“Rollercoaster” was the b-side of the Bunnymen’s most aggressive stab for a U.S. hit, the immortal “Lips Like Sugar”. While the a-side was an instant alternative classic, the b-side….welllllll…

With some excellent production from Pixies producer Gil Norton, “Rollercoaster” chugs along like a rawer, earlier Bunnymen tune – one in particular. The chorus is a little too close to the chorus for “The Cutter”, so it’s understandable that it was left on the scrap pile. It also drones on too long near the end.

The most interesting thing to me about the tune was that out of all the hundreds of 45s, LPs and cassettes I had to choose from, for some reason, my then 14-year old sister was fixated on “Rollercoaster”! She played it over and over and over, yet despite my attempts to use her love for this song as a gateway drug into more alternative rock, she ended up retreating back to her Duran Duran and Tiffany LPs. Sigh.

“Rollercoaster” was inexplicably left off the current remaster of “Echo & the Bunnymen”, but it is included on the “Crystal Days” box set if you wanna drop some coin.

Download “Rollercoaster”.

“Rollercoaster” was the B-side to “Lips Like Sugar”, released in 1987.

Lost in the '80s, Music

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John C. Hughes

John C. Hughes began his Lost in the ’80s blog in 2005 and is now proud to be a member of the Popdose family, where he’s introduced LIT80s’s companions, the obviously named Lost in the ’70s and Lost in the ’90s, alongside the slightly more originally named Why You Should Like…

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