crazy little thing called love chords and lyrics

The summer we recorded it in New York it was very hot, and we were inspired by the Lovin’ Spoonful’s Summer in the City – we copied its chords for our guitar part.

To their credit, Clive and Alan said: “No! Go back to what it was.” They said I had made it sound “just like any other pop song”, and they were right. I’d made a demo using a drum machine and put the snare drum on the off beat, but when I made another demo I changed it to the sort of classic rock beat I thought might get us on the radio. I’d written the melody and beginnings of Birdhouse in Your Soul some years earlier, but when we started working with the producers in 1989 I was still in the process of arranging it.

I think that’s the reason they agreed to produce us. I told Clive the gig was hilarious and fun. We knew Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley from their work with Madness, and, weirdly, as a teenager I had seen Clive’s band Deaf School on their US tour. They gave us a list of potential producers.

We opted for Elektra because they were nice people and didn’t seem to want to change us. People showing up to watch avant garde performance art bought our cassette, and we became part of this groovy little scene of really enthusiastic people.Īfter some indie success, major labels were suddenly coming along like buses wanting to sign us. We had played the showcase night at New York’s CBGB, but didn’t stand out, so we tried instead playing alongside performance artists in East Village. John Linnell, vocals, keyboards, songwriter

Crazy little thing called love chords and lyrics