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Dexys/Dexys Midnight Runners
Mod
It's a coincidence that Q magazine has announced its long-predicted closure the same week as this very interesting and informative Guardian feature appears. Good spot, Mark.I know that I was not alone among Dexys' fans in my refusal to buy Q again following its trite, sniggering demolition of My Beauty, with hardly a mention of the emotion of its contents, in 1999. I first bought Q in 1986 on the strength of an interview with Kevin, funnily enough.
The news of Q calling it a day hadn’t reached me, until I read your post, David. I can't really say I'll miss it, not least of all because it's been ages since I've held a copy.I dug that interview, as well as the new video with his grandson!
Mod
Two different sources have confirmed that there’s a five-track promo doing the rounds, presumably in advance of a new Archie Brown/Young Bucks album. Yipee!
The track names seem right and Archie’s mask suggests that they are of our times.
Mod
I've not listened yet - I didn't realise that the music was online so was waiting for a hard copy to arrive.Archie's just terrific and really should have done much better, although I believe that he's well set-up due to his having composed music for CBBC! He's a lovely man too, which is always a bonus.
The last I heard from him was in 2014, and I reviewed his then album for Flyinshoes Review, which seems to have disappeared from the 'net for some reason. Here's the text which may give you a flavour of what his free-wheeling pastoral soul's all about:
ARCHIE BROWN
A Weakness Of Mine
(SELF RELEASE)
Those who know Archie Brown from post-punk skirmishing with The Upset, his days leading the belligerent, no-nonsense soul attack of The Bureau, or even the latter-day outings with GI Blythe would be prepared to stand up in court and give witness statements evidencing his status as one of the UK's great larynx-lacerating soul voices. Yet even some of those would be surprised to learn that Brown is not only about soul passion, sax-shredding and Telecaster attack.
His sporadic appearances fronting The Young Bucks, whilst demonstrating that the old soul embers continue to glow and smoulder, see him embrace a mellower vibe amid some still-thrilling rock n roll tunes and on A Weakness Of Mine, it is the less-frantic side that predominates.
Occupying the territory somewhere amid the complementary genres of folk, country and, of course soul, A Weakness Of Mine betrays the album title. It has none. Driven by Pat Rafferty’s almost ever-present swelling accordion, counterpointed by piercing Bradley Creswick violin and viola, this is a constantly-beguiling collection of fine tunes, thoughtful lyrics, passionate, meaningful delivery and outstanding musicianship.
A Celtic folk feel predominates, most notably on ‘This Town’, ‘Can't Get Used To It’ and Pat Cunningham's ‘Tara Shore’, remarkable songs in themselves but beautifully enhanced by Creswick’s strings and Brown’s ability to inhabit the song, adding credibility to powerful lyrics.
Although Rafferty provides sterling support across all twelve tracks, a particular highlight is the languid, pastoral accordion-bedded ‘English Rose’.
There’s a touching and gently humorous tribute to Robert Ward, a Young Buck taken before his time, and in ‘Bit of Paper’, Brown even leads a joyous banjo-driven hoedown.
But it wouldn’t be an Archie Brown collection without the passion. Whilst the sax stays firmly in its case, the title track, ‘Low Life’ and the country-tinged ‘Temporary Arrangement’ demonstrate that even in mellower mood, the fire still burns.
The affectionate sleevenotes, written by long-time friends and collaborators, Rafferty and Tony Wadsworth, pay respectful homage to Brown the writer and interpreter and are a fitting illumination to the contents of a delightful album.
Mod
I hadn't realised he led The Bureau
I will go back and listen again with all this new found intel
Thanks so much
Thanks for the heads-up... his voice still sounds fantastic, and his material peerless.
