aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#022– Echo and The Bunnymen– ‚Over Your Shoulder’ (Korova ’85)
Dear friends,
isn’t it somewhat typical for this series that I always tend to pick the most ‘uncommon’ records from well-known bands? See, everybody loves reliable ol’ Echo and its Bunnymen, at least what they did in their heydays – you certainly won’t find anyone who says “uuuh, bugger off, they’ve always been shite!’’.
From 1980 to 1984 the band released four fabulous albums. I think it’s fair to say that these days each and every one of them is considered as being a total classic. Rightly so, of course. And, consequently, quite a handful of equally fabulous singles were issued, containing songs from said albums.
If you are just a little bit like me – 55 by now – you tend to forget things easily, especially things which happened more than 40 years ago. So let me remind you that “Crocodiles” had ‘Pictures On The Wall’, ‘Rescue’ and ‘Crocodiles’ on 7”. “Heaven Up Here” had ‘A Promise’ and ‘Over The Wall’. “Porcupine” brought us ‘The Back Of Love’, ‘Heads Will Roll’ and ‘The Cutter’. And finally there was “Ocean Rain”, from which ‘The Killing Moon’ could have been chosen by me.
Nine bloody perfect tunes, I’m sure you’ll agree. So which one did I pick for this series? The answer is: none of them! And this is not, believe me, because I am trying to be more clever or independent than anyone else. For me, when it comes to Echo & The Bunnymen, it has always been this song (announced by John Peel, where I first heard it of course, as thus):
‘Veronica looked over her shoulder. He was still following her, his footsteps echoing eerily from the dark walls of the warehouse on either side of the copper alleyway. Veronica quickened her step and the man broke into a loping run, catching her a full hundred yards before the turn into Lawson Square and safety. “You want to buy some tapes of John Peel’s Music On BFBS?”, he breathed.’
mp3: Echo and The Bunnymen – Over Your Shoulder
‘Why this song??!!’, you might be asking. My answer is: ‘I don’t have the faintest idea, never had, in fact!’ A B-Side from a single (‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’) which wasn’t that good anyway, let’s be honest. And which was issued at a time (1985) when Echo & The Bunnymen were no longer cool and rather being compared to mouldy bread than being that year’s hot new thing. Also, lyrically the song is not especially entertaining, I admit.
Still, for me, it’s their finest moment, and therefore qualifies to be included in this series: feel free to disagree …. I don’t care a great deal!
Enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
A great choice, Dirk! I know that you wrote and submitted the post to JC a while back but the subliminal message was obviously leaking into the blogosphere. A few minutes before this went live, my daily post went up, today featuring… The Pictures On My Wall by Echo & The Bunnymen. The other shared link being that it was around 1985 when I got my copy of that single with the Songs To Learn & Sing compilation. I bought Bring On The Dancing Horses on 12″ too, so I had Over Your Shoulder more or less at the same time.
This is a great series, I’m looking forward to what comes next!
I’m probably in a minority on one , but I love the grey album and the Game is one of my top 3 bunnymen tunes
And of course, ‘Silver’ and the majestic ‘Seven Seas’ were also singles from Ocean Rain!
This made me chuckle “… I don’t care a great deal!” Such attitude. More, please.
A favourite is a favourite sometimes for no other reason than it’s a favourite. No explanation needed. Somethings can be quite unexplainable.
I’ll have a proper listen to this when I return home I have the 12″ single but don’t recall listening to this- I must have – but, more memory issues.
By Ocean Rain, the only LP I own (except Songs To Learn And Sing) they seemed to be a commercial success but I wasn’t fussed. Not that I prefer the previous three LPs – I’ve never sat down and listened to one. Back of Love and The Cutter are my landing points and both are still brilliant. I found Ocean Rain a bit disappointing. It’s one of my ‘disappeared’ bits of vinyl. A few years ago I decided to re-buy it on CD. I still didn’t capture my imagination.
I’m enjoying this series.
A great choice Kirk. I’m a couple of years younger than your good self, but by 1985 The Bunnymen had surpassed The Clash to be my favourite band. By then I had snapped up copies of the first four albums and got my hands on a lot of the singles or taped them from a mate’s older brother.
The release of Bring on the Dancing Horses and Songs to Learn and Sing was the musical highlight of the year for me back then. Over Your Shoulder being the most played track. My non-compilation album pick of that year would have to be Pychocandy, some similarity between the drone of You Trip Me Up and Over Your Shoulder maybe.
Favourite Bunnymen B-Side – Simple Stuff or Fuel or Angels and Devils or this one.
As others have said, this is proving to be an enjoyable and intriguing series.
I’ve thought long and hard about what to offer up as a favourite Bunnymen single. I’ve changed my mind a few times. If I was given a ballot paper and asked to put an ‘X’ in a box, I think I’d struggle, so fair play to Dirk for being so decisive.
‘Heads Will Roll’. An outstanding cut on ‘Porcupine’ that was later used as the b-side on ‘Never Stop’.
Bring On The Dancing Horses was, and remains, an absolute highlight of Echo & The Bunnymen’s career. And they had a few. If ever I was in a situation where I was forced to perform a karaoke song – and I would have to be threatened with the most violent pain, torture or death for that to happen, and even then I’d have to think about it – I’d do Bring On The Dancing Horses. Mind, that b-side isn’t too shabby either…
@JC – How could I have forgotten about Never Stop?
Such a great song. I’m going nuts.
Love Over Your Shoulder but love Dancing Horses too. In fact I posted it at Bagging Area last week. I’m not sure I could commit to a favourite Bunnymen song, I’d probably manage to get down to 10.
Also, I’m with FORW- I have a lot of time for the Grey album too. The Game, Lips Like Sugar and Bedbugs are all really good and there’s one or two others on it too. Admittedly the production is a bit too 1987 in places
Everyone likes a Velvet Underground tune. Not the most inventive Bunnymen tune, but it’s always nice to hear Ian howling in front of the original lineup. All downhill from here, tho.
In agreement with the love for The Game and Lips Like Sugar. There was so much positive anticipation for the Grey Album’s arrival following the Bunnymen’s appearance on The BBC’s Rock Around the Clock show in late 1986. Worth a YouTube watch if not seen for a while as they debut The Game and Lips Like Sugar (plus a rendition of VUs Run Run Run with Billy Bragg) in such spectacular fashion. Shame over production let down the album itself.