Happy Planet (Wall of Voodoo)

Happy Planet
Studio album by Wall of Voodoo
Released 1987
Genre New wave
Length 41:00
Label IRS
Producer Richard Mazda
Wall of Voodoo chronology

Seven Days in Sammystown
(1985)		 Happy Planet
(1987)		 The Ugly Americans in Australia
(1989)

Happy Planet is the fourth studio album by the American new wave band Wall of Voodoo, released in 1987. It marked a return of Call of the West producer Richard Mazda.

Although not as successful as Call of the West, Happy Planet did produce a minor hit with the cover of The Beach Boys' "Do It Again". The album, recorded at Hit City West, reached #83 on the Australian charts.

Brian Wilson connections

The video to promote "Do It Again" features The Beach Boys leader/main songwriter/bass guitarist Brian Wilson as an orderly in a psychiatric hospital who falls asleep and wakes up to the members of Wall of Voodoo dressed as members of the Mafia.[1] Wilson, in real life, has been to psychiatric hospitals at least three times.[2] The front sleeve of the single to "Do It Again" also features photos of the band with Wilson.

Wilson is referenced in the lyrics to "Chains of Luck". The lines "Brian Wilson chants his mantra, 'Da doo ron ron, da doo ron ron', is a reference to Wilson's obsession with Phil Spector's productions, and to the Spector-produced and co-written song titled "Da Doo Ron Ron". Wilson performed the song live at various benefit concerts in the 1980s. The lyrics "My body lying down in my bed, I need some real big hands, to ease this busted head" is a reference to Wilson becoming a drug-addicted recluse, weighing up to 340 lbs, and staying mostly in his bed for two years from 1973 until 1975, except when he needed to purchase drugs (speed, cocaine and heroin) or partied with Three Dog Night singer Danny Hutton.[2]

Track listing

  1. "Do It Again"– 3:18 (Brian Wilson, Mike Love)
  2. "Hollywood The Second Time" (Andy Prieboy) – 4:06
  3. "Empty Room" (Bruce Moreland) – 3:53
  4. "Chains Of Luck" (Charles Gray, Ned Leukhardt, Prieboy) – 3:55
  5. "Back In The Laundromat" (Prieboy) – 3:20
  6. "When The Lights Go Out" (Marc Moreland, Prieboy) – 3:19
  7. "Country Of Man" (M. Moreland) – 3:29
  8. "Joanne" (Prieboy) – 3:40
  9. "Elvis Bought Dora A Cadillac" (M. Moreland, Prieboy) – 3:42
  10. "The Grass Is Greener" (Gray. Leukhardt, B. and M. Moreland, Prieboy) – 3:40
  11. "Ain't My Day" (M. Moreland) – 4:38

The album was remastered and re-released as part of a double CD set with Seven Days in Sammystown and The Ugly Americans in Australia, by Australian reissue label Raven Records in 2012. [3]

Personnel

References