Sunday Samples 45
This last week I ran across Tracey Ullman’s autobiographical show Live and Exposed on television. Most people probably remember her from her series on the then-nascent Fox network, which launched The Simpsons in a collection of interstitial animated sketches. She also later had a series, Tracey Takes On on HBO, which like the earlier one centered around her diverse characterizations. She’s also carved out a bit of a niche as a character actress here and there.
But before all of that, she actually had a recording career on the (in)famous punk label, Stiff Records (”If it ain’t stiff, it ain’t worth a f___”), though her style was more a comedic take on the new romantic sound than punk proper. One of her biggest hits was actually a cover of fellow Stiff-er Kirsty MacColl’s “They Don’t Know”. She used the song as the theme for Tracey Takes On, and sang it again as the intro and outro for the aforementioned show. Unfortunately, what came across most of all was how large a toll the last twenty years have taken on her voice.
Still, her performance back in the ’80s was as irrepressibly fun as most everything else she does. Light and fluffy, a veritable meringue of pre-retro retro, and off of her 1983 all-cover debut album, You Broke My Heart in 17 Places, Tracey Ullman’s version of “They Don’t Know” even satirizes itself in its video, giving a poignant undertone to its bubblegum lyrics. Be sure to catch the cameo near the end!
Baby.
You’ve been around for such a long time now
Oh, maybe I could leave you but I don’t know how
And why should I be lonely every night
When I can be with you, oh yes, you make it rightAnd I don’t listen to the guys who say
That you’re bad for me
And I should turn you away
‘Cause they don’t know about us
And they’ve never heard of loveI get a feeling when I look at you
Wherever you go now I wanna be there too.
They say we’re crazy but I just don’t care
And if they keep on talking still they get nowhereSo I don’t mind if they don’t understand
When I look at you and you hold my hand
‘Cause they don’t know about us
And they’ve never heard of loveWhy should it matter to us
If they don’t approve?
We should just take our chances
While we’ve got nothing to loseBaby!
There’s no need for living in the past
Now I’ve found good loving, gonna make it last
I tell the others, “don’t bother me”
‘Cause when they look at you they don’t see what I seeNo I don’t listen to their wasted lines
Got my eyes wide open and I see the signs
‘Cause they don’t know about us
And they’ve never heard of loveNo I don’t listen to their wasted lines
Got my eyes wide open and I see the signs
‘Cause they don’t know about us
And they’ve never heard of love.
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Also, sometime in the mid-1980s, before emigrating to the USA, she starred in a comedy sketch series called ‘Three of a Kind’. Her co-stars were Lenny Henry (who has built a successful comedy career in the UK) and David Copperfield (neither the famous illusionist nor the Dickens character, but rather another British comedian who seems to have since disappeared without trace, despite originally being the one tipped for stardom). I saw this programme once, but (as with many 1980s British comedy shows) don’t recall being particularly amused. ‘They Don’t Know’ was a good song (in both its MacColl and Ullman versions) - thanks for posting the link.