— Dave Rimmer
It seems Scritti Politti had been on hiatus. Nowadays it's not uncommon for groups to go the better part of a decade between releases but the early eighties were a different time. We last encountered ver Scrits on this blog nearly a year ago when ABC's Martin Fry gushed over their single "Faithless". Now they're back from a lengthy layover of two whole years. (Dave Rimmer obviously isn't able to anticipate that leader Green Gartside would make a habit of over-long sabbaticals with this one being relatively short by comparison) But Scritti Politti weren't like most groups and never would be.
I once had a roommate who was a member of a choir. I never went to see them myself but apparently they were quite good. Good enough, in fact, that they occasionally performed at weddings. Preparing for once such nuptial, she told me they were rehearsing "God Only Knows" which left me baffled. Imagine the words "I may not always love you" being sung to a pair of newlyweds: something feels a bit off there.
Yes, pop music obsessives can get awfully touchy when it comes to members of the public misinterpreting lyrics — and "God Only Knows" is far from the worst culprit in this respect (the lyrics generally betray the sentiments of the opening, a line which Brian Wilson initially objected to). R.E.M.'s "The One I Love" has been so misunderstood by Generation X couples that the band subsequently overcompensated by exaggerating the song's anti-romantic stance (rather than "savagely anti-love" or "really violent and awful" I'd argue that the idea of having a "simple prop to occupy my mind" is just a very lax attitude towards love). Bruce Springsteen's massive hit "Born in the U.S.A." was famously quoted by a campaigning Ronald Reagan who was unaware that the song is really about a Vietnam War vet who comes home and has been left neglected by the very country he served. Of course there are good reasons why people got them wrong. In the case of R.E.M., this was the first time anyone could make any sense of Michael Stipe's lyrics and the public must have figured they might as well take the simplest interpretation. As far as The Boss goes, fans got got up in the rousing chorus (are there actually any other words?) and he didn't clarify the song's true meaning until well after the fact. Plus, most people don't put a whole lot of thought into the music they listen to. (And this doesn't even consider the more relativist types like John Lennon who permit their songs any meaning the listener wishes it to have
"Wood Beez" isn't exactly a tune that has lit up wedding dances (at least not to my knowledge) but it did charm enough good folk to get into the top ten — and it's safe to say that the vast majority of punters did so because of Green's silky smooth vocals, the layers of hip hop beats and lush synth pop and a superb tune ("The only conditions", the singer says in a Smash Hits interview from later in March, "are that you make a record people like the sound of, and it's as simple as that" which neatly echoes what I've written above, something I totally did not plan) And I'm not trying to lay claim to some degree of expertise here: I've spent the bulk of the past week trying to figure out any hidden meaning; once I had that out of the way I had difficulty squaring this with Green's own observations. Had it not been for Wikipedia I probably wouldn't even worked out that there is anything else going on beyond love and trying to say a little prayer the way Aretha Franklin did.
For those of us who enjoy a deeper dive, what we have here is an exploitation of the nonsense of pop. Green could have easily done so by taking shots at Bucks Fizz or Bardo so some other moronically successful group of the day but bravely chose to examine the Queen of Soul instead. Putting gospel-drenched passion into inane lyrics fascinated him — though I never did anything creative with it, much less anything that sparkles like this, I, too, went through my own similar period, kicked off by Meat Loaf's ability to put so much of himself into lyrics about nothing, which led to me "drolly" observing that he should have been singing in commercials. Thus, we have lines like "there's nothing I wouldn't do / including doing nothing" and "there's nothing I wouldn't do / to make you want for nothing" and "there's nothing I wouldn't take / not even intravenous". What does it all mean? There's nothing he wouldn't do. NOTHING. Not the most complex analysis, is it?
This could have degenerated into a comedy record or a meta commentary (something Green certainly wasn't above attempting) but for the fact that it's such a beautifully crafted pop record. Imagine Michael Jackson at his very best but with such an acute musical mind, taking the punk roots where he cut his teeth into the finest New York City studios with top-notch musicians and the cream of production boffins to create the finest pop of the age. You may look at it on the surface as a simple pop-soul love song or as a commentary on woeful lyricisms and still come away in awe. Scritti Politti weren't like most groups: they were so much better.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Bananarama: "Robert De Niro's Waiting..."
Rimmer denied the Narns a SOTF a year earlier with the magnificent "Cruel Summer" and has done so again with perhaps their finest moment. With a peak of powers Scritti Politti getting the nod, I wouldn't go so far as to say they got jobbed this time 'round but for sure Rimmer's critique ("cheery but unexciting", "...could do with a bit of spit and polish") seems a tad uncharitable. Again, it isn't absolutely necessary to know the song's true meaning in order to appreciate it: to the majority of listeners (myself included until just a few years ago) it's desolate and lonely, a testament to how Sara, Siobhan and Keren were able to sing in unison yet manage to sound so singular. To discover, then, that it's really about date rape only furthers the paranoia and tension. Stupendous. And even if you aren't convinced, at least you can enjoy one of pop's all-time classic mondegreens: no, I'm afraid the Taxi Driver guy isn't "talking to Tanya".
