Bryan Ferry: "Slave to Love"

8 May 1985

"This single sounds very similar to "Avalon", but I suppose it's only natural to take up where you left off."

— Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy

Stephen Duffy offers up a brief mea culpa to begin his review. Admitting that he doesn't have a record player (an emerging pop star in the mid-eighties without any sort of hi-fi system at home? A bit hard to believe but okay), the singer explains that he went into a recording studio, played the new singles on high volume and subsequently "got very depressed" but neglects to explain why. In the end what he managed to eek out are a "few notes in the style of a guest record reviewer for Smash Hits circa 1982". So, just who might our Steve be referring to? Certainly not Martin Fry's carefully thought out critiques from the 29 April edition — which, fact fiends, was the only guest review from the entire year (something of a stark contrast to '85 and its half-dozen-or-so from just the first half of the year alone). Now he did say "circa" so I guess I ought to do my due diligence and check on other one-off pop star appearances from the years bookending it and, oh, look what we have! Gary Kemp! He must be the one old "Tin Tin" is alluding to. Except the Spandau guitarist did a more-than commendable job. Maybe he's thinking of George Michael and Andrew Ridegly of Wham! who admittedly didn't seem to put a great deal of consideration into their analysis but much of their attempt is conversational with a music expert throwing out theories and his ne'er-do-well mate happily going along with him — not quite what Duffy seems to be thinking of.

But what does it matter anyway? Duffy's just being modest. His reviews are fine and certainly good enough by pop star standards. But one throwback to earlier days is he failed to pick a winner. Going by recent precedent, the record below should be our Single of the Fortnight (it is the one he saves the most praise for and it's the first one listed) but his admission that "Slave to Love" is the "only single in the pile I'll definitely play again" seals it for me (although the question must be asked: just what device will you be playing said record on, eh Duff?).

Bryan Ferry has managed to get away with an awful lot over the years. No, this isn't about his admiration for Nazi imagery nor his staunch defence of the fox hunt (two subjects that plenty of people have already taken him to task on) but how he has deftly managed to avoid the creative pitfalls of many of his contemporaries. Sacking Brian Eno at the height of Roxy Music's powers should have set the group back but it didn't. Going increasingly middle-of-the-road should have hindered their popularity but if anything they got bigger than ever. Putting his band on ice in the mid-seventies should have been impossible to recover from but they came back to enjoy some of their biggest hits. Increased attention to his up-and-down solo career minus key Roxy contributors Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay should have had left him sputtering but the success kept coming. His post-Country Life work within and without his band is patchy but none of it's an embarrassment.

By the mid-eighties Bryan Ferry seems to have boxed himself into a corner and what choice did he have but to "take up where [he] left off" as Duffy puts it. This is by no means a bad thing: what he did he did well and there was still enough of a market for this type of material to take recent solo album Boys and Girls to the top of the charts and put "Slave to Love" into the top ten. It probably also didn't hurt that British music had come to be defined by soul music-loving crooners playing in groups that relied as much on synths as they did "real" instruments. With the likes of Bowie and Macca and Elton all looking foolish with increasingly duff records, who could blame Ferry for wanting to stay the course?

Yet, works like "Slave to Love" expose a talented figure who was slacking and starting to parody himself. Those same slick vocal gestures he began perfecting around the time of Manifesto are present and correct, as are those vaguely wistful Manzanera-aping guitar licks which are so prevalent on Avalon. The song goes exactly as you would imagine. But for the artist credit, you'd swear this was the latest from what was left of Roxy Music. (In effect, Ferry was what was left of his old group and it's only right — if also pretty bloody cheeky — that he began releasing a series of joint Roxy-Ferry compilations beginning with the hugely popular Street Life: 20 Great Hits in 1986) But the very fact that it fits in so seamlessly with latter day Roxy material is not a point in its favour. It might have done Ferry some good to have had a lousy howler of an album at around this time. It might have allowed him to shake things up a bit, get some real collaborators in who weren't just intent to go along with his every whim and to grow creatively. Better to stumble and learn from the experience than to grow stale.

