CRC Retro Mix #41

Clearance Rack Classics Retro 80s and 90s Dance Mix by DJ Tintin

1. Strangelove (Bomb The Bass) - Depeche Mode
2. Keep On (Razormaid! Mix) - Cabaret Voltaire
3. World In Motion (The B-Side) - England New Order
4. Suicide Blonde (Milk Mix) - INXS
5. Don't Talk To Me About Love (12" Mix) - Altered Images
6. Quiet Life (12" Mix) - Japan
7. Memorabilia (12" Mix) - Soft Cell
8. Left To My Own Devices (New Toy Mix) - Pet Shop Boys
9. Your Love Takes Me Higher (The Pod Went Pop Mix) - Beloved
10. You Spin Me Round (Murder Mix) - Dead Or Alive
11. Take Me Now (Razormaid! Mix) - Vicious Pink
12. Sex (I'm A ... ) (Extended Version) - Berlin
13. Girls On Film (Night Version) - Duran Duran
14. Dance With Me (Long Version) - Alphaville
15. It's Called A Heart (Extended) - Depeche Mode
Notes and other random things:
I hope this time around I will get to do some notes on some of the tracks in this episode. I'm guessing most would rather hear the music than read a bunch of ramblings from a guy stuck in the 80s, but I'll do my best to keep the total package intact. I do want to quickly point out to readers/listeners that this episode did manage to earn an "Explicit" tag due to some thematic issues in a couple of the songs. While the language is generally fine, there is one "slut" outburst in the Berlin tune and some sketchy noises in a couple of the songs typically associated with carnal activities. Just wanted any parents out there to be aware should you feel like playing this mix in the car or somewhere where inquisitve and/or impressionable kids might be within earshot. Berlin and Beloved are the problematic songs, so just fast-forward through those if you're concerned. On to the songs ...
Leading off things is a Bomb The Bass remix of the DM classic, "Strangelove". It's an appropriate first track, I suppose, as the song was the first single off the Music for the Masses album, which was released in 1987. While eminently successful at that point in their career, it's probably the album that nudged DM toward super-stardom, an interesting turn of events considering the band chose the album name as a lark, a snide dismissal of the suggestion that they create more commercially successful music. While the compositions on the album were more sparsely arranged than previous albums and darker in tonality, the album was a critical and commercial success, effectively making DM a musical fixture among the masses, something they jokingly embraced in selecting the title. As for the song itself, it was originally a high-energy pop song, but Mute founder and producer Daniel Miller thought the overall feel of the track wasn't a good fit for the album. Miller's remixed version is the one that shows up on Music for the Masses. Bomb The Bass, by the way, is the one-man audio production team, Tim Simenon. Simenon found early success in the mid-80s as a musician creating drum tracks and basslines, then "bombing" them with a variety of samples and noises. His first single, "Beat Dis", which contained 72 samples including bits and pieces from Public Enemy to Ennio Morricone to anything in between, was one of the first tracks to introduce sampling into the musical vernacular.
"World in Motion" was a song written by New Order in support of England's 1990 FIFA World Cup campaign. Believe it or not, the tune still stands as New Order's only #1 hit on the UK singles charts, holding the top spot for 2 consecutive weeks. The song is credited to ENGLAND New Order, most likely because members of that era's football (soccer) team, including left-winger and future hall-of-famer, John Barnes, contributed vocals and rapping to the song. Last year, a blog entry in NME magazine celebrated the 25th anniversary of perhaps the greatest sports-themed anthem of all time with a look at ten "geeky" facts about the song. I've reposted them below.
1. New Order drummer Steve Morris claims the band's manager, Tony Wilson, tricked the FA and the band into working with each other. "Knowing Tony, he probably sold them the idea of us doing a song and then told us the FA had come up with the brilliant idea."
2. In fact, he and instrumentalist Gillian Gilbert initially thought the offer of making the song was a joke. They had another offer of work on the table – with director Michael Powell – but eventually chose to delay that until the following year. Later, on the day they started recording 'World in Motion', they received a phone call saying Powell had died. "We made the right decision," they said. "We'd have looked like proper charlies working with a dead director."
3. Gilbert and Morris were actually pretty crucial to the song – the track was adapted from one of their compositions as The Other Two, which was originally written for BBC's 'Reportage'.
4. At the time, when NME asked footballer John Barnes how excited he was to be collaborating on a football song, he responded: "If I thought it was going to be the same as the usual crap, why bother? But this is alright." Barnes' rap was written by the man himself and performed - legend has it - in one take.
5. When the FA heard "love's got the world in motion", they asked the band to replace "love's" with "we've". The band refused. "It's an anti-hooligan song", they said. Too right.
6. Morris, in a crisis of ambiguity, called coming up with the lyrics a "nightmare", because he wanted to avoid any association with football violence while being cheeky enough that "if it all went pear-shaped, at least we could say it was a joke." He later said, "I couldn't imagine it being anything other than 'World Cup Willy', but Keith Allen got involved and made it funny."
7. Keith Allen, who co-wrote 'World In Motion', wanted it to be called 'E for England', with lyrics that ran: "E is for England, England starts with E / We'll all be smiling when we're in Italy." The FA vetoed the decision. Looking back at it in 1993, he was diplomatic: "I think at the time there were certain drug-related overtones that didn't appeal to either Top of the Pops or the record company." Allen was later involved in 1998 unofficial England song 'Vindaloo'.
