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listened to Lexicon of Love for the first time the other week

Started by madhair60, September 05, 2020, 11:26:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

the science eel

He's had quite a bit of work done - have you seen his fyass recently?

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: the science eel on September 08, 2020, 12:09:41 PM
That's it.

Any good?

Yeah, pretty decent. They remind me of some band or other. Would have thought you would have heard some of their stuff.

//https://youtu.be/6Fb96TzPpso

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Jockice on September 08, 2020, 08:35:41 PM
Yeah, I saw that too. Quite embarrassing, although David Palmer is a great drummer. I'm not sure exactly what the other two's beef is with Fry (Singleton left after Beauty Stab, White was in ABC for a while longer) but I reckon that they think he claimed all the credit for ideas that weren't solely his, and also was a bit of a user. But mine is not to reason why.
Singleton and White are co-credited on every ABC song they appeared on, so presumably if that was the issue, it's perhaps more Fry taking retrospective credit for ideas that maybe weren't his.

But then again, he's been the sole member of the "band" for about 30 years now, so he's the only one who's getting their perspective across.

SavageHedgehog

Made in Sheffield is a pretty good documentary about the early years of these guys, plus fellow travellers like The Human League. It's on YouTube.

The highlight is at the end when Stephen Singleton recalls his reaction to the news two girls his brother hung out with at the local club had joined the Human League. "Don't be stupid, how can they be in The Human League, what are they going to do?" As it turned out, not that much. But it worked.

buzby

Quote from: Oz Oz Alice on September 07, 2020, 01:46:17 PM
At times it's hard to pick out what's Ann Dudley and what's Fairlight but it's so big and bright and shiny it doesn't matter.
The strings and brass were all real, arranged and conducted by Dudley and recorded at Abbey Road and Advision. The Fairlight at that point was being used for effects, overdubs and editing. Page R had not appeared by then, so it couldn't be used for drum sequencing.

Dudley had been brought in by Horn as a session keyboard player for the recording of Poison Arrow. Stephen Singleton wanted John Barry-style pizzicato strings on The Look Of Love, and Horn, who had bad experiences with string sections, wanted to do it using a string machine. Singleton brought in an Adam Faith record, played it to Horn and said 'A string machine will never sound as good as that!', Horn relented and the record company agreed to finance it as Poinson Arrow had been a hit. Horn asked Dudley to arrange and conduct the session while he stayed in the control room smoking dope. They then wanted Dudley to put strings on everything by the time they came to record the album.

On Poison Arrow, the first track Horn did with them, he took their demo and sequenced the drums on a TR808 and the bass on a Minimoog and got David Palmer and Mark Lickley to play along to them (though a Simmons SDS-V triggered by the 808's sequencer still can be heard in the final mix and all over the subsequent album).  By the time it came to record the follow-up The Look Of Love, they had already done the bass on a Minimoog and Palmer had obviously got the message as he'd gone out and bought a LinnDrum. Horn also insisted that the woman's voice saying 'Goodbye' had to be Fry's ex-girlfriend.

Horn was responsible for them writing All Of My Heart, as he said the album needed a ballad, an idea they originally met wih ridicule. He was also the cause of Mark Lickey being sacked and replaced by Brad Lang during the Lexicon Of Love sessions. He said that Lickley was holding them back and they needed a Bernie Edwards-type bassist (they later worked with Edwards on The Night You Murdered Love). With the arrival of Lang and with Dudley also playing keyboards, a lot of the album was recorded live without the need to play along to sequenced parts. To record Fry's vocals Horn would reserve seven tracks on the 48-track and get him to run through the song seven times. He would then patch together the final vocal take from the seven takes, rather than getting Fry to do retakes of individual lines or sections.

Oz Oz Alice

That's a fantastic post. Thanks for the info, I love details like that.

Jockice

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on September 08, 2020, 09:41:54 PM
Singleton and White are co-credited on every ABC song they appeared on, so presumably if that was the issue, it's perhaps more Fry taking retrospective credit for ideas that maybe weren't his.

But then again, he's been the sole member of the "band" for about 30 years now, so he's the only one who's getting their perspective across.

I presume Singleton and White are still getting royalties from the early ABC stuff being played on radio and adverts but they seem to have a personal grudge against Fry that I've never got to the bottom of.

Pingers

The Lexicon of Love is a first class pop album, really excellent. I really like Beauty Stab as well, quite a different thing but also very good. After that they were a bit shite though. My memory of the Made in Sheffield bit with Singleton was him saying someone told him "our Joanne's joined the Human League" and him replying "Doing what?". Very amusing.

Beagle 2

Self-indulgent bump as I went to see these with a full orchestra (conducted by Ann Dudley) at the weekend. Greatest hits first half and Lexicon of Love after the interval. It was so great, bloody expensive, but a lot of these kinds of orchestral shows don't really make any sense and feel like desperation from the artists to eke more live mileage out of back catalogue, whereas with ABC it obviously makes perfect sense. The Lexicon of Love II tracks sounded great too – I'm still amazed that Fry managed to pull that off.

I've been enjoying listening to whatever interviews I can find with Fry over the past couple of days, there's something slightly Partridge about him. Best quote so far: "I love it when the drill and the hip hop guys say the look of love is a hip hop track". Don't reckon any drill guys have said that.

