7 inch singles collection: The Boomtown Rats - Diamond Smiles

Bringing us the glamorous side of suicide..

THE BOOMTOWN RATS

A-Side: Diamond Smiles
B-Side: Late Last Night
(Ensign 1979)      

Back to The Boomtown Rats then, and I'm not sure that I've got anything more to add to what I said about them last time they cropped up, which is probably just as well, as I wrote more than intended to about the Beach Boys in my last entry. So I'll gloss over any more preamble and get down to the business of this blog. 

Diamond Smiles is record that I really liked when I first got it. I played it a lot, it's got a staccato feel, Bob's voice goes from a sneer that is distant and disapproving commentary on events, to become something more involved and passionate over the progression of the song. It was only after many. many listens that it actually clicked what the subject matter of the song was. It is, if you didn't know, about a young woman who, seemingly fed up with life commits suicide. Is this a good choice for a catchy pop song? Well why not - taboos are made to be broken, and highlighting the issue of suicide amongst the disaffected youth by singing about it is as good a way to bring the issues under a mainstream spotlight as any other. On the other hand much of the rest of the lyrics seem to be about the style over substance of the burgeoning yuppie culture - a perfectly acceptable target. What this means, though is that this song is neither an in depth look at either subject, and so fails to have the necessary depth to make it hard-hitting on either issue. This is entirely fair enough - it is just a piece of pop music after all - but I get the feeling that Geldolf is wanting us to sit up and notice the objects of his anger. It doesn't quite work, yet, but, as we all know, he does eventually channel his righteous fury into something that millions of people take notice of.

The flipside, Late Last Night, is as generic a Boomtown Rats b-side as you could expect. If you know what the band sounds like, you can probably guess what this song is like. It's an upbeat piece of power punk pop. The words are about a nightmare, although any scares that could be put in the song are undercut by a line about "something I ate". It sounds like they're going for creepy but failing to get there. There's nothing else particularly distinctive about this song.

I still enjoy this record and still think that Diamond Smiles is a good song, but maybe I don't love it as much as I did once. Suicide is a complex and important issue that needs to discussed more openly, however this blog whic is meant to be trivial and lighthearted is probably not the place to that. Nevertheless, as an act of public service I'd like to say that if you are reading this blog and having been having suicidal feelings please, please, please go and talk to some one about it - it's the first step in a long and difficult journey, but it's a step in the right direction and less irrevocable than the alternative.

Next time something Scandinavian...

7 inch singles collection: The Beach Boys - California Dreamin'

Harmonies and California it must be

THE BEACH BOYS

A-Side: California Dreamin'
B-Side: Lady Liberty
(Capitol 1986)      

I reckon that most people would think that there are three distinct eras of The Beach Boys - the first when they released all the famous stuff about surfing, cars, and girls, the second era is when they were doing thing innovative and new, making Lennon & McCartney jealous, and being critical favourites. The third era that follows is basically everything else. This is possible a little harsh especially as the first two eras together make up no more than about 8 years, and the third era is coming on to at least 45 years. So let's look at this third era in a bit more detail, and I think this can again be neatly subdivided into 3 parts. The first of these I think we can label "The Seventies" without too much argument. The Beach Boys were still putting out new, and often interesting, and occasionally very good material. A lot of it veered off into soft rock, a genre which has always had limited critical or commercial cachet. After this period there were still original and new records - although with less frequency, and it has to be said less good records. It's during this period that there seems to start up a lot of in-fighting over who owns the name of the band, and whether it's better to just live off performing on the oldies, or doing new material - I'd say that this seems to be another 10 or so years. After that things fall apart Mike takes the name and Bruce Johnston and tours all the old hits, Brian goes off and does his own mercurial thing, Al's left touring with a band that may have contained people who were session musicians and part of the touring line-up of The Beach Boys at some point in the past, and Carl and Denis are deceased - this is the current period it seems to be made up of the band suing and counter-suing each other, then getting back together for brief friendly reunions, and one-off records, then falling apart again.

