» Music I’m Listening To: MICKEY & SYLVIA “Love Is Strange.”

Wed 4 Dec 2019

Music I’m Listening To: MICKEY & SYLVIA “Love Is Strange.”

Are you old enough to remember this one?

Lazy Georgenby Says:
December 4th, 2019 at 5:42 pm
Not me. I only discovered it from the first time I viewed ‘Badlands’ by Terence Malick (after many re-watches, still a personal fave). This song specifically, is still a big crowd-pleaser on any jukebox; patrons singing along with it.
Steve Says:
December 4th, 2019 at 8:19 pm
Yes, indeed. BADLANDS is an American Movie Classic. No doubt about it.
Jeff Meyerson Says:
December 4th, 2019 at 6:23 pm
“Baby, oh baby, my sweet baby, you’re the one.”

Yes, and I’ve seen them in concert. Of course, I was only 8 when this was recorded.

It was written by Bo Diddley under the name Ethel Smith, his wife at the time.
Steve Says:
December 4th, 2019 at 8:17 pm
Jeff

You saw them in person? *Envy*

(Silvia…)
Yes Mickey?
(How do you call your loverboy?)
Come ‘ere loverboy!
(And if he doesn’t answer?)
Oh, loverboy!
(And if he STILL doesn’t answer?)
I simply say
Baby
Ohh baby
My sweet baby
You’re the one
Lazy Georgenby Says:
December 5th, 2019 at 9:44 am
The 1930s had an all-but-forgotten tradition of black ‘comedy blues’ (for lack of a better phrase) where the male vocalist trades one-liners with the female during the course of the song. The theme is usually him ‘pitching woo’ (as they used to call it) and her turning him down because he hasn’t got any money or roof-over-his-head. Sometimes the opposite: he turns her down because she can’t cook, sew, etc. That’s what this tune reminds me of.