We don’t care where we go When we’re with you When we cry You don’t laugh ‘Cause you know us
We’re in you You’re in us We’re in you You’re in us ‘Cause you gave us the love Love that we never had Yes, you gave us the love Love that we never had
You and us don’t pretend We make love We can’t feel anymore than we’re singing
We’re in you You’re in us We’re in you You’re with us ‘Cause you gave us the love Love that we never had You gave us the love Love that we never had
Come so far where you think of last fall You can die but remain you and us We’re in you You’re in us We’re in you You’re with us ‘Cause you gave us the love Love that we never had Yes, you gave us the love Love that we never had You gave us the love Love that we never had
We don’t care where we go When we’re with you
Liza Minnelli – Rent Fine Young Cannibals – Johnny Come Home Talk Talk – Talk Talk Fashion – Mutant Mix Mechanik Vicious Pink – Spooky Vanity 6 – Make-Up Heart – Barracuda The Bollock Brothers – Save Our Souls Garcons – French Boy Blue Rondo A La Turk – Heavens Are Crying Associates – Those First Impressions Samba Soul – I’m In You Phyllis Nelson – Don’t Stop The Train Jimmy Ruffin – I’m Gonna Love Your Forever The Isley Brothers – It’s A Disco Night Edwin Starr – Twenty-Five Miles La Flavour – Mandolay The B-52’s – Roam Alphaville – Forever Young Sparks – Madonna China Crisis – Some People I Know To Lead Fantastic Lives The Church – Under The Milky Way Echo & The Bunnymen – Silver The Parachute Men – If I Could Wear Your Jacket…? The Velvet Underground – The Gift The Bollock Brothers – The Gift -2
Mike Francis – Let Me In Claudja Barry – Love For The Sake Of Love Delegation – 12th Home Lamont Dozier – Take Off Your Make-Up Phyllis Hyman – Kiss You All Over Bardeux – When We Kiss (Sex Mix) Hong Kong Syndikat –Too Much ((Rio-Sugar-Hat Mix) Beverly And Duane – Take A Ride Gene Chandler – Make The Living Worthwhile (Disco Version) Bionic Boogie – Dance Little Dreamer Loose Ends – Hangin’ On A String (Frankie Knuckles Mix) Switch – Keeping Secrets Arnie’s Love – I’m Out Of Your Life Karl Frierson – Walkin’ In New York Delegation – Where’s The Love (We Used To Know) Tina Turner – Let’s Stay Together Viola Wills – Somebody’s Eyes Stevie B – Midnight Music Technique – (Looking For Someone To Love) Tonight B.W.H. – Stop Voyage – I Surrender Pointer Sisters – Automatic Bucks Fizz – I Hear Talk Demis Roussos – Love Is Detroit Spinners – Ghetto Child (7” Boilerhouse Remix) Fine Young Cannibals – I’m Not The Man I Used To Be Tafuri – What Am I Gonna Do About Your Love? (Extended Vocal) Orange Juice – Flesh Of My Flesh (Long Version) Fashion – Love Shadow (Smokey Dialogue) Kissing The Pink – Big Man Restless Blancmange – The Game Above My Head Talk Talk – Such A Shame (US Mix) Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill The B-52’s – Deep Sleep It’s Immaterial – Heaven Knows Dhuo – Walkin’ The Carpenters – I Won’t Last A Day Without You Southern Exposure –On Our Way
How and when was your first encounter with Talk Talk?
Well, I grew up with ‘Life’s What You Make it’ and ‘It’s my life’ being played on Top Of The Pops and Radio 1 as I was a kid, so those are kind of part of my makeup, you know in that strange way that all the pop music u grew up with is just part of your brain make-up almost, it rubs off on you, and I loved those songs even before I really knew why…
What made you choose “Laughing Stock”? Why is it so important to you?
From there I didn’t really hear of them again until I joined a band in 1994-ish. The two guitarists were big fans of Talk Talk, but the later stuff. I’d not heard it before. They were really big albums with a big circle of friends of theirs, in Plymouth where I had moved to as a teenager. “Spirit Of Eden” came first, then “Laughing Stock”, and I just couldn’t get enough of them. They are completely associated in my mind and memory with some really amazing people and a period in my life that had a big effect on me. Obviously those teenage years are intense and I just remember two albums, along with Bert Bansch ‘It Don’t Bother Be’, Nick Drake ‘Pink Moon’, Pentangle ‘Basket Of Light’, XTC ‘Skylarking’, Autechre ‘Amber’, Orbital green and brown albums, they were what we listened to most, in the bedsits, smoking dope, being skint, on the dole, making music in bands….an intense time, but looking back totally magical.
In discussion with Terre Thaemlitz about the album “Dazzle Ships” by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (1983).
A lot of interesting electronic music was produced in 1983, the year “Dazzle Ships” was released. What drew you to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, and this album in particular?