It's towards the latter end of the second of the periods in the "everything else" era that California Dreamin' was released. On paper it makes quite a bit of sense it's a song about California, and is all close harmony - two things that practically define The Beach Boys. Another thing that I think you will all agree with me on is that the original version of California Dreamin' is a most magnificent song - so deciding to cover it is going to take something special. The best cover versions always bring something new to a song, shake it up a bit, with new arrangements and stylings, and it's to The Beach Boys credit that they try to do it that here. They go for a rockier feel, with thudding drums, twanging guitars and a decent sax solo, they also up the tempo of the song slightly - and they nearly pull it off, but not quite; they've lost the melancholic, isolated feel of the original, and the absence of female voices as a counterpoint to the males harmonies is something that lets this version down. It's never going to match The Mamas and The Papas original version, but I've heard worse versions. (If I ever get through this blog plan in full I've got a delightfully bad disco version - something for you to look forward to!)

Lady Liberty on the flip-side is based on a piece of music by J.S.Bach, I'm sure Bach purists will see this as a bit of sacrilege, however I'm not being a Bach purist so I have no problem on this front. I am however a Beach Boys purist and the fact that this is a re-write of possibly the best track from their 1979 album L.A.(The Light Album). [I'd strongly recommend you go out and listen to this album, because if I can't abuse my position as a trusted blogger by trying to get my readers to listen to a hard to find mediocre Beach Boys album, then what's the point]. Anyway Lady Lynda is a heartfelt and tender love song, Lady Liberty is a song of jingoism going on about the stuff that we should identify with America - you know the sort of the thing truth, justice, apple pie, high school massacres, etc. Even going as far as to quote, in a spoken word bit, the old "Give me you tired..." bit of polemic that's written on the Statue of Liberty. Tunewise it's a nice little number - not entirely down to Bach - it's got an engaging bassline, and a lightness of tone that is quite sweet - but with the re-written patriotic lyrics it goes beyond sweet and into saccharine

All in all an odd record that takes two better songs and makes them worse - one slightly, one even more so. A shame, but probably seemed like a good idea at the time, a cry to the general public that The Beach Boys were still around.

Next time something about suicide...

7 inch singles collection: Sally Oldfield - Silver Dagger

It's not Tubular Bells it's,

SALLY OLDFIELD

A-Side: Silver Dagger
B-Side: Sometimes I'm A Woman
(CBS 1987)      

I discussed the reasons for buying records before, especially for those records that were bought unheard. The reason for this purchase was simply because Sally Oldfield is Mike Oldfield's sister. Now, I know full well that just because one person creates something you enjoy, it doesn't mean that their sibling will produce something good or even something in the same oeuvre*. Nevertheless when you're in a record shop and there's a number of cheap bargain bin singles all screaming "BUY ME!" at you, then some arbitrary decisions have to be made. This purchase was the result of one such decision. No video link for this one as all the links on YouTube have been removed for copyright reasons - there does seem to be one on a German site, but I'll let you hunt that down yourselves.

I thought that this was going to fall into the singer/songwriter territory that we found ourselves in for the previous blog entry, so I was surprised when Silver Dagger turned out to be much more of pop sound. Although the kind of pop that is aimed at grown-ups, so it's all twinkly synths, and a glossy overproduction. It's that production that lets the side down here - because structurally Silver Dagger sounds like a traditional folk song, and Sally Oldfield has the kind of warbly voice that sits well with folk - like Maddy Prior or June Tabor. The lyrics are dark and about jealousy and infidelity and a "Gypsy's Curse", if the arrangement had been fiddles and mandolins instead of synthesizers this may have worked more to the songs advantage.

