Corporate Giants Warner Bros. started with this:
THE EVERLY BROTHERS
A-side: Cathy's Clown
B-Side: Always It's You
(Warner Brothers 1960)
I like to think that I have a fairly eclectic taste in music - I'm pretty much prepared to give anything a chance, but where I'm most comfortable and the music that I like that best is largely that which originates in the late 50's and early 60's, and so we come to a record from that very period, and a wonderful record it is too.
As rock 'n' rollers The Everlys may have been a bit on the soft and gentler side - although they could rock out when necessary - their true metier is in the ballads. There's something about sad songs sung in close harmony that just kicks you right in the heart and gets the tear ducts opening up. The Everly Brothers knew this and exploited it to the hilt.
Is Cathy's Clown Don and Phil's crowning glory? I reckon it probably is. There' yearning and self-delusion in the lyrics - he doesn't want to be Cathy's Clown anymore, but you know he can help it he loves Cathy and he's going to go back there again regardless of what he wants. This comes out so well in the Everly's voices. Combine that with that distinctive drum sound, rising and falling, makes a record that I think sounds timeless. Sends a shiver down the spine every time I hear it.
Always It's You was never going to live up to the A-side if this record. It's a slow pleasant love song that follows the formula of so many Everly Brothers songs. Nice to listen to, but there's no extra special ingredient to it to make it rise up to the upper echelons of their catalogue.
That's been a couple of downbeat singles in a row there, all change next time with some shouty punk.
Canada's Finest Country Band:
COWBOY JUNKIES
A-side: 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel
B-Side: Thirty Summers
(RCA 1990)
I know Country and Western has got a bad reputation, especially here in England, but bear with me on this because Cowboy Junkies are not full of the "Yee-Haws" and Stetsons that most people (erroneously) associate with the genre.
Records by Cowboy Junkies are big, open and spacious, living at slower more relaxed pace of life - much as I imagine their home country to be like. Although throughout many of their songs a strong streak of melancholy runs a wide course, despite this the sound is never cold, because singer , Margo Timmins, has a soft low voice, that could keep Canada cosy through many a harsh winter.
Talking of harsh winters, the first few lines of 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel very effectively sets up the image of a cold night in the depths of winter. It's the story of the feelings coming from a damaged relationship. Nobody makes misery sound as beautiful as Cowboy Junkies.
Talking of misery Thirty Summers on the other side of the record is another damaged relationship - this time they're loving someone who they've loved for a long time, but that person has lost whatever spark that made them once special. There is a contrast though between the songs - whilst the relationship in 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel sounds damaging, one-way and ultimately self-abusive to the protagonist, the one in Thirty Summers sounds supportive and strong, and maybe by the loved one can come back from the brink - so there is hope in there somewhere. I know Thirty Summers probably isn't about how one partner copes when the other has dementia, but having heard a lot of these stories over the last few years, it does bring them sharply to mind, and as such is very moving.
Bleak, but beautiful.
Next time the very first record ever released on the Warner Brothers label.
This time rock legends on the comeback trail:
FLEETWOOD MAC
A-side: Isn't It Midnight?
B-Side: Mystified
(Warner Bros. 1988)
Tango In The Night was a huge album in and around 1987. Fleetwood Mac had not been visible for a few years, presumably self-combusting under their own internal soap opera. Then boom the radio and TV was full of Big Love, Little Lies and Everywhere. It would be fair to say that they mined this album to it's fullest.
This single was the sixth(!) to be released from the album, as a result this single probably suffered a bit chartwise, not because it was the runt of the litter, but maybe because of overload. Both tracks on this record were on the album, and most people who would buy this single probably had the album already - it had been hanging around the upper echelons of the album chart for the best part of six months by then.