From Ian Moss’s book to which I drew Hamiltonians’ attention yesterday:82. Kevin Rowland My Beauty (1999) In the eleven years that had followed Rowland’s The Wanderer, his Deodato produced solo album, the ex-Dexy’s Midnight Runners leader, who had enjoyed huge fame and success in the early Eighties, had been through the wringer; homeless, bankrupt, addicted and struggling to find a meaningful purpose in his life he was no longer “searching for the young soul rebels” but soul searching and striving to correct mistakes. This album comes from that dark place, the songs on this album are what comforted and gave strength to him during that desperate time and because of that they are delivered here with true sincerity and imbued with great poignancy. This album was released by über-fan Alan McGee’s Creation Records. Oasis aside, Creation were a label of exquisite good taste and brave enough to stick to their guns when faced with the inevitable flack this album was bound to attract. From the totally unhip selection of songs to the sleeve art showing a semi-naked Rowland wearing a pearl necklace, women’s clothes and underwear and heavily made-up gazing out dolefully before a pink screen. My Beauty kicks-off with the George Benson hit “The Greatest Love Of All” with lyrics altered to personalise the song that reflected the struggles the singer had been through. It is beautifully delivered “...no matter what they say about me - they can’t take my personal dignity” states Rowland and clearly this record was a huge step towards rehabilitation. “Rag Doll” is given a slower treatment with gospel backing accentuating the sadness of the lyric and is handled impeccably by Rowland. “Concrete and Clay” and “Daydream Believer” both sparkle, the former featuring a delicious Spanish guitar break. “The Guy’s In Love With You” is spare and Jazz-tinged, displaying Rowland’s remarkable gift for phrasing that displays the depth within the lyrics. “It’s Getting Better” in the context of the album is heart-warming. The take on the neglected classic that is The Marmalade’s “Reflections Of My Life” is full of pathos and pulls heavily on the heartstrings, it is very beautiful. The closer “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is delivered understatedly, prayer-like, a lifebuoy to cling onto in deep dangerous waters. There was a long way for Rowland to travel to fully get his life back on track. He would face huge ridicule, and was hauled over the coals in print in the British music press. The gender presentation questioned as being a mid-life crisis forced Alan McGee’s office to issue a lengthy statement defending ‘the look’. Performing at the Reading Festival to promote this record he faced a barrage of bottles thrown from a baying mob. Then he disappeared from public view once more before staging something of a triumphant return, but none of that would have been possible without the exorcising of demons that took place on this great album.
David wrote: "From Ian Moss’s book to which I drew Hamiltonians’ attention yesterday: ..."My Beauty pretty much begs comparisons with nearly everything released over the past fifteen or twenty years by Nick Cave, whom I used to like quite a lot but no longer have any time at all for.
Check any online reviews within the first week or two of a new Cave release, and it’s unanimous -- "best thing he's ever done" or "a work of genius" or endless towering and slavering praise.
Not a word of it true, of course.
Things like that take time to reveal themselves. Not days, not weeks, not months. Years, sometimes, and sometimes decades.
Mod
Very interested to read that piece David and, yes, time has vindicated Kevin and his album. I've been playing it a lot recently and Ian Moss is spot on about the emotion that Kevin brings to the songs, along with some of the lyrical rewrites
More More More by Andrea True Connection isn’t on My Beauty, but here’s some which came up on Google news earlier. Good old Carlo Rolan. https://thequietus.com/articles/28782...
Mod
Kevin truly is a maverick
I’ve compiled his choices as a playlist. The Bassheads’ song seems not to be available on Spotify, perhaps due to the multiple lawsuits it attracted back in the day. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ze...
Mod
I'm not sure I'd ever heard the Gladys Knight version of The Look of Love.
It is indeed a great version...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE4wh...
It stands up well beside Dusty’s which is the take with which I’m most familiar. It’s on the 2012 tour pre-show playlist that Dexys official Facebook source made available to fans at the time.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/48S...
Mod
I ‘did’ Glasgow, Whitley Bay and Shepherds Bush on three consecutive nights as they road-tested ODIGTS in May 2012. The London gig remains the best I’ve ever seen them - front row tickets too. I went to the Barbican, Gateshead and Edinburgh, where with a bit of shuffling tickets, and Big Jimmy’s kindness with the guest list, the whole family attended.
At all six shows, all of the strong devoted who hadn’t met since the 30th anniversary SFTYSR gathering in Brum in July 2010, were too busy re-acquainting ourselves with each other and updating lives over beer, that I only heard a few of the items from the playlist.
I missed all of the Duke of York shows in April 2013 due to Capitalist International Inc’s decision to make my job tedundant, unfortuately, but the excellent DVDs are more than compensatory.
Mod
Not compared with some real fanatics who,, in May 2012, flew to Sweden, back for a tiny Welsh gig, and then the same three as I did. Or at least one stalwart who did every UK and Ireland, and some on the continent, quite often on the band's tour bus, in Oct/Nov 2003, where I merely managed Leeds, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Newcastle.Then there are the completist collectors...
I'm a lightweight in comparison.
The folks at Cherry Red have posted a new promo video for Reflections Of My Life ahead of reissuing Kevin Rowland’s My Beauty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOyEt...
