# 100: Talking Heads – ‘Love → Building On Fire’ (Sire Records ’77)
Dear friends,
whenever you read something about New York’s famous CBGB club around 1975/’76, you can rest assured that four bands are always being cited: Television, Ramones, Blondie …. and Talking Heads. Now, the first three of those don’t come in as too much of a surprise, I’d reckon, but in the back of my mind I always wondered about the latter – I mean, Talking Heads don’t seem to have fitted in there, did they, bearing in mind that everyone was trying to re-invent the New York Dolls without sounding and/or looking like the New York Dolls (I know this is vast generalization, but it’s not too far away from the truth).
Probably this doubt derives from the fact that when you think about Talking Heads, your brain automatically pictures David Byrne in this overblown suit, being all arty and stuff, which was of course much later in their career. But perhaps this is just one of those psychological things your brain cannot fully cope with, like when I look you straight into the eye and ask you a) to concentrate on me and b) to quickly say for 20 times or so „white – white – white – white – white – white – white – white – white – white – white – white“ until I suddenly interrupt you with the question „what do cows drink?!”. Knowing you, most of you will have answered “milk”, you see, which cows don’t drink, at least not over here in Germany. Byrne’s suit is the same thing, of course – and I know because I was an Air Force medic when I was in the army, decades before I got employed to work for some obscure Scottish blogger on all too low wages!
But I digress, again: in their beginnings though, it was all much less grandiose, in CBGB and elsewhere Talking Heads entered the stage in the clothes they had worn all day, they did not try to look any special at all, the same is true for their performance: they just left the stage lights on and started. Also they were just a three-piece then, David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth – something which you will of course already have noticed when looking at the sleeve below – and quite often they opened the night for the Ramones. On one of those occasions, in 1975, Seymour Stein from Sire Records was in the audience, and apparently he was so fond of what he heard that he offered the band a contract – which they declined for a while, because they thought they weren’t yet good enough, that they still had to work on themselves. This apparently was achieved when Jerry Harrison from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers was recruited for lead guitar, but before this happened, they changed their minds, signed with Sire and the first single was recorded – without Jerry Harrison.
Now, all of this boring stuff is important here, because this record presents Talking Heads in quite a different form. Just compare this version of ‘Love → Building On Fire’ (which is supposed to mean ‘Love Goes To Building On Fire’, don’t ask me why) to the one on the most fabulous ‘The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads’ live album: you’ll clearly see (or hear rather) the difference, exploding guitars live whereas here Byrne has a more minimalistic/robotic approach. This, to make that clear, does not mean that I dislike what the band did after this record, not at all. Nor do I prefer this one, or this version rather, in fact the live album was on constant play when I first got my hands upon it in the mid-80s: outstanding, as I said!
mp3: Talking Heads – ‘Love → Building On Fire’
The debut album was released half a year later, and ‘Love → Building On Fire’ was not on it. What was on it though was ‘Psycho Killer’, a song well known to everyone and also a good example to show what would make Talking Heads so very special throughout their career.
But either way, I always liked the very first single very much – in my book, it is well deserved to be included in the singles box.
Quite a number of years ago, 2015/16 to be precise, I pulled together a series on all the singles released by The Style Council. As always with these things, it was the singles released in the UK which were featured, meaning that this one was missed out.
The stomping Walls Come Tumbling Down was selected, in May 1985, as the advance single for band’s second album, Our Favourite Shop. It was a hit, reaching #6, and giving the band its eighth successive Top 20 appearance, with six of those being Top 10. The selection of the politically cynical song, Come To Milton Keynes, as the next single was, on reflection, a bit of a mistake as it stalled at #23, and was therefore something of a flop all things considered.
It was very much a UK release, with the markets in mainland Europe, Japan, the USA, Australia and New Zealand being exposed to a different song altogether from the album:-
mp3: The Style Council – Boy Who Cried Wolf
I’ve mentioned before that this one always reminds me of the break-up of what I felt was a serious relationship in the later years of my student days. An upbeat and uplifting tune which masks a very sad and sentimental lyric, packed with regret and more than an element of self-loathing. It could have been subtitled ‘All Men Are Bastards’. It’s a break-up song which is the complete opposite of The Bitterest Pill, an earlier composition from Paul Weller and one of the most underrated singles released by The Jam, as its narrative came from being blameless for a relationship coming to an end.
