Amanda Fish - A Amanda out of Water (1977)




The second and final album of Cheeseman, Ohio native Amanda Fish before her untimely death in 1978 is an oft-overlooked acoustic masterpiece. More poignantly, every track appears to foreshadow in some way the trousers-related accident that was to follow just three months after its release.

Songs such as 'I'm definitely going to die within the next few weeks, honestly', and 'That inner seam doesn't look right to me, and I have a terrible feeling about it' may come across as outdated or irrelevant to todays musical palate, but that is to miss the point entirely.

Best listened to with the volume right down. And ones trousers.



Personal Recollectionz by @lolbertz


"The Amanda Fish obituary in the Financial Times was very special indeed. 'Frankfurt on alert as DAX plunges 30 points' it read. Marvellously oblique.
My copy of this album on cassette is soaked in urine. Absolutely drenched, it is.

These days she's probably most famous for dying, and for her appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test, when she played an acoustic fish instead of a guitar. The drummer was kicking a seal in the face. Wonderful stuff.

Little piece of trivia for you: Apparently that drummer ate eleven limes in the Green room beforehand. Eleven. He had no idea what was going on. In his autobiography, Whispering Bob Harris suggests that he may not have even been a real drummer as he was never heard of again, but that seal did very well out of the publicity and was able to retire comfortably off the back of it and now lives just outside Lincoln. Fascinating."
 
 

Discographicalz

  • Springtime in Cheeseman, OH (1976)
  • A Amanda out of Water (1977)
  • A Fish called Manda (2010) - rarities compilation including the famous Whistle Test sessions and a bunch of unreleased early stuff, demos recorded on a stethoscope, her controversial appearance on the Rudolf Hess Radio Show, that sort of thing. 




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