RE-POST BY REQUEST
- Seven Days in Sammystown is a 1985 album by American New Wave band Wall of Voodoo. This was the first Wall of Voodoo album to feature Andy Prieboy on vocals.
- I remember being skeptical about this album. Wall of Voodoo without Stan Ridgway!?! I already had Voodoo's debut EP, Dark Continent, and Call of the West and they were among my favorite and most played albums. Certainly a new singer would change the band's sound. I ran across the Ugly Americans live LP with Andy Prieboy on vocals, and it sounded great so I thought I'd give Sammystown a chance.
- Well, I was right, the new singer did change the band's sound...but not a bad way! This album takes Voodoo from the mechanical factory-like synth sound of the Ridgway era to whole new areas. "(Don't Spill My) Courage" is a type of song I never expected Voodoo to play. "Big City" (about the dangers of LA) simply rocks (I played this song to death back in high school)! "Far Side of Crazy" and "Blackboard Sky" (both on the Ugly American's album) are amazing as is "Tragic Vaudeville" which really rocks and has awesome vocals! "Mona" and "Museums" have a wonderful eerie beauty to them. Harkening back to their earlier songs about the working class stiff is a unique cover of the old miner's union anthem "Dark As A Dungeon." "Business of Love" shows signs of that great Voodoo humor. The unique Voodoo guitar sound is still there but the music has so much more meat to it and is a lot more accessible than the earlier albums. In sum, Wall of Voodoo matured!
- This is almost like a symphony in that you put the record on and it all flows from one song to another and the next thing you know you're playing it all over again.
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Wall of Voodoo "Seven Days in Sammystown" (1985)
Track-List:
"Far Side of Crazy" - 4:05
"This Business of Love" - 4:36
"Faded Love" - 1:02
"Mona" - 5:01
"Room With a View" - 2:59
"Blackboard Sky" - 4:41
"Big City" - 4:30
"Dark as a Dungeon" - 4:43
"Museums" - 4:21
"Tragic Vaudeville" - 3:44
"(Don't Spill My) Courage" - 4:17
The Band:
Andy Prieboy - keyboards, vocals
Charles T. Gray - keyboards, vocals (background)
Ned Lukehardt - percussion, drums
Bruce Moreland - bass, keyboards
Marc Moreland - guitar
Personnel:
Ian Broudie - producer
Dave Powell - engineer
Gil Norton - engineer
Ray Roberts - art direction, paintings
Peter Hammond - remixing
Scott Lindgren - photography
John Parish - percussion
Fantastic Album. I remember seeing WOV on the 1983 Tour of Virtue and throught they were absolutely AMAZING! They were one of my favorite bands of the time and eagerly awated the next album. One day in a record store I came across Sammystown, but to my horror, looking at the back picture the lineup had changed (remember this was pre-internet so I didn't know Stan had left). Tnankfully this was a GREAT album. Different than the other Wall of Voodoo, but a good type of different and hard to compare with the former. WOV did "regroup" about a year ago for just one show(actually it was just Stan because the others had either past on were too busy)
Thanks for posting! Any chance of posting any of Andy Priedoy's solo albums?
Sorry, don't have them. Anyone?
I could kiss you for posting this! You really made my day. Been looking for it for ages. I don't have any of Andy's solo albums either sadly. Saw WoV live in 1988 or 89 (Ugly American's tour) in Brisbane and saw Andy with Concrete Blonde some years later. Really miss this group thanks for posting these albums)
Didn't know how to take this LP when I first saw it, I mean, WoV without Stan? I was hooked from the opening line of Far Side Of Crazy. My casette is a bit tired now, but this is a great album. WoV were, in my opinion, the best alternative band in the States at the time. Yes, even better than The Cramps!
you may be interested in this 7" - different versions to those on the LP
http://bowieisacrankycat.blogspot.com/2009/02/wall-of-voodoo-big-city-7.html
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