"It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him." -- Joseph Heller, Catch-22That's pretty much what happened when I first laid eyes on my future Floor Models colleague Andy Pasternack.
Seriously. I walked into some dive -- possibly Folk City, although it might have been another joint on Bleecker Street whose name now escapes me -- sometime in 1979 and there was Andy, on a cramped stage, playing acoustic 12-string the way I'd always dreamed of it being played and singing a song of his called "Welcome to the Popular Culture," which struck me then (as now) as one of the funniest and most brilliant things I'd ever heard.
And instantly I knew -- I had to find a way to weasel myself into a band with this guy.
Here's Andy doing the song on WBAI-FM a few weeks later.
When the Floor Models finally got together, this was one of the first songs we worked up; our live version sounded something like Talking Heads having a philosophical discussion with Devo. We dropped it from our stage repertoire very quickly, alas; stylistically it didn't quite fit the Brit Invasion/Folk-Rock template we'd established for ourselves.
I think I remember you heckling . . .
ReplyDeleteIrene Young's photo makes us look even more myopic than I remember. Must be a darkroom trick.
AP
I was fricking freezing during that shoot, I remember that quite vividly.
ReplyDeleteAndy looks sweet, but you, Simels, look very Ellis Island....
ReplyDeleteAnother heckler gave a friendly razz to Andy and Gerry's duo.They were opening for Marshall Crenshaw if memory serves,at Folk City.Andy prefaced a song saying,"Show business is my life"
ReplyDeleteThe heckler responded w/ "You don't have long to live !" When Steve took me to audition for a band he was playing with,there was that duo.I liked them ,their material,got the gig and....didn't tell them their Folk City wiseguy was me 'till a couple of months later.Glen
Glen, what a great come back. It still cracks me up.
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