Julie Grave

Album: Susquehanna (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this, the sixth track on the concept album Susquehanna, lead singer Steve Perry describes a point where the female character of the story is brought back onstage: "At this point in the record, I wanted to reintroduce the female principle (not an exact character) and maybe probe how the main character, in his interior, feels about the female. This is the most joyful song on the record, and it celebrates his kind of odd 'ideal' woman, I guess. She is older than he is and is enamored with all kinds of exhibitionist sex and drug troubles. I think I was trying to say that he admires her as a force of nature, a brave person who gives off a menacing, but also an exciting, feeling. She's a calamity, but never boring. Her animality is inspirational to him."
  • If you've detected a hint of the intellectual in the Cherry Poppin' Daddies' work, it turns out Steve Perry has a degree in chemistry and molecular biology from the University of Oregon. When asked in our Songfacts interview if this affected his songwriting, Perry responds, "They exist in separate lobes of my brain that mostly do not intersect." However, you can detect the occasional nuance in the way the music forms, especially when Perry's going on about Golden Ratios and Fibonacci sequences. (Check out the full Steve Perry interview)
  • A fun bit of Cherry Poppin' Daddies trivia: One of their stage props was a riding lawnmower modified to look like an erect penis, from which spurts liquid soap. This is named "Dildorado." This shows the spirit of subversiveness evident in all of the Cherry Poppin' Daddies' work, starting from their band name, which caused some controversy when they first came out.

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