CARS - Heartbeat City 1984

If this album had only one good song on it, and that song was 'Drive', it would still be a classic record belonging in every collection. It's one of the most beautiful, poignant ballads of the 1980's. Written by Rik Ocasek and sung by bass player Ben Orr, it's just one of 6 single releases from this 10 track album. There aren't many studio albums that have 60% of their tracks on regular airplay, much less all of those 6 charting somewhere in the world and two of them making #1 in the US. It's almost a 'Greatest Hits' collection without meaning to be.

It's also the soundtrack to my wife Tracy's lost summer of teenage angst and a love that might have been - but that's another story.

When I wrote recently about Dr. Hook I said people tend to get a mental picture of Ray Sawyer wearing an eyepatch. When people think of The Cars, Ric Okasek springs to mind as 'the face' of the group. Apart from being co-lead singer and major songwriter for the band (sometimes with keyboard player Greg Hawkes) he was also perhaps the most distinctive in appearance. Standing 6'4" tall, long face, large ears, gaunt look and often with dark glasses, he stood out in a crowd. As I mentioned, Ric was co-lead singer, sharing duties with his fellow founding member Ben Orr. They usually took solo lead on different songs and only rarely took lead duet. On this album, only one track, 'It's Not the Night' lists both of them out front.  

First cab off the rank (nice little 'Car' reference there) from the album is 'Hello Again' - instantly identified from the opening with that "swooshing" intro to the word 'Hello'. It's worth looking for the music video of this track, it was produced by Andy Warhol and features him as a bartender. The song is supposedly about a guy who can't find happiness and ends up back where he came from. I don't get that at all, but, enjoy.

'Magic' is just that - a magically jaunty piece with another distinctive opening - almost like a 60's sci-fi effect. Singing about being with his girl, Ric Okasek uses phrases like "I see you under the midnight" which he described as "manipulated contradictions". Who knew.

'Drive' is nothing short of a perfect, beautiful melancholy song with electronics replacing violins to create that heart-wrenching backdrop. The song got a massive boost from the 1985 Live Aid broadcast, where not only did Ben Orr perform it from the Philadelphia stage, it was also used as the background soundtrack to clips of the Ethiopian famine, which of course was the whole reason for the event. Here's a couple of trivia bits - the official music video was produced by the actor Timothy Hutton when he was just 23 years old - and after Princess Diana was killed some songs were taken off radio XFM in the UK in case they upset people. One of those songs was 'Drive'.   

Both 'Magic' and another track off this milestone album 'You Might Think' got to #1 on the US Rock charts with 'Drive' reaching #3. The title track 'Heartbeat City', 'Why Can't I Have You' and the previously mentioned 'Hello Again' rounded out the 6 charting singles.

After just one more major single 'Tonight She Comes' the band never really regained their star power. Through breakups, solo careers, brief reunitings and subsequently the passing of both lead singers, Benjamin Orr in 2000 and Ric Okasek in 2019, The Cars remain a late 70's - 80's band with a legacy of great music, unique videos and a lasting spot on any playlist worth it's salt.

On a personal note - and this is just because the sound is of it's time - whenever I hear The Cars my mind links to Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Roxy Music et al .. a paradox that sounds can be generic and unique at the same time.

Drive

Hello Again

EDNASWAP - Chicken (EP) 1996

The whole reason for this post is to recognise the original version of a song. I got this EP along with 9 more 45's sealed in a lucky dip brown paper bag for $5.

Today the Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia released her sixth studio album 'Firebird.'  In other news, Ednaswap disbanded 22 years ago.

What does one have to do with the other? Well, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven and record producer Phil Thornalley wrote the song 'Torn'. Scott and Anne then formed the group Ednaswap along with Paul McCartney's ex-lead guitarist Rusty Anderson and a couple of others.

Their song 'Torn' was covered by many artists and was first recorded in 1993 by Lis Sørensen under the title "Braendt (Burned)" with Danish lyrics. Ednaswap did the first English version on their 1995 album but it got no traction. In 1996 it was again released, this time in English by Norwegian Trine Rein. 

