Iona’s Song of the Week - No. 21

Do you recall a band from the late 70s who released three albums before disbanding and, thereafter, two band members formed another band and went on to world fame? Need more of a clue? Ok, the lead singer hails from Aberdeen and the guitarist is from Sunderland. Am I getting warm yet? If you still don’t know, I will tell you! This week’s SotW comes from the band The Tourists and the two members who went on to form The Eurythmics were of course Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.

I bought their album The Reality Effect on its release in 1979 and it was only when researching this blog that I discovered that the album was the middle of three that the band made! It therefore goes without saying that the song choice comes from the band’s middle LP! Infact the song made it to number eight in the UK Top Ten in 1980.

However, before we name the song, here is a little anecdote regarding the other hit from the album, a cover of Dusty Springfield’s I Only Want to be With You. I recall reading an article, probably in Melody Maker back in the day, that the producer wanted a specific sound on the drum and after a lengthy trial and error period he settled on the sound created by slapping the drum with a defrosted fish!

So now to our choice. The song So Good to be Back Home Again stands the test of time in my view and I detect hints of the Ramones in it too! So here it is, the closer to side one of the LP, track six, which comes in at 2:39. It's a classic post-punk concept of under three minutes, oh, and it has a fun ‘official video’ too….

https://youtu.be/MWaFcZGp-2c?feature=shared