The Big Men: The Four Preps: "Big Man"

When I arrived in London in the summer of '88, I was intrigued by two girls from my hometown - L.A. - who had moved, voluntarily and of their own accord, to London. They were Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland, and they led a band called Voice of the Beehive. Despite moving they still had that Californian sunshine and indefagitability in their voices, as well as a way with hooks and sudden pleasurable shifts, and their album Let It Bee was one of my top ones for that year. Little did I know that one day I would encounter their father's music right here in London, as part of a much bigger picture I could have hardly imagined...

Bruce Belland is the leader of The Four Preps (who are still going to this day, though not in their original lineup). When I hear "Big Man" - a song about the aftermath of a lover's spat (you can just hear the "You can't dump me I am dumping you first!" dialogue), I hear the sisters' good cheer even in the midst of doubt and loneness. "I was a big man yesterday, but boy, you oughta see me now" they sing as if they do and don't really want to be seen. Their voices are smooth and in regular harmony, but there is a definite alone-at-the-end-of-the-hallness to it, from the church basement rumbling piano to the admitting that "the only thing that made me big was YOUUUU!" that climaxes the song. He wants her back, he knows he's done wrong; his life is "so empty now that half my life's walked out" that you have to wonder how much headdesking will occur and maybe worse if she won't even look at him again. The song fades as if the narrator is indeed becoming invisible, leaving soundlessly through the back door at the end of the hall, not to sob but to just hang his head low at how stupid he can be. And his daughters will sing thirty years later: "It's just a city/ And on night like this I feel small in this world/It's just a city and I am just a girl."

But the story of the Four Preps doesn't just stop with this song. Bruce Belland's story is here, but what of Ed Cobb, who wrote "Tainted Love" and "Every Little Bit Hurts" not to mention "Dirty Water"? What of Glen Larson, who produced the The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman and Knightrider, whose theme he also wrote, later on sampled by Jay-Z? There was a lot of talent in these young men from Hollywood, talent that reaches towards science fiction, garage rock, New Pop and Northern Soul, not forgetting Motown. Not at all bad for a group I have only come to appreciate now - YAY L.A.!