This song dates to 1982, when it led off the debut album by The Call, the band fronted by guitarist and songwriter Michael Been. It could just as easily date from last week if Been hadn’t died in 2010.
The Call arrived on the New Wave, but they were more political than most of their contemporaries. They were active throughout the ’80s, then went on hiatus after their 1990 album “Red Moon” failed to sell. Been released a solo album in the ’90s and played in actor Harry Dean Stanton’s vanity band. He spent his last years working the sound crew for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the band fronted by his son, Robert Levon Been. He died of a heart attack backstage at a BRMC concert in Belgium.
The surviving members of the band regrouped in 2023 to release some archival live material from the vaults, then followed it up with new songs and some remixes of old favorites. This one clarifies the spoken bridge, which was hard to make out on the original.
