#6: Ball Of Confusion by Love and Rockets

City: Hamilton, ON
Radio Station: CKOC
Peak Month: November-December 1985
Peak Position in Hamilton ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Ball Of Confusion”
Lyrics: “Ball Of Confusion”

Love And Rockets is a band formed in 1985. They named themselves after a comic book series that began in 1981. The lead singer was Daniel Ash, who was born in 1957 in Northampton, England. He started playing guitar at the age of 15. He played in several cover bands, and met future Love and Rockets bandmates David “David J” Haskins and Kevin Dompe. As a child, Kevin Dompe banged on flowerpots, and kitchen pots and pans before getting bongo drums. In 1978, Ash, David J and Kevin Dompe (now billed as Kevin Haskins), formed gothic band Bauhaus. They had a an Indie #8 hit in the UK titled “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. Bauhaus had two more Top Ten Indie hits in the UK in 1980 titled “Terror Couple Kill Colonel” and “Telegram Sam”. Bauhaus disbanded after the summer of 1983.

In 1982, Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins began a side musical project called Tones on Tail. In 1984, the band had a club hit titled “Go!”. In 1985, the trio met up to jam and decided to form a new band titled Love And Rockets. They released a single in the fall of ’85 which was a cover of a Temptations hit from 1970 titled “Ball Of Confusion”. At the time the Temptations original recording reached #3 on the Hot 100 in the USA, #5 in Canada, and #7 in the UK.

“Ball Of Confusion” was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. Norman Whitfield produced and co-wrote many hit songs at Motown. He was born in Harlem, New York, in 1940. These include “Pride And Joy” for Marvin Gaye, “Too Many Fish In The Sea” for the Marvelettes, “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”, “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep”, “You’re My Everything”, “I Wish It Would Rain”, “Cloud Nine”, “Runaway Child Running Wild”, “I Can’t Get Next To You”, “Psychedelic Shack”, “Just My Imagination”, “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone” and “Masterpiece” for the Temptations; “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” for Gladys Knight & The Pips and later Marvin Gaye; “War” for Edwin Starr; “Smiling Faces Sometimes” for the Undisputed Truth; “Car Wash” for Rose Royce and others. He died in 2008 at the age of 68.

Barrett Strong  was born in West Point, Mississippi, in 1941. In August 1959, at the age of 18, Strong recorded “Money (That’s What I Want)” for Tamla Records. It became the first hit for fledgling the Motown Record company. The single climbed to #2 on the Billboard R&B chart. Strong went on to write “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” for Marvin Gaye, “War” for Edwin Starr, and “Smiling Faces Sometimes” for the Undisputed Truth. Strong wrote numbers of hits for the Temptations, including “Psychedelic Shack”, “Cloud Nine”, Papa Was A Rolling Stone”, “I Can’t Get Next To You”, “I Wish It Would Rain”, and “Just My Imagination”. He died in 2023 at the age of 81.

“Ball Of Confusion” is a song about social issues and sociological observations in America the late 60s. The lyrics offer a list of such issues: a) “people moving out, people moving in. Why? Because of the color of their skin,” b) Preachers talking about “love thy brother,” but no one’s listening, c) “sale of pills at an all-time high,” d) race riots: “cities aflame in the summertime,” e) “Shooting rockets to the moon” (in reference to the Apollo space missions, and moon landing of July 1969), f) “Eve of destruction” (in reference to mutually assured destruction of threat of nuclear war), g) anti-war protesters shouting “End the war,” h) unemployment, i) the back-to-the-land movement “Hippies moving to the hills” and j) rising taxes.

The lyrics emphatically add “Great googa mooga.” In 1956, The Cadets recorded a song titled “Stranded In The Jungle“. The Cadets’ Prentice Moreland exclaims in response to learning that the boyfriend in the jungle is in a pot that cannibals are cooking him in, “Great Googa Mooga! Lemme outta here!” “Great googa mooga” may be an invocation of a voodoo diety, or idol. Or, it’s meant as an exclamation of dismay, like “Great Caesar’s Ghost” as Clark Kent’s boss at the Daily Planet used to say in the cartoon comics. In any event, The Temptations picked up the phrase in “Ball Of Confusion” after listing all the social issues swirling around in the culture, they exclaim: “Great googa mooga, can’t you hear me talking to you?”

“Ball Of Confusion” by Love And Rockets peaked at #2 in Hamilton (ON), #5 in Montreal, and Ottawa, #15 in Sherbrooke (PQ), and #16 in Toronto. It did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1989, Love And Rockets had a Top Ten hit single titled “So Alive” that climbed to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also made the Top 30 in Australia and New Zealand. Between 1985 and 1999, Love And Rockets released seven studio albums and over twenty singles. Love And Rockets has appeared in concert in Canada on 27 occasions.

Love And Rockets disbanded in 1999. They reunited in 2009 for a festival tour, and again in 2023.

August 12, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
Andi Harriman, “The Illuminating Light of Love and Rockets: An Interview with David J,” post-punk, April 18, 2023.
Dom Lawson, “Love And Rockets: How three British goths broke America,” loudersound.com, April 12, 2018.
Dave Laing, “Norman Whitfield: He Co-wrote and Produced Some of Motown’s Greatest Hits,” Guardian, September 19, 2008.
Hillel Italie, “Barrett Strong, Motown artist known for ‘Money’ dies at 81,” Associated Press, January 29, 2023.
“Love And Rockets – Concert dates – Canada,” setlist.fm.

CKOC 1150-AM Hamilton (ON) Top Ten | December 4, 1985