Not something I'll definitely play again; more the kind of thing I never need to hear again for the rest of my life. Because what would be the point? I'll just stick with early Roxy Music, thank you very much.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

The Power Station: "Get It On (Bang a Gong)"

Duffy's depression may well have been down to having to sit down and listen to some of his old bandmates. Having once been the vocalist of a pre-worldwide fame Duran Duran, it must have been hard to swallow hearing John Taylor's bass rip its way through a brave but misguided cover of the T-Rex classic "Get It On" by supergroup The Power Station. (Elsewhere, he dryly observes that the Duranie James Bond theme "A View to a Kill" is "interesting"; hopefully ver Hits held back the latest release from Arcadia because that would've just been cruel) I can only speculate. Nevertheless, he's impressed with what Robert Palmer and a pair of Taylors and Chic's Tony "outrageous drumming" Thompson have done with it and not just because it will "offend many Marc Bolan fans". I'm not quite so willing to rave over it even if it's nowhere near as bad as I'd been expecting. Palmer's perv-hunger vocal seems a little too on the nose, lacking the breathy subtlety of the original, and it could very well be that everyone present is far too in awe of the song to have some fun or do something different. They must have known they weren't going to come close to equalling the source so why bother even trying?

The Dukes of Stratosphear: "The Mole from the Ministry"

24 April 1985

"You say it's actually by XTC? Really?"

— Roland Orzbal

They're back! Yes, the fair gentlemen Roland Orzbal and Curt Smith have emerged from their lair on the outskirts of Bath to bestow upon us a brand new single — and all we had to do was wait a "paltry" four years. In that space of time, Mrs Thatcher won yet another election, English football sides got themselves banned from Europe and Australian telly stopped being rubbish — and you very well may have forgotten all about Tears for Fears. Here's to them being a chart "fixture" for the foreseeable future without any further down time!

Do you recall their earlier work, being that it's been such a long time, oh viewers? No? Well, they had a record called "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" which might as well have been called "Everybody Wants to Buy This Flippin' Great Single" because that's what everyone did — and who could blame them? It was joyous, instantly singalongable and felt important. Their next big hit was called "Shout" which was a little closer to the duff side as Roland and Curt never got round to telling us what they could do without and just ended up repeating the same chorus fourteen thousand times and even it managed to sell by the camperized van-load. The accompanying album Songs from the Big Chair, too, was bought by everyone on Earth and ver Fears were on top of the world. Then they figured it would be the perfect time to disappear.

But now they're back and their latest single, "Sowing the Seeds of Love", is sure to delight all that hear it and send them swiftly back up to the top of the charts. It harks back to the sixties (ie a time when people bought lots of flowery shirts, grew their hair and sat in fields listening to hoary old men playing sitars) but its, er, seeds go back to a job that the singer briefly had with this very same top pop mag. "The second summer of love?" Roland Orzbal asks Paul Margach. "I wasn't aware that the first one ever ended."

Back in the early part of 1985, the Hits was going through a bit of an overhaul. Neil Tennant was off to form a band of some sort (any idea how that worked out?) while other members of the staff were moving on to other pop mags or even getting out of the country. We were short staffed and, to make up for it, we asked a lot of famous people to come in to review the singles and some even said yes. The lead singer of Tears for Fears was one such kind pop star who agreed.

"I basically did it for a laugh," admits Roland Orzbal. "Curt couldn't be bothered so I was all alone." He wasn't terribly impressed by much of what he heard. "They kept teasing me with the promise of a Beatles record for me to review but they kept putting on lousy pop records. I began to suspect that they were just trying to keep me happy but, sure enough, "Ticket to Ride" was there in the pile".

A longtime fan of the Fab Four, Roland was keen to hear the ancient single - "if only to get the taste of the rest of this rubbish out of my mouth" — but he was unexpectedly more taken by another record. Lacking a proper sleeve, it looked as old as anything The Beatles ever did — and sounded like it too.

That release was called "The Mole from the Ministry" by a bunch of old codgers calling themselves The Dukes of Stratosphear which the singer might have confused for something done over twenty years earlier. But Roland knows his sixties pop and had never heard of them so he figured they were a new act. What he didn't realise was that they were an old bunch pretending to be a new group who, er, came from long ago. Or something. 

XTC were by then a trio of hoary old blokes from Swindon who had had some chart hits in the early eighties but who had subsequently stopped touring and soon slid down the dumper. They initially denied being The Dukes of Stratosphear and adopted the aliases Sir John Johns (hmmm, an odd name), The Red Curtain (doesn't sound made up to us!), Lord Cornelius Plum (again, somewhat curious) and E.I.E.I. Owen (oh stop it!) but it was one of pop's most poorly kept secrets — even if few at the time cared one way or another. One who did seem to give a toss was Roland ("I couldn't believe it was XTC").

Roland had always admired XTC but he was especially impressed with this new direction. "They were channelling the Beatles so well and it was funny," he remembers. "It's about a mole that is messing with people's lives but they figure it must be their own madness causing it. This mole sounds evil and scheming but I sort of wonder if he's just pretending to be manipulative just to further mess with people. He could be an incompetent bugger but people think he's pulling the strings."

The music also made the singer sit up and take notice. "It sounded just like "I Am the Walrus", it was brilliant," he enthuses. "The Beatles hadn't mattered to people in such a long time that you sometimes felt embarrassed talking them up but that seems to be changing now. Admitting that you were into the Beatles five or ten years ago was tantamount to throwing up your arms and telling the world that you thought all modern pop was crap."

He was so impressed that he began to think about doing his own homage to sixties acid rock and, during ver Fears' lengthy layover, that's exactly what he did and the result is their super new single "Sowing the Seeds of Love". But aren't the words a little too straightforward compared to the Dukes?

"Well, maybe but I tried to nestle current concerns into an old psychedelic piece. A lot of it is about Margaret Thatcher and what she's doing to Britain. But I like to think that there's some of the same paranoia in "The Mole from the Ministry" with some added hope for a more loving universe".

Roland is thankful to the Hits for introducing him to The Dukes of Stratosphear and for a inspiring his latest single. So would he care to review the singles again for the sake of his own creativity? "No, I think once was enough. Get someone like Dr. Robert from the Blow Monkeys. God knows he could do with some inspiration."

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

The Style Council: "Walls Come Tumbling Down"

The Style Council's latest single is, as usual, chart bound but there is some confusion as to one of the song's lyrics. "What's he going on about?" queried our tea boy. "Why's he singin' about enjoying a Cherry Coke as the walls come tumblin' down?" Hits staff were similarly puzzled so we reached out to Paul Weller for clarification. But we couldn't get hold of him. We also tried keyboardist "Merton" Mick Talbot and "backing" singer D.C. Lee but neither of them got back to us. Then, we contacted drummer Steve White who seemed dead chuffed to get be getting a call. "Oh that," he chuckled. "Paul and Mick are very health conscious and I try to be too but my one vice is I drink quite a bit of Cherry Coke. Paul put that in as a joke but he's since said that it's a commentary on how when the revolution comes there will be some who will be standing there on the sidelines, sipping Cherry Coke and watching it all happen". Does that include yourself? "It might do but they shouldn't forget that I'm the strongest member of the group. I'd be a lot more effective at pushing down some walls than Paul!" Well, that clears that up then.

Propaganda: "Duel"

11 April 1985

"ZTT describe them as "Abba in Hell" — therefore "Duel" must be Abba in Heaven."

— Peter Martin

This blog is now nearly two years old and is approaching its one hundredth entry and, probably as such, I've been thinking a lot lately about some of my favourites. Not the posts I've written, mind you (there's really only the one I'm still really happy about), but the songs themselves. Having The Human League's brilliant "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" come up so soon may have given me the false impression that I was in for nothing but top quality records but the relative detritus that followed only emphasizes what an extraordinary work it is — and one they never quite managed to top. The Associates' "Party Fears Two" ably merges lyrical melancholy with sprightly jangle-pop to irresistible levels while Elvis Costello's "Man Out of Time" captures his nibs at the top of his game. Terry Hall took a pretty good song that he had stakes in and added vulnerability and unease to create "Our Lips Are Sealed", which is probably the greatest Smash Hits Single of the Fortnight of all time. Some lofty company, then.

