#18: Coffee Table Song : Edwyn Collins (Demon Records, D1064 T, 1989)
The collapse of Elevation Records saw Alan McGee retreat back to Creation, and in doing so he provided a new home for two out of the three acts, Primal Scream and The Weather Prophets. It’s been suggested in some quarters that the reason Edwyn Collins wasn’t offered a similar deal by McGee was that the two had a serious falling-out. Whatever the reason, it meant our hero was in a state of purgatory, with no label and no sign of interest in the UK.
Enter Tom Dokoupil, a Czech-born artist and musician who had been part of the German new wave scene in the early 80s and who later opened Whitehouse Studios in Köln and founded the record label Werk. A long-time fan of Orange Juice, he invited Edwyn to his studio to record some songs, which is why he, and a number of his closest acquaintances including Roddy Frame and Dennis Bovell (among others), could be found in Germany at different times between February and April 1989.
There was more than enough material for an album as well as b-sides for any potential singles. Tom Dokopuil had always been happy to have Werk Records become Edwyn’s new label, but was pragmatic enough when those who were running Demon Records, the London-based label founded back in 1980 by Jake Riviera, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe, got in touch to say they were also interested, to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.
It meant that Edwyn’s debut album, Hope and Despair, was released at the end of May 1989 in Germany on Werk and in the UK, under license, on Demon. It was largely ignored, but that wasn’t too big a surprise given that, in the eyes of almost all the music media, be that the print press or those running radio stations, Edwyn was already the day before yesterday’s man.
The exception was Tim Nicholson, writing in Record Mirror, (the smallest of the four weekly UK music papers in the late 80s), who was happy to give it a four-star review:-
“Ridiculous as it may seem, Hope and Despair is Edwyn’s first solo album. More than four years after Orange Juice dried up, the shakiest voice in pop has done a few stretching exercises.
Seven of the 14 songs on show have been sitting around for three years waiting recorded, but they sound no less fresh for their long shelf life.
Country rock is the home base for the majority of the LP, Edwyn’s preoccupation for the melancholy tales of the hopeless male having difficulty in winning back the indifferent female suiting the style perfectly. The tunes (which is exactly what these are; real tunes) go immediately for familiarity, grabbing a catchy hook and tugging at it constantly.
More important than anything is that Edwyn makes a fab pop star and nothing could be nicer than seeing his sardonic comments back in the pages of Record Mirror. ‘Hope And Despair’ is a much better LP than could have been expected and will, in one fell swoop, put ‘Corny’ Collins back on the map. All hope and no despair.”
The album didn’t make it into the Top 100 in the UK or Germany. A couple of months later, the two labels decided to issue a single, but surprisingly went for a downbeat number, almost five minutes in length and with a waltz-like tempo.
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Coffee Table Song
Werk issued it as a 7″ in Germany, while Demon went for a 12″ only release.
Coffee Table Song was the opening track on the album, so perhaps that was part of the logic. Or maybe it was the one song Edwyn really wanted out there given that the lyric captures him in a reflective mood, perhaps pondering the events of the past couple of years and his continued misfortunes with the record industry:-
What is your number? My number is zero
And what is your colour? My colour is blue
What is your secret? Why that would be telling
Well what is your problem? My problem is you
I’ll turn my back on it all
I’ll stand, and I’ll face
My living room wall
Well that’s really something, that’s really something
What is your star sign? You’ve got to be kidding
Well what is the answer? I wish I knew
What is the time? It’s time I was leaving
Why what is your problem? My problem is you
I’ll turn my back on it all
I’ll stand, and I’ll face
My living room wall
Well that’s really something, that’s really something
Tell me something that I don’t know
Make it brief, to the point, like a fatal blow
Since time out of mind I have loved you so
There’s a place I know where we both could go
I would swim the seven seas
I would crawl upon my knees
Just to get there
I would swim the seven seas
I would crawl upon my knees
Just to get there or be there, somewhere out there
Like a fatal blow, like an open sore
Like a heart that’s torn in two
That’s really something
There were two bits of music on the b-side of the 12″
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Judas In Blue Jeans
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Out There
The first of them, which was also on the 7″, is a very upbeat number. I think the few loyal fans who were buying things at this time, would have been surprised to hear a song that really should have made the cut for the album. The latter is just 57 seconds in length, and it’s Edwyn just playing his guitar. I’ve never regarded it as a song, more a possible idea for working up into something else.
No shock that Coffee Table Song didn’t chart.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 