This episode features a fun mix of styles, from the punk-meets-funk vibe of Fishbone, to the acapella stylings of The Housemartins and finally the lush electro-rock of Depeche Mode…plus a mystery song that you’ll just have to hear for yourself.
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Episode 11 – November 1987 (315 downloads )TRANSCRIPT
And welcome back to 120 months. We’re doing a deep dive on MTV’s 120 minutes, going through month by month and talking about our favorite songs, favorite bands from the different playlist from each month, picking out a mystery artist and learning a little bit about some bands that we had never heard of and have never heard anything from. So that’s been a lot of fun.
I’m sitting in with Keith Porterfield and Scott Mobley. We are currently talking about November of 1987. So we’re starting to edge into the Christmas season.
I didn’t think that we had picked any Christmas songs for this particular episode, but it turns out after watching and learning about this song that we did. and Scott Mobley is going to talk about it. So I mentioned an episode or 2 or 3 ago that I was starting to see bands that I like on this list, but the songs by the bands that 120 minutes was playing at this time work, particularly, my favorites by those bands. I thought I had done that again, but after listening to the song, I kind of have to eat my words and I’ll get to that in a minute.
The song I chose was Fish Bones. It’s a Wonderful Life, which was the single from their 1987 DP of the same name. me hit life twisted thing We gonna have a good life We gonna have a good life We’re gonna have a good life We gonna have a good life That evening was a Christmas album, and it came out between their first and second studio record. And this song, you know, it’s, to me, not that Christmassy, but the video kind of is, the rest of the songs on the album certainly are.
So this was their fishbones shot at a Christmas CP. So Fishbone is a band that’s pretty hard to describe, at least, you know, they’re hard to tie to one specific thing. They’re probably best described as an alternative band, but in the best sense of that word and that they are this hybrid of funk and soul and punk and metal and ska and about a 100 other things that all mix together into this really interesting and unique band.
They form in 1979 by brothers John Norwood Fisher, who played bass and Fish Fisher, who played the drums, and then Angelo Moore on vocals and saxophone. Angelo Moore is sort of the face of this band. He’s a real cool looking dude with a mohawk and, you know, he’s very active, jumps around a lot.
He’s kind of when you think of fishbone, he’s kind of what pops into your head. And he also plays saxophone. So that’s the core of this band, but at any given time, there are up to 10 people in this organization, especially when they perform live, they have a like full horn section and all that stuff.
They have a pretty solid run throughout the 80s. They get their 1st record deal in 83. They have a pretty solid alternative college radio hit in 1985 with a song called Party at Ground Zero, and they were also, they were in this awful movie called Back to the Beach.
I don’t know if you guys remember that or not. It was 1986, um, and it was a Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello and like all the people from those movies, those beach movies in the 50s doing like a reunion movie for beach movies. And Fishbone shows up in it, playing this song called Jamaica Ska.
I don’t know, this song’s pretty good, but that movie is just a very strange exercise. It’s amazing that someone said, yes, let’s do this, but they did. Anyway, after that.
They get hired in 87 to open for the Beastie Boys on a license to ill tour, so they’re starting to make some noise at this time. So this song comes out around then, and it pretty much fits what they’re doing at that time, you know, and maybe for a little while after this, meaning that this band that’s known for this wide range of musical influences of styles, really up to this point, is really just a really good ska band. All the elements of scar here, you know, it’s basically just sped up reggae with a lot of horns in it or whatever.
And as much as I’m not the world’s biggest scar fan, I actually have to say that this song, I thought was really good. It’s jammed. But when you read about these guys, you read things like, you know, they were a ska band and then they started to get more political, lyrically, more socially conscious lyrically, or you’ll read things like, you know, they started to explore more musical styles.
They started infusing rock and funk and punk and soul into this big, you know, smorgage board that’s really been unmatched. Both of those things happened after this. So you’re seeing them before kind of they morph into what I think people think of when they think of fishbone.
You know, they don’t, they’re not thinking of the Scott band. of what happens after this. But, you know, all that said, this is a really good song. So this point, Fishbone really is just a Scott band.
They’re a damn good one, and this band’s legacy is being pioneers of alternative rock and a major influence on Indian alternative rock moving forward is really not on display here, but this is a great song. Yeah, a good example of just how great the musicianship is in this band. give you a glimpse of just how fun and cool these guys are. It’s a really fun video.
So the video is basically them playing live, but with interspersed footage of Frank Hoppers, it’s a wonderful life running through it. So it turns out that I didn’t know this about myself until we started this podcast, but I’m a really big fan of black and white stock footage being rolled into videos. Because this is about the 4th time it’s happened that I’ve loved our video.
And I love this one. Now this isn’t stock footage. It’s a movie that a lot of people are familiar with.
I’ve become a really big fan of these guys right after this. Their 3rd album, which is like maybe 3 years after this. It’s called the reality of my surroundings.
It was a big college radio alternative hit. They weren’t on the Lollapalooza tour after that, which is where I 1st saw them live. It was 93.
Um, and that album has like my 2 personal favorite songs of theirs on it. The 1st one is Everyday Sunshine, which is just this wonderful like soul and rock fusion thing that just keeps building and building and building. By the end, you know, you’re going to church, clapping your hands or whatever, just builds this magnificent climax.
The other one is some with Saturday, which is a hybrid of so many musical things. I don’t think you could even really put a label on it, but man, it is just an incredible song. So this band is still around.
They’re nowhere near their original form. I think now it’s just Angelo Moore and he’s the last surviving original member and whoever is around him. But they’re still playing out music.
They still touring. They even got a little press this year because they put out a song called racist piece of shit, which explicitly mentions our current president. And let’s say it’s not kind.
But I’ll leave that at that. You can listen to it if you want to hear it. It’s kind of funny.
Um, you know, but for a minute, then they kind of went viral with it. People were talking about fishbone again, so that’s good thing for what it’s worth. So this is a good song, a really good video from a band that it may not be one of the biggest bands of all time, but I think that, you know, it’s fair to say that from this era, they might be one of the most influential bands.
And, um, you know, this, this was a fun, a fun song and a fun video, and I really kind of enjoyed watching it. So that was Bishbo. Well, gonna have to come out swinging this time, this time around, because I didn’t really care for this one, to be perfectly honest with you.
But that has more to do with the fact that I’m just not a scoff fan. And I don’t really know any fishbone past, really, these early couple of songs. And so I don’t really know what they came became after or anything.
But as far as, yeah, I just, I’m just not Sky is just a hard sell for me. And so this was not a song that I particularly cared for. It’s fine for the genre, you know, and I can understand why people like it.
I mean, that’s it’s good party music. I mean, that song would be would be fun in a house party with a bunch of people jumping around and whatnot. But it’s not something I just want to sit around and listen to or anything like that.
I did like the video. I like the interspersed images from the, it’s a Wonderful Life movie. I particularly like how it starts with the girl running up to the old timey record player and putting the record on and playing it, starting it, and then the song starts, and then at the end she takes it off, you know, rips the needle off of it and slams the record down and breaks it off.
The smash of the record at the end was fantastic. I love it. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I like that. So yeah, I definitely liked the video. And like I said, the song, the song didn’t do a whole lot for me, but mainly just because I’m not a big fan of the genre.
The one thing I did take away from this is that it reminded me about Party at Ground Zero, and gave me an opportunity to go back and listen to that and watch the video for that, which that song I do like. I mean, there are occasional sky songs out there that I’ll enjoy. And that one I particularly remember playing a lot at KTXT, Party at Ground Zero.
And so, uh, it was fun to kind of make that association go back and listen to that song again. But this one, I have to say, didn’t do a whole lot for me. Again, I get it.
I understand why people like that stuff. I think that music is fun. I really do But it’s just not something I really want to sit around and listen to.
And to me, this was like a just right in the pocket example of sky that I don’t like, essentially. I’m with you on that. I’m not a big scoff fan myself.
And that’s why I think, you know, listening to this, like when I 1st heard it pop up, I, and when I’ve selected it, I knew that it was going to be a Ska song because they hadn’t hadn’t morphed yet at this point. But I don’t know, I really got a kick out of it, but I’m with you on ska. It’s fine, but it does nothing for me.
