The Nails: Let It All Hang Out

Saturday is Lost Classics day, and today’s selection is “Let It All Hang Out” by The Nails. I spent my early teen years in a small town with limited access to music beyond MTV, classic rock radio, and the local country AM station. However, some early ’80s alternative music made its way to me via friends, their siblings, and visits to the small college record store in the nearest city. One of the first alternative albums to find its way into my collection was the 1984 debut album Mood Swing by The Nails. They are best known for their college radio staple “88 Lines About 44 Women,” but my favorite tunes on the album were always “Let It All Hang Out” and the opener “Every Time I Touch You.” Outside of “88 Lines,” I doubt anyone remembers this band or this album, but I still enjoy the nostalgia of listening to it and remembering the feeling of discovering that rock and roll can sound dangerous and new in a world that was flooding me with the latest formulaic songs by The Rolling Stones and Bob Seger.

Nails trivia: The band’s original roadie in the late ’70s was Eric Boucher; he later became better known as Jello Biafra, the leader of the Dead Kennedys.

To learn more about The Nails, check out their Wikipedia page or listen to their classic.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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