I picked up this 7″ in a charity shop a few years ago. It was issued by Polydor Records for the Dutch market.
Its b-side was the same previously unreleased song as had been found on the b-side of Come To Milton Keynes:-
mp3: The Style Council – (When You) Call Me
A rather lovely romantic number, almost perfect for daytime radio, that might well have made a fine single of its own,
JC
PS : The mp3s that should have been included in yesterday’s post on The Fall, but weren’t properly linked, have now been sorted. Apologies for the technical mishap.
A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.
Session #10 was broadcast on this day, 9 July 1986, having been recorded on 29 June 1986.
The tenth session represents the high watermark of The Fall at the zenith of their Beggars Banquet years. A brittle, fresh ‘Hot Aftershave Bop’ writes large Smith’s obsession with US garage punk. While other bands were flirting at the time with the movement that was to become known as goth, ‘R.O.D.’ and ‘Gross Chapel’ demonstrate real dark, gnarled, gothic rock. If this wasn’t enough, ‘US 80s-90s’ is incredible, with Somon Rogers’ machines hovering loudly above the mix.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Hot Aftershave Bop (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – R.O.D. (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Gross Chapel – GB Grenadiers (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – US 80s-90s (Peel Session)
Produced by Dale Griffin, engineered by Mike Engles
Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar, vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Simon Rogers – guitar, keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums;
SWC has never been short of great ideas for features over at No Badger Required. One of the longest-running is ‘Nearly Perfect Albums’, his regular Saturday series and which, at the end of last month, reached #163 with a look at the eponymous debut by Elastica, released on Deceptive Records back in 1993.
He told us he originally had the album on a very long list for inclusion in the series, but removed it a while back because it maybe wasn’t as near perfect as he’d first thought. One day, the song Never Here came up on random shuffle and it made him think again. His subsequent post about the debut album in a way has inspired me to come up with an ICA. Here’s SWC:-
“Foolishly I thought I was tired of ‘Elastica’ bored perhaps of it or more probably I’d just stopped listening to it, but the truth is ‘Elastica’ is a tremendous record. It arrived at just the right time, just as Britpop was becoming, well Britpop and the thing about it that made it stand out back in 1993 was how Elastica as a band stood head and shoulders above nearly all the other indie guitar bands that were surfacing at the time.
..ultimately it was mainly about the tunes with Elastica. . Their songs were punchy and catchy and quite often blatant rip-offs of songs by Wire, but Elastica didn’t care and made us not care either. Elastica made us dance and smile.”
He does go on to suggest that you should forget about the second album, and in fact the entirety of the rest of their back catalogue and think of them as the greatest one album band that ever existed, with an impact that remains solid to this day. It’s hard to disagree, but I will find some space for a couple of later songs on the ICA.
Let’s get some facts established. Elastica’s entire recorded output isn’t massive but it’s perhaps marginally bigger than most folk think.
There were four singles prior to the debut album, all between 1993 and 1995. There was a gap of four years till 1999, by which time the original line-up had splintered when a six-track EP was issued. A single, followed by the second studio album, was the output in 2000, and finally, there was a stand-alone single in 2001, followed by a 21-song CD compilation drawn from sessions recorded for BBC Radio One.
Some songs, initially recorded for BBC sessions, would have the titles changed by the time they made it to any official release. All told, I came up with 44 different songs for consideration that have been whittled down to this 12-track ICA (the running time of a 10-track ICA would be too short).
SIDE A
1. Stutter
Where it all started. The ‘classic’ line-up of Elastica, comprising Justine Frischmann (vocals, guitar), Donna Matthews (guitar. vocals), Annie Holland (bass) and Justin Welch (drums) had been together since late 1992, and were soon being highlighted as ‘ones to watch’ by the UK music papers and monthly magazines, whose contributors were clearly delighted to have that rare thing of a decent band from right on their doorsteps to go and see and subsequently write about.
The debit single was released in the UK on 1 November 1993 and on 7″ vinyl only. A fast-paced and energetic number which was very obviously heavily influenced by the new wave/post-punk era, with a wry lyric about drunken impotence and the excuses offered up by non-performing males. It still sounds great more than 30 years on. I never picked up a copy of the single, but was aware of it thanks to it being voted in at #38 in the Peel Festive 50, despite having only been released just a month previously.