I don’t sit around and listen to it. When I say I’m a big fishbone fan. It’s the stuff after this.
It’s the album, right? Well, it’s actually 2 albums after this, but it’s the album that came out in 91. That’s the songs I mentioned on it.
That’s really when they turn into something unique in original, you know, at this point, they really are just a Scott band. And they’re a good one, but I’m with you. Sky is not really my my jam.
And I’m just not familiar with any of the stuff that comes after this. that’s not a band that I ever really checked in on. So this was the 1st time I’d ever heard this song and really the only other song of theirs that I ever heard was Party at Ground Zero. So, yeah, I’m completely unfamiliar with what comes after.
I thought a lot about genres while I was watching this because I was, my initial thought was, I don’t particularly care for Ska, just like you guys. It’s not, like, I, if you looked at my personal library, I don’t really have any Scott. But I was enjoying it so much, I was like, so what is happening?
And what I realize is there’s a couple genres that I will dig deeper into, and then I just like really talented bands, and Fishbone is a really fucking talented band. I would say that’s these guys for sure. Yeah, and that like transcends genre.
Like, I am not a particularly like a country music fan, but I’ll listen to Sturgill Simpson because he’s really fucking talented. And I’m not, you know, and I could go down the list of like, I’m not a fan of this genre, but I really like so-and-so. And this falls in that category.
I don’t know that I like all fish boner would, you know, dig into their catalog that deeply. Never heard this song before, but holy crap. I actually really liked it.
And Angelo Moore, like, it’s really hard to not like him and not to be won over by his charisma and just his… As front men go, you could really do no better. Yeah, I mean, he doesn’t get near the credit.
And there’s a long list of guys that, you know, are the ultimate front men, but he’s got to be up there because, I mean, he’s just, he just oozes like enthusiasm and charisma and just like, but in a fun way, you can tell the guys are having fun. The whole band looks like they’re having fun. Uh, the video is a great concept of like the intercut between, it’s a wonderful life.
I can’t remember if it’s the Wonderful Life is the one that fell into the public domain and they were able to do this or maybe they just somehow got away with it. I think that’s why it became popular to begin with. If I remember right, the story is that it flopped at the box office, but it became popular because it started getting played all the time because it was people were able to play it without.
Yeah, maybe I’m mixing all that up. But regardless, they pulled it off and put it in the video and that’s great. The record thing at the beginning and the end, booking is great.
It took me a while to figure out. He basically speed running the plot in the lyrics of the song. He’s basically telling you, like, the plot of the movie.
Took me a 2nd to catch onto that. We mentioned to the girl with the record at the beginning and smashing it at the end. was fantastic. The other thing I liked is when they were interspersing the dancing.
Dancing was great. They did the knee. started doing like the old timey dancing, you know? Unexpected for a couple of reasons.
A, didn’t, you know, I should have made the connection. It’s a Wonderful Life, but I, you know, you can use that that phrase and not have it be Christmassy, but it absolutely was. That was a surprise in just in general how much I liked this song.
I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy like a random fish. I love Party at Ground Zero, but I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy a random fishbone song like this and I 100%. Yeah, I’m totally on board with this one.
I loved it. The only other thing I was going to say is just I have recently kind of gotten back into madness a little bit for some reason. They’ve been popping up on my radar, and it made me realize, like, these guys are just almost, I mean, they’re a little bit funkier, a little bit more energetic, although, I mean, madness is plain energetic too.
Like those 2 bands together. Yeah, they’re both really fun bands to listen to. I think it was my takeaway.
I had not fully realized how much I liked madness and now I’m not didn’t realize how much I liked some of fishbone stuff because it’s just fun, energetic, upbeat. and they’re also, like, they’re really talented. There’s a lot of really cool musicianship that’s going on that you don’t hear in like a normal, you know, 4 or 5 piece rock band. So yeah, I had a lot of fun.
I would invite you, since it sounds like you guys aren’t that familiar with like the fishbone of the early 90s. You should remedy that. At least listen.
And if nothing else, listen to the song Sunless Saturday. If that doesn’t win you over, then there may not be anywhere to go for them with you, but man, that song is just incredible. And it was a pretty big college radio hit.
Maybe right before, you know, we all got into college radio. That song has just fantastic. It’s nothing like this.
It’s not Scott. It’s not. sure what it is. It’s like it’s got, it like starts with an acoustic guitar riff and then it blasts into this big like synth thing and then the horns are in it and it’s just this wonderful hodgepodge of all these musical styles and it is just a fantastic song.
I was surprised. I said it was surprised you guys hadn’t heard it, but at the same time, when I pulled up their, like, Apple Music page, it was pretty far down the list of their popular songs. So it was everyday sunshine, which was also a big hit.
What’s at the top is all the ska stuff. Like Party at Ground Zero is number one. This is like number four.
It’s a lot of the Scott stuff is what it’s the top. Maybe that’s their legacy. I don’t know, but for me, what they were doing in the early 90s, you know, during their real heyday is the stuff that got me to be a fan of theirs.
You know, I was never going to be a huge fan of a scot band. So they were definitely doing something different. So I would, I don’t know.
I would give them give them that 10 minutes to listen to a song or 2 and then see if anything wins you over at night. Yeah, maybe I’ll check them out a little bit. I’m not familiar with either of those songs.
I do have always just kind of thought of these guys as being a ska band. And what I was going to say, you know, Mike, you said that madness was the comp that kind of came to your mind. For me it was the mighty, mighty boss stones, like immediately.
I hear this and I thought about the boss tones. Yeah, the boss tones are definitely a branch of that tree that these guys, you know, rooted down. But the other band like them is real big fish that, you know, kind of did a the ska punk hybrid thing, you know, that got real popular there in the 90s.
I think these guys were the forefathers of that, as was madness. Well, I’m going to pick up on the same theme here, not the Christmas theme. But the theme of a band I did not want to let slide without talking about them.
So I was glad that they came up and I’m not sure that they’re going to come up again because they broke up in 1988 and we’re in late 1987 already. So I’m going to talk about the House Martins. The song is Caravan of Love.
Every woman, every man, join the caravan of love, stand up, stand up, stand up, everybody, take a stand. Join the caravan of love. Stand up.
Stand up. Stand up. I’m your brother.
Your brother, don’t you love? And the theme that I’m also picking up on here is that it’s not necessarily the song I would choose, you know, to talk about. There’s, there are better songs that are more representative, too, of what the House Martins do.
This is a cover. It’s completely kind of off base from what their normal sound is kind of more of like a, like a slightly happier, more upbeat Smith’s, I would say, is a little bit of a comp. There a little bit of Elvis Costello in there.
I would say if you’re going to start with the House Martins, start with the song Happy Hour, if you like that, you’re going to be golden if you don’t, then, you know, you’re probably you’re probably good. This one is, well, let’s talk about the house burns a little bit. They were formed in 1983.
Paul Heaton is the lead singer. He is, as you will find when you listen to the song, an absolutely amazing singer, even this song doesn’t quite do justice to just how good of a singer he is. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist.
So he started the group with Stan Colmore, who’s the guitarist, uh, initially, as like they were buskers, basically. They were just busking around hole, Kingston on hole, up on hole is the name of the town they were they were from. And then they end up kind of realizing they got something going.
We’re gonna, we’re gonna record the, the main claim to fame beside. I mean, in the UK, they’re actually still fairly well known, but their their main claim to fame is they picked up a bassist. named Norman Cook, also who did some background vocals, and he would go on to form Beats International, and then he later became Fatboy Slim. So that’s kind of, I think most people’s exposure to House Martins might be kind of coming through the back door after, you know, finding out, oh, Fat Boy Slim used to be in a, like a, it’s almost like a Britpop boy band in a way.
They’re they’re pre-Britpop. They’re jangle pop. Again, they have some kind of Smith’s DNA in there, but they’re very young at this point.
Yeah, so they do a couple. I think they do a John Peel session. They record this cover song in one of those peel sessions in November of 1986.
The original is by the, a band called Isley Jasper Isley, which is actually just a splinter group of the Isley Brothers. Apparently, there was a big Bruhaha with the Isley Brothers, and these guys split off, split off. I wasn’t familiar with the song.
