Mar 102012
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In Mr. Moderator addresses the one album in his collection that has aged worse than any other album he’s ever purchased. Hearing the 2 prime cuts from the album bums him out. Later, he makes things better and takes us all out with an entire album side from The Pretty Things‘ Parachute. Other stuff happens before and in-between. Enjoy.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-70.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 70][Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your iTunes by clicking here. The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player.]
Aww, I’m almost disappointed. I do agree that the first Psychedelic Furs album has dated badly, but I was halfway expecting Mr. Mod to confess to owning something really gruesome like Taco’s After Eight or maybe something by Howard Jones, Men Without Hats, Alphaville, or Berlin.
I was all ready to jump on my high horse to defend the first Psychedelic Furs album, I even bought it on CD recently and listened to it with a great deal of nostalgic pleasure – but having thought about it there were always bits of it which bugged me, and shifted it towards the ‘guilty pleasure’ end rather than the ‘you’ve got to listen to this!’ spectrum.
Primarily the overuse of the word “stupid”, which Richard Butler seemed to resort to whenever he couldn’t think of anything else to say, and now grates horribly.
I still think that the instrumentation and the production are superb, and those tracks have whetted my appetite to listen to it again, and I know that I will enjoy it – but I know what you mean. I’ve never considered a link between the Furs and PiL, the former were lifted straight out of the Roxy Music end of Glam, while PiL seemed to be coming from the Reggae/Krautrock spectrum.
Was that version of “When Will I be Loved” from the Rockpile album? I saw them on Hastings Pier and they were awesome, made even better because Nick Lowe was playing a huge, bright red six-string bass and I wanted one. Saw the Furs on the second album tour and they were pretty damn good too.
Now I come to think of it I also saw the Pretty Things somewhere or other, so that’s a full house for this week.
Yes, “When Will I Be Loved” was from a 4-Everly Brothers song, 7-inch EP that came with the Rockpile lp in the US!
I hope I haven’t spoiled that Furs album for anyone, but trying to listen to it again – despite the cool sounds/production – really made me want to leave my 18-year-old self in the dust.
No need to feel shame for that first Furs album. While it certainly needs a critical downgrade (4.5 Allmusic), the result is a band trying to find their own sound. Somewhere between Bauhaus and the Bunnymen. The production doesn’t help either. I hear similar concerns that plague albums by The Church.
Talk Talk Talk finds the band much more comfortable and confident with their songwriting.
I would still respect him if he owned any of those. It would show a level of adventurousness that would be very impressive indeed.
I sort of liked those PFs tunes. The music sounded good even if R. Butler’s voice was a bit grating. But I enjoyed their later singles too – I’ve never heard a whole album from them.
I like the style of that Pretty Things side, but I have so much of that kind of thing already, I too, wonder when I would set aside time to “understand” it.
I have singles by all those artists except Howard Jones in my digital collection. I would still respect Mr. Mod (tee hee) if he had Taco CDs (snicker) on his shelves (giggle) and I would be the last person (chortle) to criticize him (snort) if he has a secret love for “Puttin’ On the Ritz”. (oh, shit – hahahahahahahahaheeheeheehee).
I like all the PF albums throiugh through Mirror Moves!
I kinda lose the plot with the Pretty Things after S.F. Sorrow. Parachute is certainly not bad but it sounds to me too much like “not quite S.F. Sorrow.”