Rate Your Music score: 3.49 out of 5!
For a record that peaked at #3, this exciting lost hit sure disappeared from radio quickly. The way that it vanished from the airwaves is like one of those songs that hit #58 that you heard on MTV or the car radio once or twice.
For those unfamiliar with the Stray Cats, they were a Long Island band that based their sound on 1950s rockabilly. But I think they looked like one of those '80s bands that would be played on MTV or some of our small local radio stations, while being completely ignored by our big stations. These acts are generally respected now, even if radio gatekeepers used to shun them.
The "Stray Cat Strut" video includes a brief shot that reminds me of something that happened in high school. One of the Cats holds up a metal trash can lid as a shield to protect himself from eggs being thrown by an angry woman. I remember people using trash can lids as shields in high school because of schoolmates throwing things all the time. I wonder what armor class that was in Dungeons & Dragons.
The Stray Cats' Brian Setzer had a hilarious feud with Big Country's Stuart Adamson. I remember MTV talking about it, back when they used to call every new album an "effort." At least they didn't call it a "CD" before anyone had a CD player, like the legendary Shadoe Stevens did.
For years in the 1990s, I worked at our local public library. The Stray Cats still made albums and did concerts then. When they came to town, a woman who worked at the library went to their concert. The venue kicked her out because she took photos. Upon hearing of this, another woman who worked at the library said of the venue, "They sound like a bunch of communists." I got an image in my mind of Mao Zedong barging into a concert hall and dragging people out if they had a camera.
Yeah, don't cross my path!
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