The Time Between

In my mind I believe I met Marshall Crenshaw in Detroit, at Lili’s where my band – The Flexibles (a terrific punk/funk amalgam that was destroyed by shared girlfriends, illegal substances – not me honest – and a guitar player who would rather do laundry than play live – he had his reasons) were playing and the cast of Beatlemania came in to check us out (or have a drink at least). For some reason I was led to believe that Marshall was either John or Paul (assuming John). Seemed like a nice guy anyway (if it was him).
 Anyway since then – and his fabulous, terrific, never to be bettered by him, first album – I’ve always been a fan. I saw him this year at Hardly Strictly (if you go ever year sooner or later you’ll have seen everyone you ever wanted to see). And he was great. A mix of old/new with some fun covers thrown in (I believe this year he did some Richard Thompson song – but it was early). Anyway back to the first record. I hate to say it but it’s all you really need to listen to to get to know Marshall. Great, great pop tunes, snappy production, great vocals. It’s what the Rubinoos, the Records and all the other PowerPop wannabe’s tried to be and failed. And it’s not too Beatle-ly and it’s not to deferential to the 60’s, and it doesn’t have a dud track. The next few records tried hard but he never hit this high again (sorry Marshall). Can only assume this was the classic case of having tons of songs you’d spent years working on and then finally having the chance to record them. Then you hit that difficult second/third/fourth/etc album syndrome. I played it recently (and actually found a set of demos he did before it was released - which apart from the lame drum machine isn't bad) and it still holds up. Maybe a little bit too much reverb on the snare but it hasn’t dated at all really – and the songs are still fab. Just go listen to ‘mary anne” or ‘you’re my favorite waste of time”. Timeless stuff. I just looked on Amazon and evidently the first album is out of print! How can that be? It’s out there. Go find it and enjoy.