I was expecting it to be at least a little. I only, I, I, obviously, I heard the House Martin song first. So I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I definitely did not expect it to be just a slow funk electro jam, which is what it is. I mean, holy crap. It is a funky, funky, funky song, as you would expect from the Isley Brothers or whatever, but like more so than I thought it would be.
I kind of thought it would maybe be a little more in line with the House Martins version, which, if you, again, if you haven’t heard it yet, is an a cappella song. Um, they do it completely a cappella and four-part harmony. It is the only, it was the 2nd acapella song in UK history to hit number one.
So this song actually hit number one in December of 86. So a year before, we’re talking about it now on 120 minutes. It had already hit and kind of come and gone in the UK.
They go on to record 2 albums that are fairly well received, and like I said, they’re very kind of well thought of being in the UK, but not, they never became, obviously, the Smiths or part of like Brit Hop or whatever. They kind of, they kind of predated Britpop. They broke up in 88, so they didn’t catch that wave.
I don’t know if they kind of got lost in the shuffle. They have a very earnest kind of upbeat, almost schoolboy kind of sound to him in a way. Maybe that turns people off and maybe they didn’t fit like some of the vibe of what was going on in late 80s British music at the time.
I don’t know. They’re an interesting band. So the song is a very earnest song about kind of, I don’t know, you could interpret a bunch of different ways.
And the video is also one that can be interpreted different ways because initially you’re like, are they religious? Are they making fun of religion? Is it a little of both?
I think the answer is it is a little of both. They actually, as it turns out, identify as, or at the time, identified themselves as socialist Christians, and they had this, like, kind of interesting take, the back of their 1st album has a quote that says, take Jesus, take marks, take hope. So they do have this kind of anti-authoritarian and anti, not anti-government, but they were making songs that were very much critical of the government and the monarchy, but also they were practicing Christians, I think, at the time.
And a lot of their songs are, again, very earnest, very upbeat, very kind of not, I wouldn’t say squeaky clean, but they, you know, they certainly weren’t like a down and dirty kind of band. That was just they, and if you watch the videos, They’re very, they’re much these, just kind of goofy guys having fun. Like they have a great personality and one of my favorite things is so they named their 1st album, London Zero, Hull 4.
I assume that was actually in reference to a specific soccer match. It isn’t. It’s formatted like the score of a soccer match.
What it actually is referring to is that the band used to refer to themselves as the 4th best band in Hull, the city they’re from, the other 3 bands being the red guitars, the gargoyles, and everything but the girl, oddly enough, who would go on to have like a massive hit like 5 years later. Their 2nd album was called The People Who Grinned themselves to death, and that’s a reference to the royal monarchy. So if that tells you a little bit about how they felt about the monarchy and some of those types of things.
They certainly were, you know, outspoken, not in the same way that like manic street preachers or a band like that is outspoken, you know what I mean? Like they dialed it back a little bit. But, uh, but he’s a great Paul Heaton’s a great lyric writer.
The harmonies in their songs, I think, are the real standout things. They’re all pretty good musicians, but the musicianship. They don’t have like a Johnny Marr who’s necessarily pushing the envelope.
The instrumentals of the or the backing tracks are pretty straightforward, but the harmonies and the vocals are top notch. and they continue to be so even into the next incarnation where Paul Heaton and the drummer Dave Hemingway ended up forming a band called The Beautiful South, which you may have run into like in the late 80s, early 90s. And again, they had some other vocalists that work with him, but like Paul’s vocals are really like the star of the show and all the bands that he’s in. So, you know, Caravan of Love is a little bit of a, there are other songs in their catalog that are somewhat like it.
It’s not like all their songs there, but most of their songs are very up-tempo upbeat and obviously have backing tracks, which, you know, I don’t know how many a cappella songs they have in their catalog, but not a ton. But, you know, they, like a lot of British fans at this time. They did a couple covers.
The fact that one of the covers hit number one was not unusual in Britain at this time. So I don’t, you know, begrudge them doing it. Like, I think they did a really cool cover.
Again, it really showcases their vocals. I think the video kind of showcases their sense of humor, but also their point of view at the time. So I’ve never really listened to this song a lot when I do listen to the House Martins.
I listen to the albums and this song isn’t actually on an album. It’s only available as a single. And so it’s not, it’s one of those where it’s tough because it’s like, I don’t feel like it really represents what I love about the House Martins, but it does represent, again, how good they are at vocalizing and harmonizing, and so it’s still, hit me a little harder this time, I was paying a little more attention to it.
And I really did enjoy it. But if you want to explore the House Martins, there’s probably better places to start. But I’m curious to see if you guys, what you thought about this and if you dug any deeper than this into their catalog.
You know, you mentioned a few of their titles and stuff that are kind of funny, but they have I wanted to just bring this one up because it made me laugh out loud. They put out a, what I assume is the greatest hits album. It’s a compilation that came out in 1988 called.
Now that’s what I call quite good. I forgot to mention that, yeah. I really like that.
I knew nothing about this band. I’d heard their name and I, you know, I listened to a few songs. I couldn’t get anything to trigger a memory.
You know, like, hey, I knew that one or whatever. It just, I couldn’t find it. And then I did realize where I had heard the name before.
I had heard at some point in my life that this was the band that Fat Boy Slim was in before he was Fat Boy Slim. So that’s really the only connection I had to them. This was really interesting to me.
I didn’t know it was a cover. I don’t think I’d heard the original I have now, and you’re right. It is a funk phenomenon.
Okay, okay. So this was new to me. I liked the intention of it, and I think that the doo-wop thing is interesting.
The a cappella thing is certainly interesting. I’m just not so sure that this song is all that interesting. At least, you know, in this format.
But, you know, to me, this entire thing sounds like it’s the intro to a better song. Like, this, this is going to end, and then there’s going to be a guitar riff, you know, like, this is just the opening to something much bigger, and, you know, it just, it’s like it’s on to something and it just doesn’t get there. I did like the video, though.
I think this was this video was exactly what it needed to be for this song. It was kind of cute and clever, and it highlights, you know, them and their vocals, and it’s kind of playful. I really yeah, I really enjoyed the video a lot.
And I did like the song. I just felt like I was waiting for it to do something. I was waiting for the next thing to happen and it just never gets there.
But yeah, it’s it’s good for what it is. It’s about as good as this is going to be, an acapella doowop song. Yeah, I didn’t have any background with these guys either.
And so entire knew, literally nothing about him, except that that Boy Slim had been the bass player, and so I put this song on and was less than impressed, I guess, might be a way to put it. I mean, you know, the harmonies are great. Don’t get me wrong.
They really do a great job with the vocal harmonies and all that. But yeah, this is not a song that I’m ever going to want to listen to for any reason whatsoever. You know, I did go and listen to some other House Martin stuff.
And that’s what kind of really got me about that is I listen to Happy Hour. I listen to me and the farmer, I listen to the sheep. Those are all great songs, like just perfect like power pop songs.
And for a band that’s capable of putting those kind of songs out to decide that this needs to be a single was completely beyond me. I don’t know how that that came into their mind. It’s funny, though, you mentioned a little bit about the kind of biting lyrics.
I really liked lyrics to sheep. And I think that’s a perfect example of what you’re talking about as far as the kind of the social commentary on the lyrics. And I know that you have said before, Mike, that having a number one hit in the UK around Christmas is like a particularly big deal, like a special deal. was this song particularly done to try to get them a number one UK Christmas hit, do you think?
I don’t know. Yeah. So they they were barely edged out of that honor by somebody releasing an old remake or an old version of a, they they were in place to be the Christmas number one, which is a huge deal in the UK for whatever reason being number one. at Christmas is like a big deal.
Even in, if you’ve ever seen the movie Love, actually. That’s half the plot of that movie is a song becoming the number one Christmas single. You have to think that any song that is so far from a band’s usual catalog that’s released in November that appeals to a certain type of vibe is probably intentionally done for that reason.
So yes, I do think it was intentionally done for that reason, but I don’t have any proof of that. That was my thought. That was the only reason I could think of that.
