STIFFS AND DEMONS, Music Club MCCD 390, 5/1999, UK

Get Started. Start A Fire

Empty Lives

Back In Time

Little Miss Understanding

Soultime

The Beating Of Another Heart

A Brand New Book

Love Without Greed

You Got The World
(Right Where You Want It)

Yesterday's Cloud




Ten Girls Ago

White Honey (Live)

Protection (Live)

Hotel Chambermaid (Live)

Don't Ask Me Questions (Live)

Women In Charge*

That Thing Is Rockin' *

Museum Piece*

*Previously unavailable on a UK CD
All tracks licensed from Crimson Productions Ltd
Compiled and co-ordinated by Kevin Gray
Front cover from a photograph by Chalkie Davies
Inner photo and sleeve by Jules Balme for Vegas



"Did he have to make the maracas louder than everything else on the album?" demanded a confused Rumour member after hearing the final mix of "Empty Lives" for the first time. We had spent two months in New York recording "The Up Escalator", suffering a winter so severe that we were forced to drop our typical English pride and buy pratish fake-fur hats with builtin earmuffs in order to brave the sub-zero temperatures that had turned the streets into frigid, foreboding nightmares.
       I really couldn't think of a smart come-back to this comment and simply let it ride, knowing that whomever I paid exorbitant amounts to produce our albums, no matter how many recent hits this mythical sound-meister had bouncing around the American charts, nothing was going to make GP and The R. sound like they thought they were supposed to sound. It was all over bar the shouting, and nobody had much energy left for even that.
       Surprisingly, "The Up Escalator" charted higher in the UK than "Squeezing Out Sparks" and became the most added record on American radio in the first month of its release. Regardlees, we did our last gig on "Rockpalast" in Essen, Germany, and called it a day.
       I can't say I'm exactly thrilled by most of the live solo stuff included here, either. At some point on my first American solo tour, I decided that I'd better record a few shows, in case I never did it again, and the results, in retrospect, are less than scintillating. It's all a bit "monochromatic", as one reviewer pointed out, and the versions of these old war horses are too close to the original arrangements. "Don't Ask Me Questions", however, from "Live Alone! Discovering Japan" is much better. At least I changed the rhythm!
       But its the studio recordings here, post-Rumour, that stand the test of time more thoroughly. I still don't know how "Get Started. Start A Fire" (yes, that is the first period ever used in the middle of a pop song title) manages to maintain that sinuous, funky groove all the way through with just acoustic guitar, drums and bass as its foundation. When Brinsley's unearthly guitar solo uncoils itself like a venomous snake and slithers over James Halliwell's subtle, sonically detailed synthesizer work, you've got a real spine tingler on your hands.
       "Back In Time" is none too shabby, either. The lyrics, which detail a profound sense of loss by examining the minutiae of one's former surroundings, one's previous life, in fact, are couched perfectly in an ironically comforting, down-home setting. That's me, by the way, playing the sloppy, fittingly amateurish acoustic guitar solo - much to Brinsley's chagrin!
       "Soultime" evokes a similar sense of revisitation, this time harking back to the ultra-violet lights and black paint jobs of sixties moddy boy discos. You can almost see the shimmering ranks of Lambrettas and Vespas outside in the car park. I can still feel the nose bleed too.
       From "Struck By Lightning", "A Brand New Book" pushes us into a bright, but thankfully not saccharine future. I really must have felt like something good was about to happen when I wrote this one. What on earth was I thinking of? Culled from the same album, "Ten Girls Ago" was inspired by a story legendary rocker Dion told me. Apparently, he appeared in a movie many years ago bearing this remarkable title which included among its cast members Eddie Cantor, Burt Lahr, and Buster Keaton, as well as, if memory serves, a huge amount of dogs. The film never saw the light of day, apart from in my song.
       I'm quite partial to "Little Miss Understanding" with it's double rhythm approach, but "That Thing Is Rockin'" and "Museum Piece" are personal favourites (the tunes you leave off the albums are always the best). The latter was written in response to the newly constructed rock 'n' roll museum in Cleveland, Ohio. A horrific idea, to be sure, and to add insult to horror, I think the place is still open for business. And who is that "jerk from Manchester" who "thinks that he's Mister Soulfinger" in "That Thing Is Rockin'"?
       Happy pondering.

GP

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