East Side Story, like Squeeze (the band responsible for it), is one of those gems of pop-culture that I never grow tired of, and yet rarely recommend to others. Why? Because I know many people won't like either the album or the band, and even if they did, they wouldn't admit it.
Despite this small tragedy, I feel compelled to openly express my love and admiration for Squeeze. Although we'd all like to think ourselves poets of integrity and deepth of T.S. Eliot, or musical artists with the grit and sight of Bob Dylan, some of us been divined (if divined at all) Gilberts and/or Sullivans, or in the case of Squeeze, Diffords and/or Tilbrooks. I will admit that I am one of them, an epigone of McCartney and not one of Lennon (A fox, not a hedgehog?). Every song I've come to write over the years has invariably turned out catchy and clever, at the expense of substance.
Fortunately, genius comes in various guises, including schlock itself. To me, music doesn't get much better than what I see as 'pop brought to its logical conclusion,'. This list includes Rocky Horror Picture Show, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and, of course, Squeeze. And East Side Story is the apogee of their arc.
In addition to the white-soul classic 'Tempted', each song is a wonderful example of the genre it rips off. 'Labelled With Love', the country-western tearjerkers, 'Vanity Fair' the teenybopper's lament, 'In Quintessence' the Motown bass-driven, backbeat rocker. And my personal favorite, 'Picadilly':
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