By 1994, after TV commercials and a role in the Australian soap 'Neighbours', Natalie Imbruglia had moved to London and in '97 the abovementioned Phil Thornalley got her to record a demo of 'Torn'. Partly based on that demo she got a record contract and started on her first album, with Phil as one of the producers. The single of 'Torn' was released before the album and unlike the previous versions, this one took off. Charting pretty much everywhere it was one of the most played songs of '97 putting Imbruglia firmly on the map. Unfortunately, it did diddly-squat for Ednaswap. 

After releasing it on their first album, then on this EP 'Chicken' Ednaswap also included 'Torn' for a third time on their 1997 album 'Wacko Magneto' but once again it failed to make any impact. Three studio albums and an EP later, by 1999 Ednaswap decided to call it a day. 

Scott Cutler and Anne Previn went on to write and produce, separately and together. Previn has worked and written for many artists including Sinéad O'Connor, Miley Cyrus, Pixie Lott, Katy Perry .. the list goes on.

A very odd bit of trivia - in 2010 the newly formed group One Direction sang 'Torn' as their first song on the UK version of The X Factor.

Ednaswap

Natalie Imbruglia

CHICAGO - Chicago 1970 (known retroactively as Chicago II)

This is Chicago's second album (which is why it has the unofficial title Chicago II) but as their first was recorded under their original long name - Chicago Transit Authority - this was the first with their new shortened moniker. Their next album though was called Chicago III and they carried on with Roman numeral titling for many of their subsequent releases. 

I could probably write the whole post about just one song on this album.

Who knew, straight away, what '25 or 6 to 4' meant? Be honest, did it make sense? - was it enigmatic? - did you care?

I never gave it a lot of thought except it was possibly to do with time, but I didn't pin it down until years later when I came across this explanation from Robert Lamm, the guy who wrote it. He was living in the Hollywood Hills where he could look out over the city. He reckons the song is about actually writing a song and he just put down what he saw .. "'waiting for the break of day, searching for something to say, flashing lights against the sky' - there was a neon sign across the city. That song came from the fact that it was 25 or 6 to 4 a.m. in the morning when I looked at my watch."

OK, we can all sleep easy in our beds now, another of life's mysteries solved.

Peter Cetera, one of three vocalists in the group, took centre stage on this track under very trying circumstances. The band had been to a baseball game where their team beat the hometown team. Peter got into an altercation with 4 marines. His broken jaw was still wired when he sang lead. There's no mistaking this song, right from the strong distinctive opening. It hits the ground running with a Peter Cetera bass riff that's instantly recognisable and then the brass comes in strongly to lead into the first couple of verses. At around the 2 minute mark here's Terry Kath with an electric guitar full of fuzz and wah-wah giving it what for over the next minute and a half, then playing a frenetic background to the brass and vocals again. It's a great song, it's almost raw and experimental and deserves it's place in music history.

Oddly, their next single release coming 6 months later, 'Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?' was taken from their earlier album when they were still Chicago Transit Authority. It has that same full-throated brass sound though, a style that was making it's mark with others such as Blood, Sweat & Tears and later Earth Wind & Fire and one of my favourites, Average White Band.

Rock and roll and brass kept them going for a while, with some great songs and great airplay. 'Saturday in the Park', 'Another Rainy Day in New York City' and one that Tracy loves to direct at me, 'Just You 'n' Me'. You have to know the song .. we were listening in the car one day, Chicago were singing ..
You are my love in my life
And you are my inspiration
Just you and me
Simple and free"
and without missing a beat she said .. "I'll be free" - which by process of elimination left me being simple !!

In 1978 the band experienced a major blow. Terry Kath, founder member, guitarist and vocalist, met a tragic end. He had a history of drug and alcohol abuse and a collection of guns, not a good mix. Messing about one evening in January '78 he first picked up an empty .38 revolver and put it to his head and pulled the trigger. Then he grabbed a 9mm pistol with no clip in and put that to his temple. His last words were, "What do you think I’m gonna do? Blow my brains out?" - and then he blew his brains out. There was a live round in the chamber.

