For a while now, I’ve found it difficult to come up with fresh Imaginary Compilation Albums, and have been relying increasingly on guest contributions to help out.
I do sometimes get inspiration from other folk, even when they don’t realise just how helpful they’ve been. In this instance, it’s a ‘chapeau’ to Rol, of My Top Ten fame, as one of his posts back in early August, mentioned the National Media Museum in Bradford and the Eurovision Song Contest, and contained a list of almost 20 songs with the word ‘Europe’, ‘European’ or ‘Euro’ in their title, all of which delivered a light bulb above my head moment.
Side 1
I came across an article recently which pointed out Johnny Marr, with the release of his new album, The Age of Everything, has now made more solo LPs than he ever made with The Smiths. I’m not going to claim that all his solo material makes for essential listening, but the good tunes more than outnumber the duds. This is from the first of those solo efforts, The Messenger, which dates back to 2013.
Massive Attack – Euro Euro Zero
Massive Attack recorded and released Eurochild for their second studio album, Protection, back in 1994. Fast-forward four years, and the song was revisited and remixed as one of the extra tracks on the CD single of Teardrop. I didn’t think they could better the original, but they did.
The Clash – Safe European Home
Track 1 of Album 2, released in 1978 with a heavier, more rock-orientated sound than the debut.
Safe European Home might be a fast, vibrant and noisy song, but its lyric recalls one of the saddest events in Joe Strummer and Mick Jones time together in The Clash. They had travelled to Jamaica in late 1977 with the aim of writing sings that would be inspired by the reggae and dub scene they so much adored. Instead, they found themselves stunned by the level of poverty and crime in the community, and, to their dismay and shock, they were unable to assimilate into the local culture. They ended up spending almost all their time stuck in their expensive hotel just waiting for the day to arrive when they could fly back to where they would feel safe.
As someone else once sang, ‘life is a cabaret old chum, so come to the cabaret.’
The opening track on the band’s second album, Songs For Swinging Lovers, released in 2010. It might seem like David and Julia are savaging the entire continent, but it really is just them celebrating the demise of the decadent era.
The Stranglers – European Female
January 1983 saw The Stranglers release a new single, the first from what would be their seventh studio album, Feline. It was about as far removed as could be imagined from the loud, raucous and often offensive songs with which they had made their name in the latter part of the 70’s. Jean-Jacques Burnel, the band’s bassist was English-born to French parents, and he wrote European Female to celebrate his identity and his love, not just for France, but the wider continent. Oh, and he happened to be dating a French ballerina at the time. It really is a classy and timeless piece of music.
Side 2
Denim – Here Is My Song For Europe
Side two kicks off with a bit of glam(ish) rock with a track from Denim‘s debut album, Back In Denim, released in 1992. Until I saw Rol’s post, I had no idea that Lawrence et al. had mimed this on Popadoodledandy.
And if you’re wondering what Popadoodledandy is….it was a pop music show written and devised by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, for which one pilot show was recorded in 1992, following which Channel 4 were prepared to go ahead with a series back in the day, but the comedy duo chose to sign a new exclusive contract with BBC TV. The pilot was eventually broadcast in 2012, and even then it went out at some ungodly hour. You can easily find the clip on YouTube, complete with post-performance ‘interview’ with Lawrence.
It was a flip of the coin to go with the original Hib-Tone single from 1981 or the re-recorded version that appeared on debut album Murmur in 1983. You’ll just have to listen to find out.
A 1998 dancey single from the Scottish popsters that was released on Wiiija records in the UK and on Grand Royale, the label owned by the Beastie Boys, in the USA. The lead vocal is, unusually, taken by the band’s guitarist Sci-Fi Steven, and not Manda Rin. Oh, and it was produced by Andy Gill, the late guitarist/vocalist in Gang of Four
The Delgados – Big Business In Europe
More Scottish posters, this time with a punky sounding effort from the 1996 debut album Domestiques.
It’s just hit me that this side of the ICA has been full of pace and energy. In which case, of all the many songs still on the long list for inclusion, there is one clear and obvious choice to close things out.
The Fall – Australians In Europe (Peel Session)
Recorded on 25 April 1987 and broadcast on 19 May 1987, this sees The Fall doing a full-tilt rock number for the best part of six minutes. It’s impossible not to tap your feet to this one. The marginally less frantic studio version would emerge in mid-October 1987 as the b-side on the 12″ release of Hit The North.
Thanks again to Rol for the inspiration.
Nice comp! And Clash ftw, obviously. Damn, it still hurts that the Stranglers turned so lame.