10 comments

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  Rich

  5 months ago

  I am not a big fan of The Who or Pete T., being just a sliver too young. Therefore I didn't know the title of the song, "Eminence Front" for many years; it was just one of those songs you heard on Dad's radio, that you kinda sang along with, driving around with the T-tops popped out of the Z.
  
  Somehow I got it into my easily-fooled ears as a kid that Pete was singing "Livin' in a Box - it's a put-on." Yes, that seems absurd once you know the song title, but I was 10 maybe. In any event, it stuck. By high school I had figured out that it must be about homelessness, a Ronald Reagan Hates Poor People, Stand Down Margaret, kind of vibe...
  
  That is my Living in a Box story.
  
  (I'm glad to contribute to this entry by ensuring that it *continues* to contain almost no material about the actual crappy band covered.)
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  Spence

  5 months ago

  Aw come on.... Room In Your Heart brings back fond memories - I'm sure it was a fairly big-ish hit over here. Singer Richard Darbyshire had a constant stream of releases in the bargain bins for a good few years after the band's commercial peak.
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  mojo

  5 months ago

  Wasn't it the Ray Parker Jr money that was dirty, as opposed to the Huey Lewis money?
  
  (does anyone get that obscure reference?)
  
  (am I just talking to myself in a box...talking in a cardboard box?)
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  CarlosRamirez

  5 months ago

  I heard a recent interview with Ray where he talks about the whole Huey Lewis debacle. Great trivia tidbit!
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  rwcass

  5 months ago

  I still like the song "Living in a Box," and I liked that when the video appeared on MTV the credits looked like this:
  
  Living in a Box
  "Living in a Box"
  Living in a Box
  Chrysalis Records
  
  I told my brother that I wanted a band to name itself, its single, and its album after its own label so the credits could be:
  
  Broken Records
  "Broken Records"
  Broken Records
  Broken Records
  
  Yep, I had wonderful dreams at the age of 11.
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  thefxc

  5 months ago

  Stock Aitken Watermen would have helped these guys a lot--their choruses were stiffer than a Klitschko jab.
  
  Nevertheless, I am a proud owner of a Best of Living in a Box CD, and about half the tracks reside on my iPod. I'll posit "So the Story Goes" as the most interesting track from the first record; it's top-gear 80s balladry. Bobby Womack supposedly sings on it, but I don't hear him. I like 'Gatecrashing' from record #2, but even the band seems to realize it was headed to the cut out bins.
  
  Richard Darbyshire--who seems to have had a decent career out of the Box (heh)--is, according to his website, leading weekly songwriting workshops in London.
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  rwcass

  5 months ago

  I think Bobby Womack shows up in the "Living in a Box" video for about two seconds. Almost every shot in the video lasts two seconds at the most, though, so if you don't see him I don't blame you.
  
  Curtis Mayfield appeared on the Blow Monkeys' 1987 album. I wonder if both Womack and he got calls from the Blow Monkeys and Living in a Box at the same time and flipped a coin to decide who would appear on which album.
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  Dr. House

  5 months ago

  "Blow the House Down" = a reminder of when the word "house" briefly bubbled up to teen buzzword status a la "radical" "extreme" "max".
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  Anonymous

  5 months ago

  It's sad that someone with as unique a voice and impressive a vocal presence as Richard Darbyshire, lead vocalist of Living in a Box, never gained the accolades he deserved, mainly becuase he still hasn't yet sung a song worthy of his talent.
  
  Anonymous,
  USA
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  GBP

  4 months ago

  Richard Darbyshire is a great singer!
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