The group didn't stop, although they did almost disband, but many critics feel they lost that edge, the experimentation, and certainly in later years their style changed to middle of the road adult contemporary and even the brass was pushed to the back.

Regardless of change, the 1970's catalogue of Chicago music holds it's own and is well worth revisiting.

25 or 6 to 4

Dr. HOOK AND THE MEDICINE SHOW - Sloppy Seconds 1972

"We got all the friends that money can buy
So we never have to be alone
And we keep gettin' richer but we can't get our picture
On the cover of the Rollin' Stone"

Funny thing was, when they were featured on the cover of The Rolling Stone, it wasn't a photograph, it was a caricature. So close !!

The band got together in Union City, New Jersey (remember Blondie singing about 'Union City Blue' Vinyl Vault 21 July 2020). Not one of them is a doctor, and nobody is called Hook. Ray Sawyer lost an eye in a car accident so always wore an eyepatch and that was what inspired the name. Originally "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul", they shortened the name to Dr. Hook in 1975. The story goes that whenever they were asked which one was Dr. Hook they pointed to the bus driver.

I can't talk about Dr. Hook without putting Shel Silverstein into the frame. He's so important he's almost an uncredited member of the band. In fact I could almost let Shel take over the whole post. Famous as a children's author and prolific songwriter he definitely had two sides to his genius. There was that part for the children and then a darker, biting side for the grown-ups, more often than not referencing the use of herbal tobacco! I could listen to him reciting 'The Smoke-Off' over and over again.
"Beware of being the roller when there's nothing left to roll".

Everyone knows something of his work. He did many so-called 'novelty' songs - 'A Boy Named Sue' made famous by Johnny Cash, 'Put Another Log On the Fire' done by Bill & Boyd, the Irish Rovers song 'The Unicorn'. But there was seriously good stuff in there too - Waylon Jennings or even better Kris Kristoffersons version of 'The Taker'. and my favourite, the absolutely gut-wrenchingly brilliant 'Ballad of Lucy Jordan' done by Hook in 1974 but brought to life in 1979 by Marianne Faithfull. (Vinyl Vault 7 June 2020).

In 1970 Dr. Hook had done demo tapes which were heard by the musical director of a planned movie where all the songs had been written by Shel. The band ended up doing two songs on the soundtrack, the movie didn't do well, but they got a recording contract out of it. 

Shel was further responsible for kick-starting Dr. Hook by writing 10 of the 11 songs on their debut eponymous album in 1972 including their first hit 'Sylvia's Mother'. That song was pretty much autobiographical - Shel had tried to get in touch with an old flame called Sylvia but got her mother on the phone instead. In 1974 during a live performance in the Netherlands, Dr. Hook did a parody version of that song called 'Sylvia's Father'
"Sylvia's Father said, Sylvia's packing,
She's gonna be leaving today,
Sylvia's Father said, Sylvia's pregnant,
And you went and made her that way,
Sylvia's father said 'You Mother****er,
I swear I'll kill you someday' ..."

This featured album, 'Sloppy Seconds' was entirely written by Shel and contains not only 'The Cover of the Rolling Stone' but a couple of others of note. 'Queen of the Silver Dollar' is one I go back to and 'Freakin' at the Freakers Ball' pretty much sums up Shel's 'dark side' ...
"White ones, black ones, yellow ones, red ones
Necrophiliacs looking for dead ones
The greatest of the sadists and the masochists too
Screaming please hit me and I'll hit you" ...
probably politically incorrect these days.

The band continued to use some of Shel's songs on later albums - 'I Got Stoned and I Missed It', 'Everybody's Making It Big But Me' but their charting songs started to come from other directions. They totally went away from the 'novelty' stuff and in 1975 released the 1959 Sam Cooke classic 'Only Sixteen'. 

One more Shel song they did release as a single was 'A Couple More Years'. It didn't do anything, but in 1986, Bob Dylan sang it in the movie "Hearts of Fire". At the end of the song he says to the girl he sang it to .. "I wrote that for you. Never finished it." which of course is bullsh*t, but there we are.