It seems Scritti Politti had been on hiatus. Nowadays it's not uncommon for groups to go the better part of a decade between releases but the early eighties were a different time. We last encountered ver Scrits on this blog nearly a year ago when ABC's Martin Fry gushed over their single "Faithless". Now they're back from a lengthy layover of two whole years. (Dave Rimmer obviously isn't able to anticipate that leader Green Gartside would make a habit of over-long sabbaticals with this one being relatively short by comparison) But Scritti Politti weren't like most groups and never would be.
I once had a roommate who was a member of a choir. I never went to see them myself but apparently they were quite good. Good enough, in fact, that they occasionally performed at weddings. Preparing for once such nuptial, she told me they were rehearsing "God Only Knows" which left me baffled. Imagine the words "I may not always love you" being sung to a pair of newlyweds: something feels a bit off there.
Yes, pop music obsessives can get awfully touchy when it comes to members of the public misinterpreting lyrics — and "God Only Knows" is far from the worst culprit in this respect (the lyrics generally betray the sentiments of the opening, a line which Brian Wilson initially objected to). R.E.M.'s "The One I Love" has been so misunderstood by Generation X couples that the band subsequently overcompensated by exaggerating the song's anti-romantic stance (rather than "savagely anti-love" or "really violent and awful" I'd argue that the idea of having a "simple prop to occupy my mind" is just a very lax attitude towards love). Bruce Springsteen's massive hit "Born in the U.S.A." was famously quoted by a campaigning Ronald Reagan who was unaware that the song is really about a Vietnam War vet who comes home and has been left neglected by the very country he served. Of course there are good reasons why people got them wrong. In the case of R.E.M., this was the first time anyone could make any sense of Michael Stipe's lyrics and the public must have figured they might as well take the simplest interpretation. As far as The Boss goes, fans got got up in the rousing chorus (are there actually any other words?) and he didn't clarify the song's true meaning until well after the fact. Plus, most people don't put a whole lot of thought into the music they listen to. (And this doesn't even consider the more relativist types like John Lennon who permit their songs any meaning the listener wishes it to have
"Wood Beez" isn't exactly a tune that has lit up wedding dances (at least not to my knowledge) but it did charm enough good folk to get into the top ten — and it's safe to say that the vast majority of punters did so because of Green's silky smooth vocals, the layers of hip hop beats and lush synth pop and a superb tune ("The only conditions", the singer says in a Smash Hits interview from later in March, "are that you make a record people like the sound of, and it's as simple as that" which neatly echoes what I've written above, something I totally did not plan) And I'm not trying to lay claim to some degree of expertise here: I've spent the bulk of the past week trying to figure out any hidden meaning; once I had that out of the way I had difficulty squaring this with Green's own observations. Had it not been for Wikipedia I probably wouldn't even worked out that there is anything else going on beyond love and trying to say a little prayer the way Aretha Franklin did.
For those of us who enjoy a deeper dive, what we have here is an exploitation of the nonsense of pop. Green could have easily done so by taking shots at Bucks Fizz or Bardo so some other moronically successful group of the day but bravely chose to examine the Queen of Soul instead. Putting gospel-drenched passion into inane lyrics fascinated him — though I never did anything creative with it, much less anything that sparkles like this, I, too, went through my own similar period, kicked off by Meat Loaf's ability to put so much of himself into lyrics about nothing, which led to me "drolly" observing that he should have been singing in commercials. Thus, we have lines like "there's nothing I wouldn't do / including doing nothing" and "there's nothing I wouldn't do / to make you want for nothing" and "there's nothing I wouldn't take / not even intravenous". What does it all mean? There's nothing he wouldn't do. NOTHING. Not the most complex analysis, is it?
This could have degenerated into a comedy record or a meta commentary (something Green certainly wasn't above attempting) but for the fact that it's such a beautifully crafted pop record. Imagine Michael Jackson at his very best but with such an acute musical mind, taking the punk roots where he cut his teeth into the finest New York City studios with top-notch musicians and the cream of production boffins to create the finest pop of the age. You may look at it on the surface as a simple pop-soul love song or as a commentary on woeful lyricisms and still come away in awe. Scritti Politti weren't like most groups: they were so much better.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Bananarama: "Robert De Niro's Waiting..."
Rimmer denied the Narns a SOTF a year earlier with the magnificent "Cruel Summer" and has done so again with perhaps their finest moment. With a peak of powers Scritti Politti getting the nod, I wouldn't go so far as to say they got jobbed this time 'round but for sure Rimmer's critique ("cheery but unexciting", "...could do with a bit of spit and polish") seems a tad uncharitable. Again, it isn't absolutely necessary to know the song's true meaning in order to appreciate it: to the majority of listeners (myself included until just a few years ago) it's desolate and lonely, a testament to how Sara, Siobhan and Keren were able to sing in unison yet manage to sound so singular. To discover, then, that it's really about date rape only furthers the paranoia and tension. Stupendous. And even if you aren't convinced, at least you can enjoy one of pop's all-time classic mondegreens: no, I'm afraid the Taxi Driver guy isn't "talking to Tanya".
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