This record is a buried treasure that’s evaded my grasp for a loooooooong time; 29 years. I remember hearing it on Tampa’s WUSF college radio in the fall of 1981. I was not attending USF. I was attending UCF 90 miles away in Orlando, but on Friday nights, if I held the antenna just right, I could receive their signal – more or less. You’d better know the tape deck was running for air checks! Their 9-midnight shift that fall was a treasure trove of insanely great music that I just loved. I’d blown off commercial radio the prior year and had only been listening to Rollins College’s WPRK for real music of the kind I was excited to hear. It was while trying to focus on WPRK’s evasive 100 watt signal that I stumbled upon WUSF, also in the non-commercial ghetto of the FM spectrum.

One September evening was a particularly rewarding show. I heard Yello [“Bimbo”], Brian Eno [“Baby’s On Fire”] and the new OMD single [“Souvenir”] all for the first time. I also heard a single that has haunted me forever more. The DJ played a song called “Tell Me Why” and announced the group as Berlin. I was transfixed since this was the first time that my hayseed ears had ever heard a woman singing in front of a synth band! It seems astounding now, and there were certainly instances at the time that I was unaware of, but back in the day, synth music was pretty much a boy’s game. It seemed to take forever for the female gender to cross that line in the sand, but it was certainly there. Heck, just a few years prior, the notion of women in rock seemed to be a cause célébre, and fodder for countless magazine stories. If you’re of a certain age, I’m sure you remember these.

M.A.O. Records | US | 7" | 1981 | MAO-S4

Berlin: The Metro US 7″

1. The Metro
2. Tell Me Why [version 1]

As you can see, the DJ played the B-side of the disc that night. I kept a sharp watch out, listening often to my static-laden aircheck of the show that night, but I never saw a single Berlin record until a point midway the next year, when I saw an ad from Enigma Records in Trouser Press touting the 12″ Berlin EP, “Pleasure Victim.” Back then I hadn’t crossed the mail order line yet, so it remained until Geffen picked up the band from Enigma and reissued “Pleasure Victim” later in 1982 that I finally got to hear the song that had haunted me for almost a year.

Geffen | US | EP | 1982 | GHS 2036

Berlin: Pleasure Victim US EP reissue

1. Tell Me Why
2. Pleasure Victim
3. Sex [I’m A…]
4. Masquerade
5. The Metro
6. World Of Smiles
7. Torture

Except that the version on “Pleasure Victim” was a completely different recording of the song and as such, didn’t slake the thirst for the 1981 version I’d first heard! How I hate when that happens! Worse yet, since the internet didn’t exist, I had no idea where the song originated! I remained until just a few years ago, when doing research on Discogs.com, when I found out about the earlier “Metro” 7″ released on M.A.O. Records the year prior. Now all I had to do was buy a copy, yes? Not so easy. The single copy in the Discogs.com marketplace was priced at a princely $499.99…!!! I can’t find any other copy of this record selling on the internet within my budget. Last month, a second copy appeared in the Discogs.com marketplace. The asking price of $60 is, let’s be frank, way down from $499.99, but still out of my budget for a band I like, but don’t love. So I’ll keep searching, even though years of queries on GEMM have yielded nothing. As I approach the stately 30th anniversary of hearing that song in another 10 months, wish me luck.

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