Concrete Blonde: Bloodletting

1990
1. Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)
2. The Sky Is A Poisonous Garden
3. Caroline
4. Darkening Of The Light
5. I Don't Need A Hero
6. Days And Days
7. The Beast
8. Lullabye
9. Joey

10. Tomorrow, Wendy

What can I say about this entry on my Top Albums list? That's the problem I've been facing for the past week or so. What can I say?

You see, this is probably THE album on my list, but there isn't really much of a story to go along with it. No identification with specific times in my life or with specific friends. No big walks down memory lane.

It is simply the force of my feelings for these songs that puts it here.

Certainly there are details I remember. I was 17, driving to school one fall morning (thank heavens I had upgraded from a 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint with only AM radio to a 1986 Mercury Cougar or this revelation might have never happened), and listening to the radio. Squeezed in among the MC Hammer and Wilson Phillips hits, the DJ played this haunting song by a woman with a strong, soulful voice.

I had never heard the song or anything like it; I had never heard the voice. This was back in the day when radio stations would play 3, 4, 5 songs in row and then at the end of the set give you all the song names and artists, so I sat in my car in the high school parking lot waiting to hear who this was.

Joey by Concrete Blonde. I jotted it down on the back of my notebook (which I still have; yes, I am certifiable). That's all I needed to know. I went to the mall that day as soon as school was out & picked up Bloodletting. I had moved by that time toward a darker sound, so I was excited just by the album cover (drops of blood on a white rose) and the song titles (The Sky is a Poisonous Garden, Darkening of the Light). And then I listened to it.

I won't even bore you with the details other than to say I was completely carried away. I don't think I watched TV that night or talked on the phone or anything. I just listened to that tape over & over. After school the next day, I went back to the mall and said I needed every Concrete Blonde album they had (I had seen in the liner notes that the group had other albums). There were two, so I got them both. And I was not let down.

The songs were dark, yes, but also rich and powerful and emotional. They were a bit harder-edged than most stuff I had liked and would like, but they were still very melodic. And that voice -- oh my ...

I have followed that voice everywhere. When Concrete Blonde broke up and Johnette (the person behind that voice) formed a duo, Vowel Movement, I was there. When that broke up and she formed Pretty & Twisted, I was there. When she took over as lead singer for the David Byrne-less Talking Heads (then just known as The Heads), I was there. When she recorded but never released a solo album called Sound of Woman, I was there (bootleg off eBay).

I still consider Concrete Blonde my favorite band of all time. Sometimes people just earn undying loyalty. Johnette got me when I was 17, and she'll have me forever.