By the mid to late 70's the band had become darlings of the soft rock stations pumping out solid songs that continue to get airplay today. 'A Little Bit More', 'Sharing the Night Together', 'When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman' and on and on.

The band broke up officially in 1985 but a couple of offshoots kept going for a while. Ray Sawyer (of eyepatch fame) toured as 'Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook' and the other vocalist Dennis Locorriere did concerts as 'Voice of Dr. Hook'.

Sadly Ray Sawyer passed away in 2018 at the age of 81.

Whether you like the early fun stuff or the later lovey-dovey stuff, Dr. Hook has something in their library for everyone and even those who dismiss them as too light and silly still secretly sing along when their music comes on the radio.

Cover of the Rolling Stone

The Smoke Off - Shel Silverstein

STEVIE NICKS - Bella Donna 1981

 Stevie Nicks turned 73 in May this year. Just let that sink in. I can't come to terms with it.

Known primarily for her work with Fleetwood Mac, there are more strings to Stevie's bow than that. I first heard of her in 1974 when I moved to New Zealand. A friend had the album "Buckingham Nicks" which, obviously, was a release by Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. They'd met in High School and sang together at school functions. A couple of years later when Lindsay was playing guitar for a band called Fritz he called Stevie and asked her to join. They ended up doing openings for some of the legendary groups of the time, Big Brother and the Holding Company (think Janis Joplin), Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane and the man himself, Jimi Hendrix. 

In 1973 they recorded and released their eponymous album and it pretty much sank like a stone. A couple of radio stations picked it up but generally it was ignored and deleted from the record label catalogue. To this day, it's only ever been available on vinyl, no CD re-releases have been issued. There are however bootleg CD versions available (of which I have one) and as well as tracks from the original album they include some live recordings from concerts they did trying to promote the LP. One of those live recordings is Stevie singing a very early version of her song 'Rhiannon'. 

Due to the failure of the album their manager released them from their contract and they both went back to "ordinary" jobs. Despite that, the album became a lifeline for them. 

As happens sometimes, serendipity steps in. Mick Fleetwood was in the Sound City studios in Los Angeles when he heard one of their tracks being played, 'Frozen Love'. He got John and Christine McVie and together they arranged to meet Lindsay and Stevie at a restaurant. Lindsay turned up but they had to wait for Stevie, she was finishing her shift as a waitress at another theme restaurant and when she arrived for the meeting she was still wearing a flapper costume.

The pair of them were invited to join Fleetwood Mac in 1974. When Mac released their 1975 album 'Fleetwood Mac' (the second eponymous album after the 1968 album of the same name so this one is referred to as The White Album) 6 of the 11 tracks were written or co-written by Buckingham and/or Nicks. The aforementioned 'Rhiannon' written by Stevie became one of the stand out songs and another Stevie composition 'Crystal' was also included. 'Crystal' had been one of the songs released on the Buckinham Nicks album.  

And so to 'Bella Donna'. This was Stevie's first solo album but she certainly gathered some talented friends around her. There are two duets on the album, 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around' written by Tom Petty and performed with him and 'Leather and Lace' a Stevie song recorded with Don Henley of Eagles fame. Those two tracks along with the 'Edge of Seventeen' and 'After the Glitter Fades' were all released as singles between 1981/2. Playing acoustic guitar on 6 of the 10 tracks was none other than our old Vinyl Vault friend Davey Johnstone. Apart from being the long time guitarist for Elton John I've previously mentioned Davey's work with Joan Armatrading (Vinyl Vault 20 July 2021) and as part of the Harrogate linked 70's group Magna Carta (Vinyl Vault 29 July 2021).

'Edge of Seventeen' is a bit like 'In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida' - not in any musical sense, but in it's title. Due to mishearing 'In a Garden of Eden' we got the Iron Butterfly song (Vinyl Vault 6 June 2021). Likewise, when talking to Tom Petty's wife Jane, Jane said that her and Tom met 'at the age of seventeen'. Because of Jane's strong accent, Stevie heard it as 'edge of seventeen' and the phrase stuck. She used it as the title of a song inspired by the death of both John Lennon and shortly after, the death of her uncle.

