"Wheel Me Out" (12" single)
I first heard this beauty in a small basement club in Portsmouth city centre called Martha's. From memory it was really just a downstairs function room in a pub but they used to have a club night there on a Thursday night focused on playing the edgiest and hippest new music, the kind that the normal nightclubs didn't play and the sort of music I was reading about in The Face magazine in 1980. Including imports and pre-releases. They played the full 12" versions rather than fading them out. It felt sort of exclusive which made it even better.Before they had their chart hits, Was (Not Was) were an extremely hip duo from Detroit and "Wheel Me Out" was their debut single only available on 12" on the equally hip New York avant-garde record label Ze Records (it was actually on their Antilles imprint).
It's a fantastic slab of quirky dance music, with a very funky and sleazy bass, samples of strange vocals, clanging percussion and weird trumpet and guitar lines. Clearly the best thing was (Not Was) ever produced, it was so innovative at the time, and it takes me back to being 18 years old living for the next Thursday and the next brilliant music the fast-changing sub-cultures of the time regularly produced.
Here's the music: https://youtu.be/e75AY16W2IU