I finally picked up the song on CD, courtesy of being one of 18 songs on the NME Singles of The Week 1993 compilation, which I recall buying in early February 1994, just after I’d seen Elastica play at King Tut’s in Glasgow. It was an excellent, if short performance, and I came away knowing I had all the neccesary evidence that the band was worthy of the hype accorded them by the London-based papers.
2. Vaseline
Sex was always a big factor in the appeal of the band. All four members were cool and incredibly good-looking in totally different ways. The debut single, of course, hadn’t shied away from messy sex, and one of their next songs to come to wider attention is, according to SWC, ‘possibly the greatest song about female masturbation ever.’.
Vaseline was aired on via a Peel Session in December 1993, the first of what would be four such sessions for his show, while there would also be three others over the years for other Radio 1 DJs. The Peel session version of the song is, as you’d expect, a bit rough’n’ready. Their next version to reach the public was the demo, issued as a b-side to the single Line Up. I feel they nailed it best on the debut album, especiallt that ‘la la la las’ which sound so like Blondie in their 1979 pomp, and that’s the version on offer today.
3. Car Song
Let’s talk some more about sex. Car Song, from the debut album, is about enjoying a bit of what I used to refer to as ‘bare-bum-boxing’ in the cramped confines of the back seats of small vehicles, with Ford and Honda referenced in the lyric. Despite the subject matter, it was actually released as a single in the USA in January 1996, promoted in part by a Spike Jonze-directed video, elements of which clearly inspired the Beastie Boys when it came to ideas for Intergalactic a few years later. Incidentally, if you’re wondering why Annie Holland is absent from the video, then that’s down to her having left the band in August 1995, citing exhaustion from the constant touring.
4. How He Wrote Elastica Man
Other than one BBC Radio One session in July 1996, the band were incredibly quiet for over four years. It would later transpire that personality clashes, issues around drug dependencies, ill-health and a touch of writers-block had contributed to major problems behind the scenes. The sudden and unexpected release in mid-August 1999 of the Elastica 6 Track EP didn’t contain too many clues as to what had been happening, but Justine later explained that it wasn’t a big comeback release but instead was intended to try and capture for posterity what some of the recordings in the intervening period. The highlight was its opening track, one on which Mark E Smith offers a co-vocal and on which Julia Nagle, a member of The Fall between 1995 and 2001, is given a credit for the lyric. A different recording of the song would later appear on The Menace, the second and final Elastica album, released some eight months later.
5. Rock ‘n’ Roll (Mark Radcliffe Session)
A year after the debut album had gone to #1 in the UK, the band was invited to record a new session for the Marc Radcliffe show on BBC Radio One. Such sessions normally were made up of four songs, and bands often took the opportunity to play some new material. Elastica played four old songs, two of which had been on the album while the other two were what could be described as obscure, consisting as they did of previous b-sides. Rockunroll had, like Vaseline mentioned above, been a b-side on Line Up, but here it was with a slightly different title and harder edge airing on national radio almost two years on. It’s not their greatest moment, but it makes it onto the ICA for its ‘novelty’ factor.
6. Never Here
The song which caused SWC to reconsider the debut album as being worthy of inclusion in his series. At just under four-and-a-half minutes, it is the longest in the entire Elastica catalogue, and perhaps that is the key to why it such a great one to listen to. It is supposedly about Justine’s break-up with Brett Anderson with whom she had formed Suede in 1989, only to take her leave of the band when the relationship ended.
SIDE B
1. Line Up
This was the band’s second single, released in January 1995. It reached the Top 20 of the singles chart a couple of weeks later, so you can imagine that the live show I saw at King Tut’s around this time was a hot ticket, and I’m convinced the numbers in attendance was a fair bit over the venue’s official capacity. The sort of thing that nowadays would piss me off but back then, at the age of 31, it was an enjoyably hot and sweaty night.
The relationship between Justine Frischmann and Damien Albarn was all over the music papers, and on hearing Line Up, I was convinced that he was a silent partner when it came to writing Elastica’s songs, such was this one’s similarities to the Modern Life Is Rubbish era of Blur. Other folk thought Line Up was awfully similar to I Am The Fly and that Elastica were mere plagasists of Wire. I wasn’t so sure at that point in time……..
