Category: Psychedelic Furs

It was back in 1981 that The Psychedelic Furs released their fifth single in the UK, and the third lifted from their sophomore album Talk Talk Talk:-

mp3: The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink

It’s a gem of a 45, one that was tailor-made for radio and had smash hit written all over it.  But despite the best efforts of all concerned at the record-label, including the gimmick of a free t-shirt included in the initial copies of the 12″ version, it stalled at #43, ensuring that the band, for now, wouldn’t get much beyond cult status and their tours would continue to be at the lower end of the scale, capacity-wise.

There was a very unusual choice of cover song for the b-side:-

mp3: The Psychedelic Furs – Mack the Knife

Written by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera, it is one of those songs that had been much recorded by pop/jazz singers since it had been translated, in 1954, by Marc Blitzstein for an off-Broadway staging of the show. Louis Armstrong is credited with the initial popularity while Bobby Darin took it the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1959.

To be fair to the Furs, their gothic interpretation is quite distant from the chirpy version that had been such a massive hit, with their take being more aligned to the fact that it’s a lyric about a serial killer.

Here’s the third song that was made available on the 12″, together with the free t-shirt:-

mp3: The Psychedelic Furs – Soap Commercial

It is no wonder, listening to this track, which was lifted from the band’s debut album that had been released in 1980, that so many critics lumped The Furs in with the likes of The Cure, The Banshees and Bauhaus.

Fast forward five years and the Hollywood director John Hughes decides to make a movie entitled Pretty In Pink, for which he asked the band to record a new version of the song that had helped inspire the story:-

mp3: The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink (remix)

This one went all the way to #18 in the UK charts and remains the band’s best performance in that regard. It’s a hit that has long proved to have caused a bit of angst in the Furs camp, as this recent press interview with lead singer Richard Butler reveals:-

“He (John Hughes) made it to be literally about a girl that was wearing a pink dress and it wasn’t about that at all. It was about a rather unfortunate girl.

“Me saying pretty in pink meant somebody who is naked. It was a metaphor and he got the wrong end of the stick.

“Given that, the movie did us a lot of good. It was a double-edged sword because it increased our audience but a lot of people that were the darker set of our fans thought: ‘It’s a ‘Brat Pack’ movie scene now and we are not really into that.’”

I think it’s a bit disingenuous, however, not to reflect that Butler & co. were party to an abomination of a remix that had more to do with alienating the long-term fans than the fact it was now linked to a hit movie.

JC

I try hard not to get too overtly political on this blog. But the attitudes and behaviours of Johnson and Trump are beyond belief.

Can’t get this song out of my head:-

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – President Gas

The opening track on the 1982 LP, Forever Now. And while the lines ‘He comes in from the left sometimes, He comes in from the right’ would suggest it is a wider attack on politicians in general rather than anyone specific, it’s worth remembering that the President at the time was Reagan and there were many of us who believed he would have no qualms about pressing the button to fire off some nuclear weapons.

I genuinely am not as scared of Trump as I was of Reagan, but I do think the current PoTUS is a far more dangerous character in that, as a serial liar and absolute egotist, he is unfit to hold any sort of public office far less sit in the White House. Boris the Bampot over here is no different.

While I’m on, here’s the two sides of a fabulous single by The Psychedelic Furs from a year or so earlier:-

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Dumb Waiters
mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Dash

The 7” version is about 90 seconds shorter than the album version. The b-side is an instrumental number and the way the piano and guitars link in the middle of the song always makes me think of a fast version of New Year’s Day by U2.

I had a recollection, which was confirmed by looking it up, that the Dumb Waiters single came with a gimmick, namely that the sleeve could be played as it was in effect a flexidisc which had was an advert for the album, Talk Talk Talk.

Sparks did something similar with a hidden track at the end of the 12” pic disc of Beat The Clock, utilising the vocal talents of the comedian Peter Cook:-

mp3 : Sparks – Ad for #1 In Heaven

JC

A GUEST POSTING by DAVE GLICKMAN

When this new series was first introduced, T(n)VV readers shared a plethora of excellent suggestions. Yet, the first band that came to mind for me was nowhere to be found. Such a definitive example that I began to wonder why others didn’t share my view. I began to run through possible hypotheses:

1. Was the band too obscure?

Hard to believe. Their first five albums were all in the top 30 in the UK and they have been featured at least once on this very site, admittedly with lukewarm praise, at best, from our resident blogger.

