blue bell knoll

Cocteau Twins set up their own studio and finally got distribution in the US with the indecipherable ethereal elation of this lush and lanquid pop dream.  Remaining on independent 4AD label, the band signed a major-label deal with Capitol Records.  In the meantime, multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde, who had been unable to work on their previous album 'Victorialand', returned to join Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie for 'Blue Bell Knoll'.  The band produced the sessions at September Sound in Twickenham, England with Fraser on vocals, Guthrie on guitar, and Raymonde on bass guitar.  

Fraser would explain her unique lyrical style:  "I've just recently realized that I'm a very secretive person, that I'm constantly covering up for myself. I'm only just realizing how much. I don't really know what's happening. I hope it doesn't mean that I won't allow myself to do more things like 'Blue Bell Knoll'. I'd like to be able to do everything. You see, on that album, I was still expressing the same things. I was still feeling the same feelings, but I wasn't getting caught up in them. I was just feeling into a fucking microphone...It's amazing though, yeah, I mean that's...I mean really the records are...a representation of our coping skills...and I think...I was very much in denial...and I think that you can hear that on the album ['Blue Bell Knoll']...you know, not one word can you grasp...giving anything away...it just wasn't allowed...What they are are words that I've taken from...maybe seen written down...in a language that I don't understand, and liking them...and maybe...making new words as well out of them. I mean I've got reams and reams of words that I don't have a clue what they mean, but...I wanted them because, I knew I'd be able to express myself without giving anything away...The catch is I can barely talk English, isn't it? I quite like that. Combining words in different languages that I couldn't understand just meant that I could concentrate on the sound and not get caught up in the meaning...See, I find that mine [lyrics] don't have any meanings. They're not proper. Although I've got a great dictionary of them. It's like the Cockney rhyming slang or something. Writers like John Lennon. Writers that just kind of made up their own portmanteaux that caught on and people still use them. They don't mean anything, though, that's the thing. You know all the transcendent sounds. It's all sound all the way through...[the dictionary] is how I got some of the words. And then I got to the stage where, I don't know, something just came in. My life was a fucking mess...and I just couldn't carry on. I mean, it would have been so easy to do that. 'Cause after 'Blue Bell Knoll', which was really the easiest, the easiest I've ever done to make a record...I just couldn't keep going that way. I guess that was the start of learning to be aware of what was going on and what I was responsible for." 

 'Blue Bell Knoll' found its way to number one hundred and nine in the US, fifteen on the UK album chart, and number one on the UK independent album chart.  





http://www.cocteautwins.com/





http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Blue+Bell+Knoll/170339





"Blue Bell Knoll" – 3:24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oespMmWnDo



"Athol-Brose" – 2:59
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6NzSuUosI



"Carolyn's Fingers" – 3:08
went to number two on the US modern rock tracks chart.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhGoZLudKyk



"For Phoebe Still a Baby" – 3:16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPQB4-IUJGU



"The Itchy Glowbo Blow" – 3:21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWx4AZ7OUOA



"Cico Buff" – 3:49
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG-UGXfSiW8



"Suckling the Mender" – 3:35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HgIC3nIjk



"Spooning Good Singing Gum" – 3:52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK9ULgXuAE4



"A Kissed Out Red Floatboat" – 4:10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjrjtRsZnyA



"Ella Megalast Burls Forever" – 3:39
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udeu-X5QdFk

so good it hurts

The Mekons rose like lions with a lively tale to tell of the pleasures and pains of rebellion and revenge with the reggae zydeco experiments of this recondite wanderlust.  The band had moved away from their pioneering alt country punkabilly sound on 'Fear and Whiskey', 'The Edge of the World', and 'Honky Tonkin'' to a more diverse sound that incorporated various kinds of world music.  

Rico Bell explains:   “The Mekons like to deal in concepts and draw musical influences from all over the map, such as punk, folk, reggae and country...We still really get along and respect each other. A lot of bands fall apart because of ego problems but that’s never been the case with us."

