MUSIC FOR MARCH 2025
‘COKE STREET’
Four decades ago, Portland’s Old Port Exchange was the go-go ’80s writ small and embellished with seagulls. My tribute to bust-and-boom Exchange Street, “Coke Street” is presented here in a recording made 40 years ago this month. Yet it seems to capture the 2020s spirit of toxic individualism nevertheless.
Complete with red-herring references to pop hits “South Street” and “Blue Velvet,” the Fashion Jungle played this particular version of my tribute to Exchange Street as we tried to document our repertoire before breaking up.
In the spirit of warts-and-all rock ’n’ roll, I dropped some lyrics in this rendition — too busy trying to play guitar — but am publishing it anyway. The missing third-verse words: “Where do boys and girls play tag?”
Hear “Coke Street” below, performed by the Fashion Jungle in March 1985. Buy it on Bandcamp! Come on, it’s only a buck! (“Coke Street” copyright © 2010 by Douglas L. Hubley. All rights reserved. Photo above by Doug Hubley. Fashion Jungle photo below by Gretchen Schaefer: from left, Ken Reynolds, drums; Doug Hubley, guitar and “Coke Street” lead vocal; Kathren Torraca, keyboards; Steve Chapman, bass.)
