How I got this tape in 1985: I was in high school, and one day I was surprised to find a cassette Sellotaped to the bottom of my desk in class. There was a note: "Hi, random person who will sit in this class after me! I think this album is amazing, so take it and enjoy!". I was 15, so BANG!!!!! - mind blown by the whole thing. Never dared to ask who did it.
How I heard this tape in 1985... Up until I graduated from high school I lived in a small town with not much to do but escape the doldrums through music. Only two radio stations in town, one was typical cookie cutter top 40 and the other was assembly line country. As a product of my environment (friends, peers) I grew up only knowing heavy metal and not much else. I would often go to the local library and pick through their music cassettes (early to mid 80s) to search for artists I had never heard of. It was through this ritual that I discovered Kate Bush "Hounds Of Love", Shriekback "Oil & Gold", King Sunny Ade "Synchro System", The Chameleons "Script Of The Bridge" and of course "Two Wheels Good". THAT event changed how I listened to music.
What I can I say...I'm 51 years old and can't stop listening Prefab Sprout. Incredible artist, sweet music. You can't imagine that the Prout's albums are more than 30 years...Nothing compares to Paddy's band. Amazing....
One of those albums that you almost dare not listen to or you'll break into tears. Johnny, when love breaks down, bonny, appetite.. beautiful and tragic. Genius
Yes, and so is the bridge transition to the third verse at 2:12-2:25. Such a beautifully shaped bit - it's midway through the song, and the cool thing about the following verse is that the song acknowledges *both* of them - neither of the two is reduced to a projection surface for the desires of the other one, they are both fully visible in the lyrics.
To 80s ears this had the veneer of a smooth pop single...in fact it is one of the most sophisticated bits of contemporary music writing I've ever heard. Said 35 years after first buying the album.
80s youth, teenager rainy days when I listened to prefab sprout, dreaming of love and the future... and here it is the future, and prefab sprout is still the soundtrack of my life, oh the memories!
The future came and it just wasn't as magical or as mysterious or as cinematic as I had imagined it. Back then. In 1986. At 14....yet! When I hear this organic, real, intelligent popmusic, from a better time, when young kids still had attention spans, taste (and discernible IQ's) I realise how lucky I was to be young then. SO here we are. All of a sudden I'm aware of my own aging. And The music? Are you kidding! It sounds even better now. Better than ever.
Their songs are so beautiful, emotional, satisfying and this one's typically brilliant👏❤️👌. I can't believe that weren't and aren't huge, more like hugely underrated!
I agree with you. I'm disappointed I'm too young to have heard them in their prime. In my eyes nobody is better. Neill Finn would give it a good shot though. Geniuses of epic proportions
It was a hit in their native Britain, but they never had the recognition they deserved in the US. Someone said in a comment here on YT that Paddy McAloon "is ambivalent about fame itself" and I think that's true - he wasn't really willing to subordinate everything else to becoming a big pop star, he is a really private person in many ways.
I'll never stop loving it. It soothes the soul. Where did we go wrong as we'll never hear the likes of them again? Only 51 and forever listening to the past. "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, a nation turns it lonely eyes to you."
I would consider myself so lucky to be a teenager in the 80's songs i had forgotten about and then realise so many years later through youtube how fantastic they were and still are.
Life's not complete till your heart's missed a beat and you'll never make it up or turn back the clock. I'm from the musical 60's and 70's and thought I have heard it all----was to busy raising a family in the 80's and 90's and missed this legend. Two thumbs up for Paddy and prefab Sprout !
They never broke through in the US... but I never listened to radio and instead bought anything I could get my hands on. When my friends and family heard me playing this CD over and over they all thought I was really weird. Same with Talk Talk, Ryuichi Sakamoto, etc. There was some great stuff coming out then and most people in the US missed it, listening to "We Built This City On Rock and Roll" and crap like that instead.
+Jafafa Hots not me. I didn't miss out on this, fortunately. great band, great songs, my older brother told me to check them out, I did and loved them. so poignant, when he says "youll never make it up, or turn back the clock. no, you wont. no you wont."
+Jafafa Hots Jafafa Hots? Sounds like a Buffalo connection to me?! You were not alone, my friend. I too filled countless hours with Prefab, Japan, David Sylvian, Ryuichi, YMO, Talk Talk, OMD, Durutti Column, etc... etc... Of course, if you were from Buffalo you certainly would have listened to CFNY out of Toronto... Thank goodness I had a friend circle that all listened to, collected and talked about this music- without question, the best decade for music innovation and quality.
lejos en el tiempo los escuche por primera vez en los 80' a traves de un pequeño radio en la frecuencia 98.5 ancasti Catamarca y simplemente fue la mejor parte de mi vida como adolecente 30 años despues los sigo escuchando y cada vez que lo hago se me paraliza el corazon.. Son unos genios y exquisito gusto musical.
En Chile su tema más conocido fue Cars and Girls, y If you don't love me. Siempre me gustó este grupo y recuerdo que la tercera canción de ellos que conocí fue ésta. Gracias a un hermano menor que trajo a casa un viejo cassette promocional de pop inglés. Era 1992 aproximadamente pero el cassette era del 85 y ahí estaban los Prefab Sprout. Qué agradable sorpresa. Años después compré la recopilación de grandes exitos y como siempre estaban arrumbados en un rincón casi perdido de la disqueria. Cuando fui al mesón y le pedí al vendedor estos tres temas antes mesionados y los puso en el reproductor de la tienda me miró con cara de sorprendido y me dijo:"...y éste es el grupo!..." Inmediatamente la gente que estaba comprando vino a preguntar al mesón. Se los llevaron todos. Éste gran grupo nunca fue bien promocionado, por eso no fueron más famosos. Hoy en día está considerado dentro de la trilogía de grupos underrated de gran calidad que no tuvieron la fama que merecían junto a Deacon Blue y China Crisis. Saludos estimados.
