Artist: The Jesus and Mary Chain
Album: Automatic
Label: Rhino/ Wea

March 1990.  I was sitting in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.  It was the final morning of the huge youth convention our church youth group was attending. 

There was this boy named Andy.  He broke my heart.

We had met at youth camp the previous summer.  I had the hugest crush ever on this guy.  He had an awesome skater haircut.  He styled his hair with toothpaste.  And he loved The Jesus and Mary Chain too! He was close to perfect.

Since this was before Al Gore created the internet, I didn’t know if we’d ever really keep in touch. He lived in Pittsburgh, I lived 4 hours away in Harrisburg.  I wrote him once, but never got a reply.  But alas, 8 months later, March 1990, I saw him from across the ballroom of the Sheraton in King of Prussia.  At that very moment another kid in my youth group squeezed a lemon and the juice went in my eye.  I lost eye contact with him for a moment.  He came over to say hello.  My heart was pounding.  My eye was burning.  He was so cute.

He went off abruptly.  We didn’t get to see each other again until the last night of the convention.  We hung out for a little while, but he had changed.  He was so not interested in me anymore.  I totally knew it, but didn’t want to believe it.  He told me he had to go, but he’d meet me the next morning at 6am in the lobby of our hotel.

I showed up early.  In my walkman was The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Automatic’.  I listened to it in its entirety 3 times. Then it hit me. He wasn’t coming.  ‘Between Planets’ came on and that one line just hit me.  ‘And that’s no way for you to say bye bye’.

It’s so interesting how one song can bring back such memories. 

The Jesus and Mary Chain were so different than anything I had ever heard before.  They were another one of those bands that immediately clicked with me.  Their music seemed so moody—which I totally related to.  They had these incredibly catchy songs that were so much more guitar driven than any other alternative bands I listened to. Their music had to be turned up as loud as possible. 

I loved and still love ‘Automatic’. I know it’s the least favorite of a lot of J&M Chain fans, but I stand my ground.  Songs don’t get much better than ‘Head On’ or ‘Between Planets’.

The first side of the re-released ‘Automatic’ disk is the original album.  The second contains the Advanced resolution, Dolby stereo sound version and also the videos for ‘Blues from a Gun’, ‘Her Way of Praying’, and ‘Head On’.  The mastering on the re-release is much ‘beefier’—it fills in the mids and lows the original lacked.

I’ve really enjoyed some of the re-issues Rhino has been releasing.  First, the first 3 Cure albums, then the Depeche Mode ones…now a few from the Jesus and Mary Chain. 

So thanks Rhino, for the memories yet again.  And thanks to Andy for breaking my heart.