'Leather and Lace' started as a song Waylon Jennings asked Stevie to write, to be a duet for Waylon and his wife Jessi Colter. Stevie's ex lover and friend Don Henley helped her with the song and after finding out that Waylon and Jessi were splitting up, Stevie and Don recorded the album version.

'Think About It' is one of those personal songs that happen along the way. Christine McVie was going through a break-up with hubby and fellow Fleetwood Mac member John McVie at the same time as Stevie and Lindsay were splitting up, so the song became some sort of therapy for the two women. Fortunately it also ended up being a great song.

Stevie has released 8 solo albums to date, we had to wait until 1994's 'Street Angel' before we got the inevitable Bob Dylan cover. She does a creditable version of 'Just Like a Woman'.

One of Fleetwood Macs biggest fans, and in particular a devotee of Stevie's, is Lorde (Vinyl Vault 31 July 2020, 21 August 2021). Perhaps the best compliment that Lorde could have hoped to get was when Stevie said, in front of an Auckland crowd "if she had been my age, and lived our age, she probably would have been the third girl in Fleetwood Mac".

'Rhiannon' was about an old Welsh witch. Despite the rumours, her fashion and her stage presence, Stephanie Lynn Nicks is NOT a witch. But there's still time.

Edge of Seventeen

PINK FLOYD - Wish You Were Here 1975

"The band is just fantastic
That is really what I think
Oh by the way, which one's pink?"

Well, as yesterday was Roger Waters' birthday, we'll let him be pink. It's only fair, he wrote the track these lines come from (although he didn't sing them - read on). What isn't fair I suppose is that I've included a bootleg double vinyl in the photograph. It's a recording I have of a show at the Anaheim Stadium in California in May 1977. 'California Stockyard' has live performances of the 'Wish You Were Here' album plus tracks from 'Animals'. I just thought it was an interesting juxtaposition with the original studio album. Because it's a bootleg, the actual records have grubby, rough, plain unprinted labels, one of which is on the turntable. The only way to identify them is from the run-out matrix numbers.

'Dark Side of the Moon' was always going to be a hard act to follow and two years after DSOTM came this, their ninth studio album. This one was sporting another cover design by Hipgnosis, this time depicting two businessmen shaking hands, one of them on fire, illustrating the concept of 'getting burned' in business (and music). 

I remember buying this album and playing it for the first time. I'd bought it blind, hadn't heard any of it, didn't know what to expect. There were only 2 tracks on side 1 and 3 on side 2. I sat through 13 minutes of 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts I-V' without getting the significance at first. When you figure out that it is basically about the tragic figure of Syd Barrett, founding member of the group from 1964/5 it takes on it's real meaning. Much the way that The Beatles 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' gave the acronym "LSD" so too "Shine on You crazy Diamond' gives us "SYD". By 1967 Syd sadly began to unravel, just standing on stage with his arms by his side during live concerts, or playing the same note over again, becoming more and more distant. Dave Gilmour was brought into the group to supplement Syd's lack of performance but eventually in January 1968 when the rest of the band were going to perform at Southampton University, they all agreed not to pick Syd up on the way.

'Welcome to the Machine' is pretty self-explanatory. The machine of the music industry thinly veiled in it's treatment of Syd.

As hinted at above, the song 'Have a Cigar' which featured the line "oh by the way, which one's pink?" was a Roger Waters composition and he was meant to sing it, but he'd pretty much exhausted his voice by this time. David Gilmour did a version but didn't really like it so they got their friend, folk singer Roy Harper to do it. Roy was recording at the same studio and he actually volunteered to sing the song. Rejected at first, he eventually did the version that appears on the album. Roy was friends with many artists, on their album Led Zepplin III there was a song 'Hats Off To (Roy) Harper' (Vinyl Vault - Led Zepplin 9 September 2020). 

