Who is
Black Man Ray? It is Ray Charles, it is a Nigerian man from Liverpool who ran an arts studio and Man Ray the artist, depending on who you listen to. I subscribe to the latter because the artist was not black! OK, who cares?. I just like the sound of that song and did not quite know what the song was about. The musical phrasing seemed almost intellectually challenged and the voice almost mechanical. I listened to it over and over. Then I listened to CC's other songs and eventually 'got it'. It was just the 80's style. Not crazy about most of it but this song really tickled me. Eventually I enjoyed their other songs, 'Christian' , 'Working with fire and steel' (which has a fantastic base line) and much later St Saviour Square with it's social justice theme.
IMO one of the best 80's electro-pop bands. Masters of melancholic euphoria.
ReplyDeleteThough I liked their earlier albums, 'Flaunt the Imperfection' has an organic maturity to it, probably in part due to the assistance of Walter Becker in the production and the use of more acoustic instrumentation.
There are so many great tracks to choose from, but my favourites are: 'Strength of Character', 'You did Cut Me' and 'Bigger the Punch I'm Feeling'...but really, the whole album is superb.
Actually yes , but there was so much more, including Working with fire and steel, listen to the base on that. I also like the title 'Some people are known to lead fantastic lives' though the song itself is only so so...and what about their last album St Savoiur Square, which is a bit hard to locate at the moment?
DeleteI think you mean the album 'Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain' on which the song 'Some people are known to lead fantastic lives' appears. The song was originally going to be called 'Let's Name the Song a Really Long Title so it Wont be Forgotten'....but obviously they changed their minds.
DeleteYes that album has some great tracks on it. What pulled me in to following CC was the first track I heard of theirs - 'No More Blue Horizons (Fool, Fool, Fool)' on the same album. Its just a shame that listening to that album now, that it wasn't recorded with the same quality of production as their later recordings - some real brass and drums would of gone well with their catchy synth melodies and vocal lines.
Unfortunately I think that CC have been underrated as a band - they deserved more attention than they received.