I went to sixteen gigs in 2025, a pretty good number, and several of them were very memorable- Sabres Of Paradise (twice!), Iggy Pop, and Mercury Rev all stand out in my mind and The Beta Band were really good too though spoilt slightly by the crowd. In early May I saw Shack at The Ritz which as far as good gigs go was right up there, the Head brothers in sparkling form. This song wasn't on the setlist that night but I've been playing it loads recently, a 1990 standalone single.
I Know You Well (12"Extended Mix)
Mick Head's songwriting chops are very evident, the sound is pure 1990 guitar band (Mick has said he was massively inspired by The Stone Roses debut album) and it marries 1966 Beatles (the bass from Taxman, the Revolver style acid guitar lines) with spacious, indie dance beats. The section from two minutes fourteen seconds is psychedelic Scouse and then the breakdown at two minutes thirty is indie dance heaven.
The video is pure low budget 1990 too...
Mick also nods his head to his biggest musical hero, Arthur Lee of Love, with the line, 'All God's children gotta have their freedom', a line from Love's The Red Telephone. When I saw Shack at The Ritz in May they encored with one song, a cover of Love's A House Is Not A Motel. I haven't posted nearly enough Love at Bagging Area. This pair of songs are from Forever Changes, an album that shows Arthur Lee's disillusion with the hippy dream, an album released at the height of flower power, but where Lee could see it was built on sand. Forever Changes is a lament in some ways, for a new age that wasn't going to arrive.
Alone Again Or is utter beauty, complete 1967 brilliance. It was written by Bryan MacLean. Arthur Lee wasn't in the studio when it was recorded and reportedly grew jealous of people's praise for it. Lee then added the word 'or' to the song's title and re- recorded it with his voice to the fore on co- lead vox. These things contribute to bands splitting up- it led to Bryan quitting the group after the reelase of Forever Changes- but listen to the acoustic guitars, those horns, the orchestral flourishes and the bittersweet lyrics, and bask in it. What a song.
Andmoreagain is an Arthur Lee song, sumptuous psychedelic folk with sweeping Burt Bacharach style strings and LA's Wrecking Crew playing (Carole Kaye on bass, Hal Blaine on drums, Billy Strange on guitar and Don Randi on keys). Bewilderingly good. Lee's lyrics are a stream of consciousness about addiction, temptations and defence mechanisms.
2 comments:
You also attended your own gigs, just in a different capacity, so that pushes the numbers up a bit
I have nothing at all by Shack on my shelves but I will be acquiring the track you posted. (They remind of The La's). I do, of course, have Forever Changes, a perfect album, and there are not many of them about.
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