'So Good it Hurts' credits  Jon "Johnny Minor" Langford on guitar, keyboards, percussion, and vocals; Tom "Brian" Greenhalgh on guitar and vocals; Dick "Sir Dickie" Taylor on guitar and piano; Sally "Hood" Timms on vocals; Robert "Sigmund" Worby on organ; Eric "Rico Christian" Bellis on accordion and vocals; Susie "Dora Honeyperson" Honeyman on fiddle; Steve "Buzz" Goulding on drums; Brendan "Staff Nurse" Croker and Ken Des Essientes on bass, guitar, and vocals; and John "Tahitian" Gill on bass and melodeon;   with engineer Brian C. Pugsley.  

Greenhalgh says:    "Things evolve informally but we generally have a pretty strong idea of what a record is going to be about, what's allowed and what is or isn't appropriate...It's just about being into music generally, listening a lot, to anything, and working out what relates to your own music and feeding it into the process...Anglo-Saxon culture has a deep phobia of anything that whiffs of intellectualism. We're probably inhibited by that, but also it should be possible to think about deep things without having to take yourself too seriously."

Timms considers:    "It wasn't something that I was concerned about, and I'd be an idiot to think that we could ever be a commercial success...I mean, you know, there were times when we've done better or worse, depending on the period. I don't think anyone's been unhappy about that. But the whole kind of ethos of the band was never to make money.  Otherwise, we'd be doing something different. We would have definitely tried to be more commercial. It's not a commercial-sounding band at all. Especially not in today's market. But even then."

The leftist politcs of 'So Good it Hurts' did nothing to increase the band's profile and it would be the band's last album on Twin/Tone Records.  Langford reveals:   "We had the Twin/Tone deal. Twin/Tone had a deal with A&M, and we just kind of slipped into it. It felt like it would be a good idea.  It would make sense for us, because there would be distribution. A big distributor collapsed on us when we were in the middle of a tour in '88. And it was just like, it was f**ked, it was a waste of time, no one could get our records...This guy who signed us talked a very good game... I liked him actually. He signed us to A&M. He had this idea. We weren't selling a lot of records, but they had this thing where they wouldn't give us that much money, but if we sold 30,000, then everyone would be happy. He wanted to create a model where major-label bands didn't have to sell 100,000 and then everyone was disappointed.  It made sense to us. We fell for it. And then he f**king moved. He was gone. He got kicked out. And then we were signed to this label with a load of  f**king ***holes in L.A., you know, looking at the accounts and saying, "Why do we have this band?"  Which is the same as what happened at Virgin, really... Some accountant came along and said, "Get rid of them."  And when we did an album for them that didn't sound like the previous album, you know, they were confused and they wanted to get rid of us. I don't blame them. We should have been gotten rid of. Put out of our misery as soon as possible."




https://myspace.com/mekons


www.mekons.de/mekonhom.htm




https://myspace.com/mekons/music/album/so-good-it-hurts-18584845









Ghosts of American Astronauts  

Up in the hills above Bradford
Outside the Napalm factory
(They're floating above us)
Ghosts of American Astronauts
Glow in the headlights beam
It's just a small step for him
It's a nice break from Vietnam
(Filmed in a factory)
Out on the back lot in Houston
Who says the world isn't flat
John Glenn drinks cocktails with God
In a cafe in downtown Saigon
(High above them)
Ghosts of American Astronauts
Are drifting too close to the sun
Chorus:
A flag flying in the vacuum
Nixon sucks a dry Martini
Ghosts of American astronauts
Stay with us in our dreams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DMlxrGIi8U










Johnny Miner  
https://myspace.com/mekons/music/song/johnny-miner-87986302-97668435
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Johnny+Miner/3jvCzS?src=5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9AlWYy0_No









(Sometimes I Feel Like) Fletcher Christian   

Sometimes I feel like Fletcher Christian
staring out across the sea
torn apart by duties shackles
The twisted tongues oif loyalty

Well I sucked hard on every pleasure
til my head begun to spin
he'll choose between the whip and feather
and that is where the crime begins

Chorus
Sometimes I feel like Fletcher Christian
in paradise with the tables turned
Yes and I can feel the tatooists nedle
I can feel my neck and ankles burn

These south seas isles are cold and barren
but this civil war's been good for me
We took drugs and tore our uniforms
gave up our captain to the sea

Chorus
Sometimes I feel like Fletcher Christian
twisting off the serpents head
for the mutiny I'll shoot the big one
hot and hungry, far from home

Through the sun and sea my skin is peeling
but it don't make the pictures fade
those shapes and symbols, I know their meaning
the shameless riches of another world

If I return they're sure to hang me
so I guess I'll have to stay
and if I should croak out in the darkness

No-one will know I got away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIjuatCiUp4






Fantastic Voyage  gives the album its title.

