The Dukes Of Stratosphear: “Vanishing Girl” (1987)
In 1985 XTC recorded an EP called 25 O’Clock which was an homage to the music of the mid-to-late 60’s, and released it under the pseudonym the Dukes Of Stratosphear. It turned out so well they recorded a full-length follow-up in 1987 called Psonic Psunspot, a full-on psychedelic collage of 60’s tribute with Alice-In-Wonderland-style spoken-word interludes read by the young daughter of the recording studio’s owner (she did her work, according to liner notes, for “a fiver and some sweets”).
From this comes the dead-on 1967 Hollies send-up “Vanishing Girl”. As you can hear, the band weren’t just larking around (note sly XTC in-joke). Proving imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, XTC truly did some of their best work on these well-respected releases.
Here’s a bonus cut: a video of the Dukes’ “You’re A Good Man Albert Brown”, a tip of the hat to the Kinks and a reminder that the Brits are so much better than we are at being silly.
The song itself is from their 1986 debut album, but this live version (which by my estimate is 16% spunkier, what with audience participation and all) dates from ’95.
…wherein Toby Martin’s beautifully haunting voice wraps around you like a warm purple Snuggie, even on the uptempo numbers.
Their cover of Alphaville’s 1980’s hit “Forever Young” was featured on The O.C. and went to number one (with platinum sales) in their native Australia. But the whole record is an addictive listen.
This one’s a classic, a true desert island disc. The same year that Licensed To Ill, The Joshua Tree, Tunnel Of Love and Bad went to number one, this album peaked at #107. I probably didn’t need to tell you who recorded those other albums. Hiatt is somewhat less of a household name, but you’ve heard his songs. His songwriting credits include Three Dog Night’s “Sure As I’m Sittin’ Here”, Bonnie Raitt’s “Thing Called Love”, Jeff Healey’s “Angel Eyes” and countless others.
Hiatt’s early career was marked by comercially less-than-successful forays into New Wave-influenced rock, something along the lines of Graham Parker. Bring The Family was not only his breakthrough album (in a songwriter/cult artist sort of way) but a complete change of genre as well.
Musically you can hear a blend of Country, Blues and Gospel that was coming to be known as “Roots Rock”. But in the lyrics you can hear an additional and more unique genre emerging on this album, one which would continue through his next two records, Slow Turning (1988) and Stolen Moments (1990). And one which reflected Hiatt’s new life as he gave up drinking and settled down to raise kids. For lack of a better term, John Hiatt began making “Family Rock”. As the album’s title suggests, it’s Rock music with kids in the back seat, and real life at its heart.
Despite the album’s poor showing on the charts in ’87, it’s stood the test of time as well as the number one albums mentioned above. Its songs continue to pop up on movie soundtracks and in cover versions because when Hiatt put aside second-rate New Wave for first-rate “Family Rock” the songwriting resonated real and the music rang true.
It was also recorded by a crack band: Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner backed him here. That, folks, is a real “supergroup”. And Bring The Family is a super album, albeit an under-the-radar one.
You may have missed it because Eurythmics were well past their peak hit singles years when it came out. It failed to chart in the US, although it did do quite well abroad.
In the UK it returned them to the singles chart for the first time in almost ten years (#11) and did even better in countries like France, Poland and Finland (#4, #2 and #2 respectively) (in case you cared). Point is, sometimes we in the US miss the boat because a really good song doesn’t fit the narrow format constraints of our Top 40 radio. Just sayin’.
Every Moment Has A Song 