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Saturday 12 September 2015

You Used To Speak The Truth But Now You're Clever


When I posted Boom, a Happy Mondays B-side from 1988, a couple of weeks ago I flipped the 12" over to enjoy the A-side shortly afterwards. If I could only have one Happy Mondays song it would be Wrote For Luck, their essence distilled into a gloriously fucked up but funky racket. Shaun's lyrics are his best, full of truths and wit, and Horse's guitar part is from some other place entirely. Martin Hannett's production makes perfect sense. Shaun said of working with Hannett it was the only time the producer was more out of it than the band. You could have the album version, the various mixes, the W.F.L. Oakenfold and Vince Clarke versions, any of them. In October 1988 The Bailey Brothers shot a video for the in Legends discoteque in town. It is also a work of genius- fill a city centre club with your mates, get them refreshed and roll cameras. Shaun's facial expressions tell the story in themselves. 




9 comments:

drew said...

The album version for me

Anonymous said...

I love the album version but what I really love about this one is when Horse's guitar comes back in. Goosebumps
Swiss Adam

Echorich said...

Ditto Drew here. Happy Mondays and Hannett created enough chaos for my liking here. And poor Martin Hannett. History, especially found movies and books, has not been kind to him - he was either difficult, out of his mind, weird, or all of these. I bet the reality was that he was a production genius who clashed with artist egos more than their musical intentions.

Anonymous said...

I think he's widely recognised as the production genius of that period tbh. Along with Adrian Sherwood.
Swiss Adam

Echorich said...

Oh I agree SA, it's just that he gets almost parodied as a persona when he is written about or portrayed - 24 Hour Party People is a good example. For all his JD, NO, Mondays, Magazine, ACR and Invisible Girls work, It's the amazing hollow funk/No Wave of ESG I always return to - haunting, funky beats.

Anto said...

for such a band of messieurs and lunatics this tune in particular is to my mind as deep as anything leonard cohen or that type would release. Not in a sombre way, just..well I dont know, maybe it was it was being a certain age when it came out. Man. But to me this sums up the mania of that time so well and is a serious tune (jokes not withstanding). I can recall so many half assed parties or sessions in houses and when this was played it took hold of the room like no other song. I had the t-shirt with the graphic that you have in th epos (didn't we all) and when I did my J1 in boston in 1990 and wore it those in the know would stop you in the street to share their thoughts, usually concerning if I knew where certain materials could be purchased. It was some time to be around thats for sure. Lets hope Meadows doesn't make a bollox of it tomorrow night

Anto said...

*messers* not messieurs. ???

Anto said...

Last comment, I promise, there's a dude in the background wearing eighties yuppie braces and tie with rick astely quiff. Those were heady times

Swiss Adam said...

I had that t-shirt too Anto. I saw a youngster (20 something) wearing one the other day which struck me.

I hope Meadows gets it right too. I guess they'll always be people who say 'it didn't look like that/people didn't wear that'.