Rollercoaster down by the water you made me feel more as I oughter.

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - Roller Coaster by the Sea

Ah, the hangover song. Many years before I knew the title of this song I knew it as the hangover song as, during their early teenage flirtations with alcohol and various "other" intoxicants, friends of mine used to wake each other up the morning after wild nights making big fires in various south Birmingham parks by blasting it out at each other.

I don't know any other Jonathan Richman songs, so this isn't a taster designed necessarily to get you running out to your local bittorrent site (I mean record store) and getting hold of his entire ouevre (sp?), but if the need takes you, I won't stand in your way. It's something I've thought of doing on numerous occasions, and maybe I will one day. This song, however, should take pride of place in anyone's mp3 collection - I love the fact that it sounds very much like it was recorded on a four track in someone's bedroom, the fact that the rollercoaster helped make the person singing feel better and the fact that he says "Whoa. Scary." out of the blue during the instrumental break.

The track first appeared on the album Rock n Roll with the Modern Lovers in 1977 and was then a B-side on the Egyptian Reggae single, which is where I came across it some many years later...

BTW (as they say in this here interneterweb)my name's Paul and this track is not louder than war. Indeed few of the things I post will be, I'm gettin' old. And yes, I did meet Robert Mugabe once, but it was by accident, and before he went crazy...

Enjoy!

Peace out.