Flashback: Scritti Politti

Scritti Politti (here)--one of my favorite groups from yesteryear, and a highly influential outfit fronted by Green Gartside, previously here--just added to their Youtube channel some rarely seen versions of videos for two songs from their sophomore release "Cupid and Psyche '85."

"Perfect Way" opens the album, and "The Word Girl" is the first track on side two. Aside from the music (melodies that are "pop" but also musically skewed, a bit like Sondheim...the notes don't always go where one's ear wants them to go) and the instrumentation (while other musical acts of the time used sequencers, they really were the kings), just look at Green Gartside and his sheer, pure, breathtaking beauty. Seriously. And that voice...like an angel.

I saw them live in San Francisco many years ago...but they just performed "Cupid and Psyche '85" in its entirety at venues across the UK this past September and October. Oh, how I wish I could have seen that.

https://www.scritti.net/

"Welcome To The Pleasuredome" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

I am feeling love and nostalgia today for the amazing opening track--actually a suite that occupies the entire first side of the original vinyl album--"Welcome To The Pleasuredome" from the album of the same name by Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Super group Frankie Goes To Hollywood was a super sensation when they released their debut double album "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" in 1984. Before the album's release, they had caused quite a stir with their song "Relax" and subsequent S&M-themed video. And the iconic Frankie Say tee shirts became ubiquitous throughout the mid-80s. I worked at Tower Records when this record came out and still have my original Frankie Say Relax tee!

Inspired by the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, this opening track, complete with animal and jungle sound effects, comes in at a glorious 13:38, while the single version clocks in at a mere 4:20. Here is the full suite:

And if you can't get your fill in the thirteen minute version, check out this awesome FORTY minute remix!

The group reunited in 2004 for a Prince's Trust charity performance staged at London's Wembley Arena to mark the 25th anniversary in show business of producer Trevor Horn, who made his name overseeing hits by artists like the Buggles, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Yes, and ABC. Lead singer Holly Johnson refused to participate so they held open auditions for a substitute lead singer. Fortunately for all FGTH fans, they found Ryan Molloy. Just listen to that powerful moment when we hear Molloy's voice for the first time, like a young Holly. Take a gander at the smokey eye make-up, the mirrored aviators, the Berber shrug, the beautiful mop of blond, and the toned torso. I don't miss Holly at all. Molloy's performance is inspired and masterful.

https://www.frankiesay.com/
https://www.facebook.com/fgth.official/
http://www.ryanmolloy.com/

O.M.D.

I'm feeling some nostalgia and love today for the early sounds of the electronic/New Romantic (in my mind) group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Despite their few pop chart successes, I will always think of them as an experimental sound band.

"Messages" is from their self-titled 1980 debut release. I bought this when it came out.

Their second album "Organisation" never had a proper release here in the United States, so when the first album was later released after this one, it included this incredibly atmospheric, beautiful song "Stanlow" named after an oil refinery in England, and the measured, melancholy "Statues."

From 1981, "Souvenirs" and "Maid of Orleans" is from their third album "Architecture and Morality" which is listed in the book 1001 ALBUMS YOU MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE.

One of their most experimental records was the amazing, dystopian 1983 release "Dazzle Ships," with its musique concrète sound collages, the use of shortwave radio recordings to explore Cold War and Eastern Bloc themes thus conjuring up images of life among Brutalist architecture, and references to a frightening type of post World War II technology including genetic engineering. The title itself is a reference to a way of painting war ships in a way that disorients the viewer. The album opened with the sound collage "Radio Prague." Highlights are "Genetic Engineering," "Time Zones" (recordings of the time in French, German, Japanese, and American English, all players in the second World War), "The Romance of the Telescope," the unsettling "ABC Auto-Industry," and "Of All The Things We've Made."

See these arms that were broken
How they held you so
Never once did they fail you
They won't let you go

We're just waiting, looking skyward
As the days come down
Someone promised there'd be answers
If we stayed around

Over decades, now this romance
Has sustained us all
Never questioned, only giving
What it made us for

To want this
Of everything we've made
The times it's worked before

Of all the things we've said
The times it's worked before today

To want this
Of everything we've made
The times it's worked before

Of all the things we've said
They always worked before today

As of 2020, OMD are still active and creating amazing electronic music!

http://www.omd.uk.com/

Currently listening to...

...a retro moment of "Pretty In Pink" and "Dumb Waiters" by The Psychedelic Furs. I had a flash of these songs in my mind and got out my old vinyl...