Maybe they decided to do a song like this. Release it as a single rather than one of their their popular, you know, jams. It was just because, you know, it’s got the kind of the vibe to be what might be the kind of song that would be a Christmas number one, you know, and so that was the only thing I could think of is why that this would have been a single.
But yeah, I would, I, although we heard, like I said, a few other songs. I would literally start with any song that is not this one if you want to get jump into the House Martins because, yeah, this, for me anyway, this was not the place to start. I have no idea what the motivation behind doing this was.
You’re 100% right, Keith, that whether you think this song is good or not. This is not really what they do. You know, it’s not going to show you who the House Martins are by listening to this song.
You might enjoy it or you might not, but it’s you should not base any desire to listen to these guys further on this song. No, not at all. It’s not.
This is not telling you what they do. No. No.
No, the only thing you can get from this is, damn, they can sing. And damn, Paul Heaton can sing. Yes, absolutely.
And then you do see that, but you don’t get any of their sense of humor, really, except from the video, but not from the song. And like Keith said, they’ve got some fantastic lyrics. If you listen to sheep, if you listen to anxiety, if you listen to Flag Day, which is one of the earlier singles, I mean, they’re, yeah, it’s like social commentary, but in a very clever and often kind of, you know, funny, biting way.
So that’s that’s fantastic. But if you want to know what the band’s about. This is just, yeah, this is not, it just isn’t, isn’t what they’re about.
I don’t think they do this really before or after this. The song that kept them from the Christmas number one was a song by Jackie Wilson called Rit Petite that was kind of like stealth released at the last minute to kind of try to bump to try to get to number one. So it’s a really weird cutthroat thing that happens with the Christmas number one.
Is that, you know, what? It doesn’t make any sense because it’s not like, it’s the end of the year and this is the best song of the year. It’s just the song that happens to be, you know, number one at Christmas.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I mean. significance of it being. You could be number one, 2 weeks before and you still had a number one song. Yeah, and they did.
Like this song, this song actually did, you know, was a number one single, by the way. So, I mean, they you know, they made a good choice in that sense. It’s funny because the Christmas number one thing has been manipulated in the more recent past, and that’s where they had a run where every year, for a while, it was, it was people that had won the Voice or X Factor or whatever the Britain, the British version of that is, like the winner or people that were on that were dominating the charger around that time.
So there was a campaign about 10 years ago for Rage Against the Machine, killing in the name of to become the Christmas number one, and they actually pulled it off. So there is a year somewhere in the late 2010s or somewhere around there that that raging us machine got to Christmas number one because people were just sick of it being like the voice or whatever. And yeah, the love actually has a plot about it as well.
So it really is like kind of a Christmas tradition. I think it’s maybe a little bit tied to top of the pops because that is also a really big deal in Britain and less so now, but it used to be like appointment watching to watch top of the pops, particularly if you’re a teenager and, you know, this is true for decades and decades, that that was where you could see, much like we’re talking about 120 minutes. Like, that was where you could actually see artists for the 1st time, and you got to actually see what they look like, and, you know, get a sense of that was top of the pops in Britain, and every week people would gather around, and you know, you got to watch like the top 20 countdown or whatever, and a lot of times they played live or live-ish.
And, uh, I think they have a big Christmas special. So I think maybe that ties into the Christmas number one being kind of a big deal because everybody over Christmas would watch Top of the Pops and see what the number one song was. But anyway, I do think that that played into why this song was released when it was and why they picked the song that they did.
If you’re interested and are curious, if you’re a fan of the Smiths, if you’re a fan of early, you know, British, mid 80s, jingle pop, if that sounds like something you would like, go listen to London, uh, Zero Hole 4 or uh, the people who grin themselves to death, both good albums, they’re both pretty good front to back. And I think you’ll you’ll really dig it. This song again is an outlier.
And if you’re a fan of really great slow a cappella, maybe check this one out. I mean, you might like this, but otherwise. It is not bad.
It’s not. It’s not a bad song, but it’s just not them. I think is what the fairest thing to say.
All right, we are moving on in our picking bands from the playlist of November 1987, and I think this is maybe maybe the most popular one of the episode. I’m kind of quite unlimited states. is probably the best well-known of the 3 and taking us there is Mr. Keith Portfield. I definitely think that that is a fair statement.
So a couple weeks ago, or a few few episodes ago, we were talking a little bit about erasure, and we kind of got into the fact that, you know, Vince Clark had started into Depeche Mode and split off, and we started talking a little bit about the kind of the erasure versus Depeche Mode dichotomy, if you want to call it that. And I came down heavily on the side of Depeche Mode. And we’ll stick by that.
I very much am a bigger fan of Depeche Mode than I am Erasure, but I think I may have given the impression that I’m a bigger Depeche Mode fan than I am. I got into them in the late 80s, a little bit into the early 90s, and then I kind of dropped out on them. They have had a long career since then released a lot of albums.
Um, you know, they have sold over 1000000 records over the years. They got inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. So this is about as big a band as you’re ever going to get.
But for this today, we’re going to go back to 1987 and talk about their song called Never Let Me Down again. So that’s when we’re talking about today. Never let me down again by depressional.
I’m taking a ride with my best friend. I don’t know that there’s a whole lot we need to say about Depeche Mode. I think most of our listeners probably know who they are.
They’re an English band. They were formed in 1980. They’ve essentially only had 5 members.
They’ve had some playing touring members with them, but Vince Clark, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher were the original lineup. Vince Clark only lasted one album, a couple albums after that. They brought in a guy named Alan Wilder, and it was that 4 piece for a long time.
Wilder left in 1995 to go do other projects. And then Andy Fletcher actually passed away in 2022. So right now, Depeche Mode is just a duo.
It’s Dave Gahan and Martin Gore. But this was back in their heyday. This album, this song came off the 1987 album called Music for the Masses.
And music for the masses is actually my introduction to Depeche Mode. I bought this album, and I can’t remember now how it came about, why I bought it. I had heard of Depeche Mode.
I know that. And I’d heard some stuff by them. So maybe it’s just knowing that they had a new one.
I wanted to go get it. This was around the time when I was starting to just 1st get into this kind of music, the, you know, modern rock alternative. what do you want to call it? And so I really loved this album.
I went back and bought one of their older ones called Some Great Reward, which is also just a fantastic album. I highly recommend that one. And then it was not long after that that the live album 101 came out.
And that kind of filled in a lot of my knowledge for older stuff, you know, the other older stuff before this. And then again, not long after that, the album Violator came out. And so that was my primary run with Depeche Mode was through right through that run from some great ward.
I did not get the album Black celebration, which actually comes out between some great reward and music for the masses. But that era was when I was really into them. And then the next album, if that was called Songs of Faith and Devotion.
And that was the album, for whatever reason, that album just rubbed me wrong when it came out. And I’ve gone back and listened to it many times since then. And it’s not a bad album.
It really isn’t. It’s got some good stuff on it. But man, for whatever reason, that album really rubbed me the wrong way when it came out.
And so that was kind of it for me in Depeche Mode. So, like I said, I can’t claim to be a huge Depeche Mode fan, but I did check in on was a pretty big fan for these few years anyway. This song, man, I love this song.
This might actually be my favorite Depeche Mode song. And like I said, it’s off the album, music for the masses, and music for the masses kind of starts Depeche Mode changing a little bit. This album, they brought in a guy named Dave Bascombe to be the producer, but he ended up being largely just the engineer.
The band member Alan Wilder actually did a lot of the production work on this, and that would continue on for the next couple of albums before he actually leaves the band. So it was kind of changing their sound a little bit. He was getting more involved in the production.
They were starting to use more different kind of varied samples and instrumentations. Martin Gore’s guitar starts to come in a little more. I mean, there had been a little bit of guitar throughout their career before that, but it’s really this album where his guitar starts to get, you know, come to the forefront a little more.
They did some interesting stuff on this song in particular, like the snare drum sample on Never Let Me Down again is actually from the Led Zeppelin song when the Levee Brakes, which I thought was kind of interesting. And then there’s also the really heavily processed guitar part on this song that I really like. It’s what makes the song.
