Category: #magazine45s

Rhythm of Cruelty (VS 251) : Released March 1979 on 7″ 

The most recent appearance of this single came via its inclusion in Dirk‘s memorable series ‘One Hundred and Eleven Singles’, back on 2 May 2024.

Dirk began by saying there can be no argument that Magazine were, in comparison to their peers, more progressive and less traditional. He then posed the question “How did you see this development back in 1978 or thereabouts? I mean, if memory serves correctly, Devoto was seen as a bit of a betrayer to punk when leaving Buzzcocks … just in order to front this strange modern New Wave combo”

His own take on things was that a lot of people rather wasted their time complaining about Devoto having left Buzzcocks and blaming Magazine for that event, rather than closely listening to early Magazine with an open mind.  He is convinced that taking such an approach would have everyone a lot, including the record buying public and, by extension, Magazine as well.

Rhythm of Cruelty, like all the Magazine singles (with the exceptions of #41 hit Shot By Both Sides and later offering Sweetheart Contract which raced to #54 in 1980) failed to trouble the Top 100.  Maybe there’s merit inDirk’s observation that they weren’t really given a fair hearing, as it does seem it was only after they split up did the the accolades and credit come thieir way.

Wiki lists Rhythm of Cruelty as being taken from the album Secondhand Daylight which was released just two weeks after the single. But the fact is, the version issued as a 7″ single is a completely different mix from the album version.

mp3 : Magazine – Rhythm of Cruelty (single version)

The band had worked with a new producer, Colin Thurston, who up to this point was best known as a studio engineer for the 1977 albums Heroes by David Bowie and Lust for Life by Iggy Pop album.  Secondhand Daylight was Thurston’s debut as a solo producer and he would go onto work with The Human League on the album Reproduction later in 1979 before hitting the jackpot with the first two Duran Duran albums in ’81 and ’82.

Rhythm of Cruelty is a much underrated single.  It harks back, in part, to the band’s post-punk roots, as can clearly be heard in the opening bars as well as the cartoon violence of the first two lines spat out by Devoto.  Secondhand Daylight proved to contain a fair degree of prog/krautrock elements, which is an indication of the increasing influence of Dave Formula on keyboards. Compare and contrast….

mp3: Magazine – Rhythm of Cruelty (album version)

The b-side is T.V. Baby.   The music for this one was written by Formula but for much of the song his keyboards are hidden or well back in the mix. Indeed, the most prominent sound for much of its near four minutes is the saxophone playing of McGeoch.  It sounds nothing like any song on Secondhand Daylight, which leads me to think it was always destined for use as a b-side.  As these things go, it’s more than alright

mp3: Magazine – T.V. Baby 

No other singles were released in the UK to support Secondhand Daylight, but over in New Zealand, one of its tracks was issued on 7″

mp3: Magazine – Believe That I Understand

It was backed by Rhythm of Cruelty as the b-side – whether it’s the single or album version, I’m unable to say as this is the one 7″ release from back in the day that I don’t have in my collection and the asking price on the few occasions it pops up on Discogs is just too much.

 

 

JC

Give Me Everything (VS 237) : Released November 1978 on 7″ 

This was originally posted on 8 April 2010 (and re-posted on 7 August 2014) with the title ‘GET IT RIGHT UP YE’

– – – – – – –

For years, I thought that the Factory Records mogul was the brains behind the production of this, the third single from Magazine released on 17th November 1978.

Turns out it was a totally different Tony Wilson…one who for years worked at the BBC. Stupid me…..

For some artistic reason, Howard Devoto insisted that Give Me Everything be released without any marketing campaign and with no review copies to be sent to the music press. Almost as if he wanted it not to succeed. And almost as if he wanted to avoid dealing with any music journalists.

However, the review penned by Dave McCullough in Sounds showed that the strategy somewhat backfired:-

At last I have Howie and his chums sussed. They’re really The Muppets in disguise laughing their scraggy-heads off while the hundred thousand punks STILL take them seriously. This is dreadful – the lyrics proving more cringeworthy even than usual. ‘You’re so oblique and easy’. Look – Howie – you’re as much a poet as Len Fairclough is a poet – so why don’tcha sod off – you baldy little pain?

