SLADE – "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me"

I think it’s probably safe to say that this isn’t about Vietnam, Northern Ireland, or critical appraisals of the Marxist philosophy (see Matching Mole at around this time, a cult band if ever there was one!) Which is not to say there isn’t a political statement to be found in there at all – even if it’s a cheerful two-fingered salute to the smug Middle-Englanders currently running the country!

But this if probably Slade being playfully self-referential and having a grand old time about it. Slade in overdrive, cruising along on their reputation.

Oddly enough, this is one I thought I remembered, and then discovered that alone amongst Slade’s number ones I have little recollection of it. At the moment I’m inclined to think that this, rather than Take Me Bak ‘Ome, is the real runt of the litter. Over the last few weeks I’ve rather come to like the spareness and near-despair of TMB’O. But maybe this one will grow on me too.

Probably a 4 from me.

Warm and sentimental? “When a girl’s meaning yes she says no”? Even at an age when I didn’t realise the implications of that line, I still thought it was pretty unfair – what’s a girl to say when she means no?!

The usual great party tune, and the number one that ended my primary school days. Not that I associate it with that event from memory, oddly enough.

Ah but there is that “i” missing from “My Frend Stan” (at least on my copy).

Aye, Jim Lea’s a seriously underrated bass player.

On first listen: A few too many trips to the well for this group, I think. But who knows – “Mama” grew on me a great deal in the time after its Popular turn. I dunno, though, this one really feels empty somehow – not spiritually, but aurally. It feels like a demo…there’s a hole in the mix.

1985 Top 50 smash ‘Myzterious Mizter Jones’ was a late attempt to revive the mispelt formula.

Like Dr. Casino, this always sounds muddy to me, like something that’s been taped off the radio. It takes until the free-spirited “Wauuugh! Hauuugh!” of the chorus until I can really enter into the spirit of the thing. But its usual effect upon me is to remind me of other Slade songs that I’d rather be listening to.

Here’s a Fascinating Fact: “My Frend Stan” spent three weeks at #1 in the Republic of Ireland, whereas “Skweeze Me” only managed one week (same as the UK).

There’s no question that this simply rode in on the coat-tails of the brilliant COFTN and owed its coming straight in at the top largely to advanced orders. I actually think very little of SMPM as a track in itself, although in retropsect the intro was indeed Pistols-inspiring, as Marcello says. Apart from that, I think it goes nowhere fast. Cobbled together from nothing, it seems to me.

Rosie – I assume by “Smug Little Englanders currently running the country”, you were referring to Ted back in the day and not to the actual current administration, who are smug, English-hating Sweaties, of course?

Waldo, yes I meant Ted and the Selsdon wannabes. And I’m not going to be drawn on the second part.

Late to the party on this one and pretