7 inch Singles Collection: All About Eve - What Kind of Fool?

 A little bit of soft Goth...

ALL ABOUT EVE

A: What Kind of Fool

B: Gold and Silver

(Mercury 1988)

I've talked about All About Eve before and how they were always considered a bit Goth, but in my opinion that's a bit of convenient pigeonholing, and not completely accurate. So I won't blather on about that here. Instead I'll mention the whole romantic imagery that they had at this time. If you have a look at the official video (you can find it yourself - I have, as ever gone for my preferred option of Top of Pops clip in the above link) - they all look like like they've be clothed and housed by the Bronte sisters. Julianne Regan pulls off the dichotomous feat of looking and sounding strong, independent and self-assured whilst at the same time maintaining am aspect of delicate and demur innocence. Whilst the lads in the band are all baggy sleeved shirts and weskits - looking like they're just going out on the moors to looking pensively into the sunset and write poetry. Byronesque, is the epithet that I'm, reluctantly, reaching for.

Even without all the visuals What Kind of Fool feels autumnal. There a rumbling minor key intro that borders on the menacing, before the vocals kick in evoking a feeling of wistfulness, and this first verse is by a low drone, the occasional chime and cymbal shimmer, the melody being almost entirely with the voice. When the chorus arrives it like (and I know I'm extending the metaphor unrealistically beyond breaking point now) coming out of the dark wood and bursting out on to a windswept moor on a late October afternoon. The supporting instrumentation starts to filter in and tone of the melody changes from a timid nervousness to something stronger and more assertive. It keeps this up throughout the rest of the song, but there are still hints of menace lurking in the background when the strings make themselves heard. At the time I remember preferring some of their other records, but listening back to this now, I might be tempted to change my mind.

The (surprisingly long) intro of the b-side, Gold and Silver, has a harder rockier feel, with prominent drums and guitars and an ooohhing vocal over the top, which culminates in a huge (unmistakably All Eve) guitar part, then the vocals ease in, like oil on troubled waters calming things down, but this momentary as the strong chorus crashes in. The song goes on in this fashion with a very rock - almost metal guitar solo in the middle. As with the a-side it's better than I remember.

After that I'm left wondering why I don't listen to All About Eve more often these days. That was a good record - both sides of it, What Kind of Fool probably has the edge, but only slightly. I've got plenty more of their singles to come in the future-so I'm looking forward to that.

Next time another band that gets occasionally gets lumped into the periphery of Goth, but definitely isn't...

7 inch Singles Collection: Pigbag - Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag

 Jazz-Funk from straight outta the 'hood (well, Cheltenham...)

PIGBAG

A: Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag

B: The Backside

(Y Records 1981)

Pigbag were a collective from my neck of the woods, Cheltenham rather than Gloucester, but to most of you that's probably close enough, however their heyday was in the years before I was going to gigs, so I never got to see them live. Maybe I wouldn't have, anyway, as their sound was a jazz/funk fusion - a hybrid of two genres neither of which I'm particularly intimate with, and consequently not something I'd be instinctively drawn to. They may even still be around - I found some relatively recent clips on Youtube when looking for an accompanying video - but if so I'd reckon that they're playing at the kinds of places that fall well below my radar.

If you don't recognise, the name of the record or the name of the band, there's a solid chance that you'll get that feeling of recognition when you hear the Ba Ba Ba-Baaa Ba Ba Ba Ba parping of the trumpet on Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag. It's the kind of thing that will get used on sporting broadcasts, and has also been heavily sampled on a number other hits. It's the bass-line and percussion that starts this tune off - the bass follow the same structure as that trumpet riff, just mentioned. The the trumpet comes in bold as brass (pun intended) then literally all hell breaks loose - This is the kind of thing that people who don't like jazz complain about - the sax goes off on some wild meandering, barely melodic, bit of free-form nonsense, and this happens a few throughout the record with trumpet as well as saxophone. These are interspersed with the cool and iconic trumpet riff. What makes this more than some jazzy self-indulgence is that bass and percussion. They are both there in the background, insistent, driving, and mightily epic. They build an infectious groove that can lift even the most sedentary among us into movement, and it's an earworm too, with no lyrics to focus on that groove lodges in your head, and works it's way down into your body, and days after hearing it you find yourself bopping along to that rhythm, which has been ensnared in you subconscious. If that's not enough, the whole tune takes an unexpected turn at the end when the trumpets and saxes disappear, and even that bassline fades out and for the last 30 seconds everyone transitions into playing percussion, and it ends on an inferno of drums, bongos, and other scraping and rattling sounds - by all rights this should be awful, but its not, because the same groove that's infected you lives in these instruments and this percussive breakdown, somehow helps brings the experience to a satisfying conclusion.

