Skip to main content

The Wild Swans - The Worst Year Of My Life

Here's the perfect song to commemorate the approaching conclusion of 2017.

"You were born hungry
And you'll die angry
And if life has failed you
Leave the cross you're nailed to
You belong to no one
And you owe nothing
There's no golden future
Just an open wound there
Oh lord, this is the worst year of my life"


Paul Simpson's despondent baritone can almost pass for Morrissey's throughout much of The Wild Swans' 1988 album, Bringing Home the Ashes. Fans of The Smiths and fellow Liverpudlians, Echo and the Bunnymen, will hear aspects of both groups in the shimmering alt-pop of the Swans. In fact, Pete De Freitas (Echo & the Bunnymen drummer) produced the album's first single, Young Manhood. Like The Mighty Lemon Drops and The Teardrop Explodes (whom Simpson left in 1980), The Wild Swans were a second-tier British indie pop group that never quite broke through in the States. The band was featured on two widely distributed Sire Records compilations at the end of the 80s, which is where I first heard them. Over the years Simpson has dismissed their 1988 major label debut:

"Major label thinking is like a virus, you forget why you started the band and fall into the 'hit' record mind-set... Major labels suck the poetry from your bones and fill the gaps with a cement made from cocaine and crushed teenagers."

Despite the cocaine and crushed teenagers, I really like this record. Give it a listen as you wrap-up one of the worst years in contemporary American history and anxiously await the foreboding arrival of 2018.

The Wild Swans - Bringing Home The Ashes (1988)

Comments

Post a Comment

Trending Tracks

Sweet - Love Is Like Oxygen

I've always loved glam rock -- Bowie , The New York Dolls , Mott The Hoople ,  Queen , T. Rex . The flamboyant and gender-bending style. The attitude, sparkly and swagger. The first time I heard Sweet was Fox On The Run . It was my favorite song on the Dazed and Confused Soundtrack. I think it was the swirling, bubbling synthesizer that drew me in. At the time I had no idea that Sweet was a part of the 1970s glam world. Later, I found out that they sang Ballroom Blitz . That's the same band? Then, in college, I bought Action and fell in love with tunes like Lady Starlight and the title track . As I pieced together their discography (in a pre-Internet age), I noticed that the band's sound inexplicably wavered between hard rock, glam and bubble-gum pop. I could never put my finger on what Sweet was all about. I just loved a lot of their songs. This week, I picked up a copy of their 1977 album, Level Headed . The album is anything but steady (as the title would have yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Yes - Into The Lens

You know the story. The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" becomes the first music video shown on MTV in the U.S. on August 1981. The 80's first flash in the pan is born. But do you know the next part of the story? The Buggles (Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn) brought prog rock dinosaurs, Yes, back to life for a brief stint as new wave zombies with rad guitar solos. Now, how the hell did that happen? Turns out that Downes and Horn were under the same management as Yes. After 1978's  Tormato , an album featuring the forgettable "Don't Kill The Whale," Jon Anderson (vocals) and Rick Wakemen (keyboard wizardry) went splitsville. At that point, most people would probably agree that the band was dead. Steve Howe and Chris Squire saw it differently. Yes' management approached their buddies in The Buggles about jamming with the remains of Yes: Howe (guitar), Squire (bass) and Alan White (drums). What I can only imagine as a weird experience fo...
Post a Comment
Read more