My Top 1000 Songs #695: Lipstick

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.] 

As a pre-teen first introduced to music through mid-70s AM pop radio, I developed a lifelong affinity for cheesy bubblegum music--those short, simple pop tunes with catchy hooks and silly lyrics that can be embraced both by kids and, more ironically, by post-Ramones hipsters relishing the simplicity of rock music before it became an art form.

Sadly, there hasn't been much room for old-school bubblegum pop in recent decades. But then there's Dressy Bessy, an Elephant 6-affiliated indie band (guitarist John Hill serves double duty with E6 mainstay Apples in Stereo). On their early records, singer & songwriter Tammy Ealon offered unabashed bubblegum joy (particularly on their delightfully catchy 1999 debut LP Pink Hearts Yellow Moons). Too many fun tracks to pick a favorite, but I'm going with "Lipstick," an early single found on the Pink Hearts reissue as well as the 2003 Little Music singles collection.

On this one, they go all in with the joyous kitsch--a 45 second Casio keyboard intro, finally opening into a basic "Louie Louie" riff with Tammy duetting with herself, lamenting the other woman. The proper song is barely 90 seconds long, dispensing with the niceties of a chorus or bridge or any of that fancy stuff, lightweight to a fault and thus absolutely perfect, a tune that captures the vibe of rock & roll luminaries like The Archies or Josie & The Pussycats, as interpreted by a 90s lo-fi indie band.

In 2013, they opted for a beefed-up remake, dropping the intro and adding some muscle; still fun!