Portions for Foxes: Romeo Void

"Portions for Foxes" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song by a woman or a band led by a woman. See the introduction for more.

You know this song. You knew what it was when you saw the post title.

(Well, maybe not - if you're substantially younger than me, maybe you've never heard it. If so, you are one of today's lucky ten thousand.)

If the band is Romeo Void, the song can only be Never Say Never.

Oh, they had other good songs. A Girl In Trouble. Myself to Myself - and so on. But Never Say Never is a force. If I had to name the hundred best singles ever, it would be on that list. Maybe even if I had to cut it down to the top twenty.

I put the video below, but that's a single edit. For the full experience, you really need the album version.

I might like you better
If we slept together
But there's somethin'
In your eyes that says
Maybe that's never
Never say never

The song has two powerhouses, over a pounding rhythm section, tight drumming and pulsing bass: first is the half-spoken, languid, almost dismissive lyrics from Debora Iyall, always in control, always on the edge of a sneer - the kind of rock & roll voice we heard a million times from men but rarely with this intensity, this purity, from a woman.

The other powerhouse is Benjamin Bossi's saxophone - this is a punky song and an '80s song, so it's a single instrument rather than the blast of brass you get in other kinds of music. The punk comes out as Bossi circles pure noise during parts of the verses, the '80s sax centrality is most obvious in his big mid-song solo and the bap-bap-bap riff that opens several of the verses and becomes a central motif of the song.

This is a song that punches, a song with places to get to, a song that will roll right over you if you get in its way. It is one of the greats.