::: Welcome to the Bangles :::

V & A Chronicles Part 2
(the Heartbreak of Psoriasis)

Amanda: Okay returning to the early days…Had you thought about being in a band before we thought about being in a band?

Vicki: Yes, actually…

A: Besides the guy selling you the goods when you were nine—
V: Oh right, but that wasn’t really a band-- that lasted about three weeks and we were sitting in this non-air conditioned, horrible, asbestos-filled room with eighteen other kids on folding chairs learning, you know, Yellow Bird and Guantanamera and it was not my idea of being in a rock and roll band. Even as a nine year old I knew better. So, did I practice? No! Did I continue to take lessons? No! It was useless. What I did is to manage to frustrate my parents enough to the point where they said, “Okay, you’re not taking lessons anymore” and I said OKAY! And I started writing songs, which was much more fun. By the time I was in seventh grade, it was at least a song a week, because we somehow managed to have sleep-overs almost every week—

A:       Lucky you.
V:       I know! And it was standard procedure for me to show up with a guitar and have a new song.    Because by then, you know, I wanted to be Joni Mitchell, I wanted to be Paul Simon. That’s the kind of songs—really hideous i’m-twelve-years-old-and-i’m-really-suffering-here type of songs…
A:       (laughing) Those I’ve never seen.
V:       No. You haven’t. I wrote the first when I was nine and it was called “I Think It’s Love”
A:       Awww…
V:       And the chords were A, D & E
A:       Of course.
V:       Great chords…and I don’t remember any of it. Thank God.
A:       So anyway, skip forward to—when were we, 1974 when we thought we might do this?

V:          Right…yeah…I’d already been actually asked to join a band with some guys when I was thirteen, but they were both on acid at the time, so my mother wasn’t too into that…Then I was a SOLO artist until…I met you—
A:       Right.
V:       --and I realized at that point I might have a songwriting partner.
A:       And we wrote, what-- “Can’t Buy Me Tequila?” was our first—
V:       Well, we were working on something more substantial, what was it?
A:       “Park It Under a No Parking Sign?”
V:       Could have been or what was it—the fog song?
A:       Oh, “The Fog Song”, yeah…
V:       These are lost treasures, ladies and gentlemen.
A:       One day we were sitting in the fog on the drainage ditch, and—
V:       Writing about—
A:       God, I have no idea. “Standing At the Station?” Was that--?
V:       Hmmm…
A:       But anyway, “Can’t Buy Me Tequila” got finished first.
V:       Yes!
A:       The words were, “They’re born, They live, and they die.”
V:       We thought that was pretty deep.

Vicki and Amanda sort out their creative differences under the watchful eye of referee Debbi

A:       Very profound.
V:       We’re not idiots, this was all tongue-in-cheek…
A:       This is very tongue-in-cheek.
V:       But we did learn that useful songwriting tool where you’re stuck on the second verse and just can’t get the--you cannot make it happen, so you break loose and start something else entirely. And that’s where “Can’t Buy Me Tequila” came from.
A:       And also--there was a line in one of the stupider songs, um, what is the heartbreak of psoriasis line? Do you remember?
V:          (laughing) Oh yes.

A:          (quoting)   It’s you I miss
                             I’ve suffered this
                             The heartbreak of psoriasis

          That was another similar moment…

V:       Yes. Sometimes you have to shake loose the creative juices. They don’t always flow…they needed to be jolted by stupidity.
A:       Right. Exactly.

to be continued

the TRIPLE CHOCOLATE MOCHA BROWNIES

	2 cups sugar 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa 3/4 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking soda 4 large eggs 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted 2 tsp. instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 TBS. water 2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups chopped, good quality bittersweet chocolate 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9X12 inch pan. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until well blended. Make a well in the center. In medium bowl, whisk eggs until blended; then stir in melted butter, dissolved coffee powder and vanilla. Pour into well and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in chopped chocolate and nuts. Spread evenly in pan and bake for 35 minutes. Cool on rack.
MOCHA GLAZE	1 (3 oz ) bar bittersweet chocolate, chopped 6 TBS. unsalted butter 1 tsp. instant coffee powder
Combine all ingredients in heatproof bowl and stir over simmering water until melted and smooth. (Or melt in the top half of a double boiler). Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, just until it reaches spreading consistency, about 15 minutes. Spread over cooled brownies and allow to set, about 15 minutes, before cutting.