Joining this big four is Propaganda's "Duel", which is right at home with the upper tier of SOTF. Having previously appeared with "Dr. Mabuse", the German foursome seemed set to conjure up many more similarly unsettling cinematic epics. To return a year later, then, with the far more straightforward "Duel" may seem like either a lapse in quality, a drastic and premature rethink or an acknowledgement that they've already run out of ideas but it is in fact a stunning work. Tying together some funk bass with some simple yet effective synth chords, the tune is impossible dislike and one that will doubtless soon prove be very likely to remove from the listener's mind. Helping the earworm along is a terrific vocal from Claudia Brücken, which manages to convey a pained air while still keeping its distance. It's a lovely performance but a curious one: her voice isn't conventionally strong and may even get on the wick of some but to these ears she's putting everything into it and holding just enough back. Plus, I'm intrigued by the fact that something so catchy is also damn-near impossible to sing along with — even if that says at least as much about my limited vocal "range" as it does the song itself.

Peter Martin is as fond of this as "Dr. Mabuse" but he blushes from going too far with his praise. Though he exclaims that "Duel" is the "greatest song ever made", he then qualifies it by admitting that "I might change my mind tomorrow". He shouldn't have fretted so much and should have trusted his instincts. Of course it isn't the greatest song ever made but that's beside the point; pop music at its best encourages us to abandon all the great works we've heard before so that we may be caught up in the moment of nowness. Who cares about "Telstar" and "Virginia Plain" and "Heart of Glass" when we have "Duel" right now and it's fresh and alive? And why worry about tomorrow?

Taking the dramatics of its predecessor and tacking a real song onto it should have been the moment Propaganda began a ride on the Giddy Carousel of Pop but it was not to be, the single stalling just outside of the top twenty. It's impossible to say why such a sure-fire smash only managed to perform modestly but hopefully it got to others just as it got to Martin then and gets to me now. The best pop may not always sell like it should but there's always an audience out there looking for yet another greatest song ever.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Simple Minds: "Don't You (Forget About Me)"

Dear Mr. Margach,

We accept the fact that you're going to slag us off for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy for expecting us to apologise for it. You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is an earnest singer, an earnest guitarist, an earnest keyboardist, an earnest bass player and an earnest drummer. Does this answer your question?

Sincerely, 

The Deep-Fried Scots Breakfast Club

Memphis: "You Supply the Roses" / Art of Noise: "Moments in Love"

28 March 1985

"It makes me really happy — I wish the charts were full of songs like this."

— Rose McDowall

"It makes my eyeballs feel floaty."

— Jill Bryson

"It makes me feel like ice skating in the cold night air while listening to it on my Walkman."
— Rose McDowall

A Radio One DJ, a twelve-year-old with very strong opinions and a pair of Scots goth-bag ladies: it's been a while since an actual Smash Hits staffer had to sift through the singles, hasn't it? But no matter, they're not going the Number One route of only featuring mindless guests in the critics' chair, these are all people with something to say and not simply looking to advance their careers in such a modest fashion. It makes me think there's a pop music critic in all of us.

As one hit wonders go (a term, incidentally, that I despise; not only does the classification depend on the country — Madness being far from a one and doner in the UK despite being exactly that in the US and Canada — but it's snarky and mean-spirited and conveniently leaves out the fact that one solitary hit single is still far better than none) Strawberry Switchblade are fondly remembered. Their sole smash "Since Yesterday" has oak-aged which certainly helps but their image also left an imprint on people. No one looked like them. No one would ever have thought to look like them. Not conventionally beautiful but there's something about them. They make me feel like I'm back in junior high school and I have a crush on that weird girl which I'm determined not to share with anyone under any circumstances.

First up is Rose McDowall's pick of "You Supply the Roses" by fellow Scots Memphis. Formed by disillusioned members of Orange Juice James Kirk and Steven Daly, it is a bright and sunny bit of indie pop — with "twinges of country" as she points out — that the Blades are already familiar with. Either confusing it with an old country standard by the likes of George Jones (so baked it is in old school Nashville values, I can easily see a version of it popping up on Elvis Costello's Almost Blue) or already a firm favourite in Gorbals-area clubs, it isn't quite up to Jill Bryson's standards even though she too is pretty impressed. I like it but not as much as I'd like to like it. It makes me think of how I like turkey and I like cranberry sauce but I don't really care for them together.

