Album of the week - Let's Active, Every Dog Has His Day (1988)

Today marks the first installment of Album of the Week -- a new feature of my blog that will run on the weekends. This week's featured album is "Every Dog Has His Day" by Let's Active. I bought this album on tape from a place called Eagle Records in downtown Auburn, Ala. (where the old Tiger Theater used to be) back in the fall of 1988. As I remember this little store sold only tapes and wasn't open long. I bought it one night when I was out with my teenage partner-in-crime Andrea cruising the small town and drinking something foul like Purple Passion. I had read about Mitch Easter in Rolling Stone and knew he had produced R.E.M.'s "Murmur" in his legendary studio Drive-In in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Sara Romweber played drums for the group on albums previous and she is the sister of Dexter Romweber -- lead singer of The Flat Duo Jets who Andrea, Laura Marrett, Carol Born and I saw at Darnell's, a small eclectic club in Auburn. I got to meet Dexter that night and we sat at his table. I had watched "Athens, Ga. Inside/Out" about 500 times during a a two year period and my lust for Athens-related bands had reached a fever pitch in 1988 that was shared by a few of my good friends in high school. Let's Active was definitely on that list. Many of the bands from the Athens/Chapel Hill scene played at the huge frats at Auburn (like Dreams so Real, Guadalcanal Diary and Fetchin' Bones) and somehow our underage asses got into all those shows. These shows don't happen any more because of frivolous law suits and all the scare over underage drinking so I really think we got lucky in retrospect.

"Every Dog has his Day" was the last album Let's Active released and, to me, it's their most excellent. This was the year that R.E.M. went out on a limb with their first Warner Brother's release "Green". I couldn't believe at the time that a song like "Stand" was their product and it seemed really dumbed down for the masses which was disturbing after all the brilliant albums that proceeded it . "Every Dog has its Day" has a big studio sound, some of plays like really good live recording and it never got stupid. Being on IRS records, it was too smart to get Top 40 radio play, considering that Mariah Carey and George Michael were dominating that realm the time. Auburn's college station WEGL played them regularly and Easter's voice was instantly addictive to me.

"Every Dog Has His Day" gets off to a great start with the opening title track and hits some real highlights with "I Feel Funny", "Sweepstakes Winner" and "Too Bad", but the real highlight of the album is "Night Train." The song starts and ends with the sounds of a train clicking on tracks and has has a great rimshot drum part that also starts and ends the song. I did and never will understand what the lyrics mean, but they did seem to create the mood of a bunch of high school kids cruising around endlessly because our cars, and in particular, Andrea's amazing Audi coupe, were our places to hang out.

I was lucky enough to find most of these songs on the internet, but still need to buy the disc. It made me happy to realize, while relistening, that the songs on this album are still as great as they were when I bought the tape. No part of the songwriting or production sounds dated and I love it just as much as I did seventeen years ago. Who know what happened to that old tape, but it definitely had its place in my life as a sixteen-year-old and will always have a place on my shelf of all time great albums. Thanks Mitch Easter for always remaining a mystery under the radar. It makes you all the more interesting.

For more on Let's Active and their discography go to
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:4gjieat04xg7





Comments

Jamie said…
Brooks! Git outta my head! This album of the week thing is a great idea, especially because it seems we were living parallel teenaged lives on opposite sides of the USA. I, too, watched "Athens GA Inside/Out" 7 million times (because, please, there was NUTHIN cuter that Michael Stipe singin "Dream")and raged against the nasty pop machine that was cranking out crap at the time. I was totally and completely and forever a 10,000 Maniacs girl, though--oh, the stories I have about that--the hotels, the bus, the shows, the free stuff, my very own copy of the "Like the Weather" video (directed by Vyvian form the Young Ones) BEFORE its final edit and BEFORE MTV got it! Anyway--how fun. My album of the week (because I am still driving The Mini-Van-That -Only-Plays-Tapes) is XTC Skylarking and the Sound of Music Soundtrack, mostly because my kids love them, too. You should hear our car karaoke to "The Lonely Goatherd" and "Ballet for a Rainy Day"!!!
2:58 AM
Brooks Brown said…
WOW! That is really scary. Not only are we born in '72, but that music thing. One of my all-time favorite albums is "Skylarking". I have it on my media player in its entirety and have to listen to the whole thing at once. I love "Grass" and "Summer's Cauldron". We also had a 10,000 Maniacs cult at my high school. I remember being at some small outdoor party (and there was definitely some underage drinking going on) and we all just spontaneously starting singing "Verdi Cries" --- even the guys. I will never forget that. I want to hear your 10,000 Maniacs stories. I know every scene from Athens Ga, Inside/Out by heart and I was so stoked to see that it is out on DVD. I have seen it on eBay. How crazy that you have that video and got it before MTV. Remember 120 minutes and how cool it used to be?. I am also a huge Young Ones fan (so is my sister) and I have been so excited they have started running them again on BBC. So did you have a good college radio station in your hometown, Phoenix right? Auburn still has a great college radio station and that is how we all got turned on and tuned in to the Athens Ga. scene and all its associated bands. I still love that music as much as I did the first time I heard it. I saw R.E.M. on the Document tour in '87 and it was life-changing experience. Glad to hear you are raising those kids right. XTC and Rodgers and Hammerstein are a good mix and I love "The Sound of Music" soundtrack too. You need to start your own album of the week. I want to hear your stories behind the albums. This was the whole reason I wanted to start blogging was to talk to other people about music. Hey, I have a tape deck too and still have tons of R.E.M. tapes.
3:47 AM
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