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The Flowerpot Men "Beat City"

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Pardon my shameless mining of eighties nostalgia for a post, but I’m in Chicago for the weekend, and, try as I might to remove it, this song creeps into my brain every now and again when I spy the skyline from I-90. It’s hard to enjoy “Beat City” (mp3) on its own merit without resorting to the Ferris Bueller montage (same goes for Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” and National Lampoon’s European Vacation)–but The Flowerpot Men don’t give anyone much to go on, either. From what I can gather, there was a British psychedelic band on Deram (Moody Blues) who scored some chart success with another metro-themed single, “Let’s Go to San Francisco” and, through an earlier incarnation as The Ivy League, provided some background vocals on a few Who singles. But that’s not the Flowerpot Men we’re talkin’ ’bout. This group was formed in the 1980s and led by Ben Watkins, who we all of course remember from Juno Reactor, and reformed into the first ballot hall of fame group Sunsonic a few years later. More details here and here. Honestly, though, I prefer to remember the song as coming after the seminal Mia Sara/Alan Ruck exchange, “Hi Cameron. You comfortable?” “Hi Sloane. No.”

You could try to buy the EP this song came from, but do you really want to?

Update: I will not e-mail this song to you, so please don’t ask.

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