This is Bow Wow Wow’s “See Jungle (Jungle Boy)”, essentially the title track from their 1981 debut LP. Listened to it about 15 times today on the train to and from the YMCA and then on the stair machine. It’s the kind of song that seems perfectly designed to make me feel good no matter what else is going on. It also sounds oddly “now” despite being almost 30 years old, the way it takes 1960s girl-group and bubblegum bits and lays them over a beat and guitar tone borrowed from Africa.
I really love the section about halfway through where Annabella Lwin sings, “In the jungle, I have a rumble/ With my BOY-friend”—the tune in that short section is just so classic, been used in songs a billion times but it will never get old. It makes me think of Best Coast, I guess b/c she writes a lot about her boyfriend, and this beat makes me think of High Places. No wonder it seems current.
The same general template would be used a year later for Bow Wow Wow’s version of “I Want Candy”, which was their one big hit in the U.S. That song is amazing too, but I like how loose and repetitive this track is, just kind of going from one section to the next. It feels like they are jamming a little.
Would kill to have Todd Terje to do an edit of this.
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