How I should respond when anyone asks why my opinion matters...
THE GODFATHERS
A-Side: 'Cause I Said So
B-Side: When Am I Coming Down
(Epic 1988)
Maybe it's appropriate that this record comes hot on the heals of The Animals (see previous entry), because although 25 years separate them both bands are cut from the same cloth. Both has a no nonsense, back-to-basics sound that is reliant upon years of tradition, both have strong, passionate vocalists, both have a well-groomed, and suited look belying much of the aggression within. The sound of alternative music in 1988 was (if you looked in the NME, Melody Maker or Sounds) was quite fuzzy, often drowned in layers of sound with frequently fey and airy vocals, against this backdrop The Godfathers were a breath of fresh air, and their album of 1988 "Birth, School, Work, Death" was a particular favourite of mine. They provided a hard blast of uncomplicated that didn't wander of into the more self-indulgent sides of hard rock and metal.
'Cause I Said So is self-confidant and arrogant, and with a title like that it needs to be, or it just wouldn't work. There's an argument that this record is anti-intellectualism and pro-ignorance, positing that the school-of-hard-knocks education is the one that matters. I don't see it this way - much more they are criticising those who spend all their time on detailed over-analysis on things like "Baudelaire's poetry", and aren't using their intelligence on the practicalities of life. In the end though this is a moot point, because, ultimately 'Cause I Said So rocks! Peter Coyne's vocals area an audible sneer, and in the end it really does't matter if we like this record - he knows it's great and that's all that matters.
It's an entirely different story on the b-side and the brashness has become an uneasy question - When Am I Coming Down? I'm going to go ahead and assume that that is a drugs reference - but I don't know if the narrator has taken them willingly, or has had them forced upon him. It's an odd feeling because, just from the a-side of this record we've become used to a confidant, arrogant voice, now here he is sounding lost and confused. It really doesn't suit him at all. When Am I Coming Down has all the vague musical trappings of many late 60's hippy songs - but doesn't go all out for them I suppose you could call it Slightlydelic. It's the wrong sound for this band though - especially in isolation as a b-side. It worked better on the original album where it finished the first side, and then you could come out of the fog into more songs like 'Cause I Said So. But here it feels wrong.
In the end this record has a great a-side which more than compensates for the misjudged b-side.
Next time something a bit jazzier...
Old blues songs never die...
THE ANIMALS
A-Side: House of The Rising Sun
B-Side: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
I'm Crying
(RAK 1964)
Obviously this isn't the original 1964 pressing, but something from the late 70's/early 80's to act as a kind of a 3 hit mini-compilation.
Let's talk about definitions briefly R'n'B seems to be something different today that what it was in the 1960's. I'm about to make some sweeping generalisations here, but R'n'B now seems to refer to sassy black American women singing slickly-produced soul-based dance numbers, whereas the 60's version was very much about middle-class white British boys with guitars, bashing out the blues with attitude. I know which I prefer, an in the context of this record it's the latter of the two definitions I'll be working to in this piece.
Whilst the early Stones, the Yardbirds, Them, The Zombies, Manfred Mann and The Pretty Things, (more of all of them later!) may well represent the cream of the crop of R'n'B, I reckon that The Animals may well have the sound and attitude of te quintisesstial R'n'B group. They chose their name well having a naturalistic, animalistic, raw feel.
You probably know House of the Rising Sun already, if not from this then maybe Bob Dylan's folky version, or Frijid Pink's bizarre hard rock version, or any number of hundreds of different versions going back well over at least a hundred years - all with slightly different lyrics.Having said that when I think of this song it's always The Animals take on it that comes to mind first. The rise and fall of the guitar arpeggios (performed by the magnificently named Hilton Valentine) overlayed by Eric Burdon's impassioned blues shouting sticks in the memory. One of the the things that distinguishes the sound of The Animals is Alan Price's organ (stop sniggering at the back), I know it's not a church organ, but it still feels reverent and gives the whole song a hymnal quality. What's it about? Well about 4 and half minutes (ba-dum-tisch!) - that seems like a bit of a flippant answer, but it's important because despite being about two minutes longer than most of it's contemporary competitors it still managed to rise to the top of the heap, both in the UK and the USA (and many other places across the globe). This make it a significant record historically as one of the first stepping stones towards rock (as oppose to 50's style rock 'n' roll). The fact that it is really about destitution, degradation and desolation as the result of alcoholism just makes it even more astonishing. House of the Rising Sun by the Animals is truly not just a fantastic record but an important one too.
