11 December 2010

Guided Missiles


As a postscript to recent entries linking rock'n'roll to the atomic age, here's a doo wop recording well known to me which is both a cash in and a fresh take on the subject.
It does feature on the Bear Family box set Atomic Platters, and you can find more details here, including the information that
This unique doo-wop number which likens a woman's romantic advances to that of a barrage of nuclear missiles was recorded, appropriately enough, by a group of U.S. Air Force men. In addressing the woman/"enemy" who seeks to "weaken" his "defenses," the song's narrator finally surrenders and concludes that "…guided missiles will get you in the end."

Guided missiles, bound to explode
Destroying my heart is your goal
You'll have succeeded in making me blue
Now I know the enemy is you

[...] Now you've got me, I'll give in
Trusting you was my only sin
But the same guided missiles
Will get you in the end
The Crimlinks recorded for Dootsie Williams' Dootone, also home to the Penguins and the Medallions. When I played this to a friend whom I hoped to convert to doowop it sort of worked, although he heard out of tuneness where I only heard beauty. Anyway, it's a neatly worked out song, and credited to A. Gaitwood, who is presumably group member Alfred J Gaitwood. Let's hope he and his descendants were properly reimbursed in a manner atypical of the times and, sadly, today.

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