Every night from my window
I see the lights all over town
I'll meet you in the boneyard
after the sun goes down
I need the medicine only you create
I need - I need it now

The temptation on the street
is more than any saint could stand
I have to bite my tongue
and keep on walking straight ahead
you have got to draw the line between
what you want and what you need

Up in the clouds
(Aaah up in the clouds)
down in the dirt
it's so good
so good it hurts
Repeat

Lying in the dirt
Looking up at the twinkling stars
struggle in the darkness
with the buttons on my shirt
this is meant to be a painkiler but
it's so good it hurts

Chains and incense fill the air
but I'm nowhere near a church
pull my knees up to my chest
and have the nightmares of a child
this is meant to be painkiller but

it's so good it hurts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cff_y66MpA






Robin Hood   

So different from the dungeons gloom, the forest's shady bower
there's many a shade that love might share, where a man can kiss another
her warm breath is turning moist, where she is already
green leaves and sunshine, Sextatic in her head
Like beautiful maggots inside rotten apples
spitting out the juices of Kings and big-arsed Barons
fat on the Crusades, slaughtered by Assassins
Afraid to walk the glades of the land they own
Chorus
Rise like lions, shake your chains, babe
Ye are many, they are few
Take from the rich and give to the poor
Images of spitfires strafing Greek resistance fighters
Winston Churchill gunning down the South Wales striking miners
In green we fought the Black n'tans and beat them back to Ulster
an 18 year old Argentine, lungs filled with cold water
Buried Republican Visions, Symbolic and Explicit
a history of resistance denied by bishops, lawyers and spies
Grantham hugely petty, riding on her crocodile
'cross teeming London bridge, paved with blood and gold
Chorus
Out in hunting country we sabotage their leisure
Many a Grotto meant for rest holds a pirate for a guest
soft the scene so formed for joy
Oh curse the tyrants that destroy
Chorus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQnyW5ieoxs







 'So Good it Hurts' 
full album:



I'm Not Here (1967)            04:32
Ghosts Of American Astronauts  03:47
Road To Florida                02:20
Johnny Miner                   02:39
Dora                           04:38
Poxy Lips                      03:09
(Sometimes I Feel Like) Fletcher Christian             04:40
Fantastic Voyage               03:12
Robin Hood                     03:23
Heart Of Stone                 02:59
Maverick                       03:44
Vengeance                      01:49
Revenge                        03:05

the innocents

Erasure innocently broke the chains of love and gained a little respect with this international smash hit.  Synthesist Vince Clark had left Depeche Mode and founded Yaz before putting out an advertisement for a vocalist for a new group he was forming.  After receiving over forty demo tapes, he selected Andy Bell and they became Erasure.  Clarke says:  "When people would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wanted to be a folk singer, and when I started writing songs, they were all about romance –  it was just natural for me to write them that way.  Then I tried to sing, and I sounded like a robot – my voice is crap.  I can’t sing at all, so it was natural for me to gravitate towards singers like Alison [Moyet from Yaz] and Andy."

Bell recalls:   "Vince was my hero in the first place. When I was a teenager, Yazoo was one of the coolest bands on the planet, really. It was great to see them play live last year. And then he had the Assembly project that was great. Before I even met him, I’d thought of all the people doing pop music, he’d be the coolest one to work with. He was the coolest one I could think of. And then when I answered this audition, it happened to be for him, so I just thought, well, I’m going to just knuckle down and get to know the guy...I think maybe he was just waiting for the right person to come along. We have complete, mutal respect for each other. I just think his work is so unique, his synthesizers, his electronic work — nobody’s come close to what he does, I don’t think, maybe aside from Kraftwerk. I think it’s a great combination."

