"Suddenly It's Tuesday" - Part 6 (141-160)

 

As we started to move into territory not so heavily populated with obscure b-sides and cover versions, it was inevitable that that the controversy would heat up a little, and so it proved with part 5. Although I still received quite a few 'can't argue with most of that' comments, particular ire was directed at the relatively lowly placings for 'Be Honest' and, in particular, 'Rotterdam'. 

I'm not intending to get into extended debates about individual songs because [a] I've already said why I've placed them where I have, [b] it's all a matter of opinion anyway and [c] I don't want to get drawn into the 'I think this', 'but I think this' to-and-fro-ery that bedevils so much of social media. Don't think, however, that I don't value all of the comments - it's great to hear differing opinions, and I'm grateful to anyone who takes the time to read these posts and offer their views.

Something that I would like to respond to, however, is the issue that a couple of people have raised regarding the problematic nature of evaluating individual songs from Going, Going... I've already touched on this when reviewing 'Greenland', 'Sprague' and 'Marblehead' in the last couple of posts. Opening the album with a quartet of instrumentals was a bold, intriguing and unusual step; it makes for a striking introduction that, for me, worked well in the context of both the LP and live performance. As a result, it's undoubtedly challenging and possibly rather unfair to rank those tracks individually; however, I didn't feel like I could omit them.

As for the rest of the album - I know that Going, Going... was designed as a concept album, but to be honest it doesn't really feel like one. Clearly, it tells a tale that's very personal to David, but to an objective listener, there's not much to connect the 15 non-instrumental tracks (all seemingly straightforward love songs delivered in traditional Gedge style) other than the fact that they're all named after interestingly obscure American locations. As such, I didn't have any qualms about evaluating them individually. I'm sure that some of you will disagree, and won't hesitate to tell me so! Speaking of which, let's get on with the next twenty songs...

160 Don't Dictate

(Airspace II, 1990)

Originally appeared on a various artists compilation, and also featured on reissues of Bizarro. It's a cover of Penetration's debut single (a band who I've just discovered came from Ferryhill in County Durham, just down the road from where I was born). Although Gedge doesn't quite capture the spiky aggression of Pauline Murray's vocal, this is one one of TWP's more successful covers: taut, sharp and pugnacious.

159 Bad Thing

(B-side of Interstate 5, 2004)

A grubby, regretful tale of a one-night stand ('I don’t usually do / the things I’m doing with you'; 'when it’s over we lay on the bed / she sighed disappointedly'). There's a nice contrast between the smoothly crooning vocals and the bleakly astringent guitar.

158 Signal

(Volume Five, 1992)

A cover that appeared on a various artists compilation which also featured Morrissey, The Cocteau Twins and Happy Mondays. The original was by the instrumental Portland band Pell Mell, whose line-up included Steve Fisk, who produced and played keyboards on Watusi and Take Fountain.

TWP don't deviate much from the original, a chugging instrumental that doesn't really go anywhere but is still nicely angular and atmospheric.

157 Waiting On The Guns

(B-side of Sucker, 1995)

Another cover, this time of wonderfully named Kansas band Butterglory. Musically, the original sounds like a cross between The Cure and Pavement; Debby Vander Wall's vocals also have a touch of the Kim Gordon about them. 

Despite the grimy, atonal guitar that underlies parts of their cover, TWP knock many of the sharp edges off the song, rendering it a little less urgent and not quite as satisfying as the original. That said, there's a lot to like about about their more measured approach, and Jayne Lockey's backing vocal on the chorus is positively charming. Interestingly, this blog post suggests that 'the Butterglory original sounds more like The Wedding Present than The Wedding Present’s cover of it sounds like The Wedding Present'.

156 Meet Cute

(Valentina, 2012)

The Wedding Present's eighth studio album perhaps lacks the thrilling highlights of some others, but is a solidly decent LP that's often unfairly overlooked. The thunderous, 'wall-of-sound' passages that make up much of 'Meet Cute' are impressively intense, and there's a nicely taut bridge section that leads up to the minute mark. The meandering verse is the song's Achilles heel, however, Gedge's vocal line and the intricate guitar part circling each other without really connecting properly.

