A little love

So I was a little amused by the connections between these songs.

First we have Ryuichi Sakamoto's cover of the Rolling Stones' "We Love You" from 1990's sublime Beauty.

Then we have an about-face in style for a Psychedelic Furs song of the same title, from their 1980 debut The Psychedelic Furs.

And then its Adam and the Ants' "Friends" which came out in a couple different versions. This one the b-side to "Cartrouble" in (I think) '79 and is on the remastered and expanded reissue of Dirk Wears White Sox.

Beauty I've only started to get into recently. I didn't know what to make of Sakamoto's solo stuff having only really heard new wave-era YMO. A later-developed appreciation for things jazzy and weird brought me to a love for much of his solo work. Looking at the Amazon page for this album, I can guess why it didn't grab me at the time. A funk song was tacked onto the start of the album which doesn't really go with the rest of it. I recall the segue from You Do Me into Calling from Tokyo (the opener on the European, and I'm guessing Japanese, release) was jarring.

The Psychedelic Furs and Dirk Wears White Sox were formative releases for me, my vinyl quite worn out by the time of their CD issues. Well probably not that much, but I played these two albums a lot as a kid. I played Dirk (and the associated singles on the Do It label) to the point where I can't tell you if the music's any good. It had that affect on me. I'm pretty sure that Adam listing all the people he knows before singing "and if I come in tonight, can I get in free?" isn't exactly art. It's all very staccato and angular in Wire/Gang of Four-ish kind of way that got lost with Kings of the Wild Frontier in 1981. The original Dirk release had a much wider array of subject matter that we came to expect from Adam later, including "Catholic Day", about JFK's assassination, "Animals and Men" which namechecks the major players in the Italian Futurist movement, and "Cleopatra" which discusses the Egyptian queens, um, proclivities.

The Furs' debut which I picked up after hearing "Susan's Strange" on a CBS loss leader compilation (Exposed or Exposed II, I'm not sure), and was sunk. I've been listening to their later stuff (Mirror Moves, Forever Now, Talk Talk Talk) and they really never matched this one for musical force, inventiveness and art school umph. I think my favourite song at the time was Pulse for its driving beat and simplicity (I was 13; I think I have dispensation), though listening now "Sister Europe" and "Flowers" might top the list, though it's all pretty flawless.

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Download all three here (rs).

Buy from Amazon:
Dirk Wears White Sox
Psychedelic Furs
Beauty

Next up, I think, will be a holiday mix related to my weekend in Vienna a couple weeks ago. If anyone has any recommendations for a surgery mix (as I recover from Hiatus Hernia Laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication), I'll take them into account too for a near future post.