My Top 1000 Songs #421: Step On
It's been just a few days since we were last here, but here's another one from the shortlist of UK dance/Manchester/shoegaze tracks that are intractably embedded in my memories of my '88-'91 law school years. Of all the bands from that time in my life, I probably have the least emotional affection for Happy Mondays--probably because their music seemed better designed for taking ecstasy & dancing than for playing in your living room, and, as noted, I was in law school and not doing a ton of dancing etc.
Still, "Step On" (from 1990's Pills 'n' Thrills & Bellyaches) is a ridiculously killer song, even if you're not dancing. Hell, cranking it up necessarily makes you feel like you're dancing, at least in your head, even if you're just curled up on the couch with a legal treatise.
I only learned much later that the song is a cover of an obscure 1971 song called "He's Gonna Step On You Again" from obscure (at least to me) UK singer John Kongos--and it's pretty damn great! But the Mondays' take on the track is so distinctive and of-the-moment that it still feels like an original to me.
John Kongos' original:Top of the Pops 1990:
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