Although My Foolish Friend didn't make it onto second album It's My Life, it continued to feature in their live sets up to 1986.
I originally got the 12" version on a Canadian import of the mini-album, It's My Mix Years later, I discovered a copy of the 12" single in a secondhand shop in Perth, Western Australia. I bought it, dubbed the tracks onto a mixtape, then shipped it home to the UK with a box of other stuff via sea mail, eventually reunited with it in late 1991. Worth it for the James Marsh cover painting alone, let alone the music.
The B-side featured an early version of a song that subsequently appeared on It's My Life, albeit dropping from plural to singular along the way. This stripped down version of Call In The Night Boys features Phil Ramacon on piano and is a portent of the musical direction to come.
Again, the more uptempo version of Call In The Night Boy was still featuring in Talk Talk sets years later, though the original, minimal version remains my favourite.
I love My Foolish Friend. You can hear Mark Hollis already toying with how to make the synths more organic sounding. Theres, excuse the term, Euro-Oriental feel to the song - a territory mined by Japan and Icehouse as well. I wasn't aware the song made it anywhere near the Charts, let alone inside the Top 75.
ReplyDeleteI really like the version they performed at Montreux in 1986. The bass gets a good workout and John Turnbull's guitar is a surprise muscular support to the song.
I have the Montreux show on DVD, but didn't include versions here as I thought I'd previously posted them. Turns out it was the Salamanca concert - same tour, different country... still excellent versions, though. I think My Foolish Friend is a great transitional single for all of the reasons you mention and I think also highlights what Tim Friese-Greene brought to the table when they met and collaborated on the It's My Life album.
DeleteI could converse all day about Talk Talk. They are among a solid group of artists that remained musically challenging to me from debut to their last works. Mark Hollis was a real one off, but when he and Tim Friese-Greene found each other another level of art was unleashed.
DeleteLikewise! I didn't see many of their videos at the time, but I was completely hooked by the music, the handwritten lyrics on the album inserts from It's My Life onwards, the beautiful cover art by James Marsh, their approach to 12" versions and, of course, when I saw the Montreux show on TV, their live performances. Much as I love remixes and reinterpretations of songs from the past, I also really respected their stance against EMI when it released the so-called "History Reinvented" remix compilation without the band's consent. I have a lot of love for Mark Hollis' solo album, .O.Rang and Rustin Man, and TFG's production work before and after, but Talk Talk's body of work and evolution as a band continues to resonate and deliver more rewards with every listen.
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