The Psychedelic Furs are a British new wave band founded in London in February 1977. Their name was inspired by the 1966 Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs". Led by singer Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk scene. Their music went through several phases, from an initially austere art rock sound, to later touching on new wave and hard rock.
By this time, 1977, the group had become a sextet, adding guitarist John Ashton and drummer Vince Ely. This was the lineup on their first single, "We Love You," which was released in 1979. It was followed by another single, "Sister Europe," then in 1980 the group's mostly Steve Lillywhite-produced eponymous debut album. "The Psychedelic Furs" dark mixture of punk attitude, post-punk moroseness, and classic songcraft took the record into the Top 20 in the U.K. and earned them a U.S. release as well.
The band scored several hits in their early career. In 1986, filmmaker John Hughes used their song "Pretty in Pink" for his movie of the same name.
The Furs did find success in the US with their next release, 1981's "Talk Talk Talk", which saw the band making its debut on the US Billboard 200 chart. In the UK, the album yielded two charting singles, "Dumb Waiters" and the original version of "Pretty in Pink". The latter song served as inspiration for the 1986 John Hughes film of the same name, and was re-recorded for the platinum-selling soundtrack - though Richard Butler was later adamant that the cinematic interpretation had very little to do with the song's original intent.
In 1982, the band was reduced to a quartet with the departures of Morris and Kilburn, and moved to the U.S. in search of a producer. The band recorded their next album, "Forever Now", with record producer Todd Rundgren in Woodstock, New York. Released in September 1982, this album contained "Love My Way", which became another UK chart entry, and also their first US Billboard Hot 100 single.
Ely left the band after Forever Now (though he would later return in 1988). The next album, "Mirror Moves" was produced by Keith Forsey (who also programmed the drums and became the band's
Richard Butler in 2006
PSYCHEDELIC FURS 1980 (CD reissue) 2002
The original UK LP had nine tracks. The US LP contained 10 tracks, deleting one track from the UK LP ("Blacks/Radio") and adding two others ("Susan's Strange" and "Soap Commercial"), and changing the order of the tracks significantly. The CD reissue contained 13 tracks, beginning with the original nine UK LP tracks (programmed in their original order), then adding the two additional tracks from the US LP release, plus a version of "Mack the Knife" and a demo of the album track "Flowers".
[ AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett [-]
Emerging from the incipient post-punk London scene with a healthy fascination for late-'70s Bowie (and in turn, for his own attraction to Krautrock), the then-sextet kicked up a slightly monochromatic
Production mainly comes from Steve Lillywhite, who smartly steers away from the soon-to-be-clichéd touches he would bring to U2's early work. "India" is a good example; it has a brooding, quiet beginning with strange telegraphic signals and turns into a brawling rocker without sounding like the Edge or Larry Mullins going off. The record comes off as serious without being self-consciously deep, occasional toe-dipping into humorous aside ("We Love You" has Butler idly listing off things he loves, sometimes with appropriate if sarcastically delivered song quotes: "I'm in love with Frank Sinatra...fly me to the moon...").
"Imitation of Christ" is the most frazzled, with lyrics detailing someone else metaphorically nailing himself up over a light but still strange guitar line. "Wedding Song" is amusingly prescient as one of the first "white rockers go hip-hop" numbers of its kind, along with Blondie's "Rapture," though its inspiration could equally be dub. Ely lays down a pounding funk beat while Butler breaks into a midsong rap no better or worse than most such efforts of the time.]
The Psychedelic Furs – The Psychedelic Furs
Label: 2002 by Columbia/Legacy.
