Skip to main content

Dead or Alive - "Youthquake"

Dead or Alive
I'd often confuse Doctor & the Medics with Dead or Alive. Honestly they weren't really all that similar, but then again I'm easily confused and easily distracted ... oh, look at squirrel.

Where was I?

Bananarama ... 

Nah, just kidding, mostly. I was out of town recently and I figured I'd look for a record shop, and I managed to find a really fun and quirky little shop. They didn't have a lot of discount records, but they had a few boxes and the guy who ran the store was a treat to shoot the shit with. Heck while we were there my buddy Olav figured he'd buy me a record too. So he did. I'll get to that one in time: BB Gabor. You may know him, he did "Nyet Nyet Soviet (Soviet Jewellery)" back in 1980. Don't worry I didn't know him either, but that is a pretty good song.

I'm sure you're wondering when I'll get to the point, and I'll admit I've wandered off a little further than normal.

I found a few treasures and among them was this here Dead or Alive album. I bought it as a lark, but I was secretly hoping it would be a lost treasure. Having recently found that Doctor & the Medics were pretty great, I had my fingers crossed, and hoped lightning would strike twice. I'll admit to secretly liking "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" I mean it was a friggin' earworm. There was something about them though at the time that put them in the same slop bucket I put Culture Club, Wham! and the much maligned Doctor & the Medics. I wasn't looking for weirdly dressed and kitschy pseudo glam acts. I wanted my rock like I drink my scotch ... neat. Although back in '85 I didn't drink scotch. My dad did. I will admit to actually once ordering a Shanty as a bar. Yeah, I know. Sad.

The album opens big with their big hit, and yes at times it still sounds like whoever programmed the drums and percussion pushed all the buttons repeatedly until it looped over with a cacophonous clanging of symbols and toms. Why not, buttons are meant to be pushed.

As this played I was struck by the similarities to a lot of other new wave infused UK acts that were out at the time. I know this may come as sacrilege to some, but I keep hearing elements of New Order. Which to me was unexpected. Then again, I'll also freely admit that I was at best a casual fan of Joy Division, and for New Order, it was "Blue Monday" (the short version) that floated my boat. While I like this stuff, it was never really my main jam. One could also make a case that they were a really happy sounding version of The Sisters of Mercy - although I suspect I'm just pissing people off now - to be fair Wayne Hussey had played guitar in both bands at one point.

Since I'm dropping names I may as well call out the members of the band. 

  • Pete Burns – lead and backing vocals
  • Mike Percy – synthesizers and electric guitar
  • Tim Lever – synthesizers, sequencer, sampler, electric guitar and backing vocals
  • Steve Coy – drum machines and backing vocals

The core line up would be stable for a number of albums, and while to most people - including myself the band is a one hit wonder but they didn't stop trying. From 1984 through 1986 they dropped an album a year, and then took a year off to drop "greatest hit" record and then closed out the '80s with one more release in 1988. They would release two in the '90s and their last release dropped in 2000. Who knows, there are likely a slew of buried treasures out there waiting to be discovered.

I will give Peter Burns a nod, as he had a great '80s voice. Sadly he would pass away in 2016 at the age of 57. He was working the '80s  glam vein, and he wasn't alone although for whatever reason they never caught on in the way Adam Ant and The Culture Club did. Then again, they may have I just wasn't aware of them outside the one song.

The album actually covers most of the mid '80s bases in terms of staying in the pop lane. Some of the songs really work, and then others like "In Too Deep" just feels like an interchangeable pop song that is a generic paint by numbers pastiche of everything that was going on and not the good stuff as far as I was concerned. The first side closes out with another overly button happy programmed beat appropriately titled, "Big Daddy of the Rhythm" that while fun went in one ear and out the other. 

Spinning the record over (ha, I kill myself) the second side opens with "Cake and Eat It" which for whatever reason really worked which surprised me as the song was catchy but didn't have a second gear. "Love Come Back to Me" a song that owed a little to Frankie Goes to Hollywood. All those "Hoo-ahs" were as catchy as Michael Jackson's "Hoo hoos" ... that was sarcasm, but it was the '80s I'll give it a pass. Most of the second side was actually pretty catchy, even if the repetitive drum loops wore thin.

back cover
The album closes with an eight minute opus "It's Been a  Long Time" that musically sounded like the illegitimate love child of Frankie and the Eurythmics (more Frankie, but the string section called to mind Dave Stewart). It's awesome, even if a tad long. The '80s guitar work was wicked. Outside of the opening cut, this is probably the song I enjoy the most.

Dead or Alive nailed it with the opening number, and frankly for the most part delivered a pretty fair album. There were some glimmers throughout, and as far it goes this was enjoyable. It was pretty equal in terms of nostalgia and fresh ears. I wouldn't go so far as to label it a lost classic, but it's a decent spin if you can get around to it and play the record.



 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure.  I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again.  I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the...