Song for Saturday: Lloyd Cole and The Commotions – Rattlesnakes
January 12, 2013
Posted in View from the table
‘Rattlesnakes’ was released in 1984 and it’s been with me pretty much since then, remaining firmly as one of my favourite songs. I got a text from a friend yesterday saying it was on the radio and it made her think of me. That made me smile, and then dig it out and revel in it again.
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions are from Glasgow but their sound and their lyrics were so much bigger than that. They filled my teenage head with Simone de Beauvoir, diamante crocodiles, Greta Garbo, 2CVs, writing for the New York Times, basement flats, Eve Marie Saint, Norman Mailer, San Jose, Truman Capote, perfect skin and Charlotte Street – this was a lot of head filling for a girl growing up in a midlands steel town.
I adore this song, I love the pace, the opening guitar and the lyrics. Eons before I had a drivers licence I daydreamed about driving a slightly battered, vintage convertible down an American highway. Hair tied back in a Grace Kelly headscarf, this song playing. Maybe I still will.
Lost Weekend is my (possibly predictable) favourite – I love Lloyd Cole
A classic! Double pneumonia and a single room..
Meant to say IN a single room, but the sickest joke, was the price of the medicine..
And my one love song was a tattoo upon my palm
You wrote upon me when you took my hand …
Such great lyrics! LOVE Lloyd Cole! x
Love Lloyd Cole, and that is probably one of my favourites. I discovered them later on, having found a cassette (remember them?!) on my way home from the pub one evening. I played it until it stretched and warped!
Ahh, serendipity! Yes, of course lovely cassettes. I loved making mix tapes. x