After not really experiencing this whole jetlag thing at all on the way out to the US or straight after returning, in the past two days I've woken up at 1pm and 6am respectively . Something isn't right there. It's with such thoughts of tiredness in mind, lets turn to one of The Bluetones' more underappreciated singles, "Sleazy Bed Track".
'I know it's getting late,
But if you'd like to talk a little more,
Well that's alright with me.
I'm feeling kind of tired,
But it ain't exactly beating down my door,
Now just why could this be?'
Deliciously hazy and intimate, the verses rest on slippery blues guitar and Eds' suitably weary, late night drumming, backed with an organ hum distant enough that it's easy to miss where the spooky edge that it adds is coming from. 'Kind of tired' definitely feels like an understatement, but the 'just why could this be?', why it isn't being felt, is answered soon enough. It's revealed to be a contradictory mixture of (1) concern for the wellbeing of the person being addressed and (2) abject horniness. Shattered late nights for a freeing of inhibitions more potent than alcohol, exhaustion making now seem like the most crucial time to seize the moment because in no time at all it will be tomorrow and everything will have changed? Works for me. There's something almost dreamlike about the burst of energy that carries us into the bizarrely triumphant sounding chorus, one final hit of hormones and adrenaline masking the unlikeliness of the pleas therein.
'All you gotta do is baby kick off your shoes and lay down,
Climb up here with me and lets forget about sleep and lay down...'
The title of the song might well be an ironic acknowledgement that Mark couldn't play sleazy effectively if he tried, but it definitely works in its favour, lending his seduction an unlikely innocence that keeps his concern in the verses more believeable as genuine than manipulative. Maybe not enough to wish him success (it's still just a touch too creepy in places for that) but certainly to not begrudge him the attempt.
Sidenote: to prove that noticable likeness to other songs isn't always such a dealbreaker, just check out the uncanny similarity between the opening here and that of Crowded House's "Fall At Your Feet".
mp3: Sleazy Bed Track (Evening Session Version)
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At the time, of course, this was the least successful Bluetones single ever (unless you count that limited version of 'Slight Return') and that's not hugely surprising because whatever this has going for it for it as an album track, it really makes no sense at all as a single. Least of all with that title.
The video creeped me out a bit too, although I don't think I ever saw it during daylight hours.
PS: I think the intro is more like 'Don't Dream It's Over'
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