Two For The Groundhog

Today is Groundhog Day, so I'm continuing my Friday On My Mind tradition another week by including two groundhog-themed songs of sorts. Anyone who's ever tried to put together a Groundhog Day mix tape or CD (that would be me) soon realizes that it isn't a very sung-about holiday. With that in mind, here are a couple of "underground recordings" (aka bootlegs) with some connection to Groundhog Day.

R.E.M. - "I Got You Babe" [mp3]
from the Mad Hatter in Athens, GA 09/30/1983

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray keeps experiencing the same day over and over, and what's worse, every morning at 6am, he gets awakened by Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" on the clock radio. Here's a cover of "IGYB" by R.E.M. from a September 1983 show in Athens, GA. It's a loose and lubricated hometown performance, which this writeup from Bullz-Eye sums up best (though I'm not sure what it means for a bootleg to be "out of print").

Don’t bother looking for this in your local Wal-Mart; not only is it a bootleg, but it’s long since out of print. But if you do, by some slim chance, happen to stumble across an opportunity to hear this Sonny and Cher cover, take advantage of it, because you’ll never, ever forget it. They’re drunk, they don’t know the words (I’m pretty sure there’s no lyric where Sonny says, "I’ve got you to wash my clothes"), and they’re sloppy enough to make even the late, great Bob Stinson go, "Damn, man, ya’ll sound pretty rough". It’s complete and total shit and yet, you can’t help but grin all the way through it. Michael Stipe has become such a pariah over the years that it’s somehow comforting to hear this and remember that, once upon a time, he was just another guy fronting a bar band.

Note: Speaking of shit, this song was ripped from a 20 year old audio tape copied from an even older vinyl bootleg then transcoded to mp3, so rather than complaining that this recording sounds "a little rough", just be happy that it makes any noise at all.

The accompanying photo shows pariah Stipe singing "I Got You Babe" with Cher in 2002. It was part of some award show when Michael was presenting some award to U2's Bono ("Longest Tenure In An Irish Rock Band Without Losing Your Hair?) and gave the standard award show intro: "A singer, a statesman. A who truly needs no introduction.. Bono, this song goes out to you", then launched into "I Got You Babe", joined mid-song by Cher. It was the end of the world as Jim DeRogatis knew it.

"I Got You Babe" is my birth song, and I've always wanted to get someone willing to do a karaoke duet with me. Maybe Cher would sing it with me if I asked her?

The Loud Family - "Just Gone" [mp3]
from WCBR FM, Chicago, 09/13/1996

One look at the title of this blog should be enough for anyone to realize that I consider Interbabe Concern by the Loud Family to be one of the greatest audio sound recordings of the 20th century. "Just Gone" is one of the highlights of that album, and should be a Groundhog Day standard.

That's last year there
Still around in February
Doesn't see his shadow, baby
Doesn't know to leave

I'm not normally one to analyze lyrics, but this is one of Scott Miller's most direct songs, so I can probably tackle it. Imagine the couple from "I Got You Babe" ten years after that song, when they're older, and their Vegas nightclub act and hit television show can keep them from worrying about not paying the rent, but they're now stuck playing a happy couple on stage and screen when they can't stand the sight of each other. And that, as a groundhog would say, is "Just Gone" in a nutshell.

Everyone probably knows the recorded version, so this is a September 1996 live performance from Chicago radio station WCBR (which doesn't seem to exist anymore. c'est la radio!), complete with a minute of DJ chat at the end that I'm too lazy to edit out.

The Songs:
R.E.M. - I Got You Babe (Athens GA, 09/30/1983)
The Loud Family - Just Gone (WCBR radio, Chicago, 09/13/1996)

Note about the songs: These are hosted on an external site called esnips, which is aiming to be another youtobe. They don't let you directly download the songs (right-click save-as) so just click the link to launch the player, then click the download button if you want to save the song, but I'm pretty sure no one will want to listen to these more than once. Leave a comment or email if you can't download. And don't forget to have a Happy Groundhog Day.