If you haven't been watching BBC Four's 'Guitar, Drum and Bass' rockumentary series, you have missed a fascinating, occasionally quirky but always entertaining, journey through some pivotal moments in the history of rock music.
We didn't manage to catch any of the three programmes live, but they're all still available on iPlayer (just!), and so it was only this evening when we got around to watching the final episode about the guitar, hosted by Patti Smith's guitarist, Lenny Kaye. It was this programme which contained the background sound of an Echoplexed guitar intro to a song I knew... if only I could remember it [check it out at 2:18 to 2:39 in the programme, if you want to play along].
It's quite difficult, at least for me, to identify a song from 20-odd seconds of intro, when the rest of the programme carries on with one great song after another, so that there's no time to catch one's breath and have a jolly good ponder. Eventually though, enough neurons aligned themselves, a roadie cranked the handle of a portable generator in my subconscious, a band name emerged through the dry ice of decades past and my inner geek handed me a Post-it with the answer written in leaky Biro.
But I won't tell you just yet...
I was shocked to discover how long ago it was that the song had been a hit. Well, minor hit, it peaked at number 25 in the UK Singles chart in 1981 and also marked a bizarre time of my life. Having left school after A levels, I had a belated teenage tantrum and didn't go to university. Through a combination of a passion for motorsport and a school romance which had transcended the limitations of the Sixth Form, I ended up, some months later, in the Army (I know, I know, you're right, it doesn't make sense, but there you go).
Yes, so long ago, in fact, that it pre-dates that fateful and fortuitous meeting with Our Lass later the same year!
But fast-forwarding back to the present, half way through 'On Guitar... Lenny Kaye!', I suddenly let out a yelp, grabbed my phone and searched iTunes for...
Listen to it here.
The 1980s, eh?
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in the Seventies anymore."
3 comments:
Good evening Mr Tense. I read the latest SOMP with great interest. I remember the Passions hit- I didn't realise it only made it to No.25! This reminded me of some other one hit wonders, the Mobiles- they had a hit with a well crafted, tuneful track called 'drowning in Berlin'. I really liked this song, I googled the band and read somewhere that one of the band members lives somewhere near you, I've trawled the net but can I eckers like find it.
Oo, I remember that one, too :o)
Mark, this morning I remembered your comment and Googled 'The Mobiles'. As soon as I started reading the Wiki entry where it listed the past band members, I knew who it was. Russ Madge! Didnae ken that!
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