GILBERT O’SULLIVAN - “Get Down”
(#328, 7th April 1973)
A ‘first’ of sorts here - “Get Down” is, I think, the first record on the lists to feature on one of Sean Rowley’s Guilty Pleasures compilations, which are recontextualising 70s pop and making a pretty penny out of it for lots of people. The Guilty Pleasures concept has become a kind of shorthand for badness among some of my friends, and it deserves quick consideration. The most common counter-argument I hear is “but pleasure shouldn’t be guilty!” - I can get behind this but I think it’s a misunderstanding of Rowley’s idea. His point is that this stuff used to be guilty and is now guilt-free - I don’t get the sense he thinks these records are ‘actually’ bad.
Part of me is just annoyed that good pop music should need ‘reclaiming’ and ‘defending’, while records that were more publically praised go uninterrogated - I want Rowley’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee to have more of a punitive aspect, I want dreck like Dark Side Of The Moon raked over the coals while David Essex and Noosha out of Fox clink champagne glasses and laugh and the Andrea True Connection plays. But this is petty, and I agree with Rowley that the point is “AND” not “OR”, and besides you can’t un-play a record.
So what still annoys me about the “Guilty Pleasures” idea? I think it’s the chummy appeal to assumed experience - the creation of a shared narrative - remember how “we all” bought those embarassing records, and how “we all” liked the cool stuff, and how “we all” can listen now and admit they’re great when “we all” didn’t before. If this was Rowley’s own experience it’s struck a big mass chord, but it’s still a huge reduction of the interesting, complex web of personal experience - who you wanted to impress, who you lied to, who you told the truth to, what was it about the records that made you embarassed, anyway? (Dark Side Of The Moon was a huge favourite of mine at 14, for instance.) As it stands, Guilty Pleasures is just the inverse of “What were we thinking???”, a smoothing over of the past rather than an attempt to understand it.
(And OK, you may say, few of us are going to take massive steps forward in self-analysis by picking over our old music tastes. But there’s no need to hand-wring about it - the Popular comments boxes are a lovely rich source of light personal commentary and real-life experience, none of it fitting glibly into a “Then I was ashamed now I’m not, cor” template.)
At the back of all this, meanwhile, there’s a pop song: “Get Down”, a rumbustious thing built on an enjoyable chugalug pop-rock groove. The best and most obvious thing about it is the chiming piano hits on the chorus, the worst probably a dog/girl metaphor which Sullivan doesn’t take anywhere (though perhaps this is for the best - you can feel him tempted to write a punning “It’s his girlfriend! No it’s actually a dog!” track, which might have been ghastly). I’m a little surprised it’s here at all, to be honest. 5
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Marcello Carlin on July 11th, 2007
Due to unfair age gap I will have to wait until ‘78-9* to respond to mark s in kind since in ‘73 Marvel Comics and Gollancz’ Science Fiction Argosy still took precedence in my nine-year-old world but hey hey Aphrodite’s 666; best thing Demis ever did and arguably >>>> Blade Runner OST, also has crazy avant-garde tune called “Do It” just like 2nd Brotherhood of Breath album RELEASED THE SAME YEAR!
*and Rush were the thing at UGS then.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on July 11th, 2007
if “do it” is the one i’m remembering it’s amazing! we all just sat with our little mouths open, giggly bcz scared!
(i DLed 666 a couple of years back but i think i lost it in a computer meltdown, so i’ve never really relistened)
ps solo offshoots of everything on the central list were important also, esp. rick wakeman (who is the only element of yes i really can’t abide)
Marcello Carlin on July 11th, 2007
Good job “Life On Mars” only got to number three then (since RW plays piano on it); I always preferred his cousin Alan anyway (long term MC self-project: find tenable aesthetic and cultural links between Tales From Topographic Oceans featuring Rick and Ode by Barry Guy/LJCO - both ‘73 - featuring Alan W freaking out with Evan P on tenor big Berio time).
Erithian on July 11th, 2007
This could be setting a new benchmark for the smallest proportion of any Popular thread devoted to the artist it’s supposed to be about! Hard luck Gilbert – nice song anyway.
Now, Guilty Pleasures – I’d heard of the concept/radio show/club night/franchise, but hadn’t seen the track listing until just now. If that list is a guide, then like others on here I can’t admit to feeling guilty about liking any of them, and with one or two exceptions I don’t remember them being considered as naff at the time either. It’s more like “Forgotten Gems” – the kind of thing you heard on the breakfast show, thought “oh, that’s good”, and a few weeks later they were in a respectable chart placing. Many of the acts were never heard from again, but they enhanced your pop experience when you were growing up, and now it’s a case of “blimey I thought I was the only one who remembered that” rather than “I never thought I could admit to liking it”. And I’m with you on “Pinball”, Tom – anything that brings that gorgeous song into more people’s lives has to be recommended.
