A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
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Cagney & Lacee
Dean Wareham, it seems, has always been inclined to have his finger in many pies - he’s released with Galaxie 500 and Luna, with Britta, with Cheval Sombre and solo - and of course has recorded guest spots with many other acts. Perhaps the least well known of his projects was the fairly short lived Cagney & Lacee, which was a duo with his then wife Claudia, that released an album of covers, and a couple of singles in the 1990s.
This post isn’t really a history since I don’t really know a great deal beyond what I can glean from the web. or from the record sleeves. This will be more of an outpouring of thoughts, and a rehash of various posts about them that I have made over the years. It also won’t have many pictures since I never saw them live, and I’m not even sure if they ever played live!
However, in the Matthew Buzzell short film Psyhcobabble, Dean can be seen wearing a polo shirt with a Cagney monogram - I assume Claudia had one with Lacee monogrammed on it? I also thought I’d seen a Cagney guitar strap but I’m thinking that is wrong. So… promo material existed.
In an interview on Sterogum earlier this year Dean was asked about the project and gave very little detail:
That was recorded at home, and it sounds like it. Partially it was recorded by me, and I’m not very good at the technology at home. But yeah, it was a record I made with my wife at the time, Claudia Silver. All covers I think? It’s out of print now
We've Got A File On You: Dean Wareham
The album mentioned was called “Six Feet of Chain” and was released on Terry Tolkin’s No.6 Records in 1997 and contained nine tracks… all covers, and had been preceded by a 7” single which had a b-side containing another cover.
Back in 2014 I had a series on the website where I tracked down all the originals of the covers recorded by everyone AHFoW related, so all the Cagney & Lacee recordings (except one, more on that later) were included. So… here’s a Cagney & Lacee discography including the origins of all the tracks.
Cagney & Lacee - Time / By The Way (I Still Love You) - No.6 Records, 1995
Posted about in the my record collection series in April 2023.
This was the first single by Dean Wareham’s side project with his then wife Claudia, Cagney & Lacee. The sticker on the sleeve shows that I paid £3.50 for this at the Talbot Road Rough Trade Shop (now Rough Trade West) - the phone number on the sticker shows that it was before 2000.
The sleeve doesn’t actually say the artist name which explains the addition of a large, round black sticker that was attached reading Cagney & Lacee and underneath in smaller letters this sticker is removable - this suggests (to me) that the missing artist name was either an oversight or latterly considered a mistake. It doesn’t however mention anywhere that “Cagney” was actually Dean Wareham of Luna and Galaxie 500.
Since the sticker was removeable, and obscuring most of Donald Duck’s face, I carefully removed it and attached it to the inside of the sleeve.
Update (2023-04-13): Thanks to Bobby (@enablerno6 on Instagram) for pointing out that the sticker, and it’s location, obscuring Donald Duck’s face, was a ploy to avoid potential Disney litigation!
Time (written by Michael Merchant)
I’m taking a guess that Dean Wareham most likely came to Time by Nancy Sinatra’s version… I know I did. All my (admittedly rather slack) research has revealed that Time songwriter Michael Merchant wrote Time. And that’s about it. A few folk recorded in over the years, including…
- Nancy Sinatra (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qMzNqszL0I - Cher (1966)
- Carol Deene (1967)
- Glen Campbell (1969)
By The Way (I Still Love You) (written by Lee Hazlewood)
By The Way was written by Lee Hazlewood and released on Country, My Way by Nancy Sinatra (I guess the album title’s a little nod to her dad?). Cagney & Lacee first released it as on the b-side of their 7” single Time on No.6 Records and then later on the Six Feet of Chain album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK0SkGu4O-Q
Cagney & Lacee - Six Feet of Chain - No.6 Records, 1997
Posted about in the my record collection series in January 2024.
Cagney & Lacee was Dean Wareham’s first foray into releasing a record full of covers with his wife (ok… so his next foray, with a different wife, was only half full of covers). Like with the first Cagney & Lacee release it doesn’t bother mentioning on the sleeve who Cagney or Lacee is.
The sleeve was however augmented with an orange sticker that declared that it was “an album of cover versions lovingly performed by Dean Wareham and Claudia Silver”.
Cagney is credited with instruments and is Dean (who also produced the album); Lacee, credited with vocals, is Claudia Silver, Dean’s wife (at the time).
The sleeve was designed by Laurie Henzel and has some uncredited comic art that I have never managed to track down the source of.
Be Mine (Martin Rev) actually not!
The opening track on Cagney & Lacee’s only album Six Feet of Chain is called “Be Mine” and is credited to Martin Rev. Now Mr Rev, of fab noisy electronic duo Suicide, did indeed release a track called Be Mine, it was on his album “See Me Ridin’” from 1996 - but the track “Be Mine” on Cagney & Lacee’s 1997 album isn’t a cover of that! No, Cagney & Lacee’s “Be Mine” is actually a cover of “Yours Tonight” another track on “See Me Ridin’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDog0EBNpYo
Not sure whether this was a mistake or intentional - I’ve decided it was a test for fans, one that I failed utterly completely by not discovering it until 15 years after Six Feet of Chain was released!