There are three types of album track: Firstly there are those which make good singles - they're like the shop window to entice you into something else. Then there are those tracks that are maybe better than the actual singles, but maybe don't have the hooks, but are weightier both musically and thematically than the singles. This first track on his single is one of these. Isn't It Midnight? has a more aggressive and rockier feel than some of the previous singles from this album, but it doesn't feel as catchy until it's nearly over. It sounds like an album track rather than a single.
The third type of album track is what I think we find on the b-side of this single. Mystified, is catchier, but feels more vapid and insubstantial, it feels a bit like filler. Maybe, being released earlier would have been to it's advantage, and it wouldn't have felt so slight- but most of the great stuff had already been released, and they were down to the OK songs. Of course it would have been better if they had released something fresh and new, even as a B-side, but by the time this single was released the band were probably once again in the middle of falling apart.
Next time a bit of Canadian country.
This time a record I don't remember in anyway at all:
THE RIVER DETECTIVES
A-side: Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
B-Side: He Still Needs You
(WEA 1989)
Absolutely no memory of this at all. Normally I can at least remember a bit of a song or the sleeve, or where and why I bought a record. This one has drawn a complete blank. I probably can tell you why I bought it - price. A bought a lot of records because they were cheap, and they had a good picture on the sleeve, were on a label I hadn't heard of, were on the same label as a favourite band, etc, etc. I know that this one was definitely cheap - take a look in the top right hand corner of the scan of the sleeve. Can you see the someone's take a hole-punch to it. there were certain shops who would enact this kind of vandalism on the covers of records that they we're having to sell off cheap. They probably begrudged having to reduce to low prices, and so defaced the sleeve, just so that if the record did become collectible you couldn't make too much money because it's been defaced, (or maybe I'm reading too much into that). Suffice to say that I do not believe that this particular record is currently changing hands for thousands of pounds between collectors.
So what about the record then? Well, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning is a mid-tempo bouncy guitar-led pop tune. If it came on the radio, I'd probably bob my head or tap my foot along with it, as a pleasant little tune, then instantly forget about it. I think the problem is that it's just not distinctive enough - could be anyone of a numbers of bands from anytime of the past 30 years.
The other side of the record is a bit more interesting actually. He Still Needs You ups the pace a little bit and as a result sounds brighter and breezier. The fact the this track is more noticeably acoustic adds to it's charm. It still hasn't stuck in my head though, and I only listened to it moments ago. So it'll probably be years before it gets played again, when once more I'll find an agreeable, if slightly underwhelming piece of pop.
Maybe I'm damning with faint praise, but it is very hard to get too excited about this record.
Still I like the name of the band, maybe that's what drew me to the record in the first place.
Next time one single too many from a multi-million selling album!
This time a bit of proper Goth:
FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM
A-Side:Moonchild
B-Side: Shiva
(Situation Two 1988)
It was the late 80's there were many Goth bands about, the ones that seemed to be the main ones responsible for the movement were Sisters of Mercy and The Mission. Now not that either of these bands were bad, (in fact if this blog continues I'll have some words to say on some of their singles), but for my money the most Gothic Goth band were Fields of the Nephilim. The Mission were a bit blokey, and the Sisters tended towards the Grand Guignol a bit too much. However Fields of the Nephilim seemed to fit the Goth bill with their dark sounds and songs full of atmosphere, filled with apparently pagan and occult type mysticism. My friend Mike (click here read his excellent blog about Physics) and I went to see them live in Cheltenham around this time ('88/'89ish) - they were damn good live too, if a little heavy on the dry ice.
Moonchild is an absolute corker of a song it builds slowly then crashes into life full of sinister sounding malevolence. Carl McCoy's voice growls over the top of the music, which clatters and chimes in equal measures. I've got a small MP3 player - it doesn't have much memory, so I occasionally purge it and reload it with other stuff. This track stays on there pretty consistently.
Shiva - could never compete with the A-side of this record, but it is a great song nonetheless. It starts off low and rumbling full of atmosphere, if not any hooks, but gradually it finds it's own groove that it mines for the duration of the song. Good stuff!