The opposite problem is true on the flipside - there's not enough production. Sometimes I'm A Woman, should be a big diva-esque number the kind that belongs to your Whitneys, Mariahs and Celines - but instead the production is a bit dowdier. It wouldn't particularly be my cup of tea, but it would have a spark. Come back with me to the mid 1980's - it's Saturday evening and you're watching The Two Ronnie. It's come to the part where Ronnie Corbett leans forward in his chair and says "Now it's our very special guest, Barbara Dickson..." This song is just like one of those songs that's she would have sung, only slightly browner. For those of you wondering about the title of this song, Sometimes I'm A Woman, the lyrics make it clear that when she's not a woman she's a child - a fairly dull answer which matches the rest of the song. I wish she'd sung that "sometimes I'm a woman, but sometimes I'm a dinosaur"- it would have given the song a bit of a lift.

Two songs then that are neither here nor there, sung by a singer that can't decide between folk singer or diva and so settles, unsatisfying somewhere between the two.

*Yes I do have an album by Chris Jagger, why do you ask?

Next time were California bound...

7 inch singles collection: Toni Childs - Zimbabwe

Into Africa...

TONI CHILDS

A-Side: Zimbabwe
B-Side: Where's The Ocean?
(A&M 1988)      

There was a glut of female singer/songwriters in the late 80's and early 90's, but rather than languish in the folk tradition of many of their forebears, like Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, they expanded their horizons and encapsulated the sounds of rock and pop as well, establishing a new tradition, which in all likelihood can be traced back to Kate Bush as a point of origin. One of the things, though, that does connect back to their folky antecedents is many of their songs were very serious and definitely about something and not just love songs. Toni Childs is one of these performers. As you can tell from the above preamble I know little else about her. All I can say is that I may have bought this single under the assumption that she sounded a little bit like Melissa Etheridge, an assumption gained from a review read in, most likely, Melody Maker. Whether or not there are any similarities with Melissa Etheridge is a moot point now, as I've not listened to anything by her for years and can't remember what she sounds like.

It was very trendy at this point in time to indulge in a bit of ethno-musical tourism and incorporate the music of other cultures into the western sound. Paul Simon had done it incredibly successfully only a year or two before this record with Graceland. Whether this cultural appropriation of sounds is good because it spreads the music wider, or is actually a bit patronising is a debate that can rumble on indefinitely. I'm a bit on the fence myself, I've heard some fine music from non-western cultures because I've investigated sounds I've heard from records like this, but there is also the feeling of being in thrall to the spectacle what the the great white hunter has brought back from exotic climes. Having said all that in a record called Zimbabwe it does seem like a no-brainer to include elements of that country's music. There is some obviously African style chanting and instrumentation on the background of what is otherwise a bit of dullish AOR. As you probably could have guessed this song is about the recurrent and still ongoing problems of Zimbabwe, at least I'm guessing that, because Toni Childs appears to have a strained, and gravelly way of singing that actually obscures half the lyrics. This fact and the lack of any real hook or melody makes me feel like this has all been a wasted effort.

The gravelly voice is apparently not and affectation for the first track, because it's her on the flipside too. To be fair the lyrics are easier to make out on Where's The Ocean? I really hope that's a rhetorical question because on a planet that's 2/3rds it's a bit of a daft question. Acutally I got bored with the song and couldn't really be bothered listening to carefully. It could be about the environment, it could be about drought, it could be a soppy love song - I was just waiting for her to sing the words "Where's The Ocean?" so I could shout back "It's over there", pointing generally oceanwards. Sorry about that. It's a slow, synth heavy ballad, which ultimately bored me.

When I don't like a record by the likes of One Direction or Boyzone, it doesn't bother me, in fact it's something I take delight in. However disliking this record feels a bit like kicking a puppy, because Toni Childs sings so seriously and earnestly, (earnestness is the key feeling that I get from this record), that you can't help but feel she's passionate and committed to cause.

Next time the sister of a more famous musician...

7 inch singles collection: Jools Holland - Holy Cow

Later with...

JOOLS HOLLAND

A-Side: Holy Cow
B-Side: Biggy Wiggy
(IRS 1990)      

It seems like Jools Holland has been the smiling, enthusiastic, if a little sardonic host of Later... on BBC2 forever, (an entertaining, eclectic, but often frustrating programme), and whilst he often backs his guests on the piano, it's sometime easy to forget that he is a musician in his own right. Through the years he has spoardically released a variety of his own releases, much of which tend towards the jazzier end of the musical spectrum.