Just awesome...what a songwriter......some amazing music in the 80s. Tinseltown in the rain is another great song I can't stop listening to by Blue Nile
This was the song that made everything possible! summer 1990 the world was ours! One day I said and this band inspired me to start my own band 30 years later! Carpe Diem ! ❤
I confirm that people born in the 60s were teenagers in the 70s, the 20s in the 80s and the 30s in the 90s. Born with 3 decades of beautiful and better music. And no one can take this away from us, because we've been there, isn't that great!
in 1994 I'm submarine for Marine Française ... on my radio cassette, I often had your music on my ears ... alone under the sea ... far ... with melancholy ... a thousand thanks for those moments where today my memories are still there!
Quand cet album est sorti j'avais 25 ans et j'ai écouté la cassette des centaines de fois dans la voiture. Un petit chef d'œuvre dont on ne se lasse jamais. Quel talent pady !
Love this group and song!! Here are the songwords for you - OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY There is a time for tears OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY You might well make it better OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY You might well make it worse OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY I advise you to forget her HOOH JOHNNY JOHNNY HOOH You're not the first though it hurts JOHNNY HOOH What are you 21 OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY Why don't you give it a rest OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY The world is a million OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY There can be no contest HOOH JOHNNY JOHNNY HOOH Life's not complete Till your heart's skipped a beat And you'll never make it up Or turn back the clock NO YOU WON'T Repeat twice JOHNNY JOHNNY HOOH OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY She is a person too OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY She has her own will OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY Why don't you join the foreign legion OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY JOHNNY You're still in love with Hayley Mills OHH JOHNNY JOHNNY HOOH Life's not complete till your heart's skipped a beat And you'll never make it up Or turn back the clock NO YOU WON'T NO YOU WON'T NOO YOU WON'T JOHNNY JOHNNY HOOH Prefab Sprout JOHNNY JOHNNY. 1999
Gracias al legado musical y cultural de los Prefab Sprout durante la década de los 80´s y 90´s ¿ Qué será de cada uno de sus integrantes? Ojalá estén todos muy bien y algún día vuelvan a editar un nuevo Disco. Desde Santiago de Chile uno de sus Fans número uno... Adios...
¡Son bonitos sonidos! En 1985, cuando la escuché por primera vez me dije: "si una canción me recordara mi adolescencia, sería esta"... ¡no me equivoqué!... hasta trae a mi memoria el contexto de ese momento... sencillamente, ¡Genial!💖👏👏👏
Prefab Sprout was in the business of "let's make the perfect pop song/recording that simultaneously calls into question every pop trope repeated ad nauseum". Without a doubt the smartest (sometimes too much for their own good) pop band that actually WANTED to be a pop band. It's a good thing our friends in the UK helped them survive long enough to make so many glorious records. Across the pond wasn't ready for meta-pop. And now nowhere will probably ever be. Not like they could do it.
First heard this superb album back in 85! Who I was with, and where I was going! Old Trafford Night game( Following Chelsea back then, hate football now) Mates car, brilliant memories, always stay with me. Given up on the football, but definitely not that masterpiece album, Steve Mcqueen!!
I remember seeing Prefab Sprout in the Point Depot, on Jordan the Comeback Tour. I had just split up with my girlfriend and when they played this song, tears started to bucket from my eyes. Ahh Cest La Vie.
Wow! Dublin right! That must of been amazing. Jordan the Comeback was the soundtrack to my teenage years... I only have to hear an opening chord and I'm in floods! I saw Transvision Vamp, INXS, U2, Lenny Kavitz, Bjork, Oasis, Tears for Fears, Petshop Boys, The The, Depech Mode and Juilo Iglesias in the Point Depot! Great times. I hope your heart has mended... at least you had one. Melissa in Dublin x
@@lya3823 He's a prize prick, that's why. He's slated the band on here numerous times. No one asked him to listen, not that it would make any difference as he's a philistine and a muppet.
As the saying goes, 'better late than never'. Child of the 80's but never heard of this group at the time. I'd heard the name but couldn't name a song. I found them so many years later when someone said of one of my all time favorite bands, The Dream Academy, "they sound so much like Prefab Sprout". Searched them here and have loved them ever since.
They were great and Paddy is still great as PREFAB SPROUT. A great comfort in my youth, the imagery in the lyric content, great melodies, intelligent life was out there!
Dancing to Steve McQueen with my dog 'Windsor' every afternoon for two years in the 80's. Our ritual and now the memories fill me with joy every time I here PS. Happy times:))))
Walking through life with these songs inside me... I'm always picking up on a great turn of lyric, or a new SOMETHING to make me love Prefab Sprout even more than before!
Reminds me of driving at night in 1985 in the rain down Fishergate Hill in Preston Lancashire in my MGB roadster, smoking a Silk Cut, on my way to see my girlfriend 20 miles away. Funny how these songs can take you back to a moment.
Tous vos albums sont des merveilles cher Paddy ! Vous m'avez donné beaucoup de bonheur tout au long de ma vie ! je ne me lasse pas de vos compositions musicales...(un musicien professionnel )
Was in Limelight Night Club on Shaftesbury Av in London in 87 with a friend friend of mine...we were going out the door to Bar Sol in Covent Garden WHEN a tall Norwegian BOMBSHELL was coming the other way..." Hello"...we looked into each others eyes...After...in LOVE...She walks into my House with this album " Steve Mcqueen" under her Arm...Say no more...
