It’s Hard for a Girl in a World Full of Men

Finally we have arrived at the last song on Soundsville!, and it’s a bit of an outlier: a solo female vocal accompanied only by acoustic guitar. Though pretty folky in sound — it’s the album’s “campus” number — “It’s Hard for a Girl in a World Full of Men” is playful,...

I’ve Got a Tiger in My Tank/Cycle Annie

If the song “I’ve Got a Tiger in My Tank” —credited on Soundsville! to the Beachnuts — sounds like a commercial, there’s a reason for that. According to the extremely helpful web page “A pre-VU discography,” it was “originally a commercial Jerry Vance [part of the...

First Impression/I’m Gonna Fight

The Hi Lifes sure got around: Their three songs on Soundsville! are supposed to exemplify the sounds of Detroit and Chicago and New York. Why not just invent three different bands for the purpose, as it was all fiction anyway? I have no idea, and history does not...

You’re Driving Me Insane

If you sat down to listen to Side A of the Soundsville! LP, you would hear, first, a slice of sad faux-country. Then an upbeat if somewhat pallid soul song; a mopey surfer’s lament; and a blissed-out piece of high-harmony doo-wop. Then, this: . If you’d been sinking...