3.5.23

Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing

But different than the day before

That’s when I saw her, ooh, I saw her

She walked in through the out door, out door

One of my favorite things about music is the unexpected surprises that absolutely stop me in my tracks.

Hindu Love Gods are a great example of that sort of surprise.

I was at a record show in S. Burlington, VT, in 1994, shuffling my way through a massive box of remaindered CDs. I was at the point of giving up, assuming most of the box was Michael Bolton. Then Hindu Love Gods’ self-titled 1990 album rose through the chaff. I pulled it out to take a look.

“How’d that get in there?” the dealer asked, looking at me.

“I dunno,” I said. “What is it?”

“What that is, is good shit.”

The dealer wasn’t wrong.

As it turned out, Hindu Love Gods was a side project for members of R.E.M., Bryan Cook, and Warren Zevon. They played various gigs with various lineups from 1984-86.

Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills — all of R.E.M. — wound up being Zevon’s backing band on his Sentimental Hygiene album (1987). And the story goes during a late-night, rather drunken recording session, the quartet recorded 10 songs — blues standards mostly — just for shits and giggles.

Aside from the standards, though, they also covered Prince’s 1985 instant classic, Raspberry Beret. It sounds like … well, it sounds exactly like what it is: a group of drunk guys having fun playing music they love.

I was obsessed with Prince’s original version when it came out. Prince introduced me to lots of things both musically and culturally, but at the time, that song was tops as far as I was concerned.

When the dealer at the record show pointed out Hindu Love Gods cover of Raspberry Beret, I was sold. And he was so excited to introduce someone else to an amazing album that he threw it onto my purchase pile for free.

I said at the start of this piece that one of the greatest things about music is unexpected surprises. One of the other great things is how much music there is, which means there are so many more surprises to come.