I did say I bought this album blind, without hearing any of it. When I got to the title track 'Wish You Were Here' I was intrigued. It started with an old radio going through various broadcasts before being tuned in to an acoustic guitar. It's a lot quieter than the previous track so my inclination was to turn it up - then at the 58 second mark a studio guitar comes in louder and fully rounded and literally sent shivers down my spine. This is a brilliant, beautiful song full of questions, one of them being Tracy's absolute favourite of all Pink Floyds lines ..
"Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?" 

When Wyclef Jean did his version of this song he acknowledged Pink Floyd in a couple of ways, in the rap part of the song where he sings ..
"Critics don't mistake this for just any cover tune
I'ma take y'all to the dark side of the moon" ...
followed by
... "My brother tune me into rock
Put me up on Pink Floyd, a band from the British blocks"

The last track on the album is 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI-IX' a 12+ minute instrumental leaving you with Pink Floyd doing what they do best - letting the music take you where YOU want to go.

This whole album is about Syd Barrett in one way or another and yet there is a poignant and unusual footnote to it. When the album was in it's final stages, Syd came into the studio. According to quotes from the Pink Floyd autobiography 'A Saucerful of Secrets' by Nicholas Schaffner, David Gilmour didn't even recognise him. He was wearing a white trenchcoat with white shoes, he'd shaved his eyebrows and he was bald and overweight. He was allowed to stay, although his offer to rejoin the group was rejected and as it turned out, that was the last time any of the members of Pink Floyd saw him. Syd (Roger Keith Barrett) passed away in 2006 aged 60.

This isn't my favourite Pink Floyd album, but it's one I go back to often. There are gems here, not just diamonds.

Wish You Were Here

ABBA - The Singles: The First Ten Years 1982

 It's a safe bet that the majority of people with any form of music collection once had, or still has, something by ABBA. Whether you admit to it or not is a different matter.  

Does this divide the room? It probably divides the internet ! It was inevitable though that ABBA would feature in Vinyl Vault at some point and now is as good a time as any. Just days ago, after 40 years, the group announced a new studio album and a set of virtual concerts. 54 years ago this very day, in 1967, a young singer won a talent contest on a TV show called 'Hyland's Corner'. That singer was Anni-Frid Lyngstad with her group the Anni-Frid Four. I bet the other members of the group were slightly miffed when she joined three different people and became part of ABBA.

When they formed ABBA, Anni-Frid and Benny Andersson were a couple, as were Björn Ulvaeus and  Agnetha Fältskog (hubba-hubba), hence their initials ABBA (yes, OK, everybody knew that.)  

This double vinyl really is one of the best definitive collections. Everything even the most casual ABBA fan could want, from their Eurovision winner 'Waterloo' to the open heart surgery of 'The Winner Takes It All' there is something for everyone. I'm not going to go through song by song, if you have the slightest feeling for ABBA then you have a favourite - one or more. IMHO their music has been cheapened by those crappy Mama Mia movies, although when Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths do their act in the classic Australian film 'Muriel's Wedding' all is forgiven. "You're terrible, Muriel."

Australia was one of the countries that totally embraced ABBA to the point where the world's most successful ABBA tribute act, 'Björn Again' originated in Melbourne in 1988. They are so good that even Benny said of them "Björn Again are the closest you can get to seeing ABBA." Compare that with another tribute act, the London based 'Gabba' who do ABBA songs in the style of The Ramones and that gives you the two extremes!

Who remembers this song from 1984 - 

"Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner"

- yep, Murray Head belting out a great tune. So why is it here? Well, it comes from a musical, "Chess" which ran for 3 years in London's West End, lyrics by Tim Rice (of Jesus Christ Superstar fame etc) and the music was by the BB of ABBA, Benny and Björn.

After they stopped touring and recording as a group, all the members of ABBA did various projects either as solo acts in the case of Anni-Fred and Agnetha or composing and production as with B & B. Despite saying on numerous occasions that they would never reunite, here we are, with a new album, 'Voyage', in the pipeline. When asked why they decided to do it now, Björn came up with the logical response - "We wanted to do it before we were dead."

