Mike Daly is ‘Wishing Hoping Wanting’
Mike Daly Then and Now
Mike Daly can write. Plus, he’s got the kind of voice Elvis Costello strives for. He always did. From bands Every Damn Day to Mike Daly & The Planets, to his longtime Aquarian Weekly Editorship, he has maintained a level of musical and journalistic excellence. Lately, the 64-year old has been plowing through the detritus of his career, songs that are simply too damn good not be heard again. “With my Parkinson’s Disease,” he admits, “each day I wake up, have breakfast, and go back to bed, tremoring the entire time.” The material, dating back to 1980, had been abandoned, left to rot in favor of newer sounds in more technologically advanced studios. Who could blame him?
The latest discovery is “Wishing Hoping Wanting.” He calls his reclamation project Mike Daly’s Lost & Found. The song is a 22-year old melancholy solo track that had only been heard on MySpace.com, an early forerunner of today’s Social Media. Longtime collaborator Ray Nissen added strings. Daly says, “his string arrangement adds just the right amount of dramatic tension to this tale of unrequited love, in which the protagonist chafes at being relegated to the role of comic relief.” As he sings in the song, “I don’t want to be that guy anymore.” Pictured is Daly from back in the day and today.
For more information, visit https://mdlnf.bandcamp.com/track/wishing-hoping-wanting-2.