Camper Van Beethoven “Pictures of Matchstick Men” 1989. 12″ promo, A and B side the same. The track appears on Key Lime Pie, CVB’s last album before their initial breakup in 1990 and their most commercially successful. “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” a cover of Status Quo’s 1968 hit single (the “matchstick men” referring to the paintings of L.S. Lowry), helped propel the record’s success; CVB’s “Matchstick Men” hit #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Track chart.

I’d been vaguely aware of Camper Van Beethoven prior to “Matchstick Men;” their 1985 debut single “Take the Skinheads Bowling” was fun, a bit of a novelty song that I never thought much about except to occasionally joke-quote (probably at a few punk shows I attended that were literally in bowling alleys). But “Matchstick Men” was on heavy rotation during college in the late 80′s and early 90′s and remains one of my favorite songs from that period. Morgan Fitcher plays violin on the track (replacing founding member Jonathan Segel), providing an integral part to the song’s moody neo-psychedia sound.

….an example of L.S. Lowry’s work