To be honest, I don’t recall exactly how I came to own this record. I think it was probably the usual budgetary situation where I had heard about OMD, I wanted to buy a record to check them out, and “Dazzle Ships” was the cheapest album to buy. As a teen, my record collection was built on unpopular records from the $1.00 bin. This was economically unavoidable. It also meant my point of entry for a lot of bands was through their “commercial flops”. And as an “outsider” who did not fit in with others and was therefore a flop of sorts myself, I found resonance with these failures at assimilation. Gary Numan‘s “Dance” is a brilliant example – thinking back, to be 13 years old in Springfield, Missouri, and really into that album, it really signifies a kind of social isolation. A “normal” or “healthy” 13 year old could not be into that album. Impossible. So I believe this entire process of arriving at an album like “Dazzle Ships” must never be reduced to a simple matter of taste. It’s tied to issues of economics, class, socialization… in the US it is also tied to race and the divide between “black music” and “white music,” etc.
With this album, OMD experimented with elements beyond their Pop abilities, like shortwave recordings, sound collages and cold war/eastern bloc imagery. How would you describe the concept of this album?
I think “Architecture & Morality” already introduced a lot of those elements. I don’t know for sure, but as a producer myself I imagine this is partly related to the emergence of better sampling technology. They could use samplers to play back all kinds of sound elements, rather than being limited to synths and multi-track recording. I also imagine, drawing from my own experiences, that “Dazzle Ships” (like Numan’s “Dance”) represents a crisis in their relationships to their record labels and Pop music generally. A crisis with capitalism, the demand for sales, demand for audio conformity… and in this way the socialist imagery of the album is perhaps a reflection of their struggling against these processes. I remember reading some article – which I have no idea if it was trustworthy or not, but – it talked about the tremendous pressure labels put on OMD to become more Pop. I believe they were asked to finally decide if they wanted to be the new “Abba” or not, and if so, to change their style accordingly. This was a brutal trend in UK new wave. It destroyed the Eurythmics, The Human League, Gary Numan, OMD, Depeche Mode, and on and on… These are all UK bands, all extremely influential, and all totally boring in the end. Very few groups came out of these struggles for the better – one exception being Talk Talk, who did abandon their synth sound but became something marvelously unmarketable in another way. All of these New Wave bands had to become Rock bands capable of penetrating the US market, blah, blah – dumb American Dreams. Techno-Pop was dismissed as a fad by industry, and the artists seem to have gotten swept up in the hype of possible “success”. Ironically, of course, even if they got a brief flash of super-Pop success they alienated their core fans who had been drawn to them as other than Pop. I know I felt extremely betrayed. I still do, at age 41. When I was young, it was a personal betrayal, now it strikes me as a cultural betrayal. I could be totally wrong, but I guess for me, all of this feeds into the concept of “Dazzle Ships”, the title being a reference to massive battle ships. The idea of sending this album afloat in the marketplace, poised to attack and conquer as the label wants – but stylistically it also clearly sabotages any prospect of popularity. I think it was OMD’s attack on the labels that released it – a final kick in resistance before transforming into the Pop band that produced “Junk Culture” (although it could have also been a tremendous extension of A&R pampering in which the label let their artists run amuck – but that is so much less inspiring to me). And you have to forgive me, coming from the US, I have no idea how these records operated in Europe. I can imagine they got radio play. But not in the US. So my view is slanted by this. In the US these were all anti-Pop albums with no airplay, except in a few major cities. They had to be hunted down. And this camouflaged cover, in a way, also carried this metaphor of a product hidden in the marketplace, hard to find, elusive. But present. I like this metaphor – it predates the queer motto “We are everywhere” by a good number of years. Read the rest of this entry »
Bridging the generation gap right here, the Druffalo Hit Squad lends a helping hand with a heads up call to the hopes and dreams of boys and girls anywhere, anytime, anyplace. You might feel disillusioned, disenchanted, shattered, heartbroken, isolated, ignored, left over, left out, misunderstood, mistreated, underestimated, unwanted and unloved. We’ve been there. We suffered. We nearly dropped. But we draw conclusions. And we reached out. And we set in motion. And we found what we were looking for. This is for the survivors…
The Colourfield – Castles In The Air (Chrysalis) Heaven 17 – Let Me Go (Virgin) Mike Francis – Survivor (RCA) Chris Rea – Josephine (Magnet) David Bowie/Pat Metheny – This Is Not America (EMI America) Laid Back – Fly Away (Metronome) Madness – Yesterdays Men (Virgin) The Pale Fountains – Unless (Virgin) ABC – All Of My Heart (Neutron) Culture Club – Romance Beyond The Alphabet (Virgin) Icehouse – No Promises (Chrysalis) Tears For Fears – Advice For The Young At Heart (Fontana) The Dream Academy – The Love Parade (Blanco Y Negro) Talk Talk – It’s My Life (EMI) Bryan Ferry – Don’t Stop The Dance (EG) The Stranglers – Always The Sun (Epic) Electronic – Getting Away With It (Factory) The Lotus Eaters – You Don’t Need Someone New (Arista) Spandau Ballet – Gold (Chysalis) Danny Wilson – Mary’s Prayer (Virgin) The The – Uncertain Smile (Epic) Pet Shop Boys – Being Boring (Parlophone) The Go-Betweens – Bachelor Kisses (WEA) Blancmange – Waves (London)
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