WHAT A TEMPER!: TWILIGHTS GRAY LIGHT

Another busy week at the office with never enough time to get anything substantial accomplished. Everybody wants a piece of me and consequently nothing is left for myself in the end.

The chill of the past week has departed, leaving behind blue skies and pleasant Fall temperatures. My music experience this Friday night was under starry skies in the cool darkness outside the house.

According to Chris Adams:

On July 6, 1987, the release date of Echo & The Bunnymen, the band previewed the album with a brief set atop the HMV Record shop on Oxford Street in London, mimicking The Beatles' rooftop concert on The Apple Records building almost two decades earlier. In another homage to the Fab Four, they closed the performance with a delightfully ramshackled thrash through "Twist and Shout." Eighty feet in the air, the band still managed to bring traffic to a standstill on the sweltering streets below.

The person from whom I bought the album below said that it was autographed by the Bunnymen during that album launch gig on the roof in 1987.

My late start of the show meant I could only listen to one CD this evening. I chose the bands Echo & The Bunnymen album.

Echo & the Bunnymen took time off from touring, writing and recording after the release of the critically acclaimed Ocean Rain in 1984, because the band's manager, Bill Drummond, felt that a year off would help the band write different kinds of songs in preparation for the next album. An apparent lack of creative energy, changes in management, the temporary departure of their drummer (Pete de Freitas), heavy drinking and growing tensions within the band caused the recording and release of Echo & The Bunnymen to drag out for over two years.

The resulting album was disliked by the entire band. Describing what he thought of as the over-production of the album Will Sergeant described it as "an overcooked fish" in 1987; bass guitarist Les Pattinson said, "I like the songs, just hated the mixes"; and in 1995 McCulloch said, "It still sounds crap."

...we can't go on like we were in 1981. You can't get by because "we're the coolest group in the world" or whatever. We have to change as well, because all of the audience are changing. The minute you try to recreate something that's gone before, that's when somebody who has seen you a lot will think, "Hang on, this ain't as good as it was." - Ian McCulloch, 1987

This was the last album made by the original four members, Ian departing the band in 1988 and Pete dieing in a motorcycle accident in 1989.

But it was certainly good enough for me. I had a copy of the 2003 edition with 7 bonus tracks. I was dancing for the nearly 80 minutes it was playing in my headphones. And since I was deep in the "zone" by that time, I could not help but listen to several of my favorite tracks over and over again (Bedbugs and Ballyhoo, Lips Like Sugar, Jimmy Brown and Bring On The Dancing Horses). It was nearly 1 AM by the time it was all over. I dropped into bed.

The healthy debate