Formed in 1977 as an art rock/punk outfit by lead singer Richard Butler and his brother Tim on bass, The Psychedelic Furs became one of the staples of the 80s music scene. Their first album, the self titled "The Psychedelic Furs" was a marvel both sonically (the small group included a saxophone! I can only think of one other group from that time period to use a saxophone so effectively and that is Romeo Void) and lyrically, with a sharp spartan sound and strange dream-like narratives with recurring motifs of everyday objects.

It was their 1981 sophomore effort, "Talk Talk Talk" that brought them to wider attention with their song "Pretty In Pink" which inspired John Hughes to make a film of the same name. While the song was used in the film, lyricist Richard Butler later said that the film had nothing whatsoever to do with the original intent of the surreal, doom-y lyrics. For this kaleidoscopic portrait of an enigmatic woman and her suitors, the main character Caroline makes her second appearance here after appearing in a song called "India" from their first album. Even after all this time, the song holds up. It sounds like it could have been made today (albeit with some better recording equipment, although I actually really like the lo-fi sound). And the video...well, I watched it on MTV when such a thing existed. I just love the hallucinogenic, Alice-In-Wonderland feel of it.

Caroline laughs, and it's raining all day
She loves to be one of the girls
She lives in the place in the side of our lives
Where nothing is ever put straight

She turns herself 'round
And she smiles and she says
"This is it, that's the end of the joke"
And loses herself in her
Dreaming and sleep, and her
Lovers walk through in their coats
She's...

Pretty in pink, isn't she?
Pretty in pink, isn't she?

All of her lovers all
Talk of the notes and the
Flowers that they never sent
And wasn't she easy
Isn't she pretty in pink?

The one who insists he was the
First in the line is the
Last to remember her name
He's walking around in this
Dress that she wore
She is gone, but the
Joke's the same

Pretty in pink, isn't she?
Pretty in pink, isn't she?

Caroline talks to you
Softly sometimes, she says,
"I love you" and "Too much"
She doesn't have anything
You want to steal
Well, nothing you can touch

She waves
She buttons your shirt
The traffic is waiting outside
She hands you this coat
She give you her clothes
These cars collide

Pretty in pink, isn't she?
Pretty in pink, isn't she?

The fractured, disturbing "Dumb Waiters" is also from "Talk Talk Talk" and in fact, opened the album: side one, song one...a pretty splashy way to begin (a poppy, savage sax line plays against a background of dirge-like noise). It harkens back to the sound of the first album which was subversive, textured, and yes, psychedelic, with Butler's amazing, trademark voice, at once gravelly and reedy. And the video feels like an Andy Warhol/Velvet Underground reference.

Give me all your paper ma
Gimme all your jazz
Give me something that I need
Something I can have
Mrs. London's coming round
She's coming with her son
Gimme all your paper ah
So I can get a gun
She has got it in for me
Yeah I mean it honestly
She's so mean

Give me all your paper ma
So I can buy a train
They just wanna suck you in
To being one of them
Tell her that I'm not in here
Tell her I'm a freak
Tell her that I fall about
Every time I speak
She has got in for me
Yeah I mean it honestly
I just scream

Give me all your paper ma
So I can buy a train
I don't know how I got in here
It's making me insane
Have another cigarette
And have another cigarette
In a room where lovers go
Talking on the telephone
They have go it in for me
Yeah I mean it honestly
They all dream

http://www.thepsychedelicfurs.com/

"Saturdays" by Twin Shadow feat. HAIM

Twin Shadow (the nom de musique of George Lewis Jr.) has released a new song, "Saturdays" with sister trio HAIM on additional vocals. The 80s-retro sound puts this kicky song in the running for my "summer song of 2018."

Lewis says, "Growing up, Saturdays were everything for me. I spent the morning in front of the TV soaking up whatever caught my eye, before going out on the day's adventure. After dinner I stayed up all night surfing channels, experiencing some amazing images and sometimes some wild sh*t I wasn’t ready for. We may not have the freedom we once had but the feelings of Saturdays remain."

http://www.twinshadow.net/
http://haimtheband.com/

Currently listeing to...

...a fantastic, funky 80s flashback: "Love Shadow" by a little-known, underrated band called Fashiøn.

I'm always happy when they pop up on my playlist. Their tone was a unique mix of funk, dance, and an electronic sound that was theirs alone. Usually, one can tell music from the 80s, but I feel this sounds fresh and unique even now.

Listen to this next song, "You Only Left Your Picture" with its dark, dusky mood and interesting marimba texture...

Currently listening to...

