Song #38: Giuseppe Andrews - "Laroo"

Song #38: Giuseppe Andrews - "Laroo" (2009)

Songs from "Look"

"To Heaven, to Heaven, to Heaven right now. To Heaven, to Heaven, and all that it allow."

I already talked about how much of an enigmatic artist Giuseppe Andrews was in my writeup for his song "Reason" (number seventy-five in "The One-Hundred Songs of Steve Pulaski"), yet I didn't scratch the surface on what the singer was really about. His song "Laroo" proves that he can take virtually any idea, something that really is barely an idea anyway, and turn it into a compelling song about something no one knows but himself. "Laroo" has no coherent story that I can discern, or any lyrical metaphors I can really pick up on. It's a song about nothing, but effective in creating essence and an indescribable mood, which is what Andrews' filmography and discography has been predicated off of from the start.

Hearing this song again for the first time in months transports me back to freshman year, when I watched Adam Rifkin's Television show Look on Showtime religiously. I'd record it via VHS tape (yes, I didn't have a DVR and still recorded on tape in 2010 - 2011) Monday night and watch it back Tuesday after school. It was something I couldn't wait to do. Each time I watched an episode, I couldn't believe few others were watching this show. Following the lives of many different people and intertwining their stories using surveillance footage, while scripted, still seemed to be the most natural and realistic program on Television. Andrews played a musician on the show, struggling to get a juicy record deal, and, in one episode, decides to hold a mini-concert at the gas station he worked in. This is where the clip below was taken from.

The song truly shows that even if a song is about essentially nothing, tone and essence can make an empty ballad an effective one if you carry out your practices ten-fold. Even with all the Baha Men, Hank Williams III, New Vaudeville Band, and Gary Numan on this list, I still believe "Laroo" is the strangest song on this list; it's also one of the most beautiful.

Give "Laroo" a listen (clip taken from an episode of Look described above), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtBLjUbDyIA