The German Girls

Personnel:

Bernie Heveron: Upright Bass and bg vocals
Colorblind James: Guitar and bg vocals
Phillip Marshall: Lead Guitar and bg vocals
Jimmy McAvaney: Drums
G. Elwyn Meixner: Guitar


What a strange way to follow "Why'd The Boy..."! The German Girls has always been one of my favorite of Chuck's ultra-fast two-beats. This recording is so ragged and lo-fi and an immediate departure from the more sophisticated (I use that word cautiously) opener. The German girls were three (sometimes four) exchange students in Oswego who would come out and see the White Caps play. The way Chuck told it, they in fact approached him and introduced themselves saying "We're the German girls!" All Chuck needed was some phrase like that to kick start a song.

The German Girls is the first of many songs on the album recorded at Dave Anderson's Saxon Studio featuring the early Rochester, NY line-up. While the song had always been sung by G. Elwyn Meixner in the clubs, he ended up leaving the band sometime during the album's production. Chuck went into the studio and overdubbed his own vocal for the song.

I've always felt the guitar lead was pretty clever and fun to play. The opening figure is a couple of pull-offs from a 5th position E7 chord onto open strings. While it sounds really tricky, it's actually fairly easy to do.

As I recall, the refrain began life as "We didn't come for fun, we didn't come for romance. Handed us a ticket so we taught 'em how to dance." Chuck decided somewhere along the line that it sounded a tad too presumptuous and changed it to "so we thought we'd take a chance".

The German Girls
Words and music © Chuck Cuminale

First thing she said is we’re the German girls
We are three and sometimes four
We have traveled half way ‘round the world
And now we’re knocking on your door

They didn’t come for fun
Didn’t come for romance
They handed us a ticket so we thought we’d take a chance

Dorothy was the taller girl with long brown hair
Sissy wore wire rimmed glasses, sometimes braids
Helga, she was shorter and her hair was black
The other girl, I never knew her name

They didn’t come for fun
Didn’t come for romance
Handed us a ticket so we thought we’d take a chance

Coast to coast what they liked the most was…
East and West what they liked the best was…

First thing she said is we’re the German girls