Song Of The Day 9/14/2014: Michael Elphick - "Gotcha"

Last year this album popped out from the ether called Music For Mentalists -- Unexpected Sounds for the Connoisseur. It's very similar in spirit to RE/Search magazine's 1994 release Incredibly Strange Music, a disconnected and daffy various-artists compilation that showed off some of the more inexplicable attempts at music-making on the part of people who clearly had day jobs. Music For Mentalists, a true after-hours labor of love, is reportedly the responsibility of The Bevis Frond, the wonderful lo-fi jangle-pop rockers from London. Its offerings include things like Al Hirt doing the theme to The Monkees, a version of "Rock Around the Clock" from American Jewish comedian Mickey Katz (it explodes into klezmer), and a piece that's one of the most popular SOTD's in this blog's history: BBC news anchorman Reginald Bosanquet's disco hit "Dance With Me."

Probably slightly more than half of the songs are from B-list actors and comedians who, in a grand lack of direction and purpose, somehow found themselves in position to record something professionally. Michael Elphick (1946-2002) is one of them. He was a British actor who was in cinema classics like O Lucky Man! and The Elephant Man. Elphick also had a part of the BBC's soap opera juggernaut EastEnders, on the air since 1985 and showing no signs of packing it in. According to Wikipedia, the world's primo destination for info on main-belt minor planets and morpheme classications, Elphick was known for his croaky voice and looking "older than he was."

Elphick was also a bit of a drinker, which might explain how he came to lay down this odd combo of early 80's new hyperwave and attempted rap. The creep factor is strong with this one: "Don't struggle my pet, you're wrapped up tight in my butterfly net... I won't let you go, gonna feed you on love and watch you grow." Ewww, dad. There are more synthesized orchestra hits in this song than a wedding reception at Trevor Horn's mansion. Hall Of Fame work, for sure.