88 Lines About 44 Women is a song Marc Campbell and David Kaufman of The Nails wrote in a Manhattan loft. It was recorded on a home Casio keyboard and included on the 1981 EP Hotel for Women (link below). The keyboard was also used by Trio for the song, Da Da Da.
Marc Campbell said,
The lyrics, written by Campbell, describe 44 different girls, their habits, and their personalities. He explained that "[s]ome of the women [referenced in the song] are real, some are made up." Much of the song was inspired by women the group had encountered while moving from Boulder, Colorado to New York City. He wrote the full lyrics in two hours on a manual typewriter, and the band recorded it the next day. A music video was never produced for the song but the later remix of it with the lyrics is shown, very important, on YouTube (link below); it is a riot to watch. There is a video of The Nails performing 88 Lines on May, 1983, at The Bottom Line in New York City on YouTube (link below), however the sound sucks big time. Just for yuks, there's a video by Joe Evans that uses the song on YouTube; it is hysterical to watch (link below).
"The little rhythm track you hear on 88 Lines is taken directly from a Casio. David turned on that little rhythm track and I was on the drums and I liked what I heard. So I took the casette tape that we made of that riff and went home. I realized there was about four or five minutes worth of riff in there, and that that would accommodate 88 lines, or 44 couplets. That was what determined the length of the song. Curiously, 88 is a pretty cosmic number. There are 88 keys on the keyboard. "Rocket 88" was a key rock and roll song. So I wondered, what can you write 88 lines about? What can you write 44 couplets about? Well, I mean, what is there, really, other than women? Maybe cars for some guys. But what were the big things in my life at that time? Sex, drugs, rock & roll. So it came down to women. I didn't have to really think twice about it. I'm actually making it sound as if I made a choice. I didn't. It just was obvious."
"The way the songwriting works for me is it's always a trance type state. I really believe that most good writing kind of takes the writer by surprise. And that's what happened. It just came flowing through me, one line leading to another. Some of the women are real, some are made up. At that point I don't know if I'd actually had 44 really important women in my life."
“We had a little indie record label that we had hooked up with, and both that label and ourselves pooled our money and we bought some time in a nice state of the art recording studio in Manhattan and we went in and recorded some pretty layered multi-track, somewhat bombastic rock songs. 88 Lines was not part of that project, but it was sitting there. We had recorded it in our studio and it was gnawing at me. I said, "I really want to include 88 Lines on this EP." And the guy who had partnered up with us said, "No, Marc. It's just too low-tech. Up against all these other songs it's going to sound rinkydink." And I said, "That's why I want to include it." I had halfway decided that what we had recorded in this big studio was not really all that honest. 88 Lines seemed to me to be a lot purer. So after much arguing we included it on the EP.”
“Somehow that EP got into the hands of John Peel at the BBC and he started playing 88 Lines on his radio show and was inundated with phone calls from all over the United Kingdom. Suddenly, he contacted us to get our address and broadcast it on his show, and we were inundated with fan mail. It was really heartfelt stuff. It was people saying, "I knew a girl like suchandsuch, she broke my heart." Or "This is the best song I've ever heard." It was handwritten by kids from all over Great Britain and elsewhere, any kid within earshot of John Peel's radio show. He was so hugely influential and so cool.”
“I always begrudgingly played it [live] and made a big deal about not wanting to play it. I'd make it quite clear that I had a cheat sheet of the lyrics that's 10 feet long, and I'm making a very, very big production of the fact that I'm reading the lyrics, and the band is struggling with trying to reduce their sound down to the 88 Lines sound. There were six great musicians on stage to back up a really bad four-track recording. Eventually, the band would leave the stage and I did the song sitting on a stool, to a taped backing track. Instead of trying to get the band to sonically dumb down and try to replicate that song live, I just said, "Fuck it." It's a song that revolves around a really low-tech Casio rhythm thing, so let's not pretend it's anything more than that. It's really about the lyrics. No question it has a hook. But again, it was so hard to pull off live that I almost made it into a performance piece, a poetry reading. It was almost embarrassing to do live because the band was big and 88 Lines was an atypical song of ours. The other songs were big and fat and Doorsy and gothy and here was this thing that really kind of stuck out in our set. And so by setting up a stool and doing it on a backing track, it was effective. It was dramatic.”
from Songfacts (link below).
The lyrics, written by Campbell, describe 44 different girls, their habits, and their personalities. He explained that "[s]ome of the women [referenced in the song] are real, some are made up." Much of the song was inspired by women the group had encountered while moving from Boulder, Colorado to New York City. He wrote the full lyrics in two hours on a manual typewriter, and the band recorded it the next day. A music video was never produced for the song but the later remix of it with the lyrics is shown, very important, on YouTube (link below); it is a riot to watch. There is a video of The Nails performing 88 Lines on May, 1983, at The Bottom Line in New York City on YouTube (link below), however the sound sucks big time. Just for yuks, there's a video by Joe Evans that uses the song on YouTube; it is hysterical to watch (link below).
Initially released in 1981 on side 1 of the EP, Hotel for Women and it was later re-recorded for the group's 1984 debut album Mood Swing, the earlier version contained minimal production, a drum machine, and a single droning synthesizer; the later version contained more instrumentation and processing. Some copies of the 7" of original version included an "X-rated" version in addition to the radio edit. Both 88 Lines and its B-side were digitally remastered and appear on the extended Hotel for Women CD, released in November 2009.
Along with the track Let It All Hang Out, 88 Lines peaked at number 46 on the US dance chart in March 1985.
88 Lines has received positive critical reaction. Heather Phares, writing for AllMusic,
praised the song's "deadpan" delivery, and calling the song "a portrait
of the counterculture in the late '70s and early '80s." The song was included on a list 10,001 Songs You Must Download Before You Die in the book 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die.
The song has been included on many compilations, including Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's, Richard Blade's Flashback Favorites, and Living in Oblivion: The '80's Greatest Hits.
The song has been included on many compilations, including Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's, Richard Blade's Flashback Favorites, and Living in Oblivion: The '80's Greatest Hits.
"Do you really want to be on a compilation called Living in Oblivion?" ~ Marc CampbellThe song was also used in a 1998 TV commercial for Mazda (link below). The ad won a Clio award.
The Nails filed several lawsuits over use of 88 Lines About 44 Women, including a successful lawsuit over use of the song to promote the television show Dexter; the group also unsuccessfully attempted to sue the state of Massachusetts for their use of a similar song in an anti-drinking campaign. Lead singer Marc Campbell stated that the only money the group ever made with the song was from commercials and lawsuits.
Viewfinder link:
The Nails articles/mentions
Marc Campbell articles/mentions
88 Lines About 44 Women lyrics
Hotel For Women EP
Marc Campbell articles/mentions
88 Lines About 44 Women lyrics
Hotel For Women EP
Net links:
Rave & Roll ~ Criminally Underrated Bands ~ The Nails
Scarlet Dukes ~ Colorado New Wave
Songfacts ~ Marc Campbell interview
YouTube links:
88 Lines About 44 Women (original version)
88 Lines About 44 Women remix with lyrics
88 Lines about 44 Women (Live in NY)
88 Lines "Cool World" (Mazda Commercial)
88 Lines about 44 Women (Live in NY)
88 Lines "Cool World" (Mazda Commercial)
The Great Luke Ski - 88 Lines About 44 Simpsons
Joe Evans ~ 88 Lines About 44 Women
"88 Lines was so simple it was uncanny."
~ Marc Campbell
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, May 2, 2018
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