![]() Instead of choruses, both songs have two bridges (or middle eights). It is structured like an old Beatles song, with the title tagged on to the end of the verse: “Am I only dreaming / Or is this burning an eternal flame?” The Beatles do a similar kind of thing on We Can Work It Out. It’s so much less arduous and a great inspiration.Įternal Flame was retro in that it has no chorus. But it was nothing like when you’re in a room with Chrissie Hynde or Susanna Hoffs, hearing one of those great pop singers sing the song as you create it. We were really lucky because Cyndi Lauper, Madonna and Heart sang the songs beautifully. When Tom and I wrote the songs True Colors, Like a Virgin and Alone, we had to make demos and then try to find a record company executive who thought they would be good for one of their artists. ‘The song’s enduring popularity is very gratifying’ … Billy Steinberg. I immediately took out a notebook and free associated to the title. It was quiet and dark in the synagogue and there was a little red bulb they used to call the eternal flame. My family was not very religious but my parents did send me to Sunday school. When Susanna told me about the eternal flame for Elvis at Graceland, it made me recall a childhood memory. It’s an eternal flame! Billy Steinberg, songwriter But we have come back together to tour since, and that same bond is still there between us. After Everything was released, we went off to create our own music in different ways. We’d spent our 20s together, starting as a powerpop, garage-rock, local club band and eventually releasing three albums with Columbia records. In 1988, it was the beginning of the end for the Bangles. After the first song went so well, I became superstitious about it, like in sports where you have to have your rabbit’s foot, and ended up compelled to skinny dip my way through most of the album, including Eternal Flame. Nobody could see me there was a baffle in front of me and it was dark. I imagined it would feel like skinny dipping –vulnerable yet freeing – and I decided to try it. It was the beginning of the end for the Banglesĭavitt had recently produced Olivia Newton-John and pranked me by telling me she did her best vocals in the nude. Let’s go over to his studio and mess around.” When the band heard the result, they decided to go along for the journey. Once recording the album was under way, Davitt said: “I keep thinking about Eternal Flame and I know this wonderful keyboard arranger. Eternal Flame was rejected and I was heartbroken, but in the Bangles everybody played and sang and was represented creatively. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm and excitement about the song were so great that I carried the demo cassette around in my bag and would play it for anyone willing to listen.Ĭut to the tense moment the band sat down with our producer, Davitt Sigerson, to vote which songs would be on the next album, Everything. It was Vicki Peterson and me on guitar, Michael Steele on bass and Debbi Peterson on drums. This was because the Bangles didn’t have a keyboard player. When we made the demo at Tom’s studio, we recorded what we instinctively felt should have been a keyboard part, the little tick tock running through the song, on guitar. ![]()
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