Suddenly I was overcome with a need to listen to Gloria, by Laura Branigan. I lifted my already-plugged-in mp3 device and searched for the song. To my dismay I realized that– what the fuck? — I don’t have it on there. Other Glorias, yes. U2’s Gloria. And Mineral’s. But not Ms. Branigan’s, the one I was currently butchering a capella.
Too lazy to rummage through my CDs and ruing that visit to a record shop in Kansas City when my friend picked up the Flashdance soundtrack before I did, I went to the YouTube for the quick and easy way to play it. I noticed a number of other Gloria tracks up there, so I decided to do a little Google investigation:
That’s a lot of Gloria. And that’s not even all of them. (See Mineral, above. Cross ref: Emo as fuck and still in rotation.)
I’ll let you poke around and find your own favorite Gloria, but read on for a couple suggestions.
First off, complete my journey with me and take in Gloria, the 1982 hit from Laura Branigan. This video is remarkably bad:
Van Morisson’s Them hit rock on the head twenty years earlier – and looked way cooler doing it. Plus, there’s a donkey.
Now do yourself the favor of listening to Patti Smith’s Gloria off 1975’s Horses, U2’s Gloria from their sophomore album, October (note Bono’s awesome 80s pompa-mullet). And if it’s raining where you are and you really want to embrace it, here’s Mineral’s.
Gloria. Exultate.
No Happy Medium 