Next Time a record that I have no recollection of whatsoever!
Here's the punk poet I promised:
PATRIK FITZGERALD
The Paranoid Ward EP
A-Side: 1. The Babysitter (Tippy Toe Music)
2. Irrelevant Battles
3. The Cruellest Crime
4. The Paranoid Ward
5. The Bingo Crowd (instrumental)
B-Side: 1. Ragged Generation For Real
2. Live Out My Stars
3. George
(Small Wonder 1978)
My good friend Jex introduced me to Patrik Fitzgerald sometime in the early 80's, and this was the first record of his that I ever heard. Jex copied it onto a mix tape for me (which I still have somewhere), but after years of searching I found a copy of my very own in a charity shop.
This as you can see is a full blown E.P. and not your bog-standard 4 track affair, but 8 whole tracks of lo-fi goodness. It list 9 tracks on the cover, but if you look at the sticker in the bottom right of the sleeve, they couldn't fit one track on! I'm not going to go into every track on this record, click on the Youtube link for Babysitter, then look up the other tracks.
The whole thing sounds a little bit ramshackle and spur of the moment, but it works wonderfully. Most of the tracks feature Patrik singing out his polemic over an acoustic guitar strumming catchy tunes and rhythms. The exceptions to this are The Paranoid Ward which is spoken word piece, and the seaside organ instrumental of The Bingo Crowd. Both The Paranoid Ward and Babysitter are little odd thoughts that might catch you unawares, whilst most of the rest of the record deals with political and social issues. Patrik doesn't have many solutions, but is interested in speaking his thoughts, which while they may not be revelatory or new, they are sincere and occasionally witty.
Live Out My Stars is less about politics and a much more personal and plaintive song about dreams and ambition. The whole thing probably feels a bit shambolic, take for example when Patrik introduces George by saying "It was called George Davis is innocent, until Sham brought out a record called that, (and also somebody said that he wasn't, so...)" but that just adds to the charm of the record.
I'm never going to convince anyone that this is a great records, especially if you don't like the low-key approach combined with the Patrik Firzgerald's unique singing voice, but I like it and I'm glad that we've got a favourite of mine early on in this experiment - it encourages me to go onwards. If and when I get a fantastic record player that is capable of converting vinyl to MP3 - this will be one of the first records I convert.
Next time we go full out Goth!
I promised you something mellower last time:
DAVID SYLVIAN
A-Side: Let The Happiness In
B-Side: Blue Of Noon
(Virgin 1987)
Now here's record that I don't think I've listened to since the day I purchased it.
Japan were a pretty good band in their day, and David Sylvian led them to a number of chart successes, but to my mind there music was a bit of an acquired taste. This too is much along the same path. I said it was mellow, and it its, perhaps mournful would be a better description. David desperately sounds as if he does need to Let The Happiness In, or he's going to throw himself off the harbour wall that he's singing about. Having said that the atmosphere created by the organs at the start of the song really does set the tone for the whole tune, and you can hear how well crafted this whole thing is. I just wish there was a little more bounce or swing to it.
Flipping the record we continue with the melancholy theme with an instrumental piano piece called Blue Of Noon. The feel of this tune is lighter and a bit more uptempo than the previous side, but ultimately it fades into the background, being unmemorable and not enough to grab my attention. Maybe this is the kind of music that you really need to sit down and listen to in a dark room in order to fully appreciate the craft of it.
I've used the word craft in descriptions of both A and B sides of this disc, which is probably sloppy writing on my part, but it echoes the overall impression that all lot of hard work by very skilled people has gone into the making of both these tunes to make them as perfect and as precise as they can be. This is the kind of record that you can admire at a distance rather than fully love. I get the feeling that if I gave the Let The Happiness In several more listens I would grow on me, and really get under my skin - but the trouble is that the first couple of listens doesn't give me the impetus or energy to go back and listen again.
Next time some punk poetry...
B-Side: Always It's You
