6/13/2009

'Long Cool Woman'

The Hollies’ 1972 hit “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” is one of my all time favorite songs. And here’s why: Until the Internet age, when all information is available to all people, I could never completely decipher the lyrics. All I could ever figure out for sure was something about bars, FBI agents, DA’s, and, of course, a long cool woman.

Not knowing the lyrics made it all the more fascinating and mysterious to me. I’ve always pictured the events of the song taking place in a noir-type setting. “Long Cool Woman” preceded MTV by about 10 years so fortunately no video ever came along to ruin that image.

Even now, when a click of a mouse gives me not only lyrics, but a plot description, the song still takes on an almost Coenesque beauty when I hear it.

Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress.mp3


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2 Comments:

At 3:05 PM , Blogger Alex said...

Wow -- I never quite knew what this song was about either (and I usually pay a lot of attention to lyrics). Thanks for posting this!

It's interesting that the song doesn't really sound like the Hollies and doesn't have their signature vocal harmonyies. I have a friend who always assumed this song was done by Credence (with one of the other guys singing) because of the distinctive guitar sound.

 
At 1:10 AM , Blogger rodsmine said...

"...so fortunately no video ever came along to ruin that image"

I always regretted seeing my favorites for this very reason - the fantasy is always better!

 

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