Comments on: 500: 47-63 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63 Lollards in the high church of low culture Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:38:32 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Tom https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-577138 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:53:49 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-577138 Sorry, my summary was misleading – the rock/new wave is a broad description of what’s going on over this stretch of tracks: Machine is disco, definitely, the end of the run of arty disco tracks (Dinosaur L and so on) that I wrote about last time.

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By: koganbot https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-577135 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:40:52 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-577135 “There But For The Grace Of God” was co-written and produced by August Darnell, who formed Machine in-between Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band and Kid Creole And The Coconuts. Tom, is it you or is it Pitchfork that are categorizing the track in with Rock/New Wave? In New York it was played on the disco and the black stations rather than the rock stations, and its sound definitely was disco (Wikipedia classes Machine as “funk, pop, soul, disco”; allmusic.com calls ’em “R&B”). That said, Darnell did tend to fall between two stools, and you definitely got the sense he at least somewhat identified with downtown no-wave/postpunk as much as with disco; Kid Creole was first signed with Ze Records, who’d put out some Contortions and Lydia Lunch and Was (Not Was) albums. And the record did well with that rather small audience, was the inkling of something of a hybrid that took place a year or so later, gay clubs starting to mix in the likes of B-52s with the disco, and new wave more and more thinking of itself as a potential dance music.

I’m actually kind of meh on the song. I like the attitude and the reference to gaining weight and losing sleep and the claim that too much love is worse than none at all. I’d give this a tick, but I was a lot more taken/attracted to/scared by “Ring My Bell” and “Hot Stuff” etc., the full swell of disco and funk and hip-hop that belonged to that year.

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By: henry s https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575904 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:47:52 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575904 the aforementioned Fire Island remake of the Machine song (title too long to type but by now I might as well have, eh?) replaced “no blacks, no Jews, no gays” with “where only upper class people stay”…always thought of this as a club track, but I guess they had to consider radio as well…

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By: Nate P. https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575886 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:57:10 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575886 kinda wish my writeup of Machine had enough room to point out that the “popping pills and smoking weed” lyric only showed up in the liner notes and was changed at the last minute, while the line about the white (actually Latin)-flight impulse taking the Vidals somewhere with “no blacks, no Jews and no gays” more or less survived except in the odd radio edit.

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By: Tom https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575826 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:46:22 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575826 Having given it a second listen I can now see why “Starry Eyes” wasn’t a smash: for the first minute or two it’s really peppy and invigorating and then gradually you realise it IS in fact just Mr Records banging on about some kind of business dispute and by the end I’m just a bit cross they wasted such an affirming tune on such a whinge.

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By: Mark M https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575818 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:34:51 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575818 The problem the Only Ones have is that on the one hand there’s the only song anyone knows (it’s probably their best song, but I can’t tell anymore as it’s so overplayed – but it certainly the catchiest thing they did by a mile ) and on the other hand, all the morons who think that being a junkie is worthwhile and regard Perrett as some kind of proto-Doherty*. Which is a shame, because I reckon they had a bunch of excellent songs.

*Which probably contributes to the humourlessness of the reaction to Pete’s piece: idiots love to think they’re “in the know” about cool stuff like drug references in music…

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By: Martin Skidmore https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575783 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:12:48 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575783 There are several other terrific Only Ones songs, but plenty of routine ones too, and nothing to rival AGAP, I think. My oldest friend was in a band around the same time, and I remember how thrilled he was when a cute girl told him he sounded like Peter Perrett.

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By: AndyPandy https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575685 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:33:21 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575685 ‘There But for the grace of God’ was later covered by Fire Island (Farley and Heller)and a house hit in the early 90s the newer version was always played on Kiss a lot around that time.

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By: Tom https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575395 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:05:03 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575395 Yeah it’s a song KC wrote before he formed the cokeynuts I believe – he did his own version but it’s less disco than the Machine one.

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By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575393 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:58:18 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575393 doh, it’s a KC song, isn’t it — sorry ignore me it’s past me bedtime (apparently)

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By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575391 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:57:28 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575391 i don’t think i ever HEARD of machine before, but — listening to them this second — they just sang a whole kid creole verse: so now i am guessing they are closely connected

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By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/500-47-63/comment-page-1#comment-575390 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:56:06 +0000 https://freakytrigger.co.uk/?p=13041#comment-575390 (i just realised than whenever i’m listening to the rapper bun b i’m picturing him as looking like cheap trick’s bun e. carlos)

(shorter last par: “nitsuh OTM”)

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