Psychedelic Furs

NO TEARS, PARTY TIME IS HERE AGAIN

I try hard not to get too overtly political on this blog. But the attitudes and behaviours of Johnson and Trump are beyond belief.

Can’t get this song out of my head:-

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – President Gas

The opening track on the 1982 LP, Forever Now. And while the lines ‘He comes in from the left sometimes, He comes in from the right’ would suggest it is a wider attack on politicians in general rather than anyone specific, it’s worth remembering that the President at the time was Reagan and there were many of us who believed he would have no qualms about pressing the button to fire off some nuclear weapons.

I genuinely am not as scared of Trump as I was of Reagan, but I do think the current PoTUS is a far more dangerous character in that, as a serial liar and absolute egotist, he is unfit to hold any sort of public office far less sit in the White House. Boris the Bampot over here is no different.

While I’m on, here’s the two sides of a fabulous single by The Psychedelic Furs from a year or so earlier:-

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Dumb Waiters
mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Dash

The 7” version is about 90 seconds shorter than the album version. The b-side is an instrumental number and the way the piano and guitars link in the middle of the song always makes me think of a fast version of New Year’s Day by U2.

I had a recollection, which was confirmed by looking it up, that the Dumb Waiters single came with a gimmick, namely that the sleeve could be played as it was in effect a flexidisc which had was an advert for the album, Talk Talk Talk.

Sparks did something similar with a hidden track at the end of the 12” pic disc of Beat The Clock, utilising the vocal talents of the comedian Peter Cook:-

mp3 : Sparks – Ad for #1 In Heaven

JC

9 thoughts on “NO TEARS, PARTY TIME IS HERE AGAIN”

  1. Ugh. I was pleased to see that during the United Nations General Assembly on climate change some responsible New Yorkers posted signs in the subway reading: “Dear International Visitors, we apologize for our big, dumb president. Sorry, America.” And I don’t know what a bampot is but if it means total fucking idiot scumbag then it’s pretty accurate for our…leader.

  3. Bampots both. Thankfully, The Psychedelic Furs rise above the noise. It’s always good to have a place in which to hide from this dangerous nonsense. I share yur frustration.

  4. I remember reading about that playable flexidisc sleeve [it’s excerpts of music from “Talk Talk Talk”when it came out. I only ever saw one at the record show last weekend, but I was out of cash. It’s one I need since the B-side is not on any of the Psychedelic Furs DLX RM CDs. There’s another show on the 2nd of November in town. Maybe the same dealer will be there this time.

    While I vividly remember the nuclear anxiety of the Reagan/Thatcher era [see: Heaven 17 – “Five Minutes To Midnight”], I do think that the current Resident has done far more in damaging the nation and its standards and normal operating procedures. Perhaps to the point where the damage is irreparable. The only potential upside I can see is that America’s dark covert operations may also be damaged in turn as he is cutting a wide swath of destruction through our nation.

  5. Sparks made two 12″ singles with large pic-disc playable labels. “Beat The Clock” and “Tryouts For The Human Race” each had 2 different Peter Cook ads for the “No. 1 In Heaven” album. The outside of the 12″ was black vinyl, like a large pic label Japanese 12″, but the huge pic labels had the thin layer of grooved plastic that picdiscs had. So after the music in the black vinyl was done, one could move the tonearm to the label and play it.

    Then there’s something I considered from the dawn of the CD. There’s no reason why an analog groove could not be present on a CD [other than common sense]. PIAPTK Records hybrid CD-Record series have CD singles with analog sound LATHE CUT into the outer rim where there was no burned CD music data. There were a fair number of these…

    https://www.discogs.com/label/765367-CD-Record-Series

  6. Now that our orange bampot withdrew military aid from northern Syria, turning our back on the Kurdish resistance, Turkey promptly invaded, flooding troops into the region in what will likely be a bloodbath. So maybe add XTC’s “Here Comes President Kill Again” to today’s playlist.

  7. Love them all, have the playable 7-inch cover bought in Aberdeen from the mad people who had a disco record shop at Holborn Junction. They had 8 tracks, 78s and boxes all over the place. Basically, to get at the good stuff – boxed but with detail on the box ends at the top of the shelves, you had to buy something else. They took pity on me, because I made out I wanted the special limited edition 12 inch of Simple Minds ‘Alive and kicking’ which they only had 2 copies of. Does anyone else remember the place?

  8. Ah President Gas. It’s a political song that, surprisingly, no one ever gave Psychedelic Furs any shit for. It is a blatant attack on Western Democracy and the band-aid social programs that all it’s ills are hidden behind.

    I love to listen to both Talk Talk Talk and Forever Now. Psychedelic Furs were so confident and strong. They managed to mix social and political messages with some rather brilliant Post Punk artistry. The languid 1:13 minute preamble to All Of This And Nothing on TTT is magical in that, while being calm and dreamy, it is at the same time edgy and causes a bit of unease.

    In regard to Forever Now, P-Furs deserve much congratulations for weathering the process of making an album with Todd Rundgren at Utopia Sound Studio. It doesn’t suffer from any of Rundgren’s Utopia-ization that others work has. Instead, the band seemed to take Rundgren’s ideas and make them fit their style and sound. The addition of Flo & Eddie on background vocals, though, is for me, a stroke of brilliance. Their sweet male harmonies against the minor cord opuses on the album are a key attraction for me.

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