Drinking Songs for Dirty Blondes – introduction #2
Drinking Songs for Dirty Blondes by Andrew
It might have been a Tuesday night, when Tuesday Knight developed a taste for drinking beer and listening to rock-n-roll. The details are all too unfamiliar with those that are familiar with that time and place.
What is known is that a Rickenbacker bass guitar was purchased, and lurking under that dirty blonde hair – often mistaken for brunette in the Norwegian darkness that consumes so much of the calendar – the ember of an idea took light.
A band was formed. The Blind Bats. Forged out of the friendship of her close friends somewhere in Oslo, or thereabouts. This was no punk band, not in the dominant three-chord definition, but an indie band of pop sensibility. Fellow Bats witnessed the poetic nature of our protagonist take hold, and so the lyric writing was left to her.
In the studio, The Blind Bats got to work and recorded inventive and imaginative tunes anchored by the lyrics that led to an extensive fanbase, including fan mail from the world over. At one point, The Blind Bats were the top selling band on the Perfect Pop label, outselling such notables as Astroburger and The Time Lodgers. They even played a gig with Television Personalities at Oslo’s rock-n-roll bastion, Last Train!
That gig was an unforgettable night, at least for the Bats. Unfortunately, too many gigs didn’t go quite as planned: technical difficulties, personality clashes, and the basic Spinal Tapioca of issues that resulted in an (un)fair amount of criticism. And yet, being a Blind Bat was always good fun. Of all surrounding non-sense, the biggest issue boiled down to not hearing a damn thing of what you were doing. In the end, stage debacles and the like led to the breakup of the Bats.
Following the demise of the Blind Bats, years passed with Tuesday bandless. This lack of a creative outlet was a drag for her. She needed to unleash her creativity and play the songs and lyrics she had written and continued to write. Finally, after years in a musical limbo, a new band was formed. The Vacuum Dreamers. Rehearsing and recording albums was the order of the day – playing live was out of the equation. The Vacuum Dreamers provided Tuesday the opportunity to showcase her songwriting and its evolution from simple pop to more complex beautiful songs, anchored by her ethereal voice. The Vacuum Dreamers lasted a few years, but in the end, irreconcilable differences took their toll.
Bored out of her mind without a band, Tuesday started the duo Frequency TV with Vidar Osmundsen, The Vacuum Dreamers’ faithful technician (and formerly of The Chairs). Finally back in her element, Tuesday continued to write and sing new material with Vidar providing the instrumental background.
Throughout her career, Tuesday’s lyrics have spanned the range of human emotion, songs of joy, disappointment, frustration, contentment, and everything in between. Songs written with humor – or sometimes with a vengeance.
And here they are for your reading pleasure – Drinking Songs for Dirty Blondes is a small selection of Tuesday Knight’s lyrics, with drawings by the talented and award-winning illustrator Ronny Haugeland. Skål!