“Trouble With My Baby”
by Sky Saxon and The Electra-Fires
1964 song
Clip-clop percussion and the overt silliness of the lyrics make "Trouble With My Baby", a song on Sky Saxon’s final solo single before starting The Seeds, a lot more enjoyable than it has any right to be. A high-pitched trumpet noise keeps blaring long still notes, not low enough to be raunchy, and Sky Saxon is having a ball. He’s finally achieved the looseness that he’d explore with The Seeds, a kind of letting go and surrendering to the music.
"Trouble With My Baby" was the B-side of the "Do The Swim" single on Joie Records, credited to Sky Saxon and The Electra-Fires. Quite who was in this outfit is unknown but they’re not called upon to do anything too complex here. The instrumentation is odd, even hip, but the structure of "Trouble With My Baby" is nothing that any competent band shouldn’t be able to pull off. At least everything is professional and imminently enjoyable.
The trouble with my baby is, you gotta kiss her all the time
But ain’t that a lot of fun
It’s not "Pushin' Too Hard" or "Girl I Want You", but it isn’t taking itself too seriously. That shows Sky’s progress right there from some of his earlier broken-hearted teenage solemnities.
"Trouble With My Baby" appeared on the early 1980s LPs Bad Part Of Town and New Fruit From Old Seeds, as well as the 2003 LP Sky Saxon Presents "A Starlight Date With Richard Marsh". All of these used original 45s as their sources.