Or had it backfired?? Howard’s response was to send the journalist a cheque for £10 with the words:-

Your review of Give Me Everything was so unbelievably sympathetic, was so to the point that this £10 of my enthusiastic and shrieking money must go to you. You’re not so oblique but you’re so easy. You must have it. I hope you can see that. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more. Please cash it. Have a Christmas. Howard.

Which was of course printed in full in the following week’s edition of the paper…….an incident that helped inspire the later song Feed The Enemy.

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy

The b-side is a cover of a Captain Beefheart song (now there’s something I never ever got….and as a consequence have nothing of his/theirs on vinyl or CD). It remains one of the most popular Magazine recording ever as evidenced by its inclusion in the sets of the comeback gigs in February 2009.

I wonder if the journo and Howard ever kissed and made up??

Oh and as a wee bonus, here’s yer Peel Sessions versions:-

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything (Peel Session)
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy (Peel Session)

Broadcast on 24 July 1978, some four months before the 7″ single was released.

Happy Listening.

 

JC

Touch and Go (VS 207) : Released April 1978 on 7″ 

This was previously posted on 5 November 2019 with the title ‘THE BARELY REMEMBERED SOPHOMORE SINGLE’

– – – – – – –

A previous instalment of the cracking debut singles series enabled the spotlight to be put on Magazine and the quite majestic Shot By Both Sides, released in January 1978.

It would be a further five months before the debut album, Real Life, hit the shops, comprising just nine tracks, one of which was a re-recording of Shot…., but noticeably absent was the single the band had released in the intervening period.

mp3 : Magazine – Touch and Go

It’s very much a song of its era, relying heavily throughout on the new wave guitar work of John McGeoch while Barry Adamson on bass and Martin Jackson on drums provide ample support as the rhythm section. And of course, there’s the unmistakable whining vocal delivery of Howard Devoto, seemingly almost breathless at trying to keep up with the relentless pace of the playing. It’s almost as if Dave Formula’s dainty keyboard solo, which comes in at exactly halfway through the song, is there to enable the vocalist to get a second wind.

Touch and Go isn’t a bad song. It’s big problem is that it is a very long way removed from the brilliance of the debut 45 and it didn’t have enough going for it to make it stand out among the other post-punk singles that were being released in 1978. It’s also quite unlike the other songs that Magazine were beginning to write and record – compare for instance with the opening track on said debut album:-

mp3 : Magazine – Definitive Gaze

I recently came across a review of Definitive Gaze that described it perfectly – ‘it switches between a sci-fi love theme and the score for a chase scene’ (Andy Kellman, allmusic). Touch and Go feels lumpen and unimaginative in comparison, and while there was ample space for it to be included on the debut album, it was a wise decision to cast it aside.

The b-side to the 7” was a real hoot:-

mp3 : Magazine – Goldfinger

Yup…..a cover of the theme tune to the James Bond movie as penned by John Barry and sung by Shirley Bassey. It’s almost as if Howie & co are auditioning for the right to compose and perform the next again Bond movie. The thing is, they would have certainly done a better job than what was used in the 1979 movie in the series – can anyone, without looking it up, recall what Moonraker sounded like?

Fun fact pop-pickers.

Despite being one of the most instantly recognisable of the Bond theme songs, Goldfinger only got as high as #21 in the UK singles charts in 1964, albeit it performed better in the USA by hitting the Top 10.

In fact, only one James Bond theme song has ever reached #1 in the UK. And very surprisingly, that accolade belongs to Sam Smith and his rendition of Writing’s On The Wall, which was written for Spectre in 2015.

Every day is a school day round here…………

 

 

JC

Shot By Both Sides (VS 200) : Released January 1978 on 7″ 

No apologies offered if, during this short series, I delve into the archives as I’ve written previously about quite a few of the Magazine singles. This was previously posted on 12 January 2018.

– – – – – – –

January 1978.

