"Bury your bias and be prepared to fall in love."
— Maureen Rice
Three pop acts, a Radio 1 presenter, a soap actor and a very critical schoolboy: yeah, you might say that Smash Hits went a little overboard with the guest singles reviewers (only one of the past seven editions being done by a regular Hits scribe). I have wondered on here previously if they may have been going through a staff shake up at the time but they could just as easily have been experimenting with going the Number One route of nothing but famous guest reviewers. In any event, order has been restored with some proper music journalists taking back control as we approach the midway point of 1985. It's nice to have you lot back!
Or is it? Frequent guest critics are gone (for now) but there's a new fad going and that's joint Singles of the Fortnight. This issue is merely the first of several in which the reviewer is unable to pick a favourite and ends up going for a pair. (Actually, the following issue sees just one pick but then co-winners are chosen for the next three on the bounce) Perhaps they were happy to use pop stars and others since the critics they had in house couldn't make up their bloody minds! But let's look on the bright side: this just gives me more music to listen to and write about
I must say I'm glad that Maureen Rice has chosen a pair of singles that couldn't be more different in style but which also share a bit in common. One comes from the emerging British soul revival of the mid-eighties while the other is rooted in cowpunk from the heartland of, er, LA. But they were both up-and-coming acts that were looking to a pair of relatively obscure cover versions in order to help them make a mark.
It isn't difficult comparing Simply Red's effort to the original since we've already dealt with it on this blog. The Valentine Brothers wrote and recorded "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)" a couple years' earlier and it had been a critical favourite in spite of some modest sales. Picked up by a then-unknown Mancunian new soul act Simply Red, it fared considerably better, getting them into both the UK and US charts. And they don't do a bad job of it but it doesn't quite measure up to the source material. While the production has been spruced up, it isn't as funky and Mick Hucknall's reading goes a little heavy on the passion next to the much more restrained Valentines. There's a sense that they understand the predicament everyone is in when they go their brother, their father ("almighty father": that big predatory lender in the sky perhaps?), even the sleazy turkey round the bank seeking a loan: money's too tight for everyone to mention in this world (being fed the same line even gives it a bit of dark humour). Hucknall seems to be caught up in his own point of view as a penniless blue-eyed soulster and a degree of understanding for what everyone in society is going through loses out. Thus, it lacks depth and it's overwrought but that boy sure can sing.
So, ver Red didn't add anything but at least they didn't cock it up too much to drag the song down. Trouble was, the Valentine original is too good to improve upon. Lone Justice didn't have that potential albatross to weigh them down as they were using an unknown Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers song as a source. (Not simply unknown but also unremarkable enough not to see official release until an extensive Petty boxset years later) Even by Petty's workmanlike standards, his vocals aren't up to much and it all sounds tossed off. In effect, a demo. I'm not terribly fond of Tom Petty but he obviously had much better songs in him than this.
It is, therefore, startling to hear what Lone Justice were able to do with it. The bulk of the praise should be saved for Maria McKee, who simply shreds the lyrics apart with her powerful country and western voice. Where Hucknall can't stop himself from emoting, she knows when to hold back and when, to quote the song, "to stick it in". She sounds confident, flippant and just a bit vulnerable. Remarkable. A shout out, too, for the band who have clearly put a lot more thought into the recording than the Heartbreakers did. Not flashy but disciplined and powerful and I can only wonder just what a treat they must have been live back in the day.
With all due respect to Maureen Rice, I can't imagine seeing these as equals. One's quite good, the other's a blinder. One succeeds by not ruining the song, the other blows apart the original. One manages to make you admire their taste in records (good on Hucknall for picking a Valentine Brothers song), the other leaves you spellbound by the moment that all great songs do: it doesn't matter who wrote it, it doesn't matter what the original sounds like, it only matters what's playing and that you just have to hear it again. Not a tough choice.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Miles Davis: "Time After Time"
Continuing our look at covers, jazz's prince of darkness was more than familiar with interpreting the work of others (to the extent that he would occasionally usurp writing credit from some poor schmoes). Miles Davis was by this point nearly 59 and a long way past his lengthy great period which resulted in works like Sketches of Spain and In a Silent Way. He outlived old colleagues Charlie Parker and John Coltrane but was doing subpar work compared to Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington at roughly the same age. Still, there's nothing wrong with his playing here. He makes so much of Cyndi Lauper's hit from a year earlier that you'd hardly recognise where it came from. What lets it down is the very rudimentary backing that feels like jazz musicians resentfully snoozing their way through some filler before they can get to a real tune. I guess he was too old to be the badass he once was in order to whip those cats into shape.
