Song Of The Day 7/16/2012: Bus Boys - "There Goes The Neighborhood"

The Bus Boys, led by the piercingly-eyed Brian O'Neal, were under-served when they first broke out of L.A. in the late '70s. At the time the media made a big fuss about the Bus Boys being black kids who played rock and roll. I know, I know -- but back then nobody read their history books. Their biggest hit was "The Boys Are Back In Town," which was featured in Eddie Murphy's breakout film 48 Hrs., for which a soundtrack album was never issued, so the Boys never had a hit record. I saw them play an episode of ABC's late-night comedy effort Fridays sometime in 1980. They looked like they were about to take over the world. One of the songs they played that show was "KKK," with the chorus: "I wanna join the Ku Klux Klan/Play in a rock and roll band!" "There Goes The Neighborhood" was a more calculating play on the Boys' racial satire.

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