Wreckless Eric shares new song he recorded while recovering from COVID-19
You may recall that punk/new wave great Wreckless Eric tested positive for coronavirus a couple weeks ago. As he wrote then, he continued to write and record through it all: "I feel almost ok when I’m working on my recordings." Now on the mend, one of those recordings is out now. "Sick Organism" was actually written for him by Wesley Stace for his "Community Coronation Covers" project, assigned to Eric before he got sick. It's bluesy and kinda weird, with an almost dubby reverby vibe to it. Says Eric, “It's all about the virus! The coughing is genuine by the way.” You can listen, and read a note from Wesley Stace about the song, below.
Meanwhile, Eric's partner, singer-songwriter Amy Rigby (who tested negative for COVID-19 but thinks she may have had it before Eric) has also shared a new song, "Welcome To The Block." Amy says, "People always say 'write a song about it,' in this case my blog about new neighbors moving in. Songs usually have to come about in their own way, but I took on the challenge with this one because desperate times etc..." -- listen to that below, too.
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As you may well know, Eric has recently had his own brush with the Coronavirus (which news went quite Coronaviral last week) so Sick Organism, a song that had by complete coincidence been previously picked for him, was ideal. Eric has gone further than making the song his own; he’s internalized it, lived through it, and recovered from it. As he said: “It's all about the virus! The coughing is genuine by the way.” Firstly, let me just say on behalf of us all that we’re so happy he’s better, and also thank him for powering through with this killer recording.
You always knew Eric was going to deliver, from the very first time you heard the intro of Whole Wide World. And whether I was buying Big Smash from Rye Record and Denim in 1980, watching the Len Bright Combo in Cambridge (I think that's where it was!), or more recent gigs with Amy Rigby in the USA (or listening to his fantastic most recent album Transience), it's always great. I remember his advice to The English UK when we backed him on Whole Wide World: “It goes way slower than you think. That’s what drives them crazy!”
I’d like to say: today is the first anniversary of my mother’s death, the only silver lining of which being that I’m glad she didn’t have to live through all this mad shite. During the subsequent lengthy stay in my home town of Hastings, the loveliest thing that happened was that I noticed from their tweets that Eric & Amy - friends from America, essentially - were just down the way in Bexhill, dealing with some parental business of their own, and so we got together and had a meal and a chat on the front in Hastings. It was lovely and helped me remember the wider world, the whole wider world, for an evening. That will always be the first thing I think of when I think of them.
I’d also like to wish them a very happy anniversary for yesterday! In a cosmic Community Coronation Cover coincidence, yesterday was also the anniversary of Rosanne Cash and Jon Leventhal. Anniversaries all round. As Lou Reed once said: “Somebody got married; somebody died.” My love and thanks to all. And now get lost in an amazing version of Sick Organism!