On the backside of the the record is The Backside - an excellent pun taking opportunity grasped, and applaud the band for it. Could it be more that that though, perchance it'll be some ode to callipygian wondrousness, just for double the pun. No, the fact is that nothing could be further from the truth, this tune starts out with sound fragments and odd fractured elements of noise. It's disquieting and disturbing, it's the sound of desolation and the aftermath of an apocalypse. In the mix amongst all the odd wind and brass tones there's a distant wordless wailing and occasional screams - about two minutes in this dissipates and a funky bass rhythm starts up - it's short and fast and repeated phrase, supported by tom-toms and other percussion, it keeps repeating for a while then gradually speeds up and the record comes to the end. Whilst this is happening fragments of the earlier part of the record drift in and out of the background, then suddenly it's over. 

Just Papa's got a Brand New Pigbag is enough to make this one of the more unlikely records to have been a big hit, but the b-side just makes that even stranger. A fantastic record, which is made up of one tune that will forever live in my head rent free, and another that is barely a tune, but nonetheless is capable of evoking powerful sensations.

Next time back to some melodic goth sounds...

7 inch Singles Collection: Peter Noone & Hermans Hermits - Lady Barbara

Popular in the 60's,now trying to take on the 70's...

PETER NOONE & HERMAN'S HERMITS

A: Lady Barbara

B: Don't Just Stand There

(RAK 1970)

Herman's Hermits had an odd sort of career; over here in the UK they were purveyors of fine crafted pop hits (Silhouettes, No Milk Today, I'm Into Something Good, There's a Kind of Hush - all bona fide sing-a-long classics), but  in the states they seemed to be some kind of slightly jokey music hall act having big hits with I'm 'Enery The Eighth, and Mrs. Brown, You've Got A lovely Daughter. An interesting approach to take - presumably distinguishing themselves from the other first wave of British invasion acts by add an extra amount English eccentricity to their output. Fair-do's to them it seems to have worked-at least until the 60's gave way to make way for a new decade, and this is where we find them in 1970, with what turned out to be their last single. 

I don't know if the band knew at the time it was going to be their last record, but billing them as Peter Noone* & Herman's Hermits, says that someone at the record company knew that this was the end and labelling it as such would be a great way to transition into the lead singer's solo career. Which incidentally went nowhere fast, apart from an unlikely hit version of Bowie's Oh!You Pretty Things.

Lady Barbara** is an odd song (especially for a band winding down their career) - it doesn't really have echoes of the poppy sensibilities, or indeed their more vaudevillian excesses. That's not to say that it's not catchy (one of the writers was Errol Brown - soon to be making an impact upon the charts with the smooth pop stylings of Hot Chocolate). The song is a bit all over the place starting slowly with a slightly folksy feel with a tremulous backing of what could be lutes, mandolins or balalaikas, which then sudden steps up a (slight) gear when a full string backing pops up with the main melody. The acoustic nature of the piece gives it a bucolic ambience, but this is not your rural rustic idyll, but instead the song breaks down briefly into something that wouldn't sound out of place to one of those formal balls that crop up in adaptations of Jane Austen novels, it then turns into a bit of a slow sing-a-long, before returning to the more up-tempo melody, and then back to the Gavotte again and so on. A strange record, but not unlikeable for all that.

Flipping the disc over we find something more traditional in the shape of Don't Just Stand There. There the expected guitars, bass and drum sound of the beat era - but this isn't fast paced belter. Once again we're going for the slower ballad, and this one has an added melancholy curtesy of an honky-tonk piano there's some country guitar sounds in the background, and you think were headed out west with a a sad country song. Then it starts building up speed, and sticks a jazz organ in the instrumentation for the chorus, and even starts to sound a bit jolly in places, and suddenly we've got an up-beat country pop fusion that swings and sways quite pleasantly lead.