Norton Canes

Quote from: Beagle 2 on January 30, 2024, 11:22:14 AMGreatest hits first half and Lexicon of Love after the interval

So When Smokey Sings first half and Lexicon of Love after the interval?

LordMorgan

I do love the album, the production is obviously so lush and wonderful, but the songs are great too.

Being influenced by chart music listening, and pricey saying the best years for pop were 1979 and 1981. Hard to disagree with 1981, but I would put forward the case for 1982. Compiled a playlist and it's just  wonderful pop music. Mainstream pop music at that time was in rude health
And this is not me being nostalgic for a bygone era of my youth. I was born in 1981

bgmnts

Quote from: LordMorgan on January 30, 2024, 12:13:01 PMI do love the album, the production is obviously so lush and wonderful, but the signs are great too.

Being influenced by chart music listening, and pricey saying the best years for pop were 1979 and 1981. Hard to disagree with 1981, but I would put forward the case for 1982. Compiled a playlist and it's just  wonderful pop music. Mainstream pop music at that time was in rude health
And this is not me being nostalgic for a bygone era of my youth. I was born in 1981

I've read people say 1984 was the best year for pop and it is quite impressive.

Quote from: grainger on September 07, 2020, 07:46:35 PMI just remembered that Martin Fry was on an "80s pop star" special edition of The Weakest Link. When grilling the contestants, Anne Robinson asked each of them to "give us a tune" (or similar). Belinda Carlisle obligingly sang the chorus of her most famous song. Fry refused to sing. Most of the audience probably thought he was an idiot, but he was the one who kept a modicum of dignity (for himself and for pop music).

During the quiz hope he said 'I don't know the answer to that question' instead of 'pass.'

dontpaintyourteeth


Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Norton Canes on January 30, 2024, 11:25:44 AMSo When Smokey Sings first half and Lexicon of Love after the interval?
Fuck's sake mate

Poison Arrow mate

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on January 30, 2024, 08:24:04 PMFuck's sake mate

Poison Arrow mate
That's on 'Lexicon of Love'...

They did have a few good other singles: 'Be Near Me', 'S.O.S.', '(How to be a) Millionaire', 'The Night You Murdered Love'.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on January 30, 2024, 08:34:31 PMThat's on 'Lexicon of Love'...

They did have a few good other singles: 'Be Near Me', 'S.O.S.', '(How to be a) Millionaire', 'The Night You Murdered Love'.
Ah, bollocks

Maybe it's on both halves of the show.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on January 30, 2024, 09:04:37 PMAh, bollocks

Maybe it's on both halves of the show.
They can do 'Theme From Mantrap' ('Poison Arrow' as just vocals and piano, used as a b-side, I think) first half.

Crabwalk

I saw the LoL 25th anniversary show at the Albert Hall, one of their first I think where Anne Dudley conducted, and Trevor Horn even made an appearance and sang some backing vocals.

Was frigging amazing, but I think the highlight was hearing 'S.O.S.' played live in the first half. I think it's as good as anything from Lexicon, albeit a bit more subtle in its arrangement and production. So gorgeous though.

I'd love it if one day they played 'Beauty Stab' in full, but seeing as the 40th anniversary was ignored last year I can't see it ever happening now.

Crabwalk

Seeing David Palmer mentioned on page 1 reminded me of how, when I found out that he drums on 'Getting Away With It' by Electronic and that the  strings were arranged by Anne Dudley, it clicked why I've always loved that song so much. It's not just a perfect New Order/Smiths/Pet Shop Boys hybrid - there's a huge slice of Lexicon-era ABC in there too. Perfection.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: LordMorgan on January 30, 2024, 12:13:01 PMI do love the album, the production is obviously so lush and wonderful, but the songs are great too.

Being influenced by chart music listening, and pricey saying the best years for pop were 1979 and 1981. Hard to disagree with 1981, but I would put forward the case for 1982. Compiled a playlist and it's just  wonderful pop music. Mainstream pop music at that time was in rude health
And this is not me being nostalgic for a bygone era of my youth. I was born in 1981

The last live CMP show in Birmingham with Pricey and Neil (god rest his soul) suggested that 1982 WAS the last great year of pop.

I was born in 1966 and think 1967 was arguably the pop zenith of that decade. Now, there's a thread idea. 'Why do so many people adore the music from the period they were born in?'

tolecnal

I enjoy "When Smokey Sings" even though it's 100% camp. I like the OOH OOHs and the video.

Lexicon of Love is genuinely great, however.

TheMonk

Is there a better  moment in 80's pop than "You think you're smart, stupid stupid... shoot that poison arrow...."

Norton Canes

"But this is Phil talking, I wanna tell you what I've found to be true"

Video Game Fan 2000

no song on Lexicon of Love ever grabbed me half as much as That Was Then But This Is Now

Norton Canes

Sure I've heard David Stubbs opine a couple of times that '82 was pop's apogee.

Quote from: Norton Canes on February 02, 2024, 11:59:12 AMSure I've heard David Stubbs opine a couple of times that '82 was pop's apogee.

Neil, Simon and Al pretty much said the same at CM Live last month. For British post punk: knowing, clever, not afraid to be commercial, unabashed fun pop.