84: Everybody Needs a Bosom for a Pillow

84. "Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop [iTunes? Yes.] {Video: Brimful of Asha. (It's a pretty clever video, with the band "playing" on a bunch of old 45 sleeves.)}

This one is firmly in the "I don't know why I like it so much, but I do" column. Is it the frequent repeating of the number 45, evoking days of misspent youth and misspent money on old 45 singles? Is it the generous use of the word bosom? Is it the fact that, yes, "everybody needs a bosom for a pillow?" Or is it that the song has a really good groove to it, a groove that makes me move?

Probably a little of all of the above.

This is another one of those mid-late 90s songs. I heard it and I liked it. Of course, back in those days if I really liked a song I would track it down and buy the album. Unfortunately, other than a cover of "Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles, I found the rest of Cornershop's album to be a grand overabundance of sitar. Lots and lots of sitar. (A little sitar goes a long ways.)

The 90s were an awkward time. If I liked a song in the 70s or the early 80s, I would just buy the 45. And then, once the 2000s rolled around, if I like a single I could purchase it on iTunes. But the 90s? No. You had to buy the whole album.

It was a two-edged sword. Often I would end up with useless "one-song" albums like this one from Cornershop, or the one by Nine Days, featuring "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" and a whole bunch of unmemorable flotsam. But, occasionally I would find an album full of great songs that would turn me into a fan of a group, like what happened to me with Harvey Danger and the Old 97s.

Who knows, maybe I missed out on a bunch of great groups in the past and the present because I only bought the single. Maybe Bourgeois Tagg, Katrina and the Waves, or the other Wade Egan had albums that I would have fallen in love with if I'd only given them a chance? Was there more to M than just "Pop Muzik?" I'll probably never know.

While I think that over, I'll listen again to "Brimful of Asha" and its talk of 45s. (It's got a groove that makes me move.)

COMING UP NEXT: Your organ is showing!