Wednesday, July 18, 2007

From The Vault: The Sights, "So Much For Everlasting Love"


Wow, it's about time I paid attention to this blog again, isn't it?

Anyway, next blog entry I want to reveal to you two reasons why the hopes for quality New Wave representation on YouTube are at the highest they've been in months, but first, a song whose glory has been reminded to me by a thread I recently perused on the New Wave Outpost boards. Like the Scars, the NWO gave me the (glorious) introduction to this song.

The Sights were a group from Los Angeles that existed, for all intents and purposes, between 1981 - 1982. They put out two self-released EPs, So Much For Everlasting Love and Virginia, before fading into total obscurity. Little is known of the band itself aside from the precious little that has been revealed by those who followed the Southern California New Wave/powerpop scene back in the early '80s. The EPs themselves are incredibly rare finds; I myself have been waiting to find them on MusicStack (but with little success) for nearly two years. Also extremely rare is the music video for the title track from the first EP, which is the lone song of theirs I am well acquainted with. It is a low-down and dirty track, very lyrically lewd and obscene without being offensive, and the music is dark and dirgey for it being classically power pop.

From looking at a scanned-in picture of the back of the So Much For Everlasting Love EP (the front is pictured above), this is what I can ascertain are the lyrics for said title track:

She never sees the faces
Of the men who drive the cars that roll by
Calloused in dark places
But I'm savin' up to make her mine
So much for everlasting love

She counts her stains [?] and money
As the sunlight caught her hobbling home
Alone beneath her covers
She'll be counting all the fiancees she's blown
So much for everlasting love

I'd buy her twenty-dollar dinners
If she'd tell me I'm the only one
I'd do anything to win her
If her eyes would say she's havin' fun
So much for everlasting love

The writing and production are credited to The Sights, whose members are listed on a French powerpop site as being Roger Richardson (guitar, vocals), Bryan Goff (guitar). Chris Shaw (bass), and Mark Bustam (drums). Curiously, I once received an unsolicited email message from a young male who purported to be the son of Roger Richardson and who offered up several mp3 files of his father's band's music, but he never got back to me so I don't know if he was really who he claimed to be.

I invite you to enjoy The Sights' "So Much For Everlasting Love" on your own terms. Just right-click on the link and select save to download and enjoy.