... the classic "Love Is A Stranger" from Eurythmics' first domestic release "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" THIRTY YEARS AGO! Amazing song and amazing lyrics... and Annie is so gorgeous in the amazing video.

Love is a stranger in an open car
To tempt you in and drive you far away
Love is a stranger in an open car
To tempt you in and drive you far away

And I want you, and I want you, and I want you so, it's an obsession
And I want you, and I want you, and I want you so, it's an obsession

Love is a danger of a different kind
To take you away and leave you far behind
And love, love, love is a dangerous drug
You have to receive it and you still can't get enough of the stuff

It's savage and it's cruel and it shines like destruction
Comes in like a flood and it seems like religion
It's noble and it's brutal, it distorts and deranges
And it wrenches you up and you're left like a zombie

And I want you, and I want you, and I want you so, it's an obsession

It's gilt-edged, glamorous and sleek by design
You know it's jealous by nature, false and unkind
It's hard and restrained and it's totally cool
It touches and it teases as you stumble in the debris

And I want you, and I want you, and I want you so, it's an obsession

http://www.eurythmics.me.uk/
http://www.annielennox.com/
http://www.davestewart.com/

The New Romantics

New Romanticism was a music and fashion movement in the early 1980s. Grown out of a reaction to the hardness and anger of punk, the New Romantics, male and female, were eager to wear make-up, dress up in exotic clothing, look glamorous, and dance. The movement expressed itself in many ways. The look was inspired by many different eras and cultures such as the Victorians, the Goths, the “Noble Savage” (which is how Native Americans were thought of in England in the early 1800s, when engravings and accounts of Native cultures were making their way back to the UK), Pirates, the Edwardians, 1920s-30s glamour, film noir of the 1940s, and a touch of space-agey science fiction. Musically, the sound was the opposite of punk: taking the opulent sound of electronic/ synth-pop as a base, some bands added elements such as horn or string sections. The music was richer than punk, more ornate…and certainly dance oriented. Some groups chose to emulate a somewhat tribal sound to accompany the “Noble Savage” look.

Adam and the Ants had two drummers to recreate a sonorous, thrumming African percussion sound. Here, in “Stand and Deliver,” Adam is seen in his Levantine Pirate/ Highwayman/ Fierce Indian Warrior incarnation, hence the tri-corner hat, braided vest, cape and adorned braids in his hair. The white stripe under his eyes is a mark used by Apache warriors going into battle.

“Prince Charming” featured a dandified version of Adam’s previous incarnation, only this time with brocade, satin, velvet and gold lamé. The Native American war paint is still there, but is now “prettified” with the more feminine eye make-up. The sound is still inspired by tribal music and the legendary British bombshell Diana Dors makes a cameo appearance as his Fairy Godmother.

Ultravox, fronted by the amazing tenor Midge Ure, featured a cold, rich, mysterious dance sound. In this highly cinematic video for their nearly-operatic song “The Thin Wall,” the New Romantic interest in the 1930s and 40s can clearly be seen.

The puppet master and creator of Bow Wow Wow was Malcolm McLaren, the musicality came from Leigh Gorman the bass player, and the charm came from lead singer Anabella Lwin (born Mayant-Mayant Aye in Burma) who was only 14 when the band started. The look was conceived by fashion genius and McLaren’s partner, Vivienne Westwood, who exclusively used pieces from her tribal, swashbuckling, heroic collection “Pirate.” Musically, they share a lot with Adam and the Ants (Bow Wow Wow was once Adam’s band) in terms of a percussion-heavy sound based in Native/ African cultures.

Duran Duran were merely one of the biggest musical acts of the 1980s but their roots are firmly in New Romance. Donned in pirate shirts, ruffles and sashes, they were the house band for the Rum Runner nightclub in Birmingham. With a slick and sleek synthesizer sound and Nick Rhodes’ heavily mascara-ed eyes, they were an exciting phenomenon. First up is the original video for “Planet Earth” which has a great example of a couple performing a particular New Romantic dance style that was immensely popular. Next is an alternate video for "Planet Earth" featuring footage of Duran playing their first gig at the Rum Runner back in 1980!

Visage and its clothes-horse front man Steve Strange, with his penchant for drawing hieroglyphs and unusual symbols on his heavily made up face, were at the epicenter of it all. He ran Blitz, a London nightclub—seen here in this video for the eponymous song “Visage”—where all the fashionable New Romantics gathered, and were therefore known as Blitz Kids. A sweeping, Romantically lush dance sound, bolero hats and white gloves… ah, glamorous...