aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#071: Pere Ubu – ‘Final Solution’ (Hearthan Records ’76
Hello friends,
the more ingenious of you will have realized that the singles in this series are featured in strictly alphabetical order. And therefore today’s tune should of course be ‘Box Elder’ by Pavement – which is one of the five finest songs in the history of the whole world ever, if you ask me. One copy of ‘Slay Tracks: 1933 – 1969’, the 7“ which contains the tune, is available on discogs. Now, I always said I gave away my beautiful daughters for a copy if one would ever become available. Now, at the time of writing this, one has become available, the thing is: the owner wants $ 700,- for it, which is okay, I suppose, but I don’t have any beautiful daughters to give away instead. To be precise: I don’t have any daughters (to give away), as opposed to: not just hideous ones!
So instead I have a record for you today which is important mainly for two reasons. I mean, all of the singles in this series are simply awesome, of course: if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in my box, right? So quality isn’t one of the reasons, no, we’re on the educational path again, I’m afraid. Let me explain:
I may be wrong, but I can imagine that today’s tune isn’t as commonly known to you as many of the previous singles have been. Which is great, because it might give you the chance to experience something new. So don’t skip the tune, listen to it instead, please: it really is worth the effort, believe me! So, getting to know something new may – or may not – be the first educational effect for today, the second one is: this song was recorded in 1975, released in April one year later (although I only have a re-release from 2018 on Fire Records)! ‘So what?’, you might be thinking! Well, no one back then was making music that sounded even vaguely like this, and therefore this record is so groundbreaking, that’s why!
Pere Ubu (the group’s name is a reference to Ubu Roi, an avant-garde play by French writer Alfred Jarry) come from Cleveland, Ohio and when I say ‘come’ and not ‘came’, then it’s not me being stupid again, no: they are still performing today, although David Thomas, the singer, is the only original member left. ‘Final Solution’ was the band’s second single, ’30 Seconds Over Tokyo’ being the first, and it is highly recommendable as well. Pere Ubu coined the term avant-garage to reflect interest in both experimental avant-garde music (especially musique concrète (a type of music composition that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Sounds are often modified through the application of audio signal processing and tape music techniques)) and raw, direct blues-influenced garage rock.
But now, to the song: recorded in just three hours at the Suma studio, it’s a bleak and morbid worldview, still, despite the title, “Final Solution” was never intended to evoke memories of the Holocaust; it was actually Thomas’ play on a Sherlock Holmes story called “The Final Problem”. When some later punk bands employed Nazi imagery for shock value, Pere Ubu dropped the number from their repertoire to avoid any confusion.
I simply love everything this song offers; the bass guitar it begins with and the solid tempo it keeps throughout all of the song, the drums and the complex lead guitar, the hammering industrial synthesizer: great stuff! But then the solo ends and the singer enters: his voice is raucous, growly, squeaky, he is like no-one you’ve heard before: “the girls won’t touch me”, he protests, but you can’t be certain if it’s because he’s got a misdirection or a missed erection:
mp3: Pere Ubu – Final Solution
A real treat, I’m sure you agree – even more so when you played it good and loud! And especially when bearing in mind when this was written: post-punk before there was even punk to be post!
Enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Great choice. I was about to say I’ve got this on the Datapanik in the Year Zero EP, but of course it’s not on that. The wonderful B-side, Cloud 149, is though. So thanks for the A-side! Like you, Dirk, I’m not paying $700 for anything.
I was lucky enough to catch Pere Ubu at Tiffany’s in Edinburgh in 1981. They were actually more enjoyable than the headliners, Gang of Four (!!) and both bands made the job of openers Delta 5 somewhat invidious. Not a bad line-up though, all for the princely entry fee of three pounds…
I didn’t expected to see Pere Ubu in this series but it’s more than worth to feature them in this series, Dirk. This song is a banger and brings back memories when I saw them in Heidelberg like Fraser did in Edinburgh. Sadly with another line-up because they were supported by Palais Schaumburg.
As much as I’ve heard about Pere Ubu – I’ve never listened to them, till now. In that one track I can can hear what all the ‘fuss’ was/is about. I concur with Dirk re: pre-punk/punk/post-punk. It sounds so post-punk while being pre-punk. Quite the feat. I really will need to explore more.
Flimflamfan
The fact that Pere Ubu hail from Cleveland is incredibly significant. Firstly, by the mid 70s the city was referred to as the “Mistake On The Lake.” Because a few years earlier their Cuyahoga River famously caught fire!. So by the time that Pere Ubu were forming the area’s “rust belt” economic status was fully established. Into this post industrial hellhole came Pere Ubu. Smart cookies who looked around at their surroundings and drew inspiration from the decay.
Secondly, Cleveland was the primary foothold of fandom for the band Roxy Music. WMMS somehow managed to program weird glam-adjacent English music like Bowie, Roxy, and even Cockney Rebel (!) and make them popular on the radio dial. In ways that other large American cities didn’t. So I am certain that Pere Ubu were pretty familiar with the groundbreaking efforts of early Roxy Music. But significantly, unlike any other bands I could name who obviously drew inspiration from them, Pere Ubu listened to that jarring music and went off on absolutely their own tangent with it. No crooning. No slickness. Just the oddness factor was paid attention to. Then the band ramped up the Brechtian framing with aplomb.
Roxy Music had a singer who, early on, sounded like Bela Lugosi trying to croon romantically. In Dave Thomas, Pere Ubu had a singer who sounded like a grizzled Oakie farmer trying to somehow unify Stockhausen and The Seeds. And he succeeded in doing just that. And they are still going strong 50 years later and taking no prisoners. Every time I have seen the band they have never failed to astound.
All hail Pere Ubu.
Fantastic single. Groundbreaking.
Outstanding!