172. WASHARAMA by The Judy's

I recently found out that a couple of friends of mine grew up in Guyana, but luckily left the country prior to the Jonestown massacre. Of course, anytime I hear the word Guyana, the first thing that comes to mind (for musically inclined me) is not Jonestown, but rather Judy's. The Judy's, that is. They were a band borne out of the blossoming new wave and punk scene in southeast Texas (Pearland) in the late 70's and early 80's. Since they were so close to home for me, they were pretty big in my school and friend circle. I imagine that they were pretty well known throughout Texas too; and, in their heyday, they actually opened up for some pretty big bands at the time (Talking Heads, Go Go's). This record, their most popular and well known, was released in 1981. The copy we had in junior high was on vinyl and then subsequently dubbed to tape (either Maxell or Memorex!). As far as I can tell, Washarama is not available on any streaming services. So, that leaves the lucky few of us who still have a copy laying around somewhere and YouTube as the only way to take that time machine back to the early 1980's. For those of you who remember listening to them and haven't in years, I hope this brings back some great memories. And, for the uninitiated, this was the Pearland/Houston claim to fame in the burgeoning music scene at the time. The link above will take you to YouTube where you can stream the entire album, but since it's not on Apple Music or Spotify I, unfortunately, won't be able to add any of the recommended tracks to my playlists. So, once you hit YouTube, one of the comments provides timestamps for each song - check out 'Her Wave,' 'Mental Obsession,' 'All The Pretty Girls' and, of course, round it out with their most popular song, 'Guyana Punch.'

N.B. Some of you who have been on this ride with me from the get go may recognize a variation of this entry from the early Auditory Musings newsletter days.