Posting to my friends on facebook - thought I'd share!
The reason they're cool, from a male point of view, is that most of the tunes/lyrics are about relationships gone bad. Their most well known song was "Amplifier." Premise is that Danny just got not only dumped but all his posessions taken as well. " She took his car, she took his bike. She took everything she thought he liked. And what she couldn't take she found a way to break. But she left his amplifier." Turns out, Danny went home and killed himself that night. To any young feller dealing with a realtionship, that resonates.
The band was together from around 1980 to 1988. They had a few bad breaks as far as promotion and distribution was concerned. But they were considered one of the groundbreaking "New" bands in the NYC scene, and their music was influential to many well-known bands of the mid eighties. REM was a big fan and The dB'S opened for them on both their 1984 and 1987 tours. Peter Holsapple eventually joined REM as "The unofficial fifth member of REM" and was instrumental, both literally and figuratively, in the band's sound for the years that REM had their biggest hits.
Here's some lyric snippets:
"She got soul, but everyone I know has got SOME soul"
"She's not worried about the foolish way I live me life 'cause she knows it'll be over soon"
"You're asking where did our love go. I tell you really I don't know. She left me here with just one word... It was never Never Neverland, and you will never understand Neverland"
"Do you believe this? ... If you believe this love is forever. Can you conceive of anything better? Do you believe this is love? ...It's plain to me that we can't rise above it. No one's a lover just cause you love it. And if you're happy then you ought to stay there. I'm not certain that I know the way yet."
"She sleeps around so they say, so do they of course but she's got a bad reputation. So they say you got a bad reputation, I think it's their imagination. You're an angel. So you get off on frustration, I know you've got an explanation. You're an angel!"
" You were wondering why I just can't talk about anything. Is it because I just can't talk to you? Would you prefer we talk at length about anyting just to keep you from starting to cry? ... I'm living a lie... and if I keep on living the way I have been living the way I have been living then you will come to me and say all has been forgiven. But I can't do anything more - I've just ben living a lie too long."
"Giirl, I've never been so tired of living in my life. And now the end is here in sight, but we were happy there. it was a long long time ago but we were happy there...and we're going to go back home so are you happy now?"
"Run back to your mother, tell her all the cruel things that I did. Comes as no surprise to her-I was never sweet enough for her kid. A mother knows what's best she said, a mother knows what's good. So run back to your mother, she always said you would.... Think for yourself, you'll come back to me."