Lovin’ You (Riperton / Rudolph)
Before this solo gem, Minnie Riperton had been in the fantastic Rotary Connection, and before that had been a receptionist at Chess Records. Lovin’ You was released in 1975 and became the 400th #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. And possibly more important than that there is no song that is more brilliant to sing out loud when no one can hear you (or is that just me?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uukmn2juvLc
Six Feet of Chain (Hazlewood)
Six Feet of Chain was released on Lee’s first solo album “Trouble is a Lonesome Town” and is prefaced by a story of two brothers who steal from each other and have each other arrested and jailed and is supposedly sung by one of the brothers.
To be honest the lyrics to me don’t match the story, it seems to me its more about a woman keeping her wayward man in line, so Cagney & Lacee’s version, sung by Lacee makes a little more sense to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGBuCWFVu60
The Beginning of Goodbye (Marty Robbins)
When I first put my database together a cursory bit of research didn’t reveal anything useful about the track “The Last Goodbye” - the sleeve told me it was by “Robbins” but I knew nothing more, so it went into my database as being “written by Robbins, originally by unknown” - in the 20 odd years since then Google got better and YouTube got made and it turns out that the song isn’t called “The Last Goodbye” at all but “The Beginning of Goodbye” although to be honest I know precious little more about the song.
This video on YouTube suggests it was recorded in 1971 but not released until much later…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFKUG68iu8k
By The Way (I Still Love You) (Hazlewood)
see above.
Greyhound Goin’ Somewhere (Dorsey / Murphy)
Greyhound Goin’ Somewhere was written by R. Dorsey and M. Murphy about whom I know nothing. It was recorded by the fantastic Bobbie Gentry on her splendid 1969 album Touch ‘em With Love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csOdjq4wX3g
For The Sake of The Children (Gibson)
This is a song from Robert Altman’s rather splendid film Nashville (there’ll be another later in the series). It’s performed by Henry Gibson. And yes, it’s that Henry Gibson… the Laugh In poet, and leader of the Illinois Nazis - (I hate Illinois nazis).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNc_E8XE3Hk
Memphis (Black)
I wrote this post on the day that the news of Karen Black’s death was announced in August 2013.
Because of the very sad news of Karen Black’s passing today, here’s the splendid Memphis that she wrote and recorded for Robert Altman’s wonderful Nashville.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eENUIa9zBrk
I’m Not Sayin’ (Lightfoot)
I’m Not Sayin’ was written by Gordon Lightfoot and released as a single in 1965. Later that year it was covered by Nico (before her association with The Velvet Underground).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBr9_Mh4Kwo
Cagney & Lacee - Borderline / Orange
Posted about in the my record collection series in November 2024.
This is the third, and final, Cagney & Lacee release, put out by Earworm in late 1998. It contains a cover of Madonna’s Borderline and the only released original by “Silver / Wareham”.
The single is on white vinyl, with a white, unprinted label, it came in a poly bag with a couple of inserts, the one with the titles has a still from the Albert Brooks film “Lost in America” - I didn’t know the film, but did recognise Julie Hagerty so a bit of Googling was able to identify it. Written over the top of the film still it declares…
- A = ‘Borderline’
- B = ‘Orange’
… although both tracks are on one side of the vinyl, so technically I’d say this doesn’t have a B-side - and is probably a genuine double A-side!
Borderline (Lucas)
The first of two appearances for Madonna in the originals series is her early single Borderline that Dean Wareham covered as part of his side project Cagney & Lacee with his then wife Claudia Silver. Madonna’s original was released in 1984 and written by Reggie Lucas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSaC-YbSDpo
Orange (Silver / Wareham)
Cagney & Lacee’s last release was put out on the excellent UK label Earworm as part of their subscription only singles club and featured a cover of Madonna’s Borderline as well as the only Cagney & Lacee original to have seen the light of day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylBIH1h3WKE
And that was it for Cagney & Lacee - the tracks from their first single turned up on the No.6 retrospective Speed Dating in 2009.
The late Terry Tolkin was asked about Cagney & Lacee in an interview for Warped Reality around the time of the release of Speed Dating:
I did a full length CD with Cagney and Lacee. It’s called Six Feet Of Chain and is brilliant. They also appeared on No. 6’s last release The Lives Of Charles Douglas by Alex McCauley. Moe Tucker plays drums on that record too. It was produced by Kurt Ralske and is my single favorite release on No. 6.
The Mysteries of No. 6 | An Interview with Terry Tolkin / Warped Reality 2009
My copy of The Lives of Charles Douglas (the Broken Horse reissue from 2011) contradicts Terry somewhat. It says that the album was actually produced by Moe, and engineered by Kurt and while Claudia does get a backing vocals credit, Dean doesn’t seem to be credited at all, although in the essay on the making of the album it does say that during the mixing of the record “Dean Wareham came in at one point to help”.
I think On The Sofa, one of the unreleased tracks from Galaxie 500’s first session might be considered a proto-Cagney & Lacee release since I believe that is Claudia singing on it - you can hear that on this post from 2011.
I think I’ve pretty much shared all of Cagney & Lacee’s output on A Head Full of Wishes either in the originals series or as a lost track so, hunt them down.