Mod
Earlier today I was watching this fun video featuring John Craig interviewed by Iain McNay of Cherry Read about the time he ran Safari Records...
https://youtu.be/ezeIFT7lo4U
Cherry Red are reissuing a lot of Safari stuff
If you can access Radio Scotland via the ‘net at 2200 UK time, Billy Sloan’s broadcast features an interview with Kevin Antonio Francisco Rowlandski, and from the trailer, it seems to focus on the My Beauty remaster/re-release, the 40th anniversary of Searching For The Young Soul Rebels. We had a quite splendid gathering in Birmingham for the 30th anniversary on 17 July 2010. Of the Mk I band members, both Kevins and Stoker were missing from the evening, where Gavin Martin hosted a quite insightful Q&A with the five who did attend. Big Jimmy appeared onstage with his horn for the first time in 16 years, as did Geoff Blythe, backed by Stone Foundation on I Couldn’t Help If I Tried and Tell Me When My Light Turns Green. My small part in this story was Archie Brown entrusting me with his sax on the train journey from Darlo to Brum, for Geoff to play on the night. We’d attended Archie’s gig at Beamish the night before. Quite a weekend, as this promises to be with the Kev interview. I imagine it will be available on the BBC archive.
Mod
Back to the Reflections Of My Life video. I've watched it now. It's very good isn't it?
For some reason, the sound didn't work on my tablet, so I allowed myself the luxury of dialling it up on the YouTube channel on the telly, with the bass of the soundbar bringing out its full glory. Fantastic. What an icon.
Mod
I'm just giving Apples and Oranges a listen. The album which belatedly saw the light of day a few years back.
I know Kevin Rowland nicked their fiddle player (Helen O'Hara) and, according to Kevin Archer, stole their sound too but do you think the album is any good? My first impressions are that, whilst it's fine, it's nothing amazing, but, as we know, first impressions are often very misleading.
The singles (from memory International Hope Campaign, Winter In Russia, There’s No Deceiving You, Apples and Oranges?) were a breath of fresh air at the time, and when the album eventually saw light, I played it a lot. I listened to it in its entirety on a long bus trip anout two years ago, and quietly grooved along, but by about halfway through, my thoughts had wondered elsewhere.
KA stayed loyal along with Big Jimmy when Mk I Dexys imploded, and was a huge creative force (Tell Me When My Light Turns Green is his, with top-notch Rowland words. I think Yasmin and Ian were good creative foils for him in BOB, but like some ex-footballers make superb managers, others excel in coaching/assistant rôles eg Clough and Taylor, Ferguson and Knox, KA would have benefited from a more forceful and (soul) visionary collaborator.
As for the sound, I think influence and cross-pollination are essential to development, and by the 2012 release of ODIGTS, KR’s songs (mostly from 20 years earlier, wer
Mod
You were cut off mid sentence, leaving your audience on something of a cliff hanger.
I have to say I really like There’s No Deceiving You but am not really very familiar with the rest of it. I will get better acquainted because, at the very least, it's very pleasant and doubtless has a few more absolute nuggets to enjoy.
You're spot on though about how some people are best at supporting the real visionary and are less able to flourish on their own. Clough/Taylor is the perfect comparison.
Tell Me When My Light Turns Green is as good as life gets!
Are we word-limited or sonething? Maybe my copy and select skills are not fully developed, or are diminishing with age? Anyway, we’ll take it from the final verse to the coda. One more, fellas. Are you ready, Steve? 1-2-3-4....
As for the sound, I think influence and cross-pollination are essential to development, and by the 2012 release of ODIGTS, KR’s songs (mostly from 20 years earlier - you may have heard the demos) ;o) were taking influence from 70s chart soul like the Chi-Lites and Stylistics, who were dismissed as lightweights by me and my contemporaries who were still snobbishly welded to Curtis and Marvin, and to the guilty pleasures of Gamble and Huff’s stupendous Philadelphia International soul.
I wonder where the band would have gone had Archer not left in 1980?
Mod
I've not heard the demos but I knew KR was well into his 70s soul and in particular the likes of Chi-Lites and Stylistics, plus the Philly stuff.
Archer's continuing involvement is one of those wonderful sliding doors moments to ponder
More about Eileen, Concrete and Clay, and It’s Not Unusual. https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/how-...
Mod
It just came up on my Google News feed. The thought of having a sub to anything linked to Wall Street fills me with terror.I've re-opened the link, and copied the text. Apologies for any dodgy formatting, layout or maximum character breaches
Here goes...
