The Chameleons UK are more than just a band to me.
I once used “Second Skin” as a user name on a dating site. The Chameleons are criminally unknown, so anyone else who loves them was bound to get me.
I never got any hits.
I finally realized how it looked if you didn’t know the song. Girls probably thought I wanted to wear their skin like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.
I didn’t realize till later, but I kind of tested my wife before we got serious. I had shared “As High As You Can Go” with a girl I was crushing on and she texted back, “IDK if I like that.”
I lied to myself for a while cuz she was cute, but I knew it was never gonna work.
My compromise position was my future soulmate had to at least like the Chameleons. I played “As High As You Can Go” for my future wife and she loved it. Score!
Why such a big deal?
I discovered them during a rough time in my life. Editing a newspaper is hard anywhere, but I was a real fish out of water. I wasn’t used to East Texas and had few friends. Dating was out of the question. I didn’t belong, but I didn’t know how to leave.
Luckily my boss introduced me to postpunk (think punk, but more artful). He had been a college DJ. I was mostly a hard rock guy, so this was strange stuff to me.
Until it completely transformed my taste in music.
When I heard The Chameleons I was sold. Lush, beautiful, passionate, intricate, hard-hitting, entrancing, thought-provoking… I played them non-stop as I drove to interviews and delivered papers.
That was a short period in my life, but postpunk became my new musical home base.
I still have times like today, where I need my Chameleons fix. And my wife loves them too, so I don’t have to use earbuds. Score again!
#Chameleons, #Postpunk, #Journalism, #Newspapers