Holy Cow is a well known composition - in fact I probably bought it because I'd heard several different versions of it before, so I knew that I actually liked the song itself. It was written by Allen Toussaint - a name that may not be generally familiar, but is well regarded by aficionados of New Orleans style boogie woogie and R'n'B. Holy Cow has a light jazz bounce and a rhythm that bobs up and down like riding a horse - in this version that rhythm has an almost Ska-like feel to it. This isn't a one man show either, Jools is generous and lets both saxophonist and guitarist have good solos, keeping his piano down in the mix, and not letting it come forward until the end of the song. The vocals are low-key and unobtrusive, and oddly enough the backing vocals are performed by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. This should be good, but there's something a little lacking, any energy here comes from the song itself and not the performance - it's not without charm, but there are plenty of better versions of this song around.

Jools has committed one of his own compositions to the flip-side - Biggy Wiggy. With a title like that I think we all know that we're not getting something deep and serious, but it's not an entirely throwaway frivolity either. Biggy Wiggy has a bit more of that piano boogie that drums up the gets the body moving. I was unable to stop myself from moving about to the beat of this one - which means that it must be doing something right. A different vocalist, sorry forgot to check the name, has been drafted in on this, and he has a fine jazz voice, that adds to the song without overwhelming it.

Jools Holland should rightly be regarded as a bit of a national treasure for his constant curatorship and propagation of all varieties and styles of music, but respect is due to for his own musical skills, especially when he's letting loose with his own stuff.

Next time a trip to the dark continent...

7 inch singles collection: The Beatles - Something

Inevitably it's...

THE BEATLES

A-Side: Something
AA-Side: Come Together
(Capitol 1969)      

It's not easy to write about The Beatles - I'm guessing that everything that can be written about them has probably already been written, and any attempt that I make will be a poor rehash of thoughts and ideas better expressed elsewhere. They are the very cornerstone of modern rock and pop, and as such the cornerstone of modern pop and rock criticism. They were there because they were good (a lot of the time - there are many mediocre Beatles songs and several poor ones), they were there because the were early (they weren't the first doing this kind of thing, but they had the attention worldwide). They were an ultimate affirmation of right place, right time with a huge lump of right talent thrown in.

For me there are two choices when looking at The Beatles records that fall under the auspices of this blog. Firstly I can take all the received wisdom as read, and then go on and have a look at historical context and that kind of stuff, or secondly I could just pretend the records aren't significant and aren't by The Beatles and attempt to judge them on their own merits. Ideally I'd like to do the latter, but the former will have to happen sometimes, and having said that that's the way this entry will largely play. This is because this is one of the later Beatles singles and there's something (pun not intended) extra around context that we need to delve into when looking at this record.

It was apparently Frank Sinatra, who when covering this song at a concert, introduced it as the best song that Lennon & McCartney ever wrote. He is of course mistaken because this song was written by George Harrison. However it may well be the best song that Lennon & McCartney never wrote. This is end stage Beatles career - they were (according to legend) falling apart, not agreeing on stuff and generally not happy being Beatles - however accurate the details on this kind of thing are, one thing we can be sure of is that Something is the very first Beatles single with a George Harrison song as the a-side. It's a bit late in the game too - from their final album to be recorded (if not released) - it seems like George never had the chance before. He had done songs on previous albums - many of which were good and the equal of songs that were the a-sides of singles, so why had they not been released as such before. Was there a sinister plot to keep George (always the quiet one remember) in the sidelines and to make sure that John and Paul were the faces and voices of the group, was there a worry that maybe songs by George wouldn't sell? Maybe they thought things are going south anyway and let George have a go as a sop to ease tensions in the group. I don't know and I'm not sure that I care particularly either. What is important is that George stepped up and delivered - not just here, but in these later years also providing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on The White Album and "Here Comes The Sun" from "Abbey Road" (as was Something). These three songs could easily make top 10 Beatles song lists for many fans, and indeed I'm sure there's plenty of people that would have these in their top 3 Beatles songs list. The greatest of these songs though is Something.