The duo saw moderate success in the UK and on the US dance charts with their debut 'Wonderland' and the follow-up 'The Circus'; but it wasn't until their third album 'The Innocents' that they finally broke through into the mainstream.   It went to fifty-four in Canada, fifty in New Zealand, forty-nine in the US, eighteen in Norway, fifteen in Switzerland, thirteen in Sweden, eight in Germany, and became their first of four consecutive number one albums in the UK.  'The Innocents' has sold over five million copies worldwide.  Erasure produced the album with Stephen Hague and Dave Jacob.  Bell considers:    "I think it was kind of a special one...I don’t think it’s something you can necessarily do with every single record because otherwise you lose the magic of that one album. But I think it worked really well for us on 'The Innocents' record."







http://www.erasureinfo.com/







interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6_Apmy4dDA





"A Little Respect"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiKVjS3gR88



I try to discover
A little something to make me sweeter
Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you're making me work so hard
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
And if I should falter
Would you open your arms out to me
We can make love not war
And live at peace in our hearts
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
What religion or reason
Could drive a man to forsake his lover
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Don't you tell me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
You know you're making me work so hard
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me
Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me




"Chains of Love"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttV1VZUgQQ






'The Innocents'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glsMO1kMNy8


"A Little Respect" - 3:32
"Ship of Fools" - 4:01
"Phantom Bride" - 3:32
"Chains of Love" - 3:45
"Hallowed Ground" - 4:05
"Sixty-Five Thousand" - 3:23
"Heart of Stone" - 3:20
"Yahoo!" - 3:48
"Imagination" - 3:28
"Witch in the Ditch" - 3:45
"Weight of the World" - 3:40
"When I Needed You" (Melancholic Mix) - 4:22
"River Deep, Mountain High" (Private Dance Mix) (Barry, Greenwich, Spector) - 7:00

the raw and the cooked

The Fine Young Cannibals brought some old school soul into their new wave grooves to create their most enduring success with this tasty triumph.  The trio of Roland Gift, Andy Cox, and David Steele had made waves in the UK with their eponymous debut.  In the four years leading up to the release of the follow-up, 'The Raw and the Cooked', the band recorded a cover of the Buzzcocks' 'Ever Fallen in Love With Someone (You Shouldn't Have)' for the soundtrack of the Jonathan Demme film 'Something Wild' and appeared in the movie 'Tin Men' as the band in a 1963 Baltimore nightclub.  Steele and Cox also had a top twenty UK hit with an instrumental  "Tired Of Getting Pushed Around" released as Two Men, a Drum Machine and a Trumpet.  Gift also appeared in the movie 'Sammy and Rosie Get Laid' during this time. 

They decided to use the three songs they had recorded for 'Tin Men', which had an classic soul sound, as well as the cover song from 'Something Wild' on the new album.  They wanted to work with Prince for the new tracks; but their label MCA came up with David Z (David Rivkin) instead. He was the older brother of Bobby Z from the Revolution and had been in the band Lipps, Inc. 


 David Z recorded three songs at Paisley Park Studios bringing a more modern sound to the proceedings.  Jerry Harrison and Fine Young Cannibals also produced tracks for  'The Raw and the Cooked' which features Roland Gift on vocals; Andy Cox on guitar; and David Steele on bass, keyboards, and drum machine;  with Jools Holland on piano on "Good Thing"; Jimmy Helms, George Chandler, and Jimmy Chambers providing backing vocals on "Good Thing", "Tell Me What" and "It's OK (It's Alright)"; Martin Parry playing drums on "Tell Me What"; Simon Fowler on backing vocals on "Don't Look Back"; Graeme Hamilton on trumpet on "Don't Let It Get You Down" and "As Hard As It Is"; Jenny Jones adding drums and backing vocals on "As Hard As It Is"; Gavin Wright on violin on "As Hard As It Is"; and Bridgette Enver on saxophone on "As Hard As It Is".   

 'The Raw and the Cooked' simmered on the charts, going to nineteen in Norway; five in Sweden; two in New Zealand and Switzerland; and number one in Australia, Austria, Canada, the UK, and the US.





www.facebook.com/the-fine-young-cannibals







"She Drives Me Crazy" was a number one smash around the world. 



