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Bow Wow Wow: I Want Candy
[purchase]
In 1980, Malcolm McLaren, who was either officially or unofficially managing Adam and the Ants (depending on the source), did something that you don’t usually expect a band’s manager to do (although you might have expected McLaren to do it)—he convinced all of the band other than the titular Adam to quit and form a new group for him to manage. Lacking a lead singer, because they had walked away from Adam, they unsuccessfully auditioned singers until they found the obvious choice—a 13 year old Anglo-Burmese girl named Annabella Lwin, who had been discovered singing along to the radio in the dry cleaners where she worked. A second singer, George O’Dowd, briefly was also in the band, but left to form Culture Club, and rename himself Boy George.
From this unlikely alliance, Bow Wow Wow was formed, releasing their first single, "C·30 C·60 C·90 Go!" shortly thereafter, to no support from their label, because it promoted home taping, which was going to destroy the music business. It didn’t (and not because of the postcards to Congress I was “asked” to fill out and sign during the summer I worked at Atlantic Records)—it took the Internet to really destroy, or at least radically disrupt, the music business. Although, the last time I checked, the music business was still standing.
Later in 1980, the band released another cassette only album that included a song featuring, as Wikipedia describes it, “suggestive moaning and heavy breathing performed by then 14-year-old Lwin.” It certainly seemed that McLaren was up to his usual provocateur business. And in 1981, Bow Wow Wow released its first full-length album, the wonderfully titled, See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah! City All Over, Go Ape Crazy. The cover art featured the band recreating Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe with the 14-year-old Lwin nude, with her pose and arm blocking what the Pythons usually referred to as the “naughty bits.” FWIW, the photograph is now in the collection of the British National Portrait Gallery. At the time there was controversy, because, you know, 14, and Lwin’s mother instigated a Scotland Yard investigation into allegations of exploitation of a minor for immoral purposes. Nothing came of that, although McLaren reportedly agreed not to promote Lwin as a “sex kitten,” and then promptly used that, and other semi-nude pictures of Lwin on other covers (see the above single cover, for example). And, the controversy probably sold records. Duh.
One of those other covers that the controversial picture was used on was a follow-up EP, Last of the Mohicans, released in May, 1982, which included “I Want Candy.” As this was right around the time that I was graduating from college, I have no recollection of whether I ever played it on the radio, but I know that I saw the video on MTV many, many times. The song was infectious, featuring a jaunty melody over Burundi style drumming, and along with Lwin’s hairstyle, made the video a “must-watch” despite its otherwise utter ‘80s cheesiness. And you have to believe that the idea of an underage girl singing “I want candy,” was part of McLaren’s marketing plan (I mean, there’s a closeup of Lwin slowly licking an ice cream cone in the video, for chrissakes). It was the band’s most successful song, and prompted the label to issue an album called I Want Candy, including songs from prior releases and a couple of b-sides. And yeah, it used the same Manet-influenced picture.
After one more moderately successful album and a stressful tour, Lwin was fired from the band—she claims to have heard about it by reading in NME, which I guess was the ‘80s version of breaking up by text. The remaining members formed Chiefs of Relief, which I’ve never heard of, and the members went on to play with other bands that I’ve never heard of, and get into production work. Lwin started a solo career, with some limited success, mostly as a dance act.
There have been various reformations of Bow Wow Wow, some with, and some without, Lwin, over the years, but most recently, bass player Leigh Gorman was fronting a band called Bow Wow Wow using other singers, while Lwin performs, billed as “Annabella Lwin of the original Bow Wow Wow,” warning on her website, essentially, not to accept any substitutes.
As usual, I’ve rambled on, but frankly, I didn’t really know much about Bow Wow Wow or “I Want Candy,” and thought you might be interested, too. And one thing that you might not know about “I Want Candy,” which I didn’t know until fairly recently, is that it is a cover of a song originally released by the Strangeloves in 1965 and written by Bert Berns, Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer, possibly after seeing dancer Candy Johnson performing at the 1964 World’s Fair. (I attended that same World’s Fair, when I was 3 or 4 years old, and was more likely to have enjoyed actual candy than any dancer. Not surprisingly, I have no strong memories of the visit.) The Strangeloves version, which was a hit, was based on the “Bo Diddley beat,” an altered version of the clave rhythm, which is probably derived from Yoruba drumming, as opposed to the Burundi drums of the cover, so either way, the musicians were paying homage to (or ripping off) African music. Because that’s rock ‘n’ roll.
There’s a whole additional thread to follow about how the original song led to Rick Derringer’s career, but you can look that up yourself, if you want.