How ‘Come On Eileen’ Was Really About a Girl Named Jeanette
British band Dexys Midnight Runners arrived in the U.S. with the MTV video age, replacing Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ at No. 1 on the charts in 1983.
With the launch of MTV in 1981, British bands swept into the U.S. with bright and edgy pop. Among the groups that had immediate success was Dexys Midnight Runners, with the hit “Come On Eileen.”
Though the English band used mostly acoustic instruments, defying the synthesizer trend, the song’s MTV video in 1982 helped push the song to No. 1 on Billboard’s pop chart in ’83.
Recently, Kevin Rowland, the band’s leader, singer and songwriter, looked back at the making of “Come On Eileen.” An expanded edition of Mr. Rowland’s 1999 solo album, “My Beauty,” will be released by Cherry Red on Sept. 25. Edited from interviews.
Kevin Rowland: In 1981, Dexys Midnight Runners were well-established in the U.K. We’d had a No. 1 single in 1980 and a Top 10 album. We also toured in Europe and performed in and around Birmingham, where all of us lived.
On our set list was a song called “Yes Let’s”—it was sort of a rough draft of “Come On Eileen.” We decided the song needed a stronger melody and chorus if we were going to record it on our second album.
One night in November ’81, several of us were at my flat—Kevin “Billy” Adams on guitar, Mickey Billingham on keyboard and Jim Paterson on trombone. We decided to keep the verse I had already written:
“Poor old Johnnie Ray / sounded sad upon the radio / But he moved a million hearts in mono / Our mothers cried, sang along, who’d blame them.”
Ray was an American pop singer who came to London to perform in the early ’50s after having several hits, including “Cry.” I heard about him crying on stage and all that, and it fascinated me.
We messed around with chord changes for a chorus and a melody for the song. When stuck, we’d play a record, take the chord changes and switch them around. But we didn’t hear anything we liked.
So we worked on the rhythm first. We liked two 1965 hits—Unit 4+2’s “Concrete and Clay” and Tom Jones’s “It’s Not Unusual.” Both had an underlying bomp bah-bomp, bomp bah-bomp rhythm. They also had an urgency and were danceable.
For the chorus, we wanted something Motown-esque, like the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself” or the Temptations’ “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” The lyrics I wrote for the new chorus were:
“James, Stan and me / have this arrangement, you see / And they’re gonna help me / up from now.”
James Brown and Van Morrison were my inspirations. Stan was my pet name for Morrison. It was an inside joke dating back to the mid-’70s, when Morrison played in Birmingham. I told a bunch of unknowing girls that he was a comedian named Stan Morrison.
The lyrics I came up with for the rest of the song were about my teenage years. At 14, I thought a lot about girls, but I’d had a strict upbringing. In school at the time, there was no sex education. They didn’t tell us anything. And my parents didn’t tell me about sex either. Nobody did.
When I was 16, I had a girlfriend, Jeanette, who also was 16. I felt guilty about my thoughts about her. That’s how I was conditioned. But the song’s lyrics weren’t entirely about Jeanette. They were about all the girls I had dated growing up.
Several weeks later, on Christmas, I was with my sister washing the dishes in the kitchen of my parents’ house.
Squeeze’s “Labelled With Love”
came on the radio. My sister was singing along when this line caught my ear: “Drinks to remember / I, me and myself / Winds up the clock and knocks / dust from the shelf.”
It sounded as if Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook had sung “Eileen and myself.” I asked my sister what he was singing. She said, “I, me and myself.” I thought, “Great, I’m having that Eileen phrase.”
So I made my lyric line “Come on, Eileen,” which I used first as a background lyric. But it was so strong, we decided to replace “James, Stan and me” with “Come on, Eileen” and use it as the song’s title. I reworked the chorus lyrics:
“Come on, Eileen / Oh, I swear (what he means) / At this moment, you mean everything / You in that dress, my thoughts, I confess / verge on dirty / Ah, come on, Eileen.”
I was happy with the verse’s key, but I felt the chorus needed to be different. I taped the band on my boom box playing the chorus in every key. Later, at home, I listened back to the cassette and chose the one that sounded best. The song’s intro was in F major, the verses were in C major and I decided the chorus and bridge should be in D major.
I was always trying to get a bit of Irish into our music. My parents were Irish and the Troubles were still going on in Northern Ireland when we were writing the song. In ’81, you couldn’t really talk to people about what was happening in Belfast. A lot of English people didn’t want to know, so I snuck in some Irish flavor.