2. Did no one remember the period when they “had it”?

I suppose this is possible for some, but I know for sure that, recreational drug use notwithstanding, there are plenty of us 50+ old sods for whom 1980 was smack in the middle of our formative musical listening years.

3. Did readers think that this band never “lost it”?

No, can’t be…

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Heaven

4. Was it actually possible that no one thought they ever “had it”?

Well, I guess that is the case I need to make.

A bit of background cobbled together from the wiki:

The Psychedelic Furs are an English rock band founded in London in February 1977. The band initially consisted of Richard Butler (vocals), Tim Butler (bass guitar), Duncan Kilburn (saxophone), Paul Wilson (drums) and Roger Morris (guitars). By 1979, this line-up had expanded to a sextet with Vince Ely replacing Wilson on drums and John Ashton being added on guitar.

The Psychedelic Furs’ debut, a self-titled album from 1980, was produced by Steve Lillywhite. The LP quickly established the band on radio in Europe and was a No. 18 hit in the UK Albums Chart. The album also found success in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Australia. The US version of the album was re-sequenced, but failed to have a strong commercial impact. The Furs did find success in the US with their next release, 1981’s Talk Talk Talk, which saw the band making its debut on the US Billboard 200 chart. In the UK, the album spun off two charting singles, “Dumb Waiters” and the original version of “Pretty in Pink”.

In 1982, the band was reduced to a four-piece with the departures of Morris and Kilburn…

…and subsequently went completely to shit.

Ah, but for two glorious years at the beginning of the 1980’s, at least among my circle of friends at University, the Furs were discussed in the same breath as Joy Division, Gang of Four, and The Cure as seminal bands in the post-punk movement.

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – India

You could certainly have waited years for a crooner from Manchester to tell you about the drawbacks of societal conventions like marriage or you could have listened to this:

Marry me and be my wife
You can have me all your life
Our love will never end
Parties for our stupid friends….

We will be a part of structure
You will have a face of structure
We will make ourselves a scene
We will live our stupid dream

I am you and you are me
Tie me down I will be free
Our love will have no end

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Fall

And while the commonsense view is that the early Furs sound was driven by Richard Butler’s gravely, atonal vocals, I am of the opinion that Duncan Kilburn was often the key. That’s right, the saxophone player! Now I know that many of you are not big fans of the sax in rock music, but this is not your father’s saxophone. For lack of a better term, I contend that the Furs represented the pinnacle (if not the only) example of Post-Punk Sax.

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Dumb Waiters

It was just a fleeting moment for sure, but for me, The Psychedelic Furs absolutely “had it” before, in pursuit of greater fame and fortune, they threw it all away. Have I convinced you?

DAVE

The Psychedelic Furs are about to get a 14-date American tour underway starting tomorrow, so it seems a good time to have a quick look back at their career. I’m going to lazily crib from the bio on their official website:-

If you sit and talk to many of the alternative rock artists dominating today’s music, you’ll find that many of them pay homage to the The Psychedelic Furs. Led by front man and songwriter Richard Butler, the Furs won over fans and critics alike by combining poetic lyrics, innovative rhythms and melodies driven by an aggressive, punk desperation. Through it all, the band scored major hits with “Love My Way,” “Pretty In Pink,” “Heaven,” “The Ghost In You,” and “Heartbreak Beat” in all releasing seven studio albums and spawning several compilations, a boxed set, and a live concert DVD.

The Psychedelic Furs came together in England’s emerging punk scene in 1977 initially consisting of Richard Butler (vocals), Tim Butler (bass guitar), Paul Wilson (drums), Duncan Kilburn (saxophone), and Roger Morris (guitars). By 1979, this line up had expanded to a sextet with Vince Ely replacing Wilson on drums and John Ashton being added on guitar.

The Furs debut, a self-titled album from 1980 was produced by Steve Lillywhite. The LP quickly established the band at radio in Europe and was a top 20 hit in the UK. The album also found success in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, New Zealand and Australia. The US version of the album was resequenced, yet failed to have as strong a commercial impact.

The Furs did find success in the U.S. with their next release, 1981’s Talk Talk Talk, which saw the band making its debut on the US album charts. In New Zealand, meanwhile, the band became immensely popular, as Talk Talk Talk reached the top ten in the charts, the first in a string of Furs’ albums to chart in the New Zealand Top 10.

In the UK, the album spun off two charting singles, “Dumb Waiters” and the original version of “Pretty in Pink”. The latter song served as inspiration for the 1986 John Hughes film of the same name, and was re-recorded for the film’s platinum-selling soundtrack.