Enjoyed P*nk Lord’s tales of hanging with the proggies at school. I used to get pretty good end-of-term marks, but then along came a lad in the year below whose marks were in the high 90s. He was a Yes fan and his name was Emerson – how much more prog can you get?
intothefireuk on July 11th, 2007
DSOTM was the drug of choice which went hand in hand with, well, the drug of choice - isn’t it that fact that made it so popular ?(especially with older brothers & teachers) - it was the ultimate chill-out record and remained so for many years (and possibly still is).
FT's Pete Baran on July 11th, 2007
Interesting there was never an Orb backlash!
FT's Pete Baran on July 11th, 2007
(To explain, Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld pretty much made any and all Pink Floyd irrelevant to me when I discovered it. Vis a vis drugs and everything else).
FT's Tom on July 11th, 2007
There was totally an Orb backlash!
FT's Alan on July 11th, 2007
when will tanya do an Orb album covers post?
Marcello Carlin on July 11th, 2007
Er, Pommes Frites, anyone?
Brian on July 11th, 2007
passez le ketchup…..
My take on Guilty Pleasures is a compilation of songs that I would never had admitted to liking at the time because the artist ( Cap’t & Tenille , Helen Reddy ) were not cool enough for me.
However there are many good songs that I secretly liked. This whole thing was brought back to me recently when I bought ( new ) a collection of Burt Bacharach hits. I don’t think I ever sang along to a Carpenters song until last week.
But the pleasure was partially provided by great dripping wads of
nostalgia. A refuge to which I find myself increasingly drawn.
Waldo on July 11th, 2007
Marcello - “a beneign excuse for a Stalinist/Cameronite rewrite of musical history”??!! Oh, for crying out loud!
Rosie - Guesses for 1978, with all attempts to avoid spoilers. How about UTR and RT? Do I win a bun?
“Get Down” - My main memory of this thing is Industrial Action being taken (What? A strike in 1973?), which meant that TOTP was not broadcast for much of the period that this was Number One. I could never understand why Uncle Ray used the dog analogy to describe his bird… I can also recall being in a chemistry lesson and using the same bench as a little kid called George. George spent just about the whole 45 minute lesson singing this wretched song over and over without pause. I was just about at the end of my tether and reaching for a metal tri-pod in order to silence him (we comprehensive school herberts used to do these things) when I was beaten to the punch, quite literally, by an enormous lad called Errol, whose solitary blow ensured that George “got down” indeed. Happy Days!
Mark M on July 11th, 2007
I certainly denounced The Orb as a front for Floydian tendencies at the time – Hopkins should be able to back me up on this.
Rosie on July 11th, 2007
Waldo, for me a stonking good top-notch song is a 9. A 10 has to come from out of the blue and make me want to fall over, add something special to something that’s already good to very good, or perhaps even be a borderline 1 that has something that makes it irresistible. This is by way of saying that your guess scores 19 out of a possible 20.
Waldo on July 11th, 2007
Rosie - Aha! How about WH instead of RT?
Pete on July 12th, 2007
Hold yer horses there kids, the late seventies are a mere eight months away.
Anyway, one of the key points missing from this discussion is the Pans People interpretation of Get Down on Top Of The Pops. If you are doing a clip show, and want to show the literalism of PP, this is the one to go for.Aaaaah, doggies…
intothefireuk on July 12th, 2007
I believe I aluded to it in my first comment. Not one of PPs better moments or from a diff angle indeed their finest.
Gilbert won’t be troubling us again so, give or take some ok and not so ok releases, 2 great singles (alone & rhymed) followed by 2 No.1 singles followed by ………. a long protracted legal wrangle that harpooned what was left of his career and made a few lawyers very happy (even though he won). Still he got some nice jumpers out of it (most with a big G on them).
jeff w on July 12th, 2007
That reads a bit like an obituary, intothefireuk! GO is touring the UK and Ireland again later this year. He’s not given up, yet.
Re: Orb and PF, I distinctly remember either the NME or Melody Maker putting them on the cover together one week.
FT's Alan on July 12th, 2007
FT's Alan on July 12th, 2007
(sorry Gilbert o’sullivan)
Matthew on July 19th, 2007
I think I’m a bit late to the party here, but I just see the Guilty Pleasures series as a chance to showcase some fine pop (and obviously some rubbish, depending) that’s been glossed over by the Official History of Rock. The canon triumphs for most punters, and many of the beauties Rowley reissued (at least on Vol 1) would never get their deserved look-in. I mean, The Fortunes had passed me by completely…
It all has a whiff of very 90s pomo “irony”, obviously, but perhaps the means don’t always matter.
