Rousers – "Susan's Day" (1980)

She used to feel down, down

In this dormitory town

The Netherlands is a lot closer to the U.K. than it is to the U.S.  

Perhaps that explains why the Rousers – who are Dutch – use “dormitory town” rather than “bedroom community” in the lyrics of today’s featured song.

An English dormitory town

Both terms are used to describe places that people leave every morning to go to their jobs and return to each night to eat dinner, watch a little TV, and then hit the hay.  But “dormitory town” is a British term while “bedroom community” is an American term. 

*     *     *     *     *

“Susan’s Day” is two and a half minutes of pure power-pop pleasure that I would have missed out on were it not for Steven Lorber, who played it on his “Mystic Eyes” radio program back in 1980.

It’s not the only great song that the Rousers released.  But for some reason, no one bought their records – or at least no one in the U.S. and U.K. did.

I suspect their music didn’t sell that well in the Netherlands either – there’s almost nothing about them on the Internet, and their music isn’t available for purchase from Amazon or the iTunes Store.

Go figure.

*     *     *     *     *

“Susan’s Day” is about a married woman who seems to lead a pretty dull life.  She makes her husband’s morning cuppa, does a little shopping after he leaves for work, and spends the rest of the day home alone:

As your only company

You’ll have your cream sherry

  

That’s another clue that the Rousers were influenced more by British culture than American culture: no self-respecting American housewife would while away the hours getting sloshed on cream sherry.

Click here to see the Rousers lip-synching to “Susan’s Day” on a Dutch TV show.