But if you don’t know it’s a guitar, you probably think it’s a synthesizer the 1st time you listen to the song because it is, like I said, just really, really heavily processed, but that actually is the kind of the lead line on this actually is a guitar. It’s Martin Gore’s guitar. It’s just, like said, being run through about a gajillion machines.
So like I said, this is one of my favorites. If not my absolute favorite Depeche Mode song. It’s a little, you know, when we were talking about eratio, we described them as being synth pop, and I hate to use that phrase with Depeche Mode, but I don’t really think of them as being a synth pop band.
When I was looking at their wiki bio, one of the little deals in the categories of genre of music was electronic rock was what came up on that. And I think that actually fits really well. I don’t necessarily think of those 2 words going together. more often than not, but in their case, they really are more a rock band that uses a lot of electronics.
And in fact, largely at this point in their career, relied on electronics, but the song structures and the like the tempos and all that, they’re just not really a poppy, dancing band. I mean, I think electronic rock really is a good way to describe them, especially at this and kind of moving forward. And I think that this song is a really good example of that.
I mean, this song is largely electronic, except for Gore’s guitar, I should say. And, uh, but it’s it’s, it’s a rock song. It structured like a rock song.
It’s not dancy at all. This is a rock and roll song. I mean, like I said, really one of my favorites of theirs.
There’s a couple of things I wanted to mention, a couple of quotes about this song. Now, this is, like I said, is not really like a cheery upbeat kind of happy song. The 2 quotes.
One of them described the song as being creepy, shaking your sandals eerie. So, yeah, if you happen to be wearing sandals when you hear this song, you might start shaking at them. Who knows?
The other one I liked about this was, this dark sensual track is probably far too disturbing for the Rick Astley fans among us. So, yeah, you’re probably right if you were a big fan of Rick Astley. probably didn’t like this a whole lot. So yeah, those I thought were really great quotes about this song.
The video itself is pretty cool too. It’s largely black and white. It’s directed by Anton Corbin, who would be a really collaborator with them on their videos.
He’s done over 20 Depeche Mode videos over the years. So this is one of their collaborations with him. We did run into Anton Corbin earlier when we were talking about Echo and the Bunny man.
He’s the one who directed the video for lips like sugar as well. Like I said, the video is largely black and white. It starts off with Dave Gahan, like apparently maybe having tea with his pop.
I don’t know, some older guy there and they’re having tea, apparently. And then Gahan goes out and he gets in this tiny little car. And I’m not from Europe, so I don’t know.
I think, you know, vehicles in general are a lot smaller in Europe, but this is a seriously tiny vehicle this guy gets in. I don’t know what it is. Yeah, but when I remember when I was younger, I knew a girl that had this little Hyundai blue Hyundai hatchback and we used to call that car the nugget. hey, let’s go take the nugget.
You’re gonna take the nugget here. Yeah, this car that Dave Gahan gets in in this video makes the nugget look like a Dodge ram 3500, man. I mean, this thing can hardly hold Nick behind.
But anyway, then he’s driving around in it and then you see the other band members and they’re out in a field or they’re by a lake and they’re running around. Are they chasing Dave? Are they trying to get away from him?
I don’t know. And then later in the video, David seems to have some sort of a medical issue maybe because he’s down and the other guys are having to help him up and like get him, you know, back to the car or whatever. This video is much more about vibe than it is about making any sense.
But I will say, I really liked it. I like the video, you know, as opposed to just being a, you know, standard stand-up and perform the song video. This may not make much sense, but it’s good.
I enjoyed it. So I think this was the 1st time I’d ever seen this video or if I had, I’d completely forgotten about it, but anyway, yeah, I like the video. Love the song.
Like I said, this is one of my all-time favorite Depeche Mode songs. And I think it does, it’s the 1st track on music for the masses, and I think it’s kind of represents a little bit of a turning point in their career, like they can start going, like I said, toward a little more varied instrumentation, a little more use of the guitar, a little different kind of arrangements. And you hear that ride off the bat on this album with Never Let Me Down again.
So, yeah, that’s the one that I chose for this week. Really enjoyed it. Interest to hear what you guys have to think about it.
I mean I love this song. I have since the 1st time I heard it. It’s definitely my, I don’t know.
I’ve never really gone through Depeche Mode and thought about like top 5s and top 10s because there’s a lot of Depeche Mode songs that I like, actually. I think I’m a bigger fan of that band than I than even I realize, if that makes sense. Like, I forget, you know, how many, it’s just, it’s not one that I, I don’t go to that well a lot, but every time I hear, you know, even stuff that got really overplayed like off a violator, enjoy the silence and policy of truth, like, I really, really like this band.
So yeah, I love the song. I really do. No notes.
Like, it’s just, it’s a great, great, great Depeche Mode song. Everything that’s good about Depeche Mode is there. absolutely fantastic. So, video wise, I, you know, I made a note because I had a feeling this would come up that having lived now in Europe for 7 years, the car did not seem as ridiculously small as I think it would have had I not lived over here.
That is a fairly common thing to see over here at, you know. The cars have gotten a little bigger here now that I think they used to because there is a little bit of influence, but like, you never, ever, ever see anything like a Ford 3500 rolling around. Like there’s just nothing that big on the road.
So, but you definitely do see a lot of like little 2 seater, you know, fiats and and there’s a bunch of, that’s, it’s just a very common thing here. And it makes sense if you’ve ever been to a European city west to why you would want something that’s small. That’s not how he’s using it.
He’s driving it out into the country for reasons that, as you pointed out, are not clear. And I went back. I felt like maybe I missed something.
So I went back and rewound this video 3 times to figure out why he goes down, like what happens to him, and I don’t think that’s actually Yeah, it’s not explained. I kept thinking, what am I missing it? Am I, like, looking away at just the wrong moment, but no, you don’t actually ever, you don’t ever learn that.
Just random medical emergency, apparently. Just medical. yeah. It’s really funny.
I’ve never seen this video before, but I had a visual in my head of, you know, when I hear the song, you kind of sometimes have… I’ve always pictured this on a motorcycle. I don’t know why.
My visual of this song is him riding a motorcycle with like his his friend behind him or him behind the friend. I whatever. This whole album is riding a motorcycle through the mountains.
It’s like this album. Yeah, in your head, it’s there. Maybe that’s why.
And I kept thinking that that was what the video, like, I must have seen the video before. So when I, you know, looked this up and went to watch the video. I was like, okay, it’s him on a motorcycle and they’re doing whatever.
And then he got in that little tiny fiat or whatever it is. And I was like, that is not at all, it really is a lot less cool than I, I have to say, I had a much cooler image in my head of what that, of what the ride was. So that was a little bit of a surprise.
But the fact that this was directed by Anton Corbin was not a surprise. I didn’t put that together, but boy, yeah, as soon as you said it, I was like, oh, well, of course it was. Because it’s that soft focus. 16 millimeter pro.
I think it was probably shot on 16 millimeter. Everything is kind of, yeah, out of focus in the distance, like weird shots that just don’t make any sense. It doesn’t, it doesn’t have a story.
It doesn’t have a through line. You can, another great example of an Anton Corbin video is losing my religion by RM. Also doesn’t really have a storyline or whatever.
He did a lot of videos, but that’s one that pops in my head. But I like it. Yeah, I don’t know why.
It works. It just, it kind of works. It was, I was totally, again, I would have preferred a motorcycle or something a little cooler car wise, but whatever.
But yeah, I thought the song, it kind of fits the song and so I wasn’t let down by it. There is a moment where Martin Gore, I think, is playing an accordion. Reasonably sure, much like the erasure sometimes video where Vance Clark is jamming on an acoustic guitar that does not exist.
I was listening really close and I don’t think even with, even with a wall of effects, I’m pretty sure there’s not an accordion like buried in this mix, but somebody in the comments can correct me if I’m wrong. Maybe there’s an accordion that’s buried under like a fuzz box or something and I’m not noticing it, but that stood out to me as a little weird. But other than that, yeah.
Enjoy the video, the song is a classic, no notes on that. So an enjoyable 4 minutes or however long the runtime is of checking out a song I hadn’t heard for a while. was fantastic. Oh boy.
Uh-oh No, you’re not. You’re not. I have totally.