Marcello Carlin on July 19th, 2007
I’ll consider amnesty if he puts “Central Park Arrest” by Thunderthighs on his next compilation.
intothefireuk on July 19th, 2007
…..Oh and just to be irritatingly pedantic - if we are to include Vol 3 of GP then Blockbuster is the first No.1 to be compiled !
Marcello Carlin on July 20th, 2007
Other things I expect to see on GP Vol 4:
Adriano Celentano - Prisencolinensenaiciusol
Dooleys - Love Of My Life
Polly Brown - Up In A Puff Of Smoke
Dee D Jackson - Automatic Lover
Guy Marks - Loving You Has Made Me Bananas
Sailor - One Drink Too Many
Richard Myhill - It Takes Two To Tango
Richard Barnes - Take To The Mountains
Geordie - Can You Do It
Slik - Requiem
Drupi - Vado Via
Reunion - Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)
Jasper Carrott - Funky Moped
Yin & Yan - Butch Soap
Imperials - Who’s Gonna Love Me?
Eli Bonaparte - Never An Everyday Thing
Errol Brown - From The Top Of My Head
Cher - A Woman’s Story
Laurie Lingo & the Dipsticks - Convoy GB
One Hundred Ton & A Feather - It Only Takes A Minute
Lighthouse - Pretty Lady
henry s on July 20th, 2007
anybody of a certain age who does not fondly recall “Get Down” must have had a lousy childhood…(or a marvelous one)…
Waldo on July 21st, 2007
Yin and Yan’s “Butch Soap” was in fact the B-Side to their piss take of a record we will be discussing in 1975.
Lena on July 21st, 2007
I’ve looked at the Guilty Pleasures cds again and am confused about why there are no songs by the Bay City Rollers anywhere. Are they a non-guilty pleasure (an innocent one)?
If that’s the same “Loving You Has Made Me Bananas” then I heard it all the time on Dr. Demento.
Doctor Casino on July 22nd, 2007
So, guilty pleasures being rather well covered at this point (I think Tom and Marcello nail it for me - the term is offensive because it relies on your submitting to Their chummy simplification of a shared narrative), I’ll keep to Mr. O’Sullivan, none of whose work I’ve ever heard before Popular. As far as I can tell he’s basically a British Nilsson, yes? Somewhat more limited range, but same multitracked Beatlesey quality, bathrobe, doe eyes? I like these songs pretty good, and “Get Down” seems to me the best of the bunch so far. Fantastic hook! There’s a Chicory Tipness to the backing track, which I’m always a sucker for, and the turnaround on “…but I still want you around!” is as catchy a thing you could ever ask for.
Minuses for the generally miscellaneous and non-specific quality of the lyrics - does the cat on the hot tin roof need to be in there? The whole bit about drinking some wine time goes nowhere, not even as an analogy for how he feels now or anything like that. He might as well mention that he once owned a Buick. This song gets better the less closely it’s listened to, but its emptiness is much better-hidden than, say “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep”’s and it’s a better song for it.
Marcello Carlin on July 23rd, 2007
It may be helpful to know that the main influence behind Gilbert’s lyric writing was, and probably still is, Spike Milligan; see “Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day” (or maybe not) for a fuller demonstration of this.
I think it’s pretty straightforward though; given that he is frustrated and perhaps also a little intimidated by his dog, the “cat” is a good and basic analogy of his current emotional position, but the “time/wine” meme only really works if one extends the canine object to a rather unseemly metaphor, i.e. once he was footloose and fancy free but now he’s tied down by this, um, dog, and perhaps we’d better not go down that dimly lit road…
The British Nilsson isn’t a bad comparison point, though Randy Newman is possibly a better fit (so that “Get Down” becomes his “Short People”), though I should point out that neither of these distinguished gentlemen began their career dressed in schoolboy cap and short trousers as Gilbert did up until “Alone Again”…the idea being that he thought he’d get places if he looked the direct and polar opposite of how everybody else looked in ‘69/70…
Doctor Casino on September 21st, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xHyKyoEh5Q - Pan’s People dancers with a bunch of live dogs performing to “Get Down.” Thought some readers here might appreciate it…
linda on October 8th, 2007
can you tell me what gilber osulivan is doing now and is he going to do any more concerts
thankyou
linda
jeff w on October 8th, 2007
Current UK tour details can be found here:
http://www.gilbertosullivan.net/
FT's richard thompson on May 24th, 2008
The music of Gilbert O’Sullivan was on in place of TOTP during his second week at number one, he sang this song first, the Pans People dog dance was on xmas day, does he really sing I don’t give a damn, as that word is used in the next number one.
Linked by: gilbert get down on May 27th, 2008
[...] hits album in the M&VE 50p basement in the late 90s, and playing get down again and again.http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2007/07/gilbert-osullivan-get-down/The man who will wake the monster - This is London"The cathedral of the electrons" is how HJ [...]