My Top 1000 Songs #715: Big Day

[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.] 

Here's an unexpectedly cheery and big-hearted ditty from Brian Eno and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera. It appeared on Manzanera's 1975 solo debut Diamond Head, one of two tracks co-written and sung by Eno. It's a slightly skewed little tune, the lyrics coming across like an official tourism commercial for Peru--yet the cool descending bassline over jangly guitars, and the charming multi-part vocals in the chorus, make it subtly insinuating. Plus, kinda cool that Eno managed this delightful gem at the same time he was gearing up to record one of the greatest records ever, 1975's Another Green World (which did not include Manzanera, though he'd contribute to the 1977 follow-up Before And After Science).

The largely below-the-radar deep cut saw a welcome indie revival in 1987, when Feelies side-project Yung Wu included a cover of it on their one-off Shore Leave LP.

The original:

Yung Wu cover:

Feelies/Yung Wu live 1987: