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)...
Surf's Up Dudes...
THE BEACH BOYS
A-Side: Fun, Fun, Fun
B-Side: Why Do Fools Fall In Love?
(Capitol 1964)
Ahh, The Beach Boys, one of those bands that I am really rather fond of, throughout their various shifts in style over the years - so my thoughts on this record are probably not going to be unbiased.
I think that the popular image of The Beach Boys is that of a bit of a party band - perpetually churning out fast, upbeat tunes about surfing, dancing, cars and girls. This image is probably justified for their early hits and what cemented their reputation. As many of us are aware though they've gone through troubled times and a number of styles, and maybe their more interesting work is miles away from those early party days - however that's a thought for another record, at another time.
Fun, Fun, Fun is fun, doubtless you are already aware of the song anyway. The bright, treble-y, guitars, the playful harmonies, and the organ break all give the song a verve and energy that sweeps you along. The cheeky lyric of a young woman who's adept at driving her sports car around and turning heads is enough to make you smile, but as ever with The Beach Boys the hint of teenage rebellion is never played out to violence and destruction. In this case the sensible adult has stepped in and "Daddy took her T-Bird away". For the narrator this is a good thing because now she's got no car to worry about they can have "Fun, Fun, Fun" all by themselves, making their own amusement. (They're probably going to play chess or something.) I do like this song very much but in the whole genre of Surf Music about women who are unexpectedly exceptionally good at driving hot rods* this only manages to come in second to Jan and Dean's Little Old Lady (from Pasadena).
Another familiar song is on the flip-side of this platter. Why Do Fools Fall In Love? has been covered many times since Frankie Lymon took it to the top of the hit parade in the late 50's, and to be honest this is just another version to add to the list. It's nothing special - the harmonies that carry the song are very much the Beach Boys stock-in-trade - the instrumentation is low in the mix, with only the drums making a notable presence. Interestingly they feel a bit ragged and ramshackle - whether this is experimentation or just a bit slapdash I don't know, and with Beach Boys it could equally be either.
*a bit of niche genre, I know.
Next time more summery pop from a generation later...
Looking for something noisy...
THE TELESCOPES
A-Side: Everso
B-Side: Wish Of You
(Creation 1990)
The Telescopes came to my attention through their first album (Taste) and an earlier single (To Kill A Slow Girl Walking) - both showed a band who had a good handle on noise and could produce a visceral wail of a sound, mixed with a good tune, and some interesting lyrics. This didn't last they branched off into a slightly different direction, in fact they may even be accused of jumping on a bandwagon, or following the herd, because their sound went from something that was often nightmarish, to something more dreamy. I would go as far as to lump them in with the scene that the music papers called "shoegazing". I'm not going to go into that whole scene right now, as I have some good examples of that to come into the future.
The change in direction was heralded by this single, Everso, bought in the expectation of one thing but ultimately delivering another. I was disappointed at the time, not so much because of the music itself, but because they were a lot of other bands doing something similar and doing it well, and I thought The Telescopes already had a great sound going for them. What do I think now? Well it's not so great a leap as I thought, nearly quarter of a century ago. It's still noisy, but the noise is less harsh, there are layers of guitar that wash in and out - all with the full range of effects; lots of delay, and reverb, and echo. The vocals are very low down in the mix almost incidental to the whole song. It's livelier than I remember though, and still has some of the aggression that I had thought was gone - and it's coupled with a funky drum beat. I quite like the way the music stops for the singer to drawl our "Everso" briefly, before it all fires up again. The sleeve is quite apt as that is as good a visual representation od the sound of the song as you could ever get.
On the flip side is Wish Of You - is is just me, or does that seem like a somewhat awkward title? It's a bit less "on trend" than the a-side, in that there were no obvious hooks, the rhythm wasn't as straight forward and it was much slower. It starts very quite with some "uhs" being vocalised, then the chiming guitars work their way into the song. The vocals are more prominent than the a-side, but pretty much as indecipherable. It's much more reminiscent of how the Telescopes used to sound.
It's pretty much a transitional record for a group that are moving (albeit everso slightly) from one sound to another. There is much that is enjoyable about this record, but little to make me come back to it regularly.
That was the fifth record in a row from 1990 - next time something not from that year...
A new direction for an old new wave band...
PERE UBU
A-side: I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue
B-Side: Invisible Man
(Fontana 1990)
Firstly apologies for the video which is a recent live version, couldn't find a contemporary video, and also has a long spoken intro which isn't on the record.
Pere Ubu, had something of a mystique to their name back in the day. From what I'd understood from bits and pieces in the music press, they were darlings of the American new wave, releasing challenging and difficult records, and being one of the secret delights of the underground. This made me go out and listen to some of their record for this period, and I found out that they weren't as challenging or as different as I hoped - merely a good, but not outstanding post-punk collective.
The release of I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue was their first record in a considerable time and was much anticipated. I bought it at the time in the hope that I would connect better with Pere Ubu than I had before. I was at the time disappointed, and found it dull and ordinary. One of the delights of doing this blog is being able to revise these opinions after the passage of time, and this is one of those records that is a lot better than I remember it. Listening to it now for what it actually is, rather than what I expected it to be has given me a fresh perspective. It's not a towering piece of complex noise, what it is however a superior example of alternative rock, a style that is often referred to as college rock. I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue has a bright, poppy edge to with vocals delivered in an almost laid back soft rock style. The guitar intro is strong and the tune is toe-tapping. Not entirely sure what it's about - people (aliens?) who want to be other people, maybe? There may be an anti-racism message in there, but it's not obvious. Another plus is that it mentions Yogi Bear in the lyrics.
On the other side Invisible Man still has that college rock style, but the structure of the song is a bit more varied, and more in keeping with the band's reputation. The voice is much more distinctive and growlier, and there's some odd noises in the instrumentation, which piques the interest. The rhythm is driving, and I was just starting to really get into it when it ended.
A record that I wasn't really looking forward to listening to, which turns out to be better than I thought, I make that two in row. It's possible that I have better taste than I thought.
Next time prepare to gaze at your shoes...
An ode to the joys of unemployment...
THE PARACHUTE MEN
A-side: Every Other Thursday
B-Side: Quiet Life
(Fire 1990)
I can't tell you much about The Parachute Men. I know they were one of a number of indie bands of the period that had a female singer (almost always blonde) backed by 3 blokes (probably in well-worn, creaky leather jackets) on guitar, bass and drums.
I remember seeing The Parachute Men live at the Gloucester Guildhall - for a short while there was something called the Banana Club, where, (once a month maybe - can anyone else remember?), they'd have a couple of indie bands on - one or two usually someone with an actual record deal touring the provinces, plus extra support from unsigned local entities. The Parachute Men were either a headline act, or supporting Carter - USM, (of whom more will be spoken at a later date).
The Every Other Thursday of the song title refers to the day of turning up to the job centre to sign on and get your dole money. You might expect that given this subject matter, the the song would be grim and dour, but it's not. It's an upbeat, even jaunty, piece of jangle pop. The lyrics don't dwell on the miserable side of joblessness, or even try to make political comments on the situation, but instead focuses on the relief, and pleasure that getting the fortnightly dole money brings. The vocals are strong, but unlikely many contemporaries don't get all sweet and girly, and there is a wistfulness to the voice, that brings an edgier counterpart to the upbeat feel of the tune.
Turning the record over we find Quiet Life, a song which lives up to its name. It's slower and quieter, with an almost folky acoustic sound. For me two things provide an unexpected texture to this song, and stops it from being just pleasant and lifts it into the very good category. I mentioned the singer's voice for Every Other Thursday, here there's an odd catch to it which brings you in. The second thing that elevates this song is, surprisingly, the drums. The drum patterns are unusual, and more than just keeping time.
Before I listened to this single I was expecting something pleasant but bland and unmemorable, what I got surprised me by being lighter and more textured than I could have hoped for.
Next time alternative new wave stalwarts try for the big time...