And so Herman's Hermits*** end their career not with bang, but not with a whimper either, instead with an enjoyable curiosity. This may not be an essential record, but it's an engaging detour

Next time some irresistible porcine funkiness...

* Honestly 7 years later he could have just added a hyphen and become Peter No-One, and fitted nicely into the Punk/New Wave nihilistic aesthetic.

**For ages I thought this was a song about someone from the Salvation Army until I realised that I was conflating it with the film Major Barbara

***A band who got their name because a pub landlord thought that Peter Noone looked like the character Sherman from the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons.

7 inch Singles Collection: Bobby Goldsboro - Honey

Tissues at the ready it's...

BOBBY GOLDSBORO

A: Honey
B: Danny

(United Artists 1968)

 

I know absolutely nothing about Bobby Goldsboro - so this pre-amble is going to be a little short and uninteresting. Didn't even know what he looked like until I found the YouTube link for the song - turns out he looks like a bit of a cut-price Neil Diamond. I know that this record was pretty big over here in the 60's and I'm assuming it was equally so in the states. Don't know if he kept managing to have hit records in the USA - but this one was it in the UK. He seems to be melding light country with pop and melancholy. It is entirely possible that I bought this record mistaking it for Bobbie Gentry's 'Ode To Billy Joe' -a similar genre of music, and thematically in the same ballpark as this platter (and a much better record, to boot!).

**SPOILER ALERT** - In the song Honey, Honey dies. There's no easy way to break that to you - but you should have worked that out from the opening few seconds of the song. The tune and the orchestration is sweetly maudlin, Goldsboro is using his best sad voice, and the lyrics only refer to Honey in the past tense. The record has one purpose, and one purpose only; that is to make the listener cry. If you're not crying at the end of this record then you are not the target audience, the target audience for this is the recently bereaved, or those who've lost loved ones prematurely and are still grieving, or at least need to have a good old wallow in that grief. Any one person's reaction to this song will differ dependant upon their emotional state at time of listening, if you're feeling chipper and in a positive frame of mind, then this is, without a doubt, a load of sentimental old tosh, that couldn't finish quick enough. However if you're feeling a little bit on the downside emotionally, then this song could be a sucker punch to the heart, and have you sobbing your eyes out by the end of it. It's a simple tale of a young couple in love, and them doing all the young coupley things that people do, then towards the end of the second verse the narrator comes home early and Honey is crying alone in the middle of the day, and the next line it's Autumn ('cos Autumn is sad), and Honey has euphemistically gone away. I believe that were supposed to think that it's some non-specific terminal disease (probably cancer), however if you're not in a sad state of mind you can go for the alternative explanation - the marriage is dull and miserable for her, and he's such a complete wet blanket that she's upped and left him, and he's pretending she's dead, so he doesn't look a fool in front of other people. There's another possible explanation afforded to us in third verse, the narrator says that the Angels came and took Honey while he was out - maybe she was kidnapped by gang of Hell's Angels high on PCP. I don't know - coming up with alternative explanations is the best way to get through this song without giving way to the emotional pressure it's forcing on you.

Right I'm going to flip this record over and look for something a bit sunnier on the B-Side. The music is slightly breezier, but then he starts singing about a child, the titular Danny, and lovely memories of him. It is at this point I stop the record for a breather. This still feels like were building up to another load of sentimentality.  At this point it could just be reminiscing on the childhood of a now grown-up offspring, which is enough to get some people going, but I can see two other options on the horizon, either the partner has left and taken Danny, and the narrator can no longer see him, or Danny's dead. To be honest I don't know which one I'd put my money on at the moment. I must gird my loins, dear reader, and start up the record again and find out, so you don't have to. OK - not as bad as I feared - it's just a proud parent singing about all the cute things that their toddler does - one maudlin moment when the narrator wonders about missing all these things when Danny grows up, but it could have been worse. The real issue is that I'm not interested in what someone else's toddler gets up to, I've had a couple of my own, and as any parent knows there's no cuter toddler than yours.

In summation, I realise that I didn't talk much about the music on either of these tracks, and that's because it's almost irrelevant - on both tracks it's soft, swaying and in there just as a background to the emotional nonsense that's being sung on top. I probably won't ever deliberately listen to either of these songs again.

Next time some sixties stalwarts try pushing their luck in the seventies...

7 inch single collection: Eddie Cochran - C'Mon Everybody

If we play some cool music will you please buy our jeans...