So, I, if you listen to the previous episode where we talk about erasure, you’ll hear some of my Depeche Mode ranting, I’m not going to do that again, because I absolutely adore this song. This is my favorite Depeche Mode song, hands down. But a few things just to, like, hop on top of what you guys said.
You know, Keith, you mentioned that they may not be like an electro pop band, and I think that’s fair because, like you said, their music really isn’t poppy. what erasure does is more that. You know, it’s it’s got a darkness to it. that maybe makes it sound a little more like rock music than electro pump. And so I think that’s a perfectly fair thing.
But that darkness keeps going darker and darker and darker through each progressive Depeche Mode album. And I think this album is where they nailed it. I know that I am in a minority when I say that I think this is a better album than violator.
I know most people think Violator is the better album. And I’m fine with that. I’d like violator fine.
But this, to me, is where they nailed the marriage of synth pop and that darkness that becomes sort of a rock and roll sound. I think I don’t think they ever got better than this album. In fact, this song, which is the opening track on Music for the Masses, could easily be on Violator.
Like it would fit perfectly into Violator. Can’t really say that for most of this album, which came for that. I just, I love this album’s vibe.
I love its whole, like, that mood I was talking about, like, the getting on a motorcycle and riding through the mountains. you know, every song on this album kind of feels that way and it flows really well. So, you know, the only negative thing I have to say is that, and it’s my negative thing about every Depeche Mode song is that their lyrics just aren’t good. And I, and they’re not good here either.
I think the video is trying to make sense. The reason the video doesn’t make sense out of it is because there’s nothing to make sense of. Like, these lyrics just are, they’re nothing, you know, they’re just a zero.
But, you know, as their bad lyrics go, is one of the better ones. So, yeah, but you were talking about like going through their catalog and going, wow, I really like more songs than I thought I did and all of that stuff. Yeah, this isn’t easy top 3 for me, this song, like, and it’s that chorus.
It’s when that chorus comes in, and the vocal harmonies with that kind of minor key going underneath it, and then the like the slight explosion of synth that comes in underneath it. It’s just perfect. It’s just as perfect as it gets.
Like, for this type of music. So yeah, so this is my favorite era of Depeche Mode. Um, you know, they’ve gotten away from the Vince Clark sound.
They haven’t gone to the completely darker sound of violator yet, and even darker songs of faith and devotion, which I agree with you, Keith, is just a disaster of an album. But I really think that, you know, for me, this is their most solid album cover to cover. So that’s, you know, I have nothing bad to say about this song or this video.
I think it’s great. For a band that I’m not the world’s biggest fan of. I think this is about as close to, quote unquote, nailing it as they as they ever got.
This is this is real, real good stuff. Take it from somebody who’s not a Depeche Mode fan. is really good. I’m glad you mentioned the vocal harmonies too, because I meant to mention it and I forgot to do it.
We’ve talked to before mainly about Mike Mills, about backup singers and, you know, having a really good backup singer in your band, how it can really flesh out the band and the sound and all that. I think Martin Gore is that for Depeche Mode. His voice, you know, he does take the lead on some songs, like somebody, question of lust, one crest, those are all lead vocals by Martin Gore, but largely he’s the background vocalist.
And I just think he’s really good at that. And, and I don’t know that he’s got the perfect voice, you know, like kind of, you know, the way Mike Mills has got just like a really great voice. Martin Gore’s got a very distinctive voice, but it just works with what they do for to pair with Dave Gahan’s voice and for the style of the music and the way their songs all come together, his backing vocals or among some of my favorites as well.
I agree. And I, you also mentioned Alan Wilder as a, you know, as sort of the, the studio guy in this band. And I always think that was true.
I never knew like the extent of it. And so I was reading about this the O day when I was going into this. You know, they were talking about how much he did on this album and how much he did on violator, and it said something like, um, enjoy the silence, which was, I think, one of the biggest hits off a violator, certainly in the top three, was originally written as an acoustic song.
I’ll lost somebody for Martin Gordessing. And Alan Wilder turned it into what it is. So God bless you, Alan Wilder, because that song does not work as an acoustic song.
It works the way it is, you know? it’s great. Yeah.
And I, you know, and I kind of sounded like I was slagging on violator a little bit. When violator is on, it is as good as Depeche Mode gets. Like, I don’t know that that there’s any song on this album as good as, say, Halo.
This album to me just flows better cover to cover than Violator. Violator has more downtime than this album. So when I say that, I’m talking about putting an album on and listening to it in its entirety.
I think this one is better than violator. But as a singles go violator, maybe a hair stronger. I think, you know, if I had to choose between the two, I would go with violator, as much as I like music for the masses, and it was my 1st album, but of these guys that I bought, so it was kind of my introduction to them, you know, at least as far as being a full album.
And so it’ll always have a you know, a place in my heart because of that. But violator’s just hard to deny, man. It’s not just the singles.
A lot of the album tracks. I guess for you, they didn’t work as well. For a lot of the album tracks, for me, work on violator as well.
But that’s not to take anything away from music from the masses. I think they’re both great albums. Why Songs of Faith and Devotion was such a step back after that in those, but like I said, I’ve actually even come around to that one to a certain extent.
I don’t think it, you know, stands up with their best stuff that came earlier, but I don’t think it’s as bad as I thought it was when it 1st came out either. Let me see if you’ll agree with me on this. Well, the violator of music for the masses debate.
The instrumental track at the end of Music for the Masses is better than the 2 instrumental tracks at the end of Violator. You know what? Yes, I will I’ll give you that.
It is fantastic. Yes you’re right. Well, you know, what I was going to say, um, that we haven’t talked about is the production quality on music for the masses is absolutely like top notch for the the kinds of sounds that they’re making, that sounds really stupid, but there are songs in Depeche Mode’s catalog that are kind of spare, and it’s a little easier to produce those, right?
Music for the masses has this track has a strange love on it, which are really thick, rich songs. And it’s really easy to just get like a wall of sound kind of… Behind the wheel, too, is very cool.
The behind the wheel is, which is actually maybe my favorite Depeche Mode song is also on this album. Those, the ability to produce a track that sounds full and rich and not have it all just kind of meld together into like a gummy mess and have it be still crisp and distinct and you can hear the pieces that are all fitting together. That’s an art and a skill.
And like you guys were saying, music for the masses kind of hits a real sweet spot with a lot of their stuff. I think it also is a sweet spot in their production as well, where they just really nailed that sound, just a really wall of sound kind of thing coming out of it out of the speakers, but it works and it’s distinct and it’s listenable and it doesn’t just kind of overwhelm you, but it maybe this speaks to why it should be electronic rock and not electronic, like it’s just so like the sound is just so full that I really, really enjoy the songs off this album for that reason. I think you’re hitting something right on the head, which is that, you know, these songs on their surface sound like, this is not a slag on them, but you could hear somebody say this, probably, that anyone could do this.
Give me a keyboard and I can do this. I don’t know that you can. They’re really listen to these songs.
There is so much going on in these songs, you know? We said the same thing about erasure and it’s true, but maybe even more so with the Beche mode. There is just layer upon layer upon layer of things going on in there.
You know, I, as much as I joke about, you know, Martin Gore likes to take pictures of himself holding instruments he doesn’t play, but there might very well be an accordion to this thing. There might be. There might be so much going on in there.
It’s impossible to tell what all they’re doing. And the fact that they’re, like you said, that they’re, they’re throwing all of this up against the wall and it comes out so clean and beautiful and and just, you know, perfectly executed is really an impressive feat, whether you like this kind of music or not, you kind of got to give a brot for producing it very well. It’s so good It’s one of the better produced albums of the late 80s, I think.
Yeah, I would agree. And you mentioned, you know, one of the songs that was came in, it was going to be an acoustic song that then got fleshed out and changed. At the at this time, that was how their writing process was going on. was that Martin Gore wrote the songs on guitar. and then took the songs to Wilder, and then Wilder did the arrangements based on what the, you know, what the song that Martin Gore had brought him.
So this sound we’re talking about. That’s kind of the change in direction of their sound and the fullness and all that. A lot of that really can be laid at the feet of Alan Wilder.
