause you're a Brit, right? ;-) (I kid, I kid.)

      Delete
    2. Hey, David - do you remember these fellas?

      Delete
    3. Hey Mina - I thought about lying and being all cool and saying 'yeah used to go to their gigs in Camden town' but I sadly don't much, vaguely remember hearing them a couple of times on the radio..

      Delete
    4. Never mind, David; your British cachet goes untarnished. :-)

      Delete
    5. aw thanks Mina - I like their sound a lot, goes well with the lead singer's 'Oop north' accent :)

      Delete
  3. I've never heard of them but this is great lyrics and a great song. I love when an old favorite songs reawakens :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd bet a lot of Americans wouldn't know of them if they weren't in the NY metro area when their stuff was getting regular airplay. And I wouldn't know a lot of the newer alternative music I do, if not for satellite radio.

      Delete
  4. I've always thought that the US had the best soloists while the UK had the best bands. And so what if the lyrics are a bit goofy. Some of the best songs have goofy lyics ("I am the walrus ... Koo-ku-ka-choo" and lots of other by the Beatles, my fav's. :-D )

    ReplyDelete
  5. I thought I kept up with 80's music back then, but somehow I missed this group and I was listening to a lot of similar music back then. Your video sounds pretty good to me.


    Lee
    A Faraway View

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, good! I listened through headphones and definitely heard the scrape of distortion, which saddened me a bit, but I'm glad it's sounding ok over PC speakers! :-)

      Delete
  6. Never heard this song before, but there is something about that statue I absolutely love.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I haven't heard of the group but I do love the lyrics you posted here. And yeah, you're right about being drawn and quartered. Ouch.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That is one hot statue.
    And better than anything I was able to whittle at the Housatonic Scout Reservation.
    I guess it isn't so bad being drawn and quartered if you were hung.
    At least you'd be popular with the ladies before you got ripped apart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you went there. It nearly killed me not too, but for the thought that at least ONE reader would. ;-)

      Delete
  9. Love me the Brit bands, though I am an Aerosmith gal all the way...

    "There's a hole in my soul, that's been killing me forever,
    It's a place where a garden never grows.
    There's a hole in my soul, yeah I should have known better,
    Cuz, your love's like a thorn without a rose."

    One of the best misery love songs. Yeah, I am old school romance...Pain, suffering and lost causes. No flowers, soul mates and all that happily ever after crap. I do write happily for now, but in life, I like being alone. No one to bother me. LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "...a thorn without a rose..." That's pretty deep, Dude.

      "No one to bother me..." LOL - truth!!! :-)

      Delete
  10. Gotta say, I'm not as crazy about this song as some of the others you've introduced me to. But Jack Rubies? What an awesome name - makes me think all kinds of, er, things...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I can't say I expect everyone to dig it the way I do. Diff'rent strokes, and whatnot. :-)

      Delete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we're not guaranteed to *find* our soul-mates. I believe everyone has someone out there that is highly compatible and could be considered a soul-mate for lack of a better word. Problem is when your trying to shift through 7 billion people on the planet, finding the right one or someone close enough, gets to be a bit of a problem.

      Don't know if I like the song but, I do like the lyrics, dark and sweet and still poetic, they don't make them like they used to.

      Also, la funny, your French wolf! (:

      Delete
  12. Thank you! I have this song on an old mix-tape (made for me by my college boyfriend) and it only had the song title on it. I was trying to recreate the tape as a playlist and Be With You was the only song I couldn't find. So, now at least I know the name of the band. I guess I'll have to figure out how to get it from the tape to my computer...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can't know how thrilling it was for me to know someone else knew this and that I helped someone connect with a long-lost song. Both really did my heart good! :-)

      Delete

C'mon, post a comment. All the cool kids do.