In 1982, the Furs, now a four-piece with the departures of Morris and Kilburn, recorded Forever Now, with producer Todd Rundgren in Woodstock, New York. This album included “Love My Way”, which became yet another UK and US chart hit.

Ely left the band after Forever Now, although he would return for the 1988 single “All That Money Wants” and the 1989 album Book of Days.

The Furs’ 1984 release Mirror Moves was produced by Keith Forsey, and featured the songs “The Ghost in You” and “Heaven”. Both charted in throughout the world, and “Heaven” became the band’s highest charting UK hit at the time. Strangely, however, “Heaven” was never released as a single in the U.S. Instead, Columbia Records opted for “Here Come Cowboys”, despite both international success and heavy MTV airplay for “Heaven”. “Here Come Cowboys” failed to chart, but “The Ghost In You” was a hit single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

By the mid-80s, the band had become a staple on both U.S. college and modern rock radio stations. Simultaneously, they were experiencing consistent mainstream success, placing several singles in the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1986, the band recorded a sax-infused version of “Pretty in Pink” for the soundtrack of the film of the same name. Butler later claimed that the success of “Pretty in Pink” caused the band to be pressured into entering the recording studio to record a follow-up release before they were ready. The result was Midnight to Midnight, their biggest Top 40 success to date, but also a more overtly commercial effort than the Furs had ever recorded before. The album also featured the single “Heartbreak Beat”, which became the Psychedelic Furs biggest hit yet on the U.S. Top 40. The album also featured drummer Paul Garisto and sax player Mars Williams, both of whom continue to tour with the band.

In the wake of Midnight To Midnight, the Furs found themselves dissatisfied with their new commercial direction, and subsequently returned to a rawer sound with “All That Money Wants”, a 1988 track especially recorded for a best-of compilation album “All Of This And Nothing”. 1989’s Book of Days and 1991’s World Outside also saw a return to the earlier Furs’ style.

The Furs’ steady chart success continued with three #1 hits on the newly-established U.S. Modern Rock chart between 1988 and 1991. “All That Money Wants” was a #1 hit in 1988, while “House” topped the chart in 1990, and “Until She Comes” was #1 in 1991.

The band went on extended hiatus in the early 1990s, with the Butler brothers going on to create the band “Love Spit Love” along with guitarist Richard Fortus and drummer Frank Ferrer. Love Spit Love released two albums and enjoyed some chart success as well.

After spending most of the decade apart, the Butlers and Ashton reignited The Psychedelic Furs in 2000, and released a live album Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live, which also featured a new studio recording, “Alive (For Once In My Lifetime).” A DVD version of the performance included live versions of “Alive” and three other previously unreleased songs: “Anodyne (Better Days),” “Cigarette” and “Wrong Train.” Since then, lead singer Richard Butler has released an eponymous solo album produced by Jon Carin, and has hinted at the possibility of a new Psychedelic Furs album.

These days, the band continues to tour around the world. The current Psychedelic Furs touring lineup remains Richard Butler (vocals), Tim Butler (bass), Rich Good (guitar), Mars Williams (saxophone), Amanda Kramer (keyboards), and Paul Garisto (drums).

I’ve not bought anything in the last 30 years and in the build-up to this feature I did give a spin to each of the first four albums and found that quite a lot of it sounds dated and a bit dull and safe.  I certainly didn’t hear too much of the ‘punk desperation’ mentioned in the bio….and what is now more bleedingly obvious than it was back in the day is just how hard they (and/or their record label) tried to package themselves for the American market.  I found myself wondering why it was that I once thought they were an important part of the alternative music scene in the UK in the early 80s when in fact they were really always a mainstream act bordering on the different.

Having said that, it would be very unfair to completely dismiss them.  There’s actually enough listenable early stuff that could be compiled into one reasonably decent album while some of the singles remain infectiously catchy but I feel if you were to be exposed to them on a very regular basis you would soon get irritated.

Oh and they should never have allowed Pretty In Pink to be re-recorded in such a dreadful and cliche-ridden fashion…the sax all but kills it.  Anyways:-

mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Sister Europe (Peel Session)
mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Dumb Waiters
mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – President Gas
mp3 : The Psychedelic Furs – Heartbeat (NY remix)

Be warned, the last of these tracks is more than 8 minutes in length and has a real 80s sounding production….

Enjoy!!