The Nails

The Nails

A little something about The Nails
Colorado new wave band The Nails got their start as The Ravers in the mid 1970s, recording their own demo tapes of their rock and ska tunes. But while a beautiful city and a popular place for disenchanted or frightened city folk from California and New York to resettle, Boulder, Colorado is hardly a big enough market for a band with visions of stardom. So the Nails packed their bags andmade the reverse emigration of heading east for the clubs of New York, where in 1981 they laid down the first version of the song that has kept their name alive for two decades. "88 Lines About 44 Women," recorded by their New York line-up of Mark Campbell, David Kaufman, George Kaufman, Tommy Cotogna, and Douglas Guthrie, is arguably one of the most minimalist tracks ever to define a band. The spoken lyrics are accompanied by a simplistic keyboard tune reminiscent of Trio's "Da Da Da" or M's "Pop Musik." But somebody at RCA records saw the potential of this early, crude little recording, and the band re-recorded the song for their 1984 album "Mood Swing." It is this later version that most would recognize, and that still gets airplay on the radio (though usually with a few lyrics edited to protect our delicate ears and sensitivities). The track was also recently borrowed for a car commerical here in the States. Unfortunately for the Nails, "88 Lines" would be there only significant foray into the pop charts.

88 Lines About 44 Women

Deborah was a Catholic girl
she held out till the bitter end
Carla was a different type
she's the one who put it in
Mary was a black girl
I was afraid of a girl like that
Susan painted pictures
sitting down like a Buddha sat

Reena was a nameless girl
a geographic memory
Cathy was a Jesus freak
she liked that kind of misery
Vicki had a special way
of turning sex into a song
Kamela, who couldn't sing,
kept the beat and kept it strong

Xylla was an archetype
the voodoo queen, the queen of wrath
Joan thought men were second best
to masturbating in a bath
Sherry was a feminist
she really had that gift of gab
Kathleen's point of view was this
take whatever you can grab

Seattle was another girl
who left her mark upon the map
Karen liked to tie me up
and left me hanging by a strap
Jeannie had a nightclub walk
that made grown men feel underage
Mary Ellen, who had a son, 
said I must go, but finally stayed

Gloria, the last taboo
was shattered by her tongue one night
Mimi brought the taboo back
and held it up before the light
Marilyn, who knew no shame,
was never ever satisfied
Julie came and went so fast
she didn't even say goodbye

Rhonda had a house in Venice
lived on brown rice and cocaine
Patty had a house in Houston
shot cough syrup in her veins
Linda thought her life was empty
filled it up with alcohol
Katherine was much too pretty
she didn't do that shit at all

Pauline thought that love was simple
turn it on and turn it off
Jean-Marie was complicated
like some French filmmaker's plot
Gina was the perfect lady
always had her stockings straight
Jackie was a rich punk rocker
silver spoon and a paper plate

Sarah was a modern dancer
lean pristine transparency
Janet wrote bad poetry
in a crazy kind of urgency
Tanya Turkish liked to fuck 
while wearing leather biker boots
Brenda's strange obsession
was for certain vegetables and fruit

Rowena was an artist's daughter
the deeper image shook her up
Dee Dee's mother left her father
took his money and his truck
Debbie Ray had no such problems
perfect Norman Rockwell home
Nina, 16, had a baby
left her parents, lived alone

Bobbi joined a New Wave band
changed her name to Bobbi Sox
Eloise, who played guitar,
sang songs about whales and cops
Terri didn't give a shit
was just a nihilist
Ronnie was much more my style
cause she wrote songs just like this

Jezebel went forty days
drinking nothing but Perrier
Dinah drove her Chevrolet
into the San Francisco Bay
Judy came from Ohio
she's a Scientologist
Amaranta, here's a kiss
I chose you to end this list.