And like I said, this is the album where he kind of stepped forward and really took over handling their production for them, you know, rather than having an outside producer do it. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the one that when you watch them pay live isn’t doing anything. That, I think, also may be true.
I’m not 100% certain. That always bug me. Everybody always told me that he was doing all his work at the studio, but that standing in front of a keyboard, dancing around. used to travel.
I saw 101 and I actually saw them live on the faith and devotion tour. I think you were with me. Yeah, I did see that show.
Yeah, and he just dances around and, you know, if there’s a keyboard in front of him, but he ain’t touching it. Yeah. I just always got to bug me.
At least fake it, bro. Just like, you know, turn the keyboard off and slap the keys or something. Twiddle some knobs or something, man.
Yeah, dark knobs. All right, so I think that wraps up our talk about bands that we have all heard of, and now we’re going to talk about a band that I’m reasonably sure none of us have heard of or had heard of until probably this week. We’re going into our mystery artist.
This is where we try to find a song that none of us have heard of and usually an artist that none of us have heard of. I think so far it’s always been both. Like, it’s, I don’t know if later on it might be harder to do that, but safe to say none of us have heard of this artist before this song, and I’m curious to see what we all thought of it.
I am too. This week we chose the song My Boyfriend by the Cucumbers. Oh, watch the dishes I’d sink by the floor.
Or make the fan He makes me so mad, and he makes me feel so sweet. And I’m gonna say that when we picked this, I think all of us were kind of in agreement that we heard this, you know, the song title is my boyfriend, and that leads you to think this is a girl group, and the name of the band, the cucumbers, is a wonderful name for a girl group, particularly one that might be sort of angry and then mean and punky. I thought we were getting L7.
That’s not what we got. So the cucumbers are a power pop band. They formed in 1982 by 2 college friends, John Fried and Dina, Shushkus.
And they, you know, started his friends. They’re married now. I think they’re still married.
You know, they were dating at the time and they basically grabbed some friends, form a band, and crank out some power pop music. So their very 1st single that they get out there is this song. It’s called my boyfriend.
It turns into a mild college radio hit, and after it, they do get a little hype that says on their, like, their Wiki page that they had an article written about them in People magazine, and the New York Times did a story on them, and, you know, they were starting to get a little, a little buzz, I guess, but then they kind of disappear and they never really have another hit. They have, however, put out several albums over the years. One as recently as 2021.
So they are still around kind of doing stuff. And, you know, so they’re they’re still out there. This song is pretty good.
It’s not at all that I thought it was going to be. Um, you know, it’s kind of like a mid-80s kind of goofy power pop song. It’s a fun, simple little pop song.
They get a lot of comparisons to the B 52s when you read about them, and I think that’s only because they have a male and female vocal combination, and the guy kind of, like he sings, he’s singing about a boyfriend too, you know, and it’s kind of, it kind of plays into that, that whole male-female dynamic. I think that’s where they get the B 52s comparison, but they don’t really sound like the B 52s. What this reminded me of.
And I don’t know if it struck you guys too. There was a short-lived girl band in the early 80s called the waitresses, um, that had a big song called, I know what boys like, and they also had a little Christmas song. I forget the name of that one. called like wrapped presents or something like that.
Wrapping present, I think. Yeah. That’s what this kind of sounded like to me.
Was that kind of like her vocals are a little snotty and, you know, that kind of, it’s not really punky, but it just kind of reminded me of that. It also reminded me a little bit of, um, along those same lines, Romeo Void, never say never. Uh, like, just that kind of bratty female vocal that was common at this time or little before this, I guess, actually.
The video is pretty solid 80s video. It’s got like that kind of weird surrealist imagery, a lot of neon colors. You know, it’s, uh, got the band rocking out a little bit and features the girl quite a bit.
I don’t know. Overall, I thought this was just okay across the board. Star was okay, video was okay.
Nothing great, nothing that would make me go out and want to listen more of these guys or anything like that. But for what it’s worth, it wasn’t enjoyable, you know, 3.5 minutes. It was fine.
Well, in baseball, if a batter strikes out 3 times in a game, They call it wearing the Golden Sombrero. And so this week I’m forced to wear the golden sombrero. This was not my favorite thing that we’ve we’ve come across.
It’s fine. It is just, it’s perfectly acceptable, power pop. It’s not offensive in any way.
It is also not something that I’m ever going to want to hear. Just like, oh, you know what? I’d like to hear the cucumbers right now.
No, exactly my reaction. That is just not going to happen. Um, and I don’t, you know, not to slag these guys off or anything, but I would take the waitresses or Romeo void, or I would take these guys.
Yeah, I’m not saying this song is in the league with those. It just reminded me of those. Yeah, so, so yeah, it was fine.
I guess maybe, you know, I hate to use the words not objectionable as a, you know, to try to make that be a positive spin on this song, but this song was totally not objectionable. This song didn’t piss me off. Yeah, exactly right.
The one other thing I will say about this, though, uh, watching this video is that the uh, the shirt that the bass player has on, I am 99.9% shirt that I had that shirt in the 80s, I, I’m convinced that this guy bought that thing off the rack, um, because I, I guarantee you I had that shirt in the 80s. That was my favorite part about my favorite junior with the cucumbers was the fact that I saw the shirt that I’d had when I was a kid. That used to happen a lot in the 80s.
Like there weren’t as many shirts in the 80s. There were just a lot of times like you choke at school and your friend would have the same shirt and you’d be like, what, how did, what, how did that happen? But, like, there’s just, you know, we weren’t ordering off a Timu every day, like a different shirt.
I was like, we all went to the same Kmart. They had like tin shirts. So, of course, we are all going to have the same shirt.
Yeah, I mean, I kind of in the same, like, I didn’t quote most just, like, I don’t wish them any specific harm, but, like, I’m not, I mean, it was not what I expect. I was the same. I was expecting kind of a girl group, bratty, you know, like proto-riot girl type thing that is not this, obviously.
My notes, I think this might be the only note. Yeah. Why no chorus?
There’s no chorus. There should be a chorus. Where’s the course?
That’s the other thing. you know, as much as it’s kind of catchy, it has no hook. There’s no… There’s nothing… there’s nothing about it that’s gonna it’s gonna stick in your brain when it’s over.
That was, that’s, I think that’s the that’s the entire problem with the song. Like, again, like if your expectations are kind of skewed like ours where you have to adjust a little bit. You know, the baseline comes in, which sounds a lot like the baseline to that dead-eyed dick song, by the way. if you remember that from the 90s.
I don’t… Like, I was expected to be the dodo, dodo. So you adjust your expectations.
Okay, I see where this is going. And then the guys pop up and you’re like, oh, this isn’t there maybe there isn’t a girl in this group at all. This is going to be interesting.
And then the girl pops up. You’re like, okay. And then the chorus is that like you were saying, it’s, you know, she’s telling her story.
She’s a little bratty, but it’s, or the verse, and, you know, she’s, you’re like, okay. And you’re thinking this is going to build something that’s going to be kind of cool. Because it could go that way.
You’re not sure yet. About 30 or 45 seconds in. You’re like, okay, this is about to be like either really clever or really funny or catchy. something is about to happen.
And then they just kind of keep playing the same kind of riff with like a little extra guitar riff and then they go back to the verse and I was like, okay, maybe they’re going to do the double verse and then they’re really going to kick into the super catchy part and that’s how this, you know, because you’re asking in the back of your head, like, how did this get on 120 minutes? Surely this is better than I’m thinking it is, but it just doesn’t quite get there. And the fact that this got this band got all this run.
When this came out, like, oh, these are this is the next thing. Well, and, you know, and they call themselves a power pop band, and I guess it sort of fits that mold. But one of the tenets of PowerPop is the big hook.
And this… That’s why I was, I was like, when you said power pop, I was like, I guess that’s right, but… It fits the mold, but at the same time, it doesn’t because it doesn’t have that big hook that power has to have, you know?
And that’s, I think, the downfall of this one. So I was curious enough to go listen to one other song of theirs called, that was that, or that is that. It’s better, I think, than this.
It has a course. Has a little bit of a hook. It’s just more interesting.