Format: CD, Album, Reissue
Country: Europe
Released: 2002
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Post Punk
TRACKS (CD reissue) 2002
01. India – 6:21
02. Sister Europe – 5:38
03. Imitation of Christ – 5:28
04. Fall – 2:40
05. Pulse – 2:37 (produced by Howard Thompson, Ian Taylor and the Psychedelic Furs)
06. We Love You – 3:26 (produced by Howard Thompson, Ian Taylor and the Psychedelic Furs)
07. Wedding Song – 4:19
08. Blacks/Radio – 6:56
09. Flowers – 4:10 (produced by Howard Thompson, Ian Taylor and the Psychedelic Furs)
Bonus Tracks
10. Susan's Strange – 3:13 (produced by Martin Hannett)
11. Soap Commercial – 2:53 (produced by Martin Hannett)
12. Mack the Knife (Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, Marc Blitzstein) – 4:18 (produced by the Psychedelic Furs)
13. Flowers (Demo) – 5:36 (produced by the Psychedelic Furs)
MEMBERS
Richard Butler – lead and background vocals
John Ashton – guitar
Tim Butler – bass guitar
Vince Ely – drums
Roger Morris – guitar
Duncan Kilburn – saxophones
Technical
Howard Thompson - executive producer
Phil Thornalley - engineer
Steve Lillywhite - producer
IMITATION OF CHRIST LYRICS
Another Christ is on the cross
The nails are words, the nails are lies
To make it crawl and make it scream
And make it real and make it bleed
And make it bleed and make it bleed
And make it bleed and make it dream
Imitation of Christ
Imitation of Christ
This you who lie and scream
You fall to dust, you fall to dust
In walls of word, your words are blind
You speak and you are dumb and blind
The word that is your god
Is you who fall so low and fall so far
Imitation of Christ
Imitation of Christ
Fly to the moon, dear, sew it on a stool
Tie it on the carpet, all the cowboys fall
See the cowboys fat and reeling
Dancing underneath the ceiling
Leave the bar, the theatre's closing
Make a wall of your religion
Imitation of Christ
Imitation of Christ
Mary, Mary, mother, mother
You and me and God the father
Jesus is a woman too
He looks like all of me and you
Your money talks and all your friends
Will laugh at her pathetic tits
Imitation of Christ
Imitation of Christ
Imitation of Christ
Imitation
TALK TALK TALK 1981 (CD Reissue, Remastered 2011)
Their classic song "Pretty in Pink" became the inspiration for the film of the same name and others showed up regularly in movies and TV shows. Though the band ran aground in the early '90s, they returned a decade later to launch a successful career as a live act, and with 2020's release Made of
[ AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett [-]
This time working solely with Steve Lillywhite, the Furs introduce a brighter, poppier side to their underground rock edge, with smashing results throughout. The group produces some powerful songs, even more rough-edged than before. Especially striking is "Dumb Waiters," with its queasy, slow-paced arrangement that allows both Kilburn's sax and Ashton's guitar to go wild.
However, the six still create some undeniable pop classics. Most well-known is the lead track, "Pretty in Pink," inspiration for the iconic John Hughes film years later and re-recorded as a result. The original is still where to go, though, with Butler's catchy description of a romantically unsure woman matched by a killer band performance. Similarly lighter numbers on the record call to mind a rockier version of Roxy Music's output in later years: elegant, romantic angst given a slightly rougher edge in both music and vocals.
"She Is Mine" is especially fine as a gently swinging number with some of Butler's best, quietly ruminative lyrics.
The Psychedelic Furs – Talk Talk Talk
Label: Legacy – 5063632000, Columbia – COL 506363 2
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 2011
Country: Europe
Released: 2002 reissue
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Post-Punk
TRACKS
01. Dumb Waiters 5:04
02. Pretty In Pink 3:58
03. I Wanna Sleep With You 3:19
04. No Tears 3:17
05. Mr. Jones 4:03
06. Into You Like A Train 4:35
07. It Goes On 3:52
08. So Run Down 2:54
09. All Of This And Nothing 6:23
10. She Is Mine 3:53
Bonus Tracks
11. Mr. Jones (Single Version) 3:26
12. So Run Down (Early Version) 3:05
13. All Of This And Nothing (Demo) 9:02
Mastered At – Sony Music Studios, New York City
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.
Copyright (c) – Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
Credits
Bass – Tim Butler
Design – Steven Newman
Drums, Percussion – Vince Ely
Guitar – John Ashton, Roger Morris
Horns, Keyboards – Duncan Kilburn
Mastered By – Mark Wilder
Producer – Steve Lillywhite (tracks: 1 to 10)
Vocals [Words] – Richard Butler
Written-By, Arranged By – The Psychedelic Furs
Notes
Originally stickered "Sony Music nice price"...
Track 13 ends at 3:51, followed by silence, and then a promotional radio medley from 4:24 to 8:58.
Mastered at Sony Music Studios, New York
I loved both of these albums so much when they were first released in the early '80s. Both are classics of their era. As I only have them in vinyl format, I'm excited to hear the bonus tracks on these remastered digital versions. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. I have these albums on vinyl & cd, but struggled to transfer them to MP3 format. YOU'RE A STAR ⭐
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