Three pop acts, a Radio 1 presenter, a soap actor and a very critical schoolboy: yeah, you might say that Smash Hits went a little overboard with the guest singles reviewers (only one of the past seven editions being done by a regular Hits scribe). I have wondered on here previously if they may have been going through a staff shake up at the time but they could just as easily have been experimenting with going the Number One route of nothing but famous guest reviewers. In any event, order has been restored with some proper music journalists taking back control as we approach the midway point of 1985. It's nice to have you lot back!
Or is it? Frequent guest critics are gone (for now) but there's a new fad going and that's joint Singles of the Fortnight. This issue is merely the first of several in which the reviewer is unable to pick a favourite and ends up going for a pair. (Actually, the following issue sees just one pick but then co-winners are chosen for the next three on the bounce) Perhaps they were happy to use pop stars and others since the critics they had in house couldn't make up their bloody minds! But let's look on the bright side: this just gives me more music to listen to and write about
I must say I'm glad that Maureen Rice has chosen a pair of singles that couldn't be more different in style but which also share a bit in common. One comes from the emerging British soul revival of the mid-eighties while the other is rooted in cowpunk from the heartland of, er, LA. But they were both up-and-coming acts that were looking to a pair of relatively obscure cover versions in order to help them make a mark.
It isn't difficult comparing Simply Red's effort to the original since we've already dealt with it on this blog. The Valentine Brothers wrote and recorded "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)" a couple years' earlier and it had been a critical favourite in spite of some modest sales. Picked up by a then-unknown Mancunian new soul act Simply Red, it fared considerably better, getting them into both the UK and US charts. And they don't do a bad job of it but it doesn't quite measure up to the source material. While the production has been spruced up, it isn't as funky and Mick Hucknall's reading goes a little heavy on the passion next to the much more restrained Valentines. There's a sense that they understand the predicament everyone is in when they go their brother, their father ("almighty father": that big predatory lender in the sky perhaps?), even the sleazy turkey round the bank seeking a loan: money's too tight for everyone to mention in this world (being fed the same line even gives it a bit of dark humour). Hucknall seems to be caught up in his own point of view as a penniless blue-eyed soulster and a degree of understanding for what everyone in society is going through loses out. Thus, it lacks depth and it's overwrought but that boy sure can sing.
So, ver Red didn't add anything but at least they didn't cock it up too much to drag the song down. Trouble was, the Valentine original is too good to improve upon. Lone Justice didn't have that potential albatross to weigh them down as they were using an unknown Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers song as a source. (Not simply unknown but also unremarkable enough not to see official release until an extensive Petty boxset years later) Even by Petty's workmanlike standards, his vocals aren't up to much and it all sounds tossed off. In effect, a demo. I'm not terribly fond of Tom Petty but he obviously had much better songs in him than this.
With all due respect to Maureen Rice, I can't imagine seeing these as equals. One's quite good, the other's a blinder. One succeeds by not ruining the song, the other blows apart the original. One manages to make you admire their taste in records (good on Hucknall for picking a Valentine Brothers song), the other leaves you spellbound by the moment that all great songs do: it doesn't matter who wrote it, it doesn't matter what the original sounds like, it only matters what's playing and that you just have to hear it again. Not a tough choice.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Miles Davis: "Time After Time"
Continuing our look at covers, jazz's prince of darkness was more than familiar with interpreting the work of others (to the extent that he would occasionally usurp writing credit from some poor schmoes). Miles Davis was by this point nearly 59 and a long way past his lengthy great period which resulted in works like Sketches of Spain and In a Silent Way. He outlived old colleagues Charlie Parker and John Coltrane but was doing subpar work compared to Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington at roughly the same age. Still, there's nothing wrong with his playing here. He makes so much of Cyndi Lauper's hit from a year earlier that you'd hardly recognise where it came from. What lets it down is the very rudimentary backing that feels like jazz musicians resentfully snoozing their way through some filler before they can get to a real tune. I guess he was too old to be the badass he once was in order to whip those cats into shape.
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