2. Connection
3. See That Animal
…..and then came the next ‘big’ song from the band. Those making that plagiarism accusations were given all the ammunition they needed with Connection, a song that had aired in a BBC Session in March 1994 and later released as the third single in October 1994. It is impossible to deny that its opening was identical to Three Girl Rhumba, a song that had been written and recorded by Wire for their 1977 album, Pink Flag. Connection was credited to Frischmann/Elastica which rather pissed off the members of Wire. It all ended up in the hands of lawyers, and in due course an out-of-court settlement was agreed.
The b-side to Connection was a bit of an oddity in that the writing credits are attributed to Brett Anderson/Justine Frischmann/Elastica, which clearaly indicates See That Animal was an early Suede song, but one that not taken any further. Its inclusion on the ICA is, again, more to do with the novelty factor, albeit it is one that wouldn’t have sounded too out of place on Elastica’s debut album.
All this stuff about ripping-off other bands must surely have made everyone wary going forward.
4. Waking Up
The song chosen to immediately preceed the release of the debut album. Waking Up is probably the most readily identifiable of all the Elastica songs and it did provide them with their biggest selling single, entering and peaking at #13 in February 1996, just a few weeks before the album entered at #1 prior to enjoying a 12-week stay in the Top 50 all the way through to mid-summer.
Guess what? It was another that led to a lawsuit, this time from the Stranglers, who won the arguement that Waking Up took the riff from No More Heroes. Again, it was settled out of court and this instance, part of the settlement involved Elastica agreeing to co-credit the Stranglers as song writers.
5. Generator
The credits on the back of The Radio One Sessions CD, released in October 2001, helps to highlight how often the personnel changed and helps illustrate the choas surrounding the band.
The five sessions between August 93 and March 95 feature the ‘classic’ line-up.
The sixth session, in July 1996 has Sheila Chipperfield playing bass in place of the departed Annie Holland, with the sound being augmenteed by Dave Bush, a past member of The Fall, coming in on keyboards.
The seventh and final session, for John Peel, in September 1999 had six musicians involved. Justine Frischmann and Justin Welch remained ever-presents and now Annie Holland was back in fold; however, Donna Matthews was no longer involved, having left a few months earlier, unable to cope with her heroin addiction. Dave Bush had shifted from keyboards to programming, and coming in new were Sharon Mew (keyboards) and Paul Jones (guitar).
The Menace, the second Elastica album would eventually be released in April 2000, having been recorded, in the main, by the six musicians who played on that September 1999 Peel session. But a number of the songs on the album were taken from earlier recording sessions on which Donna Matthews had played prior to her departure and on which Sheila Chipperfield had played prior to Annie Holland’s return. Given how messy it all was, it’s not really too much of a surprise that the overall quality of the album is lacking, but I’ll argue that Generator is more than listenable.
6. The Bitch Don’t Work
Deceptive Records had closed down in early 2021, and their American label dropped Elastica following the poor sales of The Menace. Sessions for an intended third album were abandoned and in October 2001, Justine Frischman spoke to the NME:-
“Yes, we have split up. It’s actually not official yet. We’ve got a Peel Sessions album coming out and we’ve got a farewell single coming out. I’m actually hugely relieved, to be honest. I’m feeling much happier. I don’t want to say I’ve got other projects, because it’s such a cliche, but I have. It will be music, I’m not suddenly going to have an acting career.”
The farewell single was released by Wichita Recordings in November 2001, and it makes sense to close off the ICA with it.
So there you have it. 12 songs from Elastica, neatly wrapped around the story of how they came to be, how they came to enjoy success, how it all unravalled and how it ended.
A damn near perfect debut album and some decent enough stuff from elsewhere.
The Lucksmiths were a very well-thought of Australian indie-pop band, with eight albums between 1993 and 2008. The bass player was Mark Monnone, and when the band broke-up, he embarked on a solo career using the rather obvious but brilliant name of Monnone Alone.
The debut album, Together At Last, was released in 2013, a year when Monnone Alone appeared at Indietracks, with one of the album tracks finding its way onto the celebratory compilation for that year’s festival.
mp3: Monnone Alone – Echoing Days
It really does evoke the spirit of C86, and therefore I’m willing to wager that the appearance of our Australian friend in deepest Derbyshire in 2013 went down well.