The bass, banjo and piano all played different distinctive riffs. We didn’t really know the music rules in terms of what could be done and what shouldn’t be done. We just went with bits and pieces we liked and what sounded good.
Kevin “Al” Archer had left the band by then to start Blue Ox Babes. He played me a demo of
a song called, “What Does Anybody Ever Think About.”
He had a part near the end that started out slow and sped up. It inspired me to include a speed-up on our bridge.
By the time we were ready to record “Come On Eileen” in early 1982 at Genetic Studios in Streatley, we had developed the song quite a lot. We planned to overdub brass behind the fiddle, and add the accordion and a lot of organ.
In the studio, the song opened with the fiddle played by Helen O’Hara. Then the electric bass played by Giorgio Kilkenny kicked in. We didn’t use synthesizers. They were expensive, and we weren’t the sort of band that went into a studio and messed about with what was there. Besides, synths then sounded plinkity-plunkity. It was hard to get a groove going.
“Too-ra-loo-rye-ay” that I sing throughout is just an Irish thing thrown in. I heard it growing up, when my parents had friends over to sing on Saturday nights after returning from the pub.
For the video, I told Julien Temple, the director, that I wanted the location to be the kind of street where I grew up. Working class, but not a slum. He chose Brook Drive in the Lambeth section of South London, a rough area at the time. We didn’t like that the area chosen was so rundown, but we lived with it.
Everyone in the video was in the band, except Máire Fahey, the girl who plays Eileen. She was an ex-girlfriend of Pete Barrett, who designed our album cover.
When the record came out in June 1982, my dad had already accepted that I was a musician. He was a builder, and earlier on, he’d hoped I’d work as a builder with him. I tried, but I didn’t like it.
After “Eileen” knocked Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” out of the No. 1 spot on the American charts in ’83, my father was impressed.
As for Jeanette, the last time I saw her was in 1974, at my 21st birthday party. After that, she married and moved to Australia. We got back in touch by phone about 10 years ago. I told her the song was partly inspired by her.
She was shocked. Jeanette had no idea. She said she had seen Dexys on TV but wasn’t sure it was me singing. She said the singer looked scruffy and remembered me as a guy who dressed smartly when we were together.
Mod
That's an enjoyable read
I did wonder about your Wall Street Journal subscription
Oooh, he's a bit of a dark horse, I thought. Probably likes to keep on top of his various investment portfolios
Ssshhhhh. I’m taking down capitalism from the inside, ingot by krugerrand. You ain’t seen me, right? ;o)
"Now, is Kev telling the truth?" was the response from a certain lovely band WAG when I shared the link with her this morning. Myth, embellishment and the seeds of doubt are key components of the Dixons' history.
Mod
And today, the vinyl remaster of My Beauty has landed. Limited edition pink vinyl, which makes it look like my three year old grandson splilt his yesterday’s stawberry milkshake on it. I’ve decided, as ever influenced by The Simpsons, that it’s the Malibu Stacey re-pressing.
It’ll sound superb though.
Mod
In case it passed you by, here’s a short interview which finds Kevin reappraising the first album...https://www.bigissue.com/culture/musi...
Nigeyb wrote: "And a new interview with Kevin on Cherry Red’s YouTube channel....."Thanks!
Thanks Nigey, I’ll dial that up. I haven’t played my Windolene-shaded record yet, but will give it a bit of air at some point in the next couple of days. The Big Issue article came up on my Google news feed, Mark, and it tantalisingly trailed the interview before stating that the whole article can be viewed in the hard copy publication.
Good thinking, BI. I’ll be investing in the next few days, adding to my background Rowland knowledge whilst helping society’s most unfortunate people, for whom Nowhere Is Home literally, in a tiny way.
I did read something, a long time ago, about a friend being shocked at Rowland giving a street beggar a goodly bit of cash, and Kevin pointing out the hypocrisy, as a socialist, of not doing so. I like to think that’s true. Despite the tales of truculence, there are also just as many unpublicised, of his unsolicited generosity and altruism.
The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society
Books mentioned in this topic
Bless Me Father: A life story (other topics)Bless Me Father: A life story (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kevin Rowland (other topics)Kevin Rowland (other topics)
Pauline Murray (other topics)
Helen O'Hara (other topics)
No less than The Great Man Himself lays it all out in today’s Guardian...
https://www.theguardian.com/music/202...