80's Flashback

Marianne Faithful, The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan, 1980. My favorite track by Faithfull, this cover of Dr. Hook's 1975 album track is probably one of the saddest songs I've ever heard. "At the age of 37, she realized she'd never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair." The imagery of a wasted life spent "in a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban town" brought out the existential angst in the 20 year-old me, as I'd decided that Orlando surely must be the most dreary place in the entire world. ("Get me out of here! I don't wanna be Lucy Jordan!") Lucy Jordan is from the critically raved album Broken English, which includes her controversial and scatological evisceration of a former lover, Why'd Ya Do It (NSFW), which my roommate and I could quote line by filthy line. TRIVIA: The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan was written by legendary children's book author and songwriter Shel Silverstein.