I think in general than this one is. The video is, you know, we’re in the, we’re in a funny, we’re in a funny time in 1987, I think, and this video really, up against the Depeche Mode video really puts them in stark contrast of like where we were and where we’re going. And like some of the videos we’ve seen before, like the Don Dixon video is a good reminder, where they were still making really cheesy videos like this, but earnestly and non-ironically.
That was just kind of a vibe. If you went and got a particular director or a particular production house. This was the kind of video you were gonna kind of end up with.
Like, you’re very kind of simplistic in the neon colors and the, there’s, there’s words for this that I, I, that I’m not smart enough to know that would describe the vibe of this video, but it’s, there’s, there’s just a certain mechanic in a certain way that, that, uh, 80s videos go that you all recognize as, like, you know, uh, It’s almost like the, at this time, the Tim Burton aesthetic, the furniture that doesn’t quite fit in the room and his angular. Yeah, this one has that. Yeah, the weird lights and all that kind of stuff.
You know, what you’re talking about is just a matter of money. You know, at this time, this band is probably on a label. It doesn’t want to give them any money.
So they make this video. Depeche Mode, I’m gonna guess Sire Records is giving them wads of money to promote their album, you know? And so they make a much better video and hire a better director and get, you know, the kind of that kind of thing going.
I think that’s really all it is At this time, this is where the notion that you have to have a video is starting. You know, it’s come around at this point that if you’re going to put out a single in the United States or anywhere, for that matter, you have to have a video. But there’s just some bands that are going to get this much money and some bands that are going to get this one.
And it’s where it blows down. But we’re still like in this window of time where you can make a video like this as a rock band and have it be, again, non-ironically, this really weirdly cheesy, weirdly earnest video that nowadays, you know, we would, like you couldn’t make this video even 10 years from now without it being like an ironic take on an 80s video, right? Like, there’s a certain template of 80s video that just became completely out of fashion a couple years later, you know, we’re seeing kind of the tail end of it here in 87, where you just couldn’t make those types of videos without being made fun of, or it being like an ironic take on that.
But then we’re seeing that right up against the proto 90s video of the Depeche Mode video, which is like a template for almost every video you were going to see in the 90s. Yeah, like, and we’re seeing them both happen, right? We’re seeing the passing of the torch.
I listen to our older episodes and stuff and we talk about this. We keep, and it’s mostly me. Keep going back to this idea that, you know, videos were just getting better at this time and, you know, this is that, but we were in 1987.
Like, the video for take on me by aha was 5 years before this. And that’s to this day, one of the best videos ever made. So they were making good videos at this time.
Absolutely, yeah. We’re just not seeing a lot of them in this format and maybe it’s because I think it’s just because of the money the band’s had yet. That would make a certain amount of sense because these are, you know, these are the bands are getting played on 120 minutes. not, you know, they’re not big mainstream bands that are doing.
Yeah, so it would make sense that we’re… Yeah, we keep running into these, you know, cheesier and lower production quality videos. Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s a big element of it.
I do think that it still taps into something that you, again, even 3 or 4 years later, even with a low budget, you couldn’t have tapped into without being made fun of. There’s like a certain cheesiness to these that, because they could have used that money and just got up on stage and just rocked out and played the song, right? And it would be probably even cheaper, but it wouldn’t have the, you know, her popping into the camera and her sneaking past him in the bed and he’s in the bed and he’s, there, you just, you just didn’t see that in a couple more years, but it was fairly common early on. and you could get away with making a video like that and it not, you know, affecting your cred or whatever the word was back in. you know what I mean?
Like, people still, I don’t think people made fun of the cucumbers because of this video in 1991. If they had made this video earnestly. And I think, I just feel like we’re right on the cusp because watching these videos back to back, which I, the order that I happened to do him and that was how I watched these, I was just so taken by the difference in aesthetic and style and how, you know, the cucumbers one is the end of an era and the Depeche Mode one is the beginning of a new era and you’re seeing them both. probably on the same show.
Getting played on the same show. They did, yeah. was on, but yeah, but probably within at least within a week of each other, probably. It’s going to be really interesting to see what the last cheesy video is before they started getting ironic.
And before they started becoming like, you know, a satire. We’re going to start seeing a lot more videos like the Depeche Mode one. A ton more.
A ton just by anti-Corbin alone, but yeah. That vibe, we’re about to get deep into that vibe. That was that just hit me.
It hit me really hard to watch them back to back like because they seem like they’re from 2 completely different planets, honestly. If you said they were made probably within a couple months of each other, be like, oh, that can’t possibly be true. Yeah, very, very different.
You’re right. Very different. And certainly budget has has to do with it.
But again, I mean, we’ve seen a good example is a video that you brought to us just an episode of 2 ago, Scott, the low budget video for Black Flag. They paid 10 bucks for that. Yeah, well, this fishbowl video.
You know, Oh, the fish video. not a ton of money spent on that, but it’s a great video. It’s perfect for what it is, you know, for what the song is. Yeah.
So I’m really curious, if this will be, or if what will be that, the last, like, you know, 80s with, you know, big, bold neon, flashing 80s video, what the last one we’re going to see is before you just don’t see that on 120 minutes anymore. Because I think we’re almost, I think we’re probably almost there. That’ll be interesting.
All right, so lukewarm on the cucumbers, that’s not that’s not shocking after tearing it that none of us are really carrying that banner, particularly. The name of the song and the band gave me high hopes. Yeah.
It did not receive. So it wouldn’t be fun to do the mystery artist if they were all just home runs. So I think I think we could all agree this was, again, perfectly.
I mean, it’s not a bad song, guys. Like, it’s it’s okay. If you’re out there, the cucumbers listening to this.
Look, it’s there’s other stuff you guys did that I like better. You’re not a bad band. Yeah, you just, you needed a hook.
Someone should have told you to ride a hook. don’t know. Anyway, I think across the board, praise for Depeche Mode, love Depeche Mode. at least this particular song of Depeche Mode. I think Keith and I are super on board with Depeche Mode, but House Martins, look, this isn’t the song.
If you just want to listen to a really pretty a cappella song. Great. If you want to listen to the House Martins, if you’re intrigued by some of the things we said about, you know, the compilation, them copping them to like the Smiths or maybe Elvis Costello a little bit or whatever, go check out the other stuff.
Start with happy hour. Happy hour is great. If you like that, then you’re going to like like 20 other tracks of theirs.
Uh, and then Fishbone, which I, I don’t know, a little bit of a mixed bag, but I think we all agree that super talented, super interesting band that has a couple great songs that you might, if you’re into Ska, or I guess we’re going to find out offline here, if Keith and I like later era, Fishbone, that we’ve been, because I’m not familiar with that either. I don’t know if I actually said that or not. But man, this was a fun.
This is a fun addition to your Christmas shuffle. Just, if you really want to throw someone off and you have that Christmas shuffle that you play when you have people over during the Christmas, throw the fishbone song in there, because people are going to be like, this isn’t Christmas. What is this?
It’s a Christmas song and it will bring the party up. It’s a great one to kind of bring the vibe up and I guarantee… Your party’s, yeah, you might as well just send everybody home.
And, I mean, it’s, you probably are going to be the only person on the party circuit that has this song on your playlist, I bet. I bet, because I would never have thought of this as a Christmas song. All right, that’s your tips for that’s your tips for the for the week.
Thanks for tuning in to November. In our next episode, we’re going to be wrapping up 1987. Maybe we’ll do a little extra like year-end summary to tack onto the 3 songs that we choose.
It was really cool to do this and I’m excited to get into 1988, but we do have December coming up next. And so we’ll hope you will join us for that. Don’t forget, check out 120 minutes.org. get a website that has all these playlists from all these different years of 120 minutes.
It helped us immensely and saved us a ton of time, having to do the research and finding out what played in a particular month. And so we get all of our information from those guys. So thank you so much.
Those ladies, I should say, that run 120 minutes.org. Thank you to them. Don’t forget 35,000 watts, story of college radio now available for free on YouTube, on Tubi.
It’s on Amazon Prime. It’s on Google Play. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the story of college radio.
I think you’ll enjoy it. Go check it out. For Scott Mobley, Keith Bordfield.
My name is Michael Millard. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you next time on 120 Months!