aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#025 Elisa Waut – ‚Four Times More’ (Ariola/Megadisc ’87)
JC writes……
Apologies this did not appear at the usual time of the day. Blame old age…….
Hello friends,
to Belgium we go today, to Bruges in fact. Wonderful city, where, believe it or not, I have been just two months ago – and had I seen today’s artist on the streets there, I would haven kneeled down and kissed her feet! Why? Well, let me explain, if you have a few minutes ….
Very old readers of my former blog sexyloser may remember a series I once had, ‘The Girls’ Tapes’. Basically it featured tapes which, decades ago, were made for me by girls who fancied me a bit (for whatever reason, I should add). This may sound strange now, especially to people reading this which are not as close to their graves as I am.
But, you see, back in the 80’s it was common sense to say to girls, like, “I quite adore you, here, I made a tape for you”. And the really cool girls would do the same for men, rather seldom though. Well, I was lucky enough to receive a handful of those tapes back then, and there was one which I never got tired of listening to, never. The thing is, there never was an inlay, so most of the songs I never could identify until very much later.
Today’s choice, as you will surely have gathered, is but one of the songs on said tape. I would of course lie when I said that good looks is an obstacle in helping to be included in my singles box … and probably you wouldn’t believe me for a minute anyway. But Elsje Helewau, the lead singer with Elisa Waut, who, let’s face facts, has never been an ugly duckling, she could look like the hunchback of Notre Dame’s daughter – and this record would still have made my list!
Yes, yes, it’s neither punk nor indie all too much, a bit chart-bound even, you could argue. But there was always something that got a grip on me when listening to this song. Elisa’s voice was one thing, of course (not her looks, no, because, as I explained, I only got to know who she is a few years ago), but what else made the song so special to me, well, I could never identify it.
I always thought there is something in it, which keeps it away from being too mainstream, it really is hard to explain. Today I know that Elsje and her brother Hans started back in 1978 in The Bungalows, then hooked up with bassist Chery Derycke to form The Red Zebras, (all three were the members of Elisa Waut), so clearly there was some Punk/Joy Division-influenced background. Perhaps I gathered this all along, old music expert that I am? Anyway, sometimes a song is just a song, and sometimes it’s just a good song, regardless of its history.
And to me, this is the case today:
mp3: Elisa Waut – Four Times More
Btw.: and if you want to understand what I was trying to say about ugly ducklings above, here’s youtube for you:
Stay safe,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Not hearing the punk/Joy Division influence (same synth as “Isolation”?) but it’s a cool song by a band I never heard of. Nice one, Dirk!
You say you can’t figure out what keeps it from being “too mainstream”?
You don’t suppose the phrase “one more time before you die” being excessively repeated could be it?
I didn’t know the synonym “Ducklings” before. They are by no means ugly.
I remember your series, Dirk, and I wouldn’t be surprised if back then I said what I’m going to say now: I never, and I mean never, received a mix tape from a girl. Man, I would have loved that. You’re my hero.
As Brian said
As Brian said