Agnetha is 71, Benny is 74, Anni-Frid is 75 and Björn is 76. Like the timing for this post, now is as good a time as any.

Dig out your own personal collection or go to YouTube and find your favourites. Relive platform shoes and glittery onesies, sing along unashamedly and recall the days when the gap in Agnethas front teeth was the sexiest thing you ever saw.

PET SHOP BOYS - Discography 1991

 

"I've got the brains you've got the looks
Let's make lots of money
You've got the brawn I've got the brains
Let's make lots of money"

OK, I admit it - my guilty pleasure - Pet Shop Boys. That's not too difficult to understand really. Their music is generally classed as synth-pop, a derivative of new wave, but in fact it's based on the music I was listening to in the 60's. I remember some of my earliest influences - 1962's 'Telstar' by The Tornadoes, an instrumental featuring sci-fi sounds from the clavioline, a pre synthesizer keyboard. Then came the Doctor Who theme produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for the original series in 1963. This wasn't synth, it was hard work and invention and it was like nothing else. As I wrote on a previous post "It was assembled from pieces of tape, some of just one note on a plucked string, manipulated, stretched, oscillated and generally used and abused." (Vinyl Vault - Jean-Michel Jarre 3 Dec 2020). Electronic witchcraft, trickery and in some cases pure avant-garde indulgence was used until 1963 when the Mellotron was developed in England then in 1964 Robert Moog gave the world the Moog Synthesizer. After that the floodgates opened. Everybody used them from The Beatles and The Stones to The Doors, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Moody Blues and even The Monkees !!

What I'm saying is that synth-pop wasn't a stretch. We'd had some of those sounds in different forms before - even the swirling organ in tracks such as The Animals 'House of the Rising Sun' and Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone' made us prepared for what was to come. 

Neil Tennant bought himself a Korg MS-10 synthesizer and when he met Chris Lowe in a music shop in Chelsea they realised they shared an interest in music, particularly electronic stuff. At the time, Neil worked for Smash Hits music magazine, little imagining that before long he and Chris would be on the cover.

Between 1984 and '89 you couldn't turn on a popular radio station without hearing the Pet Shop Boys. Although 'West End Girls' was their first #1, it wasn't a hit in it's first incarnation. Recorded by them, produced by Bobby Orlando in 1984 and released as a single on Epic it pretty much bombed. After dumping Bobby they signed with EMI in 1985 and put out 'Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money'). Still having faith in 'West End Girls' they re-recorded and re-released it and the rest .. as they say .. is history.

It wasn't until 1986 that they put together their first album 'Please'. Here's a cute little fact. They said that they called it 'Please' so that when someone wanted to buy it they could go to the record store and say to the assistant "May I have the new Pet Shop Boys album, Please."

In 1987 they had a #1 single 'It's a Sin' from their album 'Actually' but another release from that LP is the one that strikes a chord with me. 'What Have I Done To Deserve This?' included the enigmatic fantastic tragic figure of Dusty Springfield singing alongside the duo. It provided a massive boost to Dusty's slowly dwindling career and became her biggest hit since 'Son of a Preacher Man' (Vinyl Vault 17 June 2020). The Pet Shop Boys continued playing this song in their live shows after Dusty passed away. They used a variety of guest singers, most notably on one occasion, Lady Gaga.

In 1991 this 2 LP compilation really was the best value around, 18 tracks, 16 of which had been released as singles, 6 of them reaching #1 somewhere in the world. I think my favourites are divided between the previously mentioned Dusty Springfield mix and their interpretation of 'Always on my Mind'. There is a 7.26 minute video to accompany this song, featuring the brilliantly creepy actor Joss Ackland, well worth watching.

Someone mentioned that these posts can go on too long - I do get carried away sometimes - so I'll end this one here. The Pet Shop Boys are still going strong and at the age of 93, so is Joss Ackland. As of now, all is right with the world.

What Have I Done To Deserve This

Always on my Mind - with Joss Ackland