Same experience. Although only heard and not bought (in East Berlin) on SFB2 (Sender Freies Berlin) in the independent charts (was it with Burghard Rausch? I think). Beautiful time. Besides The Smith also something like Big Country, The Cult, Red Guitars, Colourbox (great with "Baby I love you so"...); the new album by The Cure (Disintegration) was out... but whatever. Life goes on, I don't want to dwell on the past. Only unfortunately with quite monotonous and bad "music" since then. But there is always a niche. For example, currently I enjoy listening to Band Maid (JP) and Dreamcatcher (South Korea). You have to be flexible for good music, because otherwise you'll starve. Best regards.
Summer ‘89 I was homeless, living on the streets of Los Angeles but having a blast every night at the clubs. The days on the other hand were a major struggle and all about survival. Living day to day. Minute to minute sometimes. Then the night came and all the stress and hellishness evaporated for a few hours. Very polarized existence. Anyway yeah. Somewhere in the midst of all that I heard this song for the first time.
One of my favorites from the 80's. I remember watching 120 Minutes on Sundays in the middle of the night and listening this this song while I was talking with my girlfriend on the (wired) telephone for hours. We loved how strange this video was! Definitely fed my love of all things weird! Brilliant!
i learned about so much great music watchinng 120 minutes. Much of it I still listen to today. Google THE 120 MINUTES ARCHIVE. They have the playlists for some shows.
I love the way the video mirrors their roles/relationships within the band. Colin hamming it up as the diva frontman, Graham vying for his chance in the spotlight, Bruce desperately trying to bail (and bring Graham with him) and finally Robert diligently banging out the beat, paying no heed to all the drama.
Wire puts way more meaning into everything they do than expected. Serious layered artists. Wonderful that you saw this. Strongly recommend _Read & Burn_ the Wire bio. Truly explains the depth of their poetry.
it was reviewed on bbc saturday childrens tv by phillip schofield, he said it is the worst song he has ever heard.....glad he got his commupance , but it did take a few years...lmfao.
Not to mention the fact that they were sonic experimentalists. I believe the album this song was on was originally recorded live, all the tracks except ambient noise stripped off, and then new songs written and recorded over that. Now that's art.
Yeah, IBTABA. It sure sounded cool and arty at the time, but looking back it was mainly more effective in theory than it was in execution. It’s far from being a groundbreaking album. Both The Ideal Copy and A Bell Is a Cup were significantly better.
Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie, and Bjork amongst others. Love this version over the It's Beginning To and Back Again cut, though the rest of the album is fantastic.
yes! it's oddly complete, in-and-of-itself somehow... but has built-in space, which moves so well, yet stays put! seldom does a bass track get such a sweet melody , and then the vocal-melody-words over that, woven so loosely and yet so tight, has anything ever felt more right?
This band should be revered in the same way as Joy Division and many other late 70s bands are. Marvellous invention musically and witty incisive lyrics...
I know your comment is over a decade old, which would place it at right around 2011 or 2012, but still… Wire was very much active and prolific at that time. That would have been right around the time they released the Red Barked Tree album, which is a fantastic album. There was no reason to “miss” them, unless what you meant was that you “miss” this particular era of Wire.
Edvard Graham Lewis - the bass player- was studying fashion design at some point in school- Lewis is the genius of the group- poetry like pope, sarcasm like arouet. really listen to the bass lines on their own- nothing terribly virtuoso-istic but nice and solid- good foundation always. Listen to Lewis' solo stuff as well- He Said, and Hox... excellent excellent stuff- a little artsy- but it grows on you, as only healthy, well evolved seed can...
mary Margret ohara? Mr John Peel OBE, Joe Strummer, Bjork, Ivor Cutler? Suggs, Ian Dury, Bernard Sumner , Howard Devoto Margi Clarke and a few I cant recognise
Nah… there were many other much earlier songs that should have qualified for ‘pop star’ status. Mannequin, Fragile, Ex-Lion Tamer, Outdoor Miner, The 15th, Map Ref, Blessed State, Ahead, Kidney Bingos… I could keep going but I’m sure I’ve made my point.
This is another one of their tracks where I began to dig them, it's rather cool to think where they started, then how they integrated later technology into their niche.
I really need to give wire mac 2 another chance thus far I dig it all. I guess its just hard to get past how amazing their first 3 albums are. But this stuff seems just as imaginative and somehow weirder, while also having the potential for mainstream radio(or atleast alternative outlets). Such a cool mix.
I’m actually rediscovering this whole era of Wire myself lately. I lived through it in real time as it unfolded from the mid 80’s to the early 90’s, and I bought most of the albums as they were released, but I didn’t really appreciate it the way I did their first go-round, or the early solo albums that Colin put out (which I have always thought of as an extension of Wire). Now I’m gaining a whole new appreciation for most of it. I still can’t stomach Manscape, and I can only barely tolerate The Drill. However the rest of the stuff from the ‘86-‘91 period, including The First Letter is sounding much more interesting to me lately. As you pointed out, it inhabits it’s own weird little world, and it’s a world that I enjoy visiting more and more these days. Back then there were a lot of accusations of supposedly trying to emulate New Order, but I find that a bit ludicrous. Aside from the whole syncopated dance beat thing, it’s a real apples and oranges comparison that holds a lot less relevance today than it did in the late 80’s. To me it still sounds like classic Wire, just with a more danceable rhythm. If you were to ask anyone in New Order how they felt about it, I bet they’d tell you that when they were still called Joy Division that they were heavily influenced by Wire… so it’s a “chicken or egg” thing. Anyway, I apologize for the long winded response, but Wire is one of those bands I could go on all day about, and your comment is something I can very much relate to lately.
