I’ve been thinking a lot about this song lately for no reason. But yes, it WAS very affirming to see a woman on TV who wasn’t selling sex, even in a video for a love song (about a devoutly independent loner who catches love, like a cold — and concludes, after some analysis, that she doesn’t hate it.)
Lovich was kind of like Mary Hartman, only watchable. She was nowhere near as cool as Nina Hagen, of course…
“Lucky Number”’s clipped cadence and cheeky scientific and mathematical jargon were emblematic of the mischievous precision and burlesqued authority of New Wave in general, with uncommon chops that indicated just how daringly she was paring down (historically Lovich could be seen as a kind of evolutionary double-helix of Devo and Kate Bush [and Thomas Dolby]).
The self-possessed sexuality of this song and Lovich’s overall presentation would be rare for another generation (and with ten more layers of clothes than Madonna)…
