Tuesday, September 22, 2020

The 1980 Listening Post - Bow Wow Wow - Your Cassette Pet

 Bow Wow Wow - Your Cassette Pet


#456

November 1980

Bow Wow Wow

Your Cassette Pet

Genre: McLaren Impresario

4.75 out of 5




Highlights:

Louis Quatorz

Gold He Said

Uomo Sex Apache

Sexy Eiffel Tower

Giant Sized Baby Thing


Requisite 80s Cover: “Fools Rush In” which bears no similarity to the original and is rendered some Bow Wow Wowian piece of art. Ashman and Gorman and the truly amazing Dave Barbarossa turn this into something that the B-52s WISH they could come close to. 



The story has been told so often that I barely wanna mention but, in the shadow of Adam and the Ants brilliant debut I feel we have to.

Adam hires Malcolm.

Malcolm fires Adam. 

Keeps the band, lets Adam have the name.

Finds a teenager to front his post-Sex Pistols Afro-Pop band. 

Adam makes a mint. 

BWW puts out Your Cassette Pet. 

A lot of these songs end up on various collections. And you can still find them. But, putting out a record on Cassette was a revelatory act of genius, before the explosion of the Walkman.

This is different than Kings of the Wild Frontier. For one thing, it drips in sex in a way that Adam wants to but doesn’t. And that makes this a dangerous record. Adam declared his music “Antmusic for Sex People!” but it isn’t sexy. On the other hand, Bow Wow Wow wants you to lust after…a 14 year old. And she is terrifyingly sexual. I know that, as a 15 year old Anabella Lwin terrified/tantalized me. 

As an adult…I’m conflicted. “Sexy Eiffel Towers” is…the New Wave “Love to Love You, Baby”, except that the singer is 14. Ugh. I feel old. 


This gets rereleased with a bunch of other tracks in 1982, and I imagine we’ll cover it then as well. But this isn’t an EP, either. 

It’s your cassette pet. 

Like I said…conflicted. 



YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d230Bx9sQSk&list=PLlvn8uktX5LtmGTaGSylIh8XCQVHDxfKj  (Missing 1 track - Bow Wow Wow)

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