@Shikta-poobah67 no apologies needed, I'm all about getting into a dialogue with anything art. I'm definitely interested to hear what anyone has to say who got to hear this stuff as it was released in the context of the times. I was born in the late 80's so I kinda got to listen to this stuff WAYYYY after the fact and just latched onto the early stuff no problem. But now I love it all. I agree with the new order aspect, I think you hit the nail on the head with that one. Wire had WAYYYY more dynamics in their song writing and production to fall into that box. Not to say I don't love new order but I fall off with them after low life.
@@buckrogez87Yeah, it’s just two different styles linked by a couple of ‘common bond’ factors. Those factors being that both bands had been around in some form since the early days of UK punk, and both had been ‘reborn’ in the 80’s as dance floor commandos. The music press really played that aspect of things up, but as was usually the case with the journalists of that era it was all mainly a bunch of piffle. Wire has been one of my favorite bands since I first listened to Pink Flag, back in 1980 when I was 13 years old. That album just knocked my socks off. It took me a little while longer to fully appreciate Chairs Missing and 154, but once those albums got their claws in me they never let up. Still mind blowing to this day. Like you said, those first 3 albums are so fookin’ *AMAZING* that anything that came after was going to be a hard sell, but the Mk. II era has it’s own charms. It just took a lot longer for me to come around to it. I immediately loved Mk. III (Read & Burn parts 1,2, and 3, the “Send” album), and then I guess it’s considered Mk. IV - everything that begins with Object 47, all the way up to the present day. Especially Change Becomes Us, which is just a fantastic album (and it’s composed mostly of material that was written in 1980 and originally intended for what was going to be their 4th album). They’re still capable of blowing minds, even today. Not bad for a band that’s been around close to half a century.
Is that Björk at 1:40? Also thanks to Poparena's Nick Knacks series ("Total Panic" episode I think) for introducing me to this! I had only ever heard stuff from the "Wir" era of this band.
That’s a very short lived era. Literally one album, one single, and one year (if that). There’s a *LOT* more of this amazing, one of a kind band band to discover. Maybe you have by now? It says here that your comment is a year old. That should be sufficient time to deep-dive into Wire’s vast, multifaceted catalog.
I thought it was about like serial killers and how some of them will get pains like buzzes in the ear and to try and ease it that's why they kill people
a late reply from Australia. i remember both shirts (black/white versions) for sale in an "alternate" clothing shop back then in Sydney. wish i'd bought them
You can easily find that print on fabric. If you have a sewing machine and know how to use it, along with a pair of fabric shears, then it’s easy-peezy.
Yes, in this video I also recognized Andy Fletcher, Bernard Sumner/Albrecht, Howard Devoto and the two males of Cocteau Twins. I think other people too are singers.
then you haven't done it right! get your favorite drinkies or whatever yer into, and sit down and listen! it's the highest art that's ever been created, man! or a fine example of it, i guess i should say... you can just tell they were enjoying recording it, something comes thru , if you just listen properly- music appreciation is a fine pursuit, and what you gain from it is uniquely yours.....hopefully it inspires you to wanna make your own noisical expressions - there's room for lots more in practically any and all directions!
Trust me, you’re not alone. I wasn’t much of a fan when it came out back in ‘89. I’ve only quite recently embraced this era of Wire, and mainly just the two albums that preceded this one (The Ideal Copy, A Bell Is A Cup). With this particular song, I’m much more into the single version (this one) than the IBTABA version. It’s not that I don’t like IBTABA. I just think it was a much better idea than it is an actual album. Great concept… taking a live recording, stripping away everything but the drums, and then recording over the beats… but not all that impressive results. Still, it’s a much better album than the two that followed it (Manscape, The Drill). Those were Wire’s all time worst.
yes! on 'IBTABA' or 'it's-beginning-to-and-back-again' from 1989! i'll never forget that year! we had just gotten cable tv, and mtv was still cool~ and ,,, the mayor of simpleton had been dropp'd, oops~ wait here~!
@@tinfoilhatterMTV has never, and I mean *NEVER* been cool. They were just a bit less lame and actually played music videos at one point in time. I’ll give you 120 Minutes. I suppose they were cool for a couple of hours each day.
i know, that bass line was just waiting for someone to use it...perhaps it existed elsewhere before this was recorded- but not that i know of... it's an alltime classic bass track! sometimes less is more...but i also love so many of the wacky, and impossibly complex basslines that colin moulding and mccartney have done- they're always awesome--not wacky, just that only they would ever have come up with them...the bass is the heart of almost all music!
Is it just me, or is Colin Newman and Sean Cullen somehow related? Check out Sean in this vid PL574EB6604EF28A41 Kinda similar looks and moves to this video, no? Would we have Corky And The Juice Pigs if not for Wire? I think I know where Sean got his licks from now at least. LOL
