Faye Hunter - Blinded - 1988from Water Music Records, The Water Music Compilation Album LP
Faye Hunter was part of the same Winston-Salem high school crowd as Mitch Easter and the dB's, apparently the one female in the lot and perhaps naturally the focus of a lot of male attention. By the time Easter organized Let's Active, Hunter was his girlfriend as well as sharing lead vocals and playing bass.
Hunter broke a lot of hearts during her tenure with Let's Active. A reviewer citing knowledgeable sources says the dB's song "Never Before" is about the Hunter-Easter relationship. The high school classmate of mine who introduced me to the club scene had his eyes on marrying Faye not least because they already shard the same surname. (Personally I was more taken by bassist Kitty Moses of the X-Teens...)
Hunter left Let's Active and broke up with Easter after the debut album Cypress. She toured with Chris Stamey for a while and played backup on some of his recordings as well as tracks laid down by Marshall Crenshaw and the Windbreakers (both while Easter was producing), but this track seems to be the only thing she's ever released under her own name.
She's backed here by three members of the dB's (Jeff Beninato, Will Rigby and Gene Holder), future solo success Amy Rigby (Will's ex wife), Janet Wygal and Mary Mac.
Posted by: Zach Coleman
posted by Michael Slawter | 8:26 AM
5 Comments:
"Never Before (and Never Again)" is absolutely not about Mitch and Faye. That some specious speculation on the part of the uninformed, as the song is not about anyone alive or dead--fictional people doing fictional things. I had never heard that before, so let the record show that the author denies not only the allegation but the alligator.
So be it!
Faye has a talent that stands alone. The chick factor is not what makes Faye great. I listened to Let's Active from their beginnings and for me it was sex-blind - just great music.
Having grown up in the same time/geo-area myself, I found that guys were more interested my Fender Mustang, Princeton Reverb amp, and microphone than having me play in their band. (At the same time, perhaps that is the best I had to offer since my own talent was questionable.)
Faye, on the other hand has the gift. It never occurred to me she was the hot chick. She was just always a talented band member of Let's Active.
(Not that I don't appreciate eye candy myself in my old age... but that is not a factor in determining talent.) - DDT
If I remember correctly, Faye recorded three or four other songs during that Water Music session, and she went to Jackson, Miss., to record more with Randy Everett at the Terminal.
I forget how many tracks she did, but it seems like it was the better part of a projected solo album (it was all good stuff too). I covered one of those songs, "Back in September," on my first solo record. Faye sang on that song, as well as the title track, "What Time Will Tell."
Tim Lee
Sounds cool, Tim... Hope we all get to hear some more from those sessions sometime.
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