"There's something in the way she moves that attracts me like no other" - a great line in and of itself, but also because it's descriptive of the song it's from. There is something about this song that attracts, it has a coy charisma that charms and seduces whilst the music is dizzying and mellifluous, twisting and turning, longing and yearning. Something is George Harrison, in his own quiet way, saying to John and Paul, "don't worry about breaking up the band, lads, I can manage on my own", and then deftly pulling out this song - equal to anything, if not better than anything, in the whole Lennon/McCartney songbook. The real tragedy is that here, in England, it didn't get to number on in the charts.

Of course George doesn't get his own way completely on this record because there on the other side is Come Together - they can't relegate John to the B-side of a George record, so this song shares top billing as a double a-side.There are plenty of people who think that John Lennon can do no wrong, and I'd be the first to say that he made many many wonderful records in his lifetime. Come Together isn't one of them. I'm not saying it's really bad, it's just not that great. It feels to me that Lennon is experimenting with form, sound, and style in this song - that's great; Lennon experimenting is better than Lennon on autopilot. The shapes that the sounds and rhythms of this song make in you're head are great, they're fresh and different. The lyrics however are a stream of consciousness gibberish that really don't cut the mustard. I'm sure that they're deep and meaningful if your on an altered plane of consciousness (or really pretentious), but otherwise they do do it for me. Good songs can be made from random word put together where the sound and rhythms of the words make their own music - I don't think that they do that in Come Together, instead they're just riding atop the melody like a barnacle stuck to a whale.

I didn't mean to write that much on this record - I'm sure I'll have less and less to say about The Beatles each time one of their records come up. One final thing that I want to point out about my copy of the record is that it's not a 70's/80's/90's re-release, it's an original  issue, and not only that as you can see from the picture it's a US import too, the reason I want to point this out is so that I can feel smug and self-satisfied for buying this from a charity shop for 30p.

Next time a song about a sacred bovine...

7 Inch Singles Collection: Castanarc - This Island Love

Another obscure one...

CASTANARC

A-Side: This Island Love

B-Side: Heroes

(Pyramid 1989)          

Well here's another one - a record that I know nothing about and can't remember what it sounds like. This one was definitely bought very cheap somewhere because someone has taken a hole punch to the sleeve (I've done a digital repair on my scan - so much for authenticity, eh?) I almost certainly bought it because of that slightly defaced sleeve. The shade of green is pleasing to the eye, and the picture is intriguing. I enjoy the way the bands name interleaves with picture and also the typography of it. These are probably not usual, and possibly not entirely valid reasons for buying a record - but it adds a bit of chance and risk to the whole listening process.

Before settling down to listen to this I was absolutely certain that I didn't like it that much and it was piano-pounding piece of House. It turns out that the memory cheats because This Island Love isn't remotely like that at all. Instead there's a slow soft sax start, it has hints of soul - but very much blue-eyed soul as the singer sounds very English and very white. It's quite light and poppy the pace picks up a bit in the chorus. It is a largely unremarkable love song. Only distinguished by the saxophone and something that sounds like a clarinet or at least a synthesizer pretending to be a clarinet at the end. I was right about one thing though - I don't like This Island Love very much.

A quick look at the credits on the b-side lets me know that this isn't a cover version of the Bowie song Heroes, but is an original piece. I'm not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. This has a rocky upbeat start - it's all drum machines and stabby keyboards - it's like on of those very earnest 80's AOR bands with big perms. Lots of synths being pressed into the service of rock when maybe they could be creating something more original. It doesn't really have any hooks or catches, or indeed anything mush to grab hold of. It's different to the a-side, but in now way is it better than the a-side.

I feel that this was a triumph of packing over content. It still looks nice, and it still sounds poor.

Next time four lads from Liverpool...