Sitting in my neighborhood Chinese restaurant yesterday--bravely, hungrily venturing out despite the ice storm--minding my own, business, reading The Times, tuning out the ambient sound of crying babies and Muzak.
Until one of those Muzak numbers strikes me--It can't be! But it is!--a string-laden, instrumental version of Marshall Crenshaw's neo-rockabilly classic Someday Someway.
Holy crap. Is there a Crenshaw renaissance going on that I don't know about? I know he wrote the title song to the new John C. Reilly comedy Walk Hard, but coming after last week's encounter with Starless Summer Sky at a Taco Bell, I'm beginning to think the whole world is developing Crenshaw Fever. And about time, dammit.
Of course, twenty-five years (!) since he recorded it, Someday Someway remains the closest thing Crenshaw's ever had to a hit. I would love to post his original version here, but though it's available at YouTube, embedding is disabled by request. (Why?) Still, here's an older, wiser more grizzled Marshall with a new song, Sunday Blues, followed by Someday Someway, which begins around 4:34:
The song had been kicking around for awhile before Crenshaw recorded it himself. Rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon cut the first version of it. Here he is performing it on SCTV, with awesome lead guitar provided by the late Danny Gatton. This is available on Shout Factory's first volume of SCTV episodes, and by purchasing it, you'll not only enjoy the finest sketch comedy in TV history, you'll also contribute songwriting royalties to Marshall Crenshaw. And he deserves it, frankly.
How well-known was this song during the eighties? Popular enough to enter the repertoire of those perky young fashion victims from Kids Incorporated. Ladies & Gentlemen, for your stunned bemusement, I present...Ryan Lambert!
Ye gods, you're thinking, that was horrible. Indeed it was, but it could have been worse. It could have been the distaff members of those plucky Kids From Fame. Oh, I'd love to make you squirm through it, but again...Embedding Disabled By Request. You'll just have to imagine the multi-culti (but distinctly white bread) vibe, and picture in your mind beloved character actor (and Joe Dante mainstay) Dick Miller clapping along. Or go to YouTube and watch it yourself. Whichever. Marshall would probably be amused. Or saddened. Or horrified. In any event, he probably cashed the check.
