“Have You Seen My Baby” (1966)
The Kare Takers
Teenage Shutdown Vol. 12.
Garage punk break-up songs and indeed a lot of mainstream rock songs about break ups tend to fall into a few categories. One is the “Fuck her, I’m better off without you bitch, blarbity, blar” male rock rager. These can be incredibly distressing in their sexism, no matter how awesome the music accompanying it. (Not to say women don’t have their own version of the “Fuck you, I’m better than you will ever be, you cretinous dog” song: Beyonce’s made an entire career out them.) Then there’s the brokenhearted lament, like this tune from the Kare-Takers. No ego or chest-beating, just a plea for sympathy. My one problem with this song is that the drummer seems to think it’s a bit more of a rocker than the woe-as-me sentiment of the song allows. But whatevs. I’ll take a groveling dog over a sexist pig any day.