I was just getting my head around punk/new wave. At 14 years of age, I was still more into playing and watching football than I was getting my kicks from music. All that was to change over the next few years and I think it’s accurate to say that by my 18th birthday in June 1981, my head had been completely turned by some of the most amazing bands and performers who were integral to what we now lovingly refer to as the post-punk era.

It was around then, just as I was about to gear up for going to university that I discovered Magazine – the only problem being that the band were on the verge of breaking up.

There was a really interesting comment left behind not that long ago – I think it was from Drew – in which he said he envied someone discovering a class act fairly late on in their career as there is so much incredibly good music to go back and discover, and this was certainly what happened to me with Magazine. I can’t now begin to imagine being able to develop and expand my musical tastes without owning a copy of The Correct Use of Soap, the band’s third and best album, although there are moments on each of it predecessors, Real Life and Secondhand Daylight, which can held be held up as equally outstanding and memorable.

January 1978 was when Magazine released their debut single. As I said many moons ago when I pulled together an ICA (it was #35 in the series), Shot by Both Sides is one of the great post-punk anthems that had the audacity to reach #41 in the singles charts and somehow trigger off an appearance on Top of The Pops. The sight of Howie & co. – even in an edited two and a bit minutes clip – was something that scared the millions of viewers as sales dropped dramatically the following week and the band didn’t hit the Top 40. Indeed, despite what would become an outstanding catalogue of singles over the next three years, Magazine never got as close to a hit single as the debut.

The tune is one that dates from the fag-end of Devoto’s days with Buzzcocks, as can be seen from Pete Shelley being given a writing credit. Indeed, the latter used the tune himself some ten months later for Lipstick, the b-side to the hit single Promises, albeit, for some strange reason, Devoto’s name totally absent from its credits.

Shot by Both Sides still has the ability, what is now 40 48 years on (FFS!!!!!!!) to amaze and startle. All 3 minutes and 54 seconds of it, from the opening riff to the magnificently timed climax via the snarling, paranoid and terrified sounding vocal. It’s as near a flawless and memorable a debut as there’s ever been. Such a pity that the world wasn’t quite ready to embrace fully what this most extraordinary sounding and looking band were offering.

Time has been very kind to Magazine in that they gained increasingly in popularity in the years after their demise and their comeback from 2009-2011 in which they toured and released a new album was praised and welcomed in equal measures; at long last, the band members made some money. The one down side was the sad and constant reminder that John McGeoch, whose guitar work had been integral to making the band such essential listening, had passed away in 2004, albeit Noko, who was Devoto’s side kick in Luxuria, did a sterling job in difficult and challenging circumstances.

Is Shot By Both Sides their finest 45? I personally don’t think so and would afford that particular accolade to A Song From Under The Floorboards. But nowadays, if I’m down at the old-fogies indie-disco, I think I’d rather hear Shot…..although if truth be told, I’d much rather dance these days to Definitive Gaze which, when played through expensive and modern speakers, does sound as if it’s from another galaxy altogether.

mp3 : Magazine – Shot By Both Sides (single version)
mp3 : Magazine – My Mind Ain’t So Open

PS :

The 2018 post made no reference to the b-side.  My Mind Ain’t So Open, and I want to rectify that.

It’s probably the most directly punk/new wave song the band ever wrote and recorded. You’ll see from the credits that the debut single predates Dave Formula coming on board to add the keyboards that would prove to be such a pivotal part of the band’s sound.  It means that the three musicians playing on the song can thrash away as fast and as carefree as they like under the guidance of producer Mick Glossop, who, as it turned out, wasn’t retained to work on the debut album.

There is no argument that McGeoch would prove to be one of his generations most revered guitarists, but on this one, he kind of dials it in; but in his defence, he was merely aping all his contemporaries.

But please….don’t get the impression that I’m not a fan of this b-side….it’s actually a brilliant two-minute blast of defiantly snotty punk, very much in keeping with a lot of what was being released in 1978.  It’s just that Magazine’s sound would quickly evolve and lead them to places where they were beyond comparison with their peers.

 

 

JC