"It may not be very new, and the Valentine Brothers (a Los Angeles combo) not very familiar, but this knocks the spots off most everything else on this page."
— Dave Rimmer
Eighties' Thatcherite hell was a topic that came up over and over in UK pop. The themes dealt with on albums such as Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, The Style Council's Our Favourite Shop, Deacon Blue's Raintown, Pet Shop Boys' Actually and Julian Cope's Peggy Suicide can all be boiled down to chronicles of a dreary Britain in the midst of the Falklands War, riotting, shabby new towns, union busting, the AIDS crisis, football hooliganism's apogee and the dominance of media empires of Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell. If they hesitated to do so on full length L.P.'s, pop stars took dead aim at Mrs. Thatcher in many individual songs as well: Elvis Costello mocked her in "You'll Never Be a Man" and then went one better eight years later when he fantasied over her death in "Tramp the Dirt Down", a sentiment echoed by Morrissey — who one might expect would've had some political sympathies with the Iron Lady — in "Margaret on the Guillotine". The Specials' "Ghost Town", Hue & Cry's "Labour of Love", Billy Bragg's "Between the Wars", Depeche Mode's "Everything Counts", The Housemartins' "Flag Day", Wham!'s "Wham Rap!"...I'd go on but I think I've made my point — plus I can't think of any more.
So, that's Britain but what of the USA at this time? I had trouble thinking of a song about Ronald Reagan and/or Reaganite America until I remembered The Ramones' "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg", which the good Tom Hibbert named a Single of the Fortnight in 1985. Beyond that, however, there's not much. Some older liberal rock stars came up with tunes condemning the old coot's vulgarity and there are lots records about his involvement in the arms race but many of those are by the likes of U2, INXS, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Genesis and Midnight Oil, groups who didn't share a great deal in common beyond simply not being American. As for what real Americans were dealing with in the decade of post-New Deal individualism and tax cuts for the wealthy, there's not much to go on. (Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." had been used as a rallying call for Reagan's conservatism only for it to come to light that it was about Vietnam war vets being left behind by a nation that didn't want to have anything to do with them; while it fits, it's important to note that it wasn't regarded as anti-Reagan until well after the fact, the Boss evidently not keen to cross his fanbase which may have leaned right wing)
In this void we say hello to the Columbus, Ohio brother duo of John and Billy Valentine. While it would be convenient to place them in the context of politically conscious black American pop, it's rather difficult to do so since "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)" is a one off for them. Appearing after a brief overture which — duh! — opens their second album First Take, the song concludes and is followed by four smoochtastic love songs before wrapping up with an instrumental rendition of the present song and a reprise of the overture (which ought to have been the finale if we're being technical) — I think it's fair to say that the duo didn't exactly have a glut of material with which to pad their latest work. (The track's placing near the LP's opening could be taken as a warning to any interested ladies that these Valentines are (appropriately) romantic but perhaps a wee bit too cash poor to show them a really good time but better that than leaving the message of 'oh, and by the way, we're broke; you don't happen to have a ten spot you could lend us, do you?' for the end)
The remainder of their discography may be politically apathetic but that only underscores the poignancy of this attempt. These are average guys, interested in women and having a drink and watching sports on TV, they're not concerned about pollution or Apartheid (not sufficiently to have recorded and released songs about them at any rate). A lack of cash in their pockets is what's driving them. The bank turned them down for a load but treated them with dignity and family members can't help because they, too, are feeling the pinch but the government has been giving them the runaround. The supposed economic stimulus of tax breaks has resulted in an improvement in their lives, or this is what the new has been saying at any rate. This is, of course, nothing new or profound but is a welcome change in an American music landscape of the time so lacking in everyday problems.
With vocal stylings clearly influenced by Marvin Gaye, it's tempting to wonder if this is the sort of thing he ought to have been doing during his final years rather than pissing them away on nauseating sex tracks. With Marvelous Marvin's What's Going On already a massive influence, you'd think this would be right up his alley. The only trouble is, Gaye's work had his ego to deal with, putting himself at the centre of everything he did. (A key track on What's Going On is "What's Happening Brother" in which an out of touch Gaye is gamely attempting to reconnect with his people, community and the world around him while never quite managing to shake the feeling that it's all about him) "Money's Too Tight" has an everyman quality about it that Gaye could never have pulled off, even when his creative faculties were still intact.
A minor hit on the Billboard R & B charts, it's unlikely that it or the First Take album did much for their finances. Luckily, they were to make a pretty good windfall from a cover a couple years later by yet another British act who also had a problem with Mrs. Thatcher. Though Simply Red have a spotty discography (especially when it comes to their many cover versions), their recording of "Money's Too Tight" is one of their highlights, perhaps because it hit so close to home. Yet, the Valentine Brothers' original is the preferred rendition. Proof that you didn't need to be a socialist of any kind to find the Reagan-Thatcher years abhorrent, you just needed to be like the many who were thrown away as a result of them.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Nile Rodgers: "The Land of the Good Groove"
"Unusual dance track from the former Chic guitarist turned David Bowie producer," Rimmer observes, unaware that the deeply influential group he formed with Bernard Edwards was still active in 1983. This suggests that sitting behind a mixing desk was much more Nile Rodgers' day job than playing in a band that used to be (a) successful and (b) good. Speaking of which, bandmates Edwards and Tony Thompson play on this and the rest of Rodgers' debut solo outing Adventures in the Land of the Good Groove. One wonders why they didn't cut it under their own name since it displays far more creativity and sass than their own work at the same time. That said, you'll never need to hear it again once you've gotten through it the once.
(Click here to see my original review)
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