Shona Laing's "Glad I'm Not a Kennedy": Neeldessly mawkish classic or oddly tasteless dud

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Summer `87 -- this single is all the rage on WDRE 92.7 here in NYC (or was it stil LIR in `92?) . Odd, melancholy pop tune by some Aussie woman with bad hair about how shitty life is for the Kennedy family. On paper, pure shit, but in practice -- an oddly poignant, moving song (or so I thought -- can't say I've heard it in about fifteen years). Thought of it today after hearing "Girlfriend in a Coma" by them Smiths (which was in heavy rotation on said radio station during Summer `87).

Who'm I kidding? Half of you folks probably weren't even born yet. Anyway, what say you?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 13 May 2006 16:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Needlessly

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 13 May 2006 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Cripes, am I drunk already? It's only 1:07 - not `92, but `87.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 13 May 2006 16:13 (seventeen years ago) link

i say australia can have her

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Saturday, 13 May 2006 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link

i remember this, and it was still WLIR in 87 i think. Sort of dudish to the extent that i can recall it, sort of vaguely Kirsty MacCollish (sp?), no?

― timmy tannin (pompous), Saturday, 13 May 2006 19:12 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know why I thought she was Canadian for some reason. I must be mixing her up with someone else. I remember this song, but didn't particularly have a feeling about it one way or the other. Definitely don't remember how it goes.

Actually upon a google check, she was apparently from New Zealand, but hey Australia is closer than Canada!

― honorary joy division roadie (Bimble...), Saturday, 13 May 2006 20:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Also you are absolutely correct that she had bad hair.

― honorary joy division roadie (Bimble...), Sunday, 14 May 2006 07:33 (seventeen years ago) link

On the Pure Shit Oddly Poignant scale, I'm drifting towards oddly poignant. Not entirely unlike something that might have been on that Sinead O'Connor record of that same year. Kinda. Not that that's intended as a glowing recommendation in itself. And yeah, definitely NZ, not AUS dagnabbit!

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 14 May 2006 10:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Er, 'Pure Shit' To 'Oddly Poignant' scale then. Lost some characters first time.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 14 May 2006 10:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Possibly the most embarassingly stupid lyrics of all time. Often found at the top of my ten worst songs of all time list.

― Telegram Sam, Monday, 15 May 2006 05:04 (seventeen years ago) link

nice tune. i remember her having some other songs that were ok but i was very young back then

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Monday, 15 May 2006 05:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Awkwardly charming at the time, and if it came on the radio now I'd be delighted.

I had completely forgotten that she was from NZ, or even from the Southern Hemisphere. I seem to recall that at the time I thought she was Scots.

― scriblerus (mike lynch), Monday, 15 May 2006 09:02 (seventeen years ago) link

,ey! Alex in NYC is back!

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 15 May 2006 10:30 (seventeen years ago) link

lesbian or hasbian?

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Monday, 15 May 2006 16:52 (seventeen years ago) link

her other hit was Soviet Snow, I like them both then and now.
She has a great song from before this called 1905

― spectra (form NZ) (spectra), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 07:05 (seventeen years ago) link

her other hit was Soviet Snow, I like them both then and now.
She has a great song from before this called 1905

― spectra (from NZ!) (spectra), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 07:06 (seventeen years ago) link

how bout "i wanna be a kennedy" by kill hannah?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 07:17 (seventeen years ago) link

eleven years pass...

Oddly enough, I was just thinking about this song, which got a bit of airplay on daytime Radio 1 at the time, but got nowhere. Wondered if it had been mentioned on ILM and sure enough it delivered!

I'm tending towards mawkishly dud, the line "Wearing the fame like a loaded gun, Tied up with a rosary" especially.

― Grandpont Genie, Sunday, 21 January 2018 11:22 (six years ago) link

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