This song was the
Pick of the Week on 2014.07.27.
Here's the story:
When I was in high school, my band was called The Raid. We played this song, "Crazy Baby", at the 1983 Ithaca High School Talent Show. The music is heavily influenced by two bands I listened to a lot that year: The Police and The Who.
I'd been grooving on The Who's song "Eminence Front" a lot, and this has some similarities. At least that's what I remember about my contribution to the song writing, which was usually done during rehearsals by all three of us honing parts together. Tim wrote the lyrics in the wake of Mark David Chapman's insanity plea in the trial for murdering John Lennon.
This was recorded in Moonfish Studios in Ithaca, NY, in the summer of 1983. The band was about to go on a hiatus as Andy and Tim started college, and we wanted to get a recording of the band at it's most-rehearsed peak before an uncertain future. We recorded the guitar, bass, and drums live then overdubbed the vocals. This Moonfish tape of five songs ended up on the album The Raid.
Thanks for listening!
-Andy
Crazy Baby
You come mostly at night when the world's asleep
Your master orders you or a spectre speaks
Keep your promise any way that you can
But if they catch you -never again
You've broken all the bars on your old playpen
You've wandered off to play with your toys again
Your complex mind leaves a shadow of doubt
As to just what this world's about
And they call you crazy baby
You seem so sane
They'd never think that you were at it again
They'll never catch you crazy baby
We hear cries in the night but it's not you
Some innocent victim, but somehow we knew
You wouldn't be like the other boys
You wouldn't want to play with normal toys
And it could be anyone that you seek
With five fatal shots you made round glasses break
Men of all parties have been gunned down
Kings have been thrown from under their crown
Tim Odell --- 3&27 December 1981
This CD includes two recording sessions: a 1981 recording done in Jon's basement with two mics to cassette and vocals overdubbed with Y-cords, and a 1983 recording done at Moonfish Recording Studio, the first (and only?) venture into a professional studio.
Jon: drums; Tim: bass, b-vox; Andy: vocals, guitars, piano
Everything But Anchovies
Members:
Jon Morse - drums
Tim Odell - bass, vocals
Andy Wyatt - vocals, guitars
Years of Activity:
1978-1995
Overview:
Started as Voyager in 1979. Briefly included Pete Downes as rhythm guitarist. Changed name to The Raid in 1981, and to Everything But Anchovies in 1986. Played about 85 gigs around Ithaca, NY and a few nearby towns between 1980-1989. Most were at The Nines (16), second-most at Oliver's (11), third-most at the Hidden Valley 4H camp (11), and fourth-most at T.J. Tuesday's (8). After the last gig, a live TV broadcast in November 1989, we didn't play again until 1991, when we got together for a reunion jam at Andy's new house (see Spreading More Jam). We did likewise at Jon's new house in 1993 for the first Voyager reunion, then in 1995 we started getting together for EBA improv sessions. This evolved into Killer Whirlpool by 1996.