8. At the time the song was released, lead singer Bernard Sumner told NME, "This should be the last straw for
Joy Division fans." Make of that what you will.
9. Reflecting on the song years later, Morris said that it may have changed football. "It did come at a bit of a turning point for football. Until that point it was all very laddish. After 'World in Motion' everybody got a bit loved-up with it."
10. Barnes recently revealed that he had to do a rap-off with Paul Gascoigne, Steve McMahon, Peter Beardsley and Des Walker before he was picked to perform the rap. The question is - did Gazza cry when he lost out that time too?
By the way, the song that would knock "World in Motion" from it's lofty perch at #1? "Sacrifice" by Elton John. For shame!
Produced by the great Trevor Horn and appearing on the album Introspective, as well as being one of the longest tracks in their musical repertoire, "Left to My Own Devices" by the Pet Shop Boys was intended to be an "experiment in seeing how mundane a pop song could be, before setting it against extravagant music," according to lead singer Neil Tennant. No doubt, the song adds touches of classical music, specifically orchestral phrases culled from Claude Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" ("Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun"), to the proceedings. However, this mundane song is rife with supposedly biographical or semi-biographical information from Tennant's youth that he ambiguously puts on display topped off with an idiomatic title. Whether lyrics about "roundheads" (a reference to Pro-Parliamentary forces in the English civil war) the sun and brochures and Che Guevara are self-referential terms about the Boys' "alternative" lifestyles is a matter of conjecture and I'll leave it to smarter people than myself to pour over the details. Frankly, I don't care what the meaning. I prefer just to listen and enjoy.
In a previous episode, I mentioned the numerous contributions of Nick Rhodes to the success of Duran Duran. Perhaps his biggest was that of a visionary as he quickly seized on the potential of the music video. He was the one who pushed the band toward more elaborate productions, a somewhat questionable decision at the dawn of the 80s as the phenomenon that would come to be known as MTV was still months away from its eventual August 1, 1981 launch date. Not to mention, at that time, nobody could have actually predicted the overwhelming success of the network and the lasting impact it would have on the music industry. Released in July of 1981, "Girls On Film" was the third single from Double D's self-titled album. Interestingly, it was the band that chose the song to be their third single after a dismal showing by the second single, "Careless Memories", a song that had been selected by their label, EMI. Though "Careless Memories" reached #37 in the UK, it was perceived as a failure because the first single, "Planet Earth", had been a Top 20 hit. "Careless Memories" was also the song chosen to herald the soon-to-be released full-length album. That the band chose "Girls On Film", a staple at live performances, as the group's third single was fortuitous. It helped album sales overseas, though it did not initially chart in the US. After the follow-up success of the Rio album in 1982, their first album was re-issued in the states in 1983 and became certified platinum in 1985. While the song is no doubt a great one, it was the video, which was originally filmed in 1981 a few weeks prior to the launch of MTV, that made serious waves and caused serious consternation among parents and network censors. The uncut version circulated regularly on the Playboy Channel as it was deemed too pornographic for MTV. It was also banned on the BBC. A heavily-edited "day" version was created for regular airplay and is the one with which most of us are familiar. And though the song had already achieved chart success, it was that video, directed by Godley & Creme, that kept people talking and kept the band firmly in the public eye. Simon Le Bon would later lament that the scandalous nature of the video obscured the message of the song, which was about the exploitation of models in the fashion industry.
To end this episode, I figured I'd include the most reviled song in the Depeche Mode catalog. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but both Martin Gore and Alan Wilder have, on numerous occasions, described "It's Called A Heart" as their least favorite single ever recorded by DM. Wilder admitted he was "anti even recording, let alone releasing it". So, why the high level of disdain for the song? Seems the band, especially Wilder, thought that the b-side, "Fly On The Windscreen" was a stronger song and should have been released as the band's next single at the time. Apparently, the record label didn't like the fact the first word of the song was "death". Yet Wilder argues:
"I fought tooth-and-nail on behalf of the B-side Fly on the Windscreen which was far superior. To me, the whole thing was a serious backward step. I felt we'd worked diligently to build up recognition for a harder sound, with more depth and maturity, and here was this ultra poppy number that did nothing for our reputation."
When asked in an interview if he could turn back time and do something over again, Wilder responded:
"I don't think I'd change much, apart from some of the hair styles and those daft boots I wore in 101. Oh, and I'd also make sure that I missed my wake-up call on the day we made the video for It's Called a Heart." Wilder says of the video concept, "Quite how [Peter Care, the director] equated 'calling something a heart' with twirling cameras around on the end of a string in a field of corn in Reading dressed in a skirt, I'll never be able to tell you."
Wilder hated the song so much that he answered the question "In your opinion, what makes up a true DM fan?" with "Anyone who still gives us the time of day after having heard It's Called a Heart".
Remixes didn't fare much better in Wilder's eyes. He once commented on the "Slow Mix" version of the song, "...you do need to be particularly devout to endure it - slowing it down to half speed made it twice as long - probably not a very good idea - twice the agony."
Okay, so Alan Wilder doesn't particularly care for the song, but I LOVE IT! And since I'm curating this podcast, I included all 7+ minutes of the Extended Mix for your listening enjoyment.
That's it for this episode. I've got another podcast all figured out and I'll post it as soon I can find time to record it.
Thanks for tuning in/listening/reading!