#19: It’s Not The End Of The World? (2002, Epic, 672175 6)
These days, when a band releases a new album, you get four or five “singles” released from it before it’s even out! It leaves very little left to discover when you do eventually get to hear the full record, and chances are all the best tracks have been out for weeks. Way back yonder, it was very different – one single, then the album, then two or three more singles to keep the album in consumers’ minds for a while longer.
Six months after ‘Rings Around The World’ hit the shelves, January 2002 in fact, a third and final single was issued from it. Now, as I said last week, ‘Rings…’ is not meant to be taken as a collection of individual songs, it is a proper old-fashioned album – it’s meant to be listened to as a whole. This might explain why the choice of singles from it were not exactly the best. If it were me, I’d have put out Sidewalk Serfer Girl, maybe an edit of Run! Christian, Run! if I could make it work, or even the brilliantly bonkers Receptacle For The Respectable. Instead, the band (or label, not sure who made those decisions) opted for this one:
mp3: It’s Not The End Of The World? [edit]
(The full album version was released across all formats, but I thought I’d post this ever-so-slightly shorter version which featured on a radio promo CD, never commercially issued anywhere! You’re welcome.)
For perhaps the first time, it’s a single that divided the critics, with the words “bland” and “a bit rubbish” being used in reviews, certainly not things the band had previously experienced. And I kind of get it. It was never a big fave of mine, though in the context of the album it’s OK, but I never would have had it down as a single.
As for what it’s about – Gruff described it as “a romantic song about getting old”, with lyrics touching on the very real possibility of human extinction. “When people talk about saving the world they’re really talking about saving humans. The reality is that humans are the problem […] maybe we’ll all die but the world’ll still be here, even if it’s a dark, singed piece of rock flying around the sun”.
A bit like the first of the singles from ‘Rings Around The World’, the b-sides to this one were better than the a-side. Again, there was no 7”, but the CD, cassette and DVD (yes, a DVD single!) all contained these two:
mp3: The Roman Road
mp3: Gýpsy Space Muffin
I have to say, while this period didn’t produce the best singles, some of the band’s very best b-sides exist here. The Roman Road is right up there with Patience, Edam Anchorman and Tradewinds as the best SFA songs you never heard. It’s a fabulous bit of country-rock with a very hummable chorus, glorious harmonies and some pedal steel – an instrument they’d work with more in the near future. The other b-side is perhaps a more conventional throwaway little thing, but it does have enough psychedelic glam-rock charm to lift it above the a-side in terms of interest.
Now, for your bonus tracks this week, a little bit of a special treat. I have a bootleg of Super Furry Animals playing in Chicago during their 2002 US tour. It’s an audience recording, but it sounds decent. Firstly, you’re getting a live version of today’s featured track which featured in the set:
mp3: It’s Not The End Of The World? [live at the Metro, Chicago]
As an added bonus, I’m giving you the track they closed that set with. Since the ‘Guerrilla’ sessions, Cian, Bunf, Guto and Daf had formed their own side project. They called themselves Das Koolies, and while their name was floated around in fans forums here and there, no one really knew if they actually existed. Over the years, Das Koolies made a number of electronic-heavy recordings, but never released anything. Until… in 2021, some years after SFA broke up, Das Koolies started releasing stuff, reworked and remixed from their horde. In 2023, they put out their debut album, which opened with a big-beat stomper called Best Mindfuck Yet. Where am I going with this? Well, more than two decades earlier, during that live show in Chicago, some of Super Furry Animals performed this as an encore:
mp3: Best Mindfuck Yet [live at the Metro, Chicago]
It’s an early version of the song that would otherwise remain locked in the Super Furry vaults for 20 years! Both these tracks have never been officially released, so enjoy. Again, you’re welcome.
Here’s another lot of whom I knew nothing until their inclusion on the Big Gold Dreams box set.
Coming straight out of Bishopbriggs, The Exile were the sound of the (Glasgow) suburbs.
Formed by Graham Scott, who cut his musical teethin pre-punk rockers Free Flight before The Exile’s school tie and leather jacketed quartet released the four-track ‘Don’t Tax Me EP’ on their own Boring Records.
