That's What The World Is Today

So sang Love And Rockets in 1987, but the words and music by Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield were first performed by The Temptations in 1970 and, apart from one or two references, seem sadly relevant today. 

1987 was a(nother) great year for music: I loved guitars, lyrics that were either meaningful or meaningless and skewed takes on pop. NME, Sounds and Melody Maker fueled my interest in discovering new artists, even if the several journalists spent more column inches exercising their own wit and wisdom rather than focusing on the music itself. 

I won't pretend that my 16-year old self was so switched on that I had found all of the bands on this selection in 1987. 

I saw The Bambi Slam as a support act at the Colston Hall in Bristol, I think it was The Cult. Originally a four-piece, with a couple of singles and a debut album to come in 1988, the live act was down to just Roy Feldon, a guitar and a drum machine, but it was a fantastically scuzzy set.

I remember seeing Shelleyan Orphan on The Tube, brilliantly pretentious with cello, violin and artist painting live on stage at the back. Caroline Crawley and Jemaur Tayle were possessed of fabulous hair and beautifully counterpointed voices. I can't remember if I bought the Anatomy Of Love 12" single before or after their TV appearance but it began a lasting love of the duo's music.

Act were a no-brainer for me as it was Claudia Brücken's next project after the demise of Propaganda and signed to ZTT Records. I don't think I knew anything about Thomas Leer at that point, but I subsequently went back to his previous solo material, which was/is a reward in itself.

 

Danielle Dax didn't really come onto my radar until the following year with the release of Cat House but from there on, I enjoyed discovering her wider body of work which in those days wasn't difficult to track down in the many secondhand record shops in Bristol. 

 

I didn't see The Jesus & Mary Chain live in concert until 1989, a wonderfully chaotic show at the Studio in Bristol, though by then I'm assuming it was relatively more polished with an extended setlist and duration (I think we got between 45 minutes and an hour).

 

Pixies were one of the few bands that I got into from the start, with Come On Pilgrim, seeing them for the first time in 1988 at the Bristol Bierkeller, supported by My Bloody Valentine. Those were the days...

 

The Pony were a short-lived Australian band that released a slew of singles in the late 1980s, who I discovered in 1990 whilst living and working there, picking up an excellent compilation called Used And Recommended By... in a Perth record store. I'd bought it mainly because it had Nick Cave's cover of Black Betty on it but also to sample some other Australian bands, whose names were mostly unfamiliar to me. This remains the only song by The Pony that I've heard, but I like it.

 

I was also late discovering another Australian band, The Go-Betweens, who had split by the time I bought their 1979-1990 compilation on double vinyl. Not necessarily regarded as their finest album, but I have a lot of love for 1987's Tallulah, not least the song chosen for this selection. 

 

I've also included The Soup Dragons' cover of Our Lips Are Sealed, technically a cover of The Go-Go's as they released it first but definitively recorded by Fun Boy Three. This enthusiastic version serves not only as a tribute to co-writer Terry Hall, who sadly died last month but also a tip of the hat to Sean Dickson, who remastered The Soup Dragons' excellent compilation on Past Night From Glasgow and continues to deliver aural delights as Hifi Sean.

 

Several others I haven't space to mention, the hazard of a 17-song selection crammed into 47 minutes but to these ears never feeling cramped. 

1) Chaotic: The Pony (Used And Recommended By...)

2) Let's Compromise (Album Version): Yo La Tengo (New Wave Hot Dogs)

3) La, La, La (It's Out Of Hand) (John Peel Session): The Bambi Slam (radio broadcast recording)

4) Southern Bess / A Field Holler: Shelleyan Orphan (Helleborine)

5) Armadillo Man: Microdisney (Crooked Mile)

6) Star Fruit Surf Rider: Primal Scream (Imperial EP)

7) White Rabbit (Single Version By Stephen Lipson) (Cover of The Great Society with Grace Slick): Act (Absolutely Immune EP)

8) Bad Miss 'M': Danielle Dax (Inky Bloaters)

9) Delilah Sands (2): The Brilliant Corners (Delilah Sands EP)

10) Ball Of Confusion (7" Mix) (Cover of The Temptations): Love And Rockets (Ball Of Confusion EP)

11) Happy Place (Radio Session): The Jesus & Mary Chain (Darklands (Deluxe Edition), 2011)

12) What Went Wrong This Time?: The Siddeleys (What Went Wrong This Time? EP)

13) Way Down In The Hole (Album Version): Tom Waits (Franks Wild Years)

14) Our Lips Are Sealed (Cover of Go-Go's): The Soup Dragons (Soft As Your Face EP)

15) A Little Romance: The Go-Betweens (Tallulah)

16) A Different Bob: The Colorblind James Experience (The Colorblind James Experience)

17) The Holiday Song (Album Version): Pixies (Come On Pilgrim)

That's What The World Is Today (46:54) (Box) (Mega)