Bryson opts for "Moments in Love" by Art of Noise. Impressionistic and warm, it's ruined by the lack of a tune to grab hold of. I would very much like to appreciate the charms of Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn and Paul Morely but it smacks of a work that is interesting rather than gripping. A fine enough listen but one which is forgettable as soon as its finished. (Did Bryson make her selection while it was still playing?) It makes me feel like I have something to say and I'm itching to say it but the words stubbornly refuse to come out.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed With Feeling This Fortnight

Cocteau Twins: Aikea-Guinea

Jill and Rose are feeling all sorts of things with this Cocteau Twins 12" EP. Here is an exchange of them trying to outdo one another:

J: It's all very atmospheric — in fact, it makes my skin ripple.

R: Well, it makes my organs wobble.

J: And it makes my eyeballs flip.

R: And it made my record player jump.

(The seeds of their eventual falling out, perhaps)

Some typically gorgeous industrial loveliness from yet more Scots. It makes me feel like a tulip growing out of a crack in the concrete outside of a smoke-spewing factory.

Nik Kershaw: "Wide Boy"

14 March 1985

"What he's trying to say is that his critics think he's stupid but, because he's got so much success, it doesn't bother him."

— Marshall O'Leary

Paul is a Chickadee reader (aged 7) who lives in the neighbourhood of Beddington in the north part of Calgary. He wavers between Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" and New Edition's "Mr. Telephone Man" as his favourite song of all time. He doesn't have much to say about pop music as you can see below.

I'm sorry, I don't know who he is. Why doesn't he spell his name with a 'c'? It looks dumb spelled 'n-i-k'.

I asked some people around me what they thought of this song. Here's what they said:

My sister Julie liked it but she stopped caring when I told her who it was. She only likes Culture Club. Did you know that she was Boy George for Halloween? And that she was Boy George in her class air band show? Everybody looked at Julie because she was Boy George. No one knew who Sting was and no one knew who Phil Collins was and all those other people in Band Aid. I was proud of her.

Mummy only likes Paul Young now. She asked me to turn this down right away.

Daddy said "no thanks". He was watching a hockey game and didn't want to be disturbed.

My friend Kevin said it's not as good as Howard Jones who he likes a lot but I don't like Howard Jones because of his stupid hair and dumb songs. Maybe I should like Nik Kershaw if Kevin dislikes him.

Craig down the street never gave me back the Archie comic he borrowed so I didn't want to give him a copy. I asked him to come over to hear it but he wants to play street hockey at the Green instead. I want to play too so I should finish this soon.

Ethan at school was too busy sucking on cigarette butts from a flower bed in front of Highwood and didn't want to hear it. I think he hates music and he will probably be a lawyer or a doctor or something when he grows up.

Karim kind of likes it. He wasn't humming it at the bus stop or anything but he got his daddy to buy him the Nik Kershaw tape. Karim said he'd lend it to me and I gave him back his Return of the Jedi book so he won't mind lending it to me.

Paul B likes it a lot but then he bit me on the arm when I asked him why he likes it. Why am I still friends with him?

Do you want to know what I think? Well, it's okay. I think that Marshall is wrong about the meaning of "Wide Boy". I think it's about fat guys thinking they're really important. Grandpa Roy is fat and he thinks he's important. He sells houses. He doesn't care if people think he's fat. People laugh at fat guys but I think they don't care and they feel more important for being fat. I wonder if Nik Kershaw doesn't like fat guys. Ethan said that he doesn't like fat people but I can't say that because Grandpa Roy is fat and so is Louise who is friends with Mummy and Daddy. I think fat people are fine. And the song is nice but maybe he should be nicer to fat people. (By the way, hello to: Michael B, Michelle and Angie, Wesant and Mike from swimming lessons)

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Billy Bragg: Between the Wars

Daddy likes this kind of thing. He says that folk music tells a story but I think that Twisted Sister tells a story in they're song but he says they aren't folk so I don't know what he means. Marshall doesn't like Billy Bragg's voice but I think it's neat. People in England talk like him but they don't usually sing like him. He says he was a minor and a dockor and a railwayman between the wars. I didn't know that people have more than one job when they grow up. Daddy is just a teacher, he doesn't have other jobs. I don't know when these wars were. Grandpa Bill was in the Second World War. He told me that Hitler heard his foot steps and that's how the war ended.