EDDIE COCHRAN

A: C'Mon Everybody
B: Don't Ever Let Me Go

(Liberty 1959)

 

Of course this is not the original 1959 release of C'mon Everybody - this was a 1988 re-release to tie-in with advert for Levi's 501 jeans. In a canny series of adverts base around nostalgia for a mythologised 50's and 60's, some good-looking lads and lasses, and soundtracked by a variety of cool numbers, these Levi's ads became quite talked about, and provided some career revival's and appreciation of dudes like Marvin Gaye, Ben E.King, Percy Sledge & Sam Cooke. So this advert was just another entry into this series - notable, in hind sight, in that it's Rock 'n' Roll not Soul, and that the narrative of the advert supposedly came from the reminiscences of Sharon Seeley (Eddie's girlfriend).

Eddie Cochran is part of my own personal holy trinity of Rock 'n' Roll along with Buddy Holly and Gene Vincent (Elvis who?) - all of whom are connected by their deaths. Buddy Holly went on his final tour because Eddie asked him to cover for him when he was unable to do. Out of guilt Eddie did an English tour that Buddy was supposed to have done, if he hadn't died. He of course died in taxi accident on that tour. Gene Vincent was also in that taxi, and that accident exacerbated an existing injury, and he felt guilt because of his friend's death - these two things led to his increased drinking, which precipitated the illness the cut his life short. I haven't fact checked any of that, so there might be some element of myth in there, but it's a good myth.

I'm guessing that you all know who Eddie Cochran was so I don't need to do a little bit of bio for background. I don't need to, but I want to, so here goes. He started off as part of a country duo called the Cochran Brothers (they weren't actually brothers), as part of this act they started to develop a more rockabilly sound, and then when Eddie went solo, he beefed up this to the more recognisable Rock 'n' Roll. A good looking young fella whose gorgeous honey coloured Gretsch guitar, was matched by his honeyed vocal tones.

My perception is that C'mon Everybody is part of popular music DNA like the other early rock 'n' roll classics like Johnny B. Goode, Great Balls of Fire or Peggy-Sue. However there may well be some young 'uns out there chancing upon this meandering nonsense who really have no idea what I'm going on about, so for there benefit of those guys C'mon Everybody is an up-tempo rocker, that's led by a strong rhythm section. The percussion is heavy and leads the beat, and is backed up by thumping double bass, which perfectly emphasises the "bare feet a-slapping on the floor" lyric. Over this Eddie strums his guitar and encourages the kids to go out and have a good time regardless of any consequences. As a song it encapsulates the energy rush of being an adolescent in late 50's USA, probably the first teenage generation with disposable income, and greater amounts of societal freedom, in an era of post-war emancipation. As such it's as much an historical document as it is a great song...and it is a great song.

On the flip side is Don't Ever Let Me Go - a charming, more melodic romantic ditty. It's pleasant, ephemeral seeming thing, with Eddie's golden tones pleading with his sweetheart to be with her forever, but there's a couple of interesting things going on in this tune. Most notably for me is the percussion, it's lower down in the mix, but the drums are adding a gentle swaying Calypso rhythm to the song. Added to this there are some background woos and whoops that are straight out of the Doo-Wop tradition. All these things are the little touches that lift what would be a pretty, if forgettable ballad, into something a mite more substantial.

So as a whole a great record, well worth the just over 4 minutes it takes to listen to both sides. What is more, regardless of the b-side, it is an important record in the history of popular music.

Next time some country schmaltz...

7 inch single collection: Amen Corner - Hello Susie

Grooving their way out of Wales it's...

AMEN CORNER


A: Hello Susie
B: Evil Man's Gonna Win
(Immediate 1969)


I can't give you much information on Amen Corner, other that they came out of the R'n'B boom from earlier in the sixties.

Originally on the British psychedelic label they transferred to the Immediate label, business of Rolling Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham. Probably a better fit as they were in the company of more soulful, bluesier sounding artistes like P.P.Arnold, The Small Faces and Humble Pie.

They became known for the just on the right side of saucy sounding "Bend Me, Shape Me", and then went on to have a number one hit in the form of the more more wistful "(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice" - so they were flying high prior to this record's release, although oddly failed to have any more hits after. Frontman Andy Fairweather Low, went on to have a long and solid successful solo career, and is still doing the round, I believe.