As well as ‘Hooked On You”s slice of scratchy would-be power pop, the record featured ‘Fascist DJ’ about Radio Clyde’s Tom Ferrie who had helped spearhead Glasgow’s ‘ban’ on punk gigs. The Exile had fallen foul of the ban by way of a cancelled show with The Jolt, Johnny & The Self Abusers and The Cuban Heels. There followed a one-off single on Charly Records and an appearance of their track ‘Disaster Movie’ on Beggar Banquet’s compilation, ‘Streets’, before The Exile morphed into the Television-inspired Friction, fizzling out after another single on Boring.
mp3: The Exile – Hooked On You
If I had been serving on a Jukebox Jury back in 1977, I’m afraid I’d have called this out as a miss.
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before.
I’ve written about Father Sculptor a couple of times on this version of the blog, but they were all over the old, original version of TVV that was blown out of the water by Blogger back in July 2013. If you don’t mind me recapping……
It began in February 2011 when I went along to a gig at King Tut’s at the suggestion of Drew (Across The Kitchen Table); there was a huge buzz about a band called Spector and we both wanted to see what the fuss was about. To be honest, they were dull and not worth bothering about.
But we were both taken by the appearance of one of the support bands – Father Sculptor – and in the subsequent review of the gig on the old blog I raved about them. To my total surprise, an e-mail appeared in the Inbox a few days later from the band, not only thanking me for the kind words but telling me they were avid readers of The Vinyl Villain, and it had meant a lot to them to get a mention.
Thus began regular exchanges of correspondence – I was usually among the first to get a listen to their new material which they would in due course post online at their website, always without fail giving it very positive mentions on the blog. The bands consisted of five young men, all studying in Glasgow, although none were actually from the city. In time, they began to get a wider press with positive write-ups in the NME and The Guardian newspaper, as well as a range of web-based music outlets.
The band scrimped and saved towards their ambition of actually making a physical record instead of merely making things available as downloads, and I was thrilled, delighted and honoured when they asked if I could promote a show for them in Glasgow for the launch of what would be a self-financed debut EP on 12″ vinyl.
The gig took place in Stereo on Saturday 13 April 2013. There was a more than decent turnout and the boys played a terrific set. I spent some time with them the following morning, during which it hit me that while they were possibly on the verge of greatness, there were some things that could easily tear them apart. It felt that they weren’t a completely cohesive unit in the social sense, and so there were bound to be fall-outs, especially given how young and relatively inexperienced they were; furthermore, they would soon be reaching a stage when they were no longer students and facing the situation of needing to find employment of some sort or other, which was more than likely to impact on their continued abilities to rehearse, write and possibly record.
I’ve no idea what happened next. It turned out that the EP was their only physical release and Thomas David (vocals), Joseph (guitars), Felix (drums), Matthew (keyboards, vocals) and Phil (bass) must have, as I feared, gone their separate ways.
Just about everything can be listened to over at this YouTube page. But I thought it would be worth offering up the songs from the EP:-
mp3 : Father Sculptor – Basilica
mp3 : Father Sculptor – Sault
mp3 : Father Sculptor – The Swim
mp3 : Father Sculptor – Lowlands
mp3 : Father Sculptor – Swallowed In Dreams
So much potential that was never realised……but then again, the music industry is littered with such stories.
I know, I know. You wait ages for a post about Simple Minds, and two come along in very quick succession. These things happen…..
I thought I’d try and be smart with this one. Knowing that Jonny the Friendly Lawyer was a huge fan of Derek Forbes, the original bass player with Simple Minds, I thought he’d like to read the band biography, written by Scottish author Graeme Thomson, and so I took a copy over as one of a number of gifts that myself and Rachel wanted to pass onto him and Goldie as our way of saying thanks for inviting us to their home in Santa Monica for an extended stay. I did suggest that, if he wanted, he could submit a review for inclusion as part of this monthly series, and he has very kindly done so.
Here’s Jonny………
“JC asked me to write a review of ‘Themes for Great Cities, A New History of Simple Minds‘ by Graeme Thomson. My one word review is: unreadable. I like Simple Minds okay, or did for the first few albums. I was definitely an admirer of bassist Derek Forbes. But I do NOT recommend this book because of the hopelessly overwrought writing. It contains passages like the following:
Page 1: “I hear the otherworldly pulse of ‘In Trance as Mission’, with its ‘holy backbeat’ and the hopscotch skip of the bassline, like a loved-up heart murmur, or a dog running on three legs, forever slipping off the pavement edge.” (Italics in original.)