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood seems like another old standard too, but actually was fairly fresh at the time having only been written a year or two earlier for Nina Simone. Again so many people have covered this track, and once again it's The Animals who, for me, have provided us with the definitive version. All the stuff that make House of the Rising Sun great is here, but the real key to this song, the reason why this makes an impression is Eric Burdon's singing - he has a great blues rock voice, and what makes it special is the passion the is in the performance of the lyrics - he's not just singing the words of the song - he really is pleading not to be misunderstood. You really feel for him, he sounds like man who's been pushed to the edge and only has one chance left. I heard a story about Eric Burdon many years ago which may or may not be true, but it illustrates the point I'm making. Apparently he didn't like doing television appearances to promote the records because he wasn't good at miming to the record (as many TV promo slots were wont to be). The reason he wasn't good at miming was that every time he sang a song he put a lot of emotion into it so every time he performed it was different and he couldn't recreate that spirit through miming. Which is pretty much one of the best arguments for letting musicians play live on the telly I've heard.
The third track on this record may be the lesser of them, but it's still a great piece. If you were to look for the most typical piece of music to illustrate the British R'n'B boom, then you could do worse than picking I'm Crying. The organ drives across the blues backbone of the record, never letting up the pace. It's very of it's time - almost from the opening chords this record says "This is 1964" - it could come from nowhere else. Compared to the other tracks on this record it's a lightweight bit of sneering bluesy froth, however taken away from the other songs it's still good enough to stand on it's own. Whilst lyrically it seems as bleak and mournful as the other two songs, musically it's an aggressive juggernaut that is made for dancing.
I know I like The Animals and I think they're a fantastic band, but they are a group that I don't listen to that much these days - so I'm glad that I've listened to this and reminded myself that I need to listen to them much more.
Next time I may answer the question why am I bothering with this...
Something vaguely Tex-Mex...
KATRINA AND THE WAVES
A-Side: Que Te Quiero
B-Side: Machine Gun Smith
(Silvertown 1983)
An Anglo-American group (guitarist and drummer the Brits, bassist and vocalist the Yanks), best known for their big summer hit Walking On Sunshine. I have several singles by Katrina & The Waves but not that one - but I'm sure it's something you've probably been overexposed to already, and so you'll have a ready made opinion on that. One of my abiding memories of Katrina & The Waves is seeing them live at Gloucester Park, and them singing Walking on Sunshine during a gray and miserable drizzle. Anyway enough of that song and onto this record.
Just as an aside I've noticed that many of these singles have a pleasing weight to them and they feel just right and nicely balanced to hold - there are some later singles that feel flimsier - almost flexible - but not this one. This record feels is physically much weightier than almost all of my other singles. This is neither good or bad thing per se (although there is something satisfying in that little bit of extra weight - it makes the record feel more substantial somehow).
Que Te Quiero is from earlier in the career of the band, but the sunny feeling is still here - albeit in a more muted form. The adjective which most immediately comes to mind is bouncy. It starts of with a bass lead bounce that carries on through the verses of the song, this is punctuated by occasional, enjoyable castanet trills. The chorus is comes in a big blossoming shower of brightness, that contrasts well with the more subdued verses. The story is simple it's about the captain's daughter who is in love with "the boy from Mexico", much to the disapproval of others. The chorus in sung in Spanish, another little thing that lifts this offering out from the mundane. Of course my Spanish is limited-to-non-existent. I've got a vague feeling that Que Te Quiero means something to do with love, and that's about it, but the story is simple enough that you don't need to understand the words to get the meaning.
An ode to a terrorist, especially one that seems to paint the terrorist in a good light, is an odd thing to do, but Machine Gun Smith is just that very thing. To be fair we don't know from the song whether he's IRA, Basque separatist, PLO, Hezbollah or any other, but it does explicitly state that he is a terrorist. Although the description of how he "stalks a little country with a machine gun in his fist" makes him sound more like a soldier of fortune to me - but I suppose that's not exactly mush higher on the evolutionary ladder. Maybe it's meant to be ironic - but there's nothing in the lyrics that suggest anything in the way of that. It's lower and muddier in sound that most Katrina & The Waves - but not by much. It still has a vibrant, poppy bounce that is at odds with the lyric. There's also some artificial stuttering introduced in the chorus that makes the whole production sound so defiantly 80's.
A record that I enjoy the a-side of even if it is slight, and that I would like to enjoy the b-side of, but it just doesn't quite reconcile. Maybe in the end this record is better to hold than to hear!
Next time some beasts of Burdon (sic)...