I can't stop,
The way I feel,
Things you do,
Don't seem real.
Tell you what,
I got in mind,
'Cause we're runnin',
Out of time,
Won't you ever,
Set me free,
This waiting' 'round's,
Killin' me.
She drives me crazy,
Uh uh,
Like no-one else,
Uh uh,
She drives me crazy,
And I can't help myself,
Uh uh.
I can't get,
Any rest,
People say,
I'm obsessed,
Every-thing,
That's serious lasts,
But to me,
There's no surprise,
What I have,
Fatal last truth,
Things go wrong,
They always do.
She drives me crazy,
Uh uh,
Like no-one else,
Uh uh,
She drives me crazy,
And I can't help myself,
Uh uh.
I won't make it,
On my own,
No-one likes,
To be alone.
[Chorus]
She drives me crazy,
Uh uh,
Like no-one else,
Uh uh,
She drives me crazy,
And I can't help myself,
Uh uh.



"Good Thing" went to number one in Canada and the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrOek4z32Vg
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1zfgn_fine-young-cannibals-good-thing_music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGv8PeCYgWs








'The Raw and the Cooked'
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdbB0W7fUNU



All songs written by Roland Gift and David Steele, except where noted.


Side one - Raw
"She Drives Me Crazy" – 3:36
"Good Thing" – 3:22
"I'm Not the Man I Used to Be" – 4:19
"I'm Not Satisfied" – 3:51
"Tell Me What" – 2:47
Side two - Cooked
"Don't Look Back" – 3:40
"It's OK (It's Alright)"  (Cox/Gift/Steele) – 3:32
"Don't Let It Get You Down" – 3:23
"As Hard as It Is" – 3:14
"Ever Fallen in Love" (Pete Shelley) – 3:54

peepshow

Siouxsie and the Banshees looked out at the world, regrouped,  and modernized their sound for this candy coated goth rhapsody.    After 'Through the Looking Glass',  guitarist and keyboard player John Valentine Carruthers left the band and was and was replaced by keyboardist/cellist Martin McCarrick and ex-Specimen guitarist Jon Klein.  'Peepshow' was produced by the band with engineer Mike Hedges and features Siouxsie Sioux on vocals; Steven Severin on electric bass; Budgie on drums, percussion, and harmonica; Martin McCarrick on cello, keyboards, and accordion; and Jon Klein on guitar.   'Peepshow'  creeped up to sixty-eight in the US and number twenty in the UK.






http://www.siouxsie.com/









interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VYucgE9FwI






"Peek-a-Boo"
Sioux says the song is about "the way that women are portrayed in our Fascist media."  It became a breakthrough hit for the band in the US, going to number fifty-three on the US pop chart, sixteen in the UK, eighteen in Ireland, fourteen on the US dance chart, and number one on the US hot modern rock tracks chart.  

Siouxsie and The Banshees  - Peek A Boo by Tunashaker


Creeping up the backstairs
Slinking into dark stalls
Shapeless and slumped in bath chairs
Furtive eyes peep out of holes
She has many guises
She'll do what you want her to
Playing dead and sweet submission
Cracks the whip deadpan on cue

Peek-A-Boo, Peek-A-Boo
Peek-A-Boo, Peek-A-Boo

Reeking like a pigsty
Peeling back and gagging free
Flaccid ego in your hand
Chokes on dry tears, can you understand?
She's jeering at the shadows
Sneering behind a smile
Lunge and thrust to pout and pucker
Into the face of the beguiled

Peek-A-Boo, Peek-A-Boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those peepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?

Strobe lights pump and flicker
Dry lips crack out for more
"Come bite on this rag doll, baby!
That's right now hit the floor"
They're sneaking out the back door
She gets up from all fours
Rhinestone fools and silver dollars
Curdle into bitter tears

Peek-A-Boo -- Peek-A-Boo
Golly jeepers
Where'd you get those weepers?
Peepshow, creepshow
Where did you get those eyes?







"The Killing Jar"  




"Burn-Up"  



"Turn to Stone"  



"The Last Beat of My Heart"  








 'Peepshow' 
full album:




All music composed by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Lyrics composed by Siouxsie Sioux, except where noted.


1. "Peek-a-Boo"   3:12
2. "The Killing Jar"   Severin 4:04
3. "Scarecrow"   Severin 5:06
4. "Carousel"   4:26
5. "Burn-Up"   4:32
6. "Ornaments of Gold"   3:50
7. "Turn to Stone"   Severin 4:05
8. "Rawhead and Bloodybones"   2:29
9. "The Last Beat of My Heart"   Severin/Sioux 4:30
10. "Rhapsody"   Severin 6:23