Page 120: “In this band, everybody is playing a different part. They’re like a succubus for the music, it is just flowing through them. They are doing what the unit they have formed demands of them. When you’re a band you become some weird symbiotic organism. You recognize body language, you start looking at each other’s books and magazines, you start noticing what part of the papers you all read. You find each other. When a band clicks you just know it, and it’s beautiful.”
Page 193: “Large parts of the two albums are simply beautiful, opening out slowly like long sunsets, dark orange and charcoal.”
Page 256: “The core bass line is, in some respects, the logical destination of Forbes as a bass player – from maximalist ‘X’ and ‘Y’ shapes to one minimalist ‘D’ note repeating ad infinitum. Rhythm pared back to its essence, the eternal cosmic throb.”
Dancing about architecture, to say the least. I don’t know if Thomson is a frustrated poet, or a starstruck fanboy, or is simply given to flights of extravagant, unnecessary prose, or what.
I guess the book includes subjects like how the band got together and recorded and performed, but it’s buried underneath endless steaming piles of superfluous verbiage. Simple Minds are a pretty popular band–there’s got to be a better written biography out there than this one.
Jonny
Oh dear……the song selected doesn’t quite fit.
mp3: Simple Minds – Book of Brilliant Things
From Sparkle In The Rain, released in February 1984, and the last studio album from the early era to which Derek Forbes contributed.
Finally, for today. You’ll recall that I ran a competition for two folk to win a copy of the June Book of the Month, the rather fabulous You’re Doing It All Wrong : My Life As A Failed Rock Star (In The Best Band You’ve Never Heard) by Michael M.
Thanks to everyone who entered. The two names drawn out of the hat were mnfennell and papa stew. My huge thanks to everyone who entered. I’ll likely run another competition of some sorts towards the end of the year.
I couldn’t be bothered watching the BBC coverage of Glastonbury. Down at the bottom of the road, in a nearby park, Simple Minds were trying their best to play the loudest ever outdoor gig in Glasgow. I sat down at the laptop, fired up the appropriate programme and got on with the task of coming up with the latest hour-long mix for the blog.
Job done. I gave it a listen. Was happy with the outcome.
But, try as I might, I couldn’t come up with a killer title after what had been a long day – it was now just after 11pm and the folk at the gig were now getting into their cars, slamming the doors shut and starting their engines. Sleep would still be a while away.
I went to Chat GPT (I know….I know!!!).
I typed in ‘What name should I give to a music mix with the following songs?’ and listed all 18 tunes.
This is what came back:-
Awesome mix! It’s got a great range of styles—funky, indie, alternative, and some classic bangers. Here are a few name ideas that might capture the vibe:
1. “Eclectic Frenzy” – Reflects the mix of genres and the energetic feel of the playlist. 2. “Tales From The Underground” – For a collection that has both depth and some edge. 3. “Sonic Mischief” – A nod to the “fun lovin'” vibe with a bit of rebellious energy. 4. “Waves & Whispers” – Mixing the laid-back sounds of some tracks with the intensity of others. 5. “Criminally Good” – A playful take on the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, with a nod to the rock and indie influences. 6. “Twisted Melodies” – For the mix of unexpected twists in sound and style. 7. “Offbeat Anthems” – Reflecting both the alt and indie influence, with some quirky throwbacks. 8. “Shadows & Lights” – Inspired by the contrast of dark and light themes in the mix, from moody to uplifting. 9. “Fuzzy Frequencies” – Captures the overall raw, fuzzy vibe some tracks bring. 10. “Rolling Through the Spectrum” – A playful nod to the wide range of styles and moods in the tracklist.
Pretty pish, eh?
I slept on it. And had a lightbulb moment, of sorts, in the morning. Thank you MES.
mp3: Various – Desperate For Entertainment
Beastie Boys – The Blue Nun
Fun Lovin’ Criminals – The Fun Lovin’ Criminal
Super Furry Animals – Golden Retriever
Robert Forster – I Don’t Do Drugs I Do Time
The Fall – A Lot Of Wind (Peel Session)
Radiohead – Paranoid Android
All Saints – Pure Shores
Hifi Sean ft. Crystal Waters – Testify
Working Men’s Club – Widow
Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love?
The Popguns – Waiting For The Winter
R.E.M. – Star 69
Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure
Fontaines D.C. – Big
The Flatmates – I Could Be In Heaven
Close Lobsters – Skyscrapers of St Mirin
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll
The Duckworth Lewis Method – Rain Stops Play
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 