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My Gen X Playlist: Lips Like Sugar – Echo and the Bunnymen

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Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite candy?
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I didn’t always have a sweet tooth. It wasn’t until we moved three years ago.

Our first Halloween, we bought two Costco bags of candy. That year we didn’t have any trick or treaters. We figured Covid kept people at home. Next year would be different.

The second year, we bought two Costco bags of candy again. Once again, no trick or treaters. Which was curious because we see children playing in the neighborhood all the time. I even walked around the neighborhood that night. Nobody. We were 0 for 2.

Last year we were a bit apprehensive and only bought one Costco bag of candy. We ultimately spent Halloween at a friend’s house instead. My guess is it would have been a repeat performance had we stayed behind. Unofficially, we are 0 for 3.

So by my tally, we’ve eaten five Costco bags of candy in three years. Well, mainly me. I’ve eaten more chocolate bars in the last three years than the previous fifty combined. Wow. If you ask me which is my favorite candy bar, my answer is all of them. I have definitely developed a sweet tooth. That’s way too much sugar.

Echo and the Bunnymen released Lips Like Sugar in 1987. It was one of their biggest hits, but maybe not their true sound.

“Lips Like Sugar” is one of many UK hits for the band, and one lead singer Ian McCulloch would rather skip. “It was an OK song, I suppose, but it didn’t sound like us,” he told Q magazine in 1992. “We just got sucked into a new mentality on that last album, the sound of Radio America.”

– Songfacts

In an obscure tangent, I can relate. I’ve always preferred savory to sweet. Always. Chips over chocolate anytime. Well, that was before five Costco bags entered my system and did their damage. Just as Echo and the Bunnymen got sucked into the sound of Radio America, Costco sucked me into a candy bar a day habit. Thank goodness it’s not a never ending Felix the Cat bag of candy and it eventually comes to an end. But I know I have a problem when I start eyeballing the Snickers bars in the grocery store line. . .

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

She floats like a swan 
Grace on the water 
Lips like sugar 
Lips like sugar 
Just when you think you've caught her 
She glides across the water 
She calls for you tonight 
To share this moonlight 

You'll flow down her river 
She'll ask and you'll give her 
Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 
Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 

She knows what she knows 
I know what she's thinking 
Sugar kisses 
Sugar kisses 
Just when you think she's yours 
She's flown to other shores 
To laugh at how you break 
And melt into this lake 

You'll flow down her river 
But you'll never give her 
Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 
Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 

She'll be my mirror 
Reflect what I am 
A loser and a winner 
The King of Siam 
And my Siamese twin 
Alone on the river 
Mirror kisses 
Mirror kisses 

Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 
Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 

Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 
Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 

Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses 
Lips like sugar 
Sugar kisses

18 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Lips Like Sugar – Echo and the Bunnymen”

  1. Pingback: My Gen X Playlist: Lips Like Sugar – Echo and the Bunnymen – NexGen Nexus Consultant Group

  3. I’m trying to give up sugar…. I did for almost a year, but these last few months I’ve fallen off the wagon >_< Oh well. I like sweet and salty mixed. Also, we have the same problem with trick-or-treaters here. Like, we got eight last year. In our case, I think it's because there are no streetlights on our street.

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  5. Love that song! It has a very 80’s kind of vibe, and brings back good memories for me.
    I have always preferred sweet to savory. Interestingly, my pregnant daughter never had a sweet tooth until lately. She just started her third trimester and is craving sweets! Maybe the baby has a sweet tooth?

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  6. Candy, chocolate, and other snacks are so addicting. One of my neighbors was smart, she put candy in small ziplock bags, displayed them on the front porch, and added a sign saying “ Happy Halloween”

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  7. Have you noticed that now “they” mix sweet and savory in ways they didn’t before? Chocolate covered potato chips? Did I see deep-fried Oreos the other day? Chocolate dipped pretzels with caramel drizzle? What’s next?!

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  8. I am on and off again with the sweet tooth. Don’t generally like dessert, except the schmoo torte (it’s a Canadian dessert, Wikipedia has a writeup if you’re interested) that my sweety has made for my birthday before. I love candy, and dark chocolate (not milk). I’m around a decade ahead of you so am also aware it’s not good and I’m fairly good at keeping it under control.

    I’ve always thought the band did a good job of balancing their sound with making much of their music radio-worthy. Thinking of them always reminds me of a musician friend who made and did artwork on a mixed tape for me that had a song of theirs on it, “Silver.”

    Now a song like “Bring on the Dancing Horses” is like a bad ear worm for me…

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    1. That schmoo torte looks delicious. If it is half as delicious as it is to say out loud, it must be a treat!
      Yes, that’s not a bad ear worm. That’s the song I first think about when I hear the band’s name

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