Martha and the Muffins//Echo Beach

About a year ago, on a trip to Chicago, I got Ali to give me a copy of a summer mix she had made. Filled with lots of new wavey relatively obscure late 70s/early 80s stuff, I still return to it every so often, especially in warmer months. This song is the first on the mix and it’s a great thing to listen to in a crowded subway train while on one’s way to work.

This was the band’s only hit, although they were quite prolific under their original name and a later (more 80s sounding) name, M+M.

The narrator of the song has to work a shitty office job, but she manages to make it through by falling back on the knowledge that she’ll one day return to her favorite nostalgia-drenched spot, Echo Beach, which, judging by the song’s lyrics, could actually be some kind of code word for heaven. Still, whether it’s just a favorite vacation getaway or the afterlife, there’s nothing worse than sitting in an office all day when you could be watching the sun go down on Echo Beach, amIright?



Echo Beach.mp3

From nine till five I have to spend my time at work.
The job is very boring. I'm an office clerk.
The only thing that helps pass the time away
Is knowing I'll be back at Echo Beach some day.