There's a blast of horns at the beginning of Hello Susie that instantly invokes bluesy soul music of Stax. The funky guitar licks and pumping piano sound just add further emphasis to that sound. Fairweather Low's voice has a pleasing rasp, and an urgency of tone that drives the tune forward. There's a few frilly slightly psychedelic organ bits in there that firmly place this record in the late sixties - but that's no bad thing, it adds shade to the sound, and throws complexity into what is, essentially a party record. You'll notice from the label that this tune was written by one R.Wood, and yes, I do believe that is Roy Wood, soon to become famous with Wizzard.

Evil Man's Gonna Win is a bit of a disturbing sentiment for a song title, but if there's any truth in the old saying that the Devil has all the best tunes, then maybe there's something in it. The Devil's music is, of course, the blues, and this track starts off much bluesier than the a-side.The guitar, bass and drums forming a laid groove, which is kicked up a gear within the introduction of funky organ. The song's title is then chanted over this groove for a few time. Then it slips back into it the original instrumental groove, and repeats. The record fades out, and you can easily believe that somewhere the band are stilling playing this take lost in their hypnotic groove.

If you want the place where blues meets blue-eyed soul meets psychedelia then this is it. It captures the essence of a time and place, whilst somehow being timeless and infinite. I quite like it.

Next Time some proper Rock 'n' Roll being pressed into service to sell jeans...

7 inch single collection: The Smiths - Sheila Take a Bow

Possibly the most "indie" indie band ever...

THE SMITHS

A: Sheila Take a Bow
B: Is It Really So Strange?
(Rough Trade 1987)

So here we are at The Smiths, and I'll confess that I didn't like them when they first came onto the scene, despite my cooler friends* trying to turn me on to them.

I had bought into the mythology that all their songs were depressing and miserable, and thought that Morrissey's voice was a bit of a whiny drone.

What changed my mind (somewhat) was the song "Ask". I heard this song, no scratch that I read a review of this song, that said something along the lines of Johnny Marr's guitar sounding like Hank Marvin - which if you know me is enough to set hares running. So I sought out "Ask", harder to do in those pre-internet days, (I think I eventually caught it on the Chart Show on Channel 4, one Saturday morning), and found it to be a thing of joy and beauty. I won't be coming to that single later 'cos I bought it on 12 inch - which falls without the scope of this blog. However it lead to a re-evaluation of The Smiths, and a realisation that maybe I'd judged based on ill founded pre-conceptions.

I'm not saying that I became a huge fan, but I did begin to like them a lot. These days I' much more ambivalent - they're not a group that I listen to often, but when I do I need to be in the right mood. I vacillate between thinking that Morrissey's lyrics are pretentious twaddle pretending to be deep and meaningful and them actually having some substance. Very much like their record covers of colour-washed, often slightly obscure, celebrities is either fantastic or utterly trite.  One thing that I am sure of is that most of the tunes, the instrumentation and playing are all to notch.

Sheila Takes a Bow is a bouncy little number, that belies the miserable reputation, with a message of going out and kicking life in the crotch rather than sitting round and moping. At least I'm guessing that's what it means because it's Morrissey's intonation always tends to land on the side of ironic, or sardonic even when he's being sincere. I know that everyone goes on about Morrissey/Marr being The Smiths, but this track in particular is buoyed along and, and enhanced by the bass and drums. So kudos to Messrs Rourke and Gannon to their contribution. Being just over two and a half minutes long may make this song feel less weighty, but it's probably the perfect length, for what is essentially a pop song.

The flipside of this single is a ditty entitled Is Is Really So Strange? What is strange are the references to killing a horse, killing a nun and leaving a bag in Newport Pagnell, a combination of odd and mundane, that feels like a self-conscious attempt to be different to everything else, but could just have easily been chucked in carelessly because they fitted the rhythm and melody. It maintains the bouncy feeling of the a-side, and even during the chorus has tiny bursts of rockabilly guitar - which is one of those things that happens in Smiths, and Morrissey solo records that keeps me interested in listening to them.

I enjoyed listening to this record, and whilst it's from the latter end of The Smiths' career, which many aficionados, feel is lesser, it's still one of their more entertaining records.

*Oh who am I kidding, all of my friends were** cooler than me.
** still are

Next Time a bit of Welsh pyschedelic blue-eyed soul...