The lyric is oddly opaque in places: 'I said "it’s too cold to snow" / she said "just what exactly does that mean?" / I said "I don’t know"'. The 'romantic underdog' aspect ('you’re really way out of my league') is a repeated theme on Valentina, one that Gedge revisited on both 'Deer Caught in the Headlights' ('you’re just too pretty for me') and 'Mystery Date' ('things like this do not not happen to me').

155 Our Lips Are Sealed 

(Huw Stephens Session, 2018)

You learn all sorts when researching these blogs. As far as I was aware, 'Our Lips Are Sealed' was a breezy piece of  sunshine-pop by The GoGos that was covered in typically dolorous fashion by Fun Boy Three a couple of years later. What I didn't know was that Terry Hall co-wrote the song with The GoGo's Jane Wiedlin and - according to Wiedlin - the two of them had a brief affair when The Go-Gos supported the Specials on their 1980 UK tour.

The other covers that TWP recorded for Huw Stephens have not fared well on this list (all appearing in the bottom 13 covered in post #1). 'Our Lips Are Sealed', however, is much more successful. Applying the tried-and-tested TWP cover method (speed it up and hit the chord progression with that trademark scratchy guitar frenzy) it fizzes along with gusto. Inconsequential, perhaps, but lots of fun.

154 Getting Better 

(B-side of Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?, 1988)

To illustrate just how tried-and-tested the approach taken on 'Our Lips Are Sealed' is, here's a similar example from thirty years earlier. I'm an admirer rather than a fan of The Beatles, and I never quite get the adulation of Sgt. Pepper, although you can't help but respect the beautifully-crafted, almost stately psychedelia of the original 'Getting Better'. Nonetheless - however heretical it might seem to some - I'd still rather spend two minutes in the company of TWP thrashing the living daylights out of the song.

Another learning point: Amelia Fletcher, who provides the ethereal layers of backing vocals on 'Getting Better', was awarded both an OBE and a CBE for services to economics.

153 I Found That Essence Rare

(Radio 1 Session The Evening Show, 1988)

This cover was recorded for Janice Long and first broadcast in May 1986. The Gang Of Four's original is a masterclass in edgy, astringent post-punk aggression; the TWP version is far less subtle, but makes up for it with relentless, blistering energy.

152 Emporia

(Going, Going..., 2016)

The town of Emporia is in Lyon County, Kansas. The majority of the song is gently reflective, the narrator regretfully contemplating the fact that his ex-lover is seeing someone new. The lyric doesn't open promisingly, 'someone' and 'liaison' forming a rather jarring rhyme, and the melody is a little predictable. Nonetheless, there's an arresting build-up of tension that's eventually resolved with a squall of distorted guitar and a heavy, dramatic coda. You get the sense of a grandiose vision that isn't quite realised; the song perhaps needed a bit more space to develop.

151 Flame On

(B-side of Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, 1994)

Framed around a fuzzy, wah-wah-heavy riff, 'Flame On' is a typical tale of bitter jealousy: 'I’d never seen him as an enemy / but now he’s taking you away from me'. The quiet-loud dynamic is well paced, and although it's not TWP's most original moment, it has sufficient twists and turns to avoid being overly formulaic.

150 Mars Sparkles Down On Me

(Take Fountain, 2005)

The first appearance on this list for 2005's 'comeback' album (although Cinerama's 2002 LP Torino was a TWP album in all but name). The narrator of 'Mars' claims to be happy with his 'brand new girlfriend', but this is clearly a bit of a sham, as the thought of his ex in bed with her new lover breaks his heart. Things take a slightly creepy tone when he asks, 'how can I just shake his hand / when it’s been all over your skin?' 

You can see what Gedge is going for here: 'Mars' strives to be achingly melodramatic and heartbreaking, and it's to the song's credit that it builds slowly and subtly without resorting to a predictable stamp-on-the-pedals guitar crescendo. However, the melody isn't quite strong enough to pull it off. A valiant effort, but I've been at several gigs where a substantial proportion of the audience saw the song as an opportunity to dash off and relieve their middle-aged bladders (cf. 'Montreal').

149 American Tan

(B-side of Ringway To Seatac, 2005)

A concise (95 seconds) story of frustration regarding a lover who acts very differently when her friends are around ('you suddenly become / a lot less quarrelsome / without your hangers on'). The lyric is a little clunky in places ('the woman I adore / only appears behind this door'). The reference to American tan revisits an interest in hosiery expressed in a couple of Cinerama songs ('Cat Girl Tights', 'Ten Denier'). One of its strongest features is an underlying bed of squalling feedback that gives it a jagged, assertive edge.

148 Up

(B-side of 2, 3, Go, 1996)

The first half is an aggressively punky thrash that echoes the melody of 'Softly Softly' / 'Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah'. Halfway through, it settles into a nicely reserved shuffle that fades away elegantly. Early live versions included an additional passage sung by Jayne Lockey. 

147 Fordland

(Going, Going..., 2016)

One of those perfectly decent but 'which one is this again?' tracks from the second half of Going, Going... The lyric is rather vague, but suggests uncertainty about the future: 'I’m terrified of tomorrow'; 'now I don’t know where this is going to end'. Crisp and punchy, but a little directionless, although this does fit well with the tone of the lyric. Fordland is in Webster County, Missouri.

146 Broken Bow

(Going, Going..., 2016)

The Going, Going... road trip takes us to Custer County, Nebraska. For the most part a brash rocker dominated by heavily distorted guitars, it dissolves into a gentle jangle before launching into a brief, noisy finale. Features one of those trademark odd lyrical emphases ('he made me feel like an ex-ile'), but it has a memorable chorus; overall a successful marriage of the light and heavy and packs a lot into just over two and a half minutes.

145 It's Not Unusual 

(B-side of Kennedy, 1989)

Very much in the same style as 'Getting Better', TWP clobber the Tom Jones standard with typically hyperactive glee...

144 Happy Birthday

(John Peel Session, May 1988)

...and this another example of that approach. I expressed in post #2 that I've always found Altered Images' 'indie-for-toddlers' act insufferable (a view for which I was roundly condemned, not for the first time); the clip of Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK that opens this cover is almost as cringeworthy. However, Altered Images' 'Happy Birthday' is at heart a decent tune, and TWP gallop through it with infectiously boisterous enthusiasm. Also gains a few places for the exultant declamation, 'Status Quo: 25 years in the business!'

143 Back a Bit...Stop

(Valentina, 2012)

A busy, forceful track with a certain post-punk angularity about it, in which the narrator tries to resist being carried away by the advances of the woman who's 'exploded' into his world. His reservations are due to the existence of her 'lovely fiancée', a typical late-period Gedge turn of phrase; the lyric ends with the rather gnomic 'how does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?' The concluding minute's worth of dark ambient noise is another common feature of the era. 

142 Metal Men

(Club 8 Single, 2012)

The other side of the 'Club 8' single (see post #3). He claims that there's a lot he can give and no one will ever love her like he does; she thinks he's unfeeling, 'just one of those "made out of metal" men'. 'I don’t always show it but you’re always on my mind / and I think you know it, you just need it underlined' suggests that a happy resolution is unlikely. The straightforward and direct musical approach - driven by no-frills/plain chords guitar, even in the down-tempo section - is refreshingly brisk and effective.

141 1000 Fahrenheit

(4 Songs EP, 2012)

Similarly direct and no-nonsense, featuring one of those 'earworm' Gedge melodies that you (wrongly) could have sworn you'd heard before. The 'it’s getting warmer' chorus makes for a memorable hook. One of Gedge's many femme fatale songs, the protagonist finding himself 'dangling on a hook' and 'completely under her spell'.

Many thanks for reading - I look forward to reading all your comments.

Take care, and I'll see you next week.

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