Sunday 17 May 2015



This was number one in the charts throughout the summer of 1975. 

Sunday 9 September 2012

Everly Brothers-Cathy's Clown (1960)




The Everly Brother's Cathy's Clown came out three years before I was born. I don't remember listening to it until about 1975 by which time it was 12 years old but I was still blown away by its freshness and power. The link above shows a pretty good performance of it but the sound is not as full as the studio version which can be heard via this Spotify link.


There are a number of features which make  this a classic track which confirms the place of the Everly Brothers in the Hall of Fame. Firstly there is the power of the drum riff which opens the track and drives it throughout. Then there is the incredible vocal performance with which Phil and Don take harmonies to new places. They were clearly a major influence on the Beatles. The harmonies used on so many of their early songs can be traced back to what the Everly Brothers were doing here. The Beatles harmonies were of course even better, check out There's A Place,  From Me To You or She Loves You if in any doubt...but that's another story. 

After the drumming and the vocals there is the minimal but truly inspired use of lead guitar. The light riff starting at 00:24, when they sing "I die each time..." is a beautiful additional touch. 

Lastly there is the lyrics and the way in which they convey a timeless romantic theme. That theme is the lover needing to free himself from the object of his love so as to save himself from losing his own identity and the respect of his peers and ultimately the lover herself once he is seen a weak clingy wimp and ceases to be the man she fell for in the first place. He has to stand tall to avoid being a clown. 

The theme can be heard in many other songs. In Led Zeppelin's Your Time is Gonna Come the woman is piously denounced for the humiliation of the singer. The Rolling Stones claim to have turned the tables in Under My Thumb while Dion gets round the problem with comical superhuman machismo in The Wanderer having been humiliated in Runaround Sue. In all these songs the woman is seen as having been mistreating the singer but its really just their own anxiety about loss of control that is being expressed. Cathy's Clown comes the closest of most of these songs to honestly expressing the lonely misery of the dilemma of how to avoid smothering and killing passion with devotion. 

Here are the full lyrics

Don't want your love any more
Don't want your kisses, that's for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown

I've got to stand tall, you know a man can't crawl
For when he knows you're telling lies
And he hears them passing by
He's not a man at all

Don't want your love any more

Don't want your kisses, that's for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown

When you see me shed a tear

And you know that it's sincere
Don't you think it's kind of sad, that you're treating me so bad?
Or don't you even care?

Don't want your love any more

Don't want your kisses , that's for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown
That's Cathy's clown, that's Cathy's clown

Saturday 7 January 2012

The Psychedelic Furs by The Psychedelic Furs



This 1980 eponymous debut album by the Psychedelic Furs has to be one my favourite albums. I bought it soon after it first came out having heard the band on John Peel's radio show which was compulsory listening for any self respecting music listener at my school. I bought it on a weekend visit to the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street and two other albums at the same time. There were Shakin' Street by Shakin' Street and Stations of the Crass by the Crass. They were all very good albums but the Furs album had a timeless beauty to it which was apparent from first listening. I haven't listened to either of the other bands for years.

This album is impeccable from start to finish. There is not a bad track or even a bad moment on it. The sound is reminiscent of the Sex Pistols. Richard Butler's lyrics and vocal style have an angry but bored confrontational manner. Lines such as "I'm an American, ha ha ha" or "make a line of useless women, make a line of useless men" could have been Sex Pistols lyrics. The quality of musicianship though is far superior to the Sex Pistols as are much of the rest of the lyrics. The Velvet Underground are also a big influence as are Roxy Music who are the only other band I can think of to use the saxophone as prominently as the Psychedelic Furs.

The album opens with a very soft two minute intro which has you wondering whether you have the volume at the right level before crashing into the first track, India. Richard Butler delivers a stream of decadent incoherent lines against a pounding background. This is followed by two of the most beautiful atmospheric ballads of that time, Sister Europe and Imitation of Christ. The album then drives on with a collection magnificent tracks which I won't drool over individually here. The hypnotic swirl of the music on all of these are matched perfectly by Richard Butlers truly inspired lyrics and passionate hoarse delivery. All of the musicians involved give top performances.

By the time I bought the CD of this album in the 90's it had been made even better by the inclusion of extra tracks including the outstanding Susan's Strange and Soap Commercial. The most recent version which I listen to on Spotify is now a double album including different versions of the original tracks.

I also often listen to the follow up to this album Talk Talk Talk but much as I like it I have to say that it does not hold a candle to the first album. Through the rest of the 80s the Furs seemed to go down hill pretty fast as they chased and found success in America. I saw them in concert on the tour for their third album Forever Now. Although the album is worth a listen every now and then the gig was dreadful. I have rarely seen a band so obviously rushing through the set list so they can finish up and clock off. This was particularly disappointing as I had heard that they could be fantastic live. After the fourth album Mirror Moves. I stopped buying their albums. My cousin bought the next one Midnight to Midnight. I listened to it at his house once. It was so bad that it made me think less of him for owning it. None of that however could dim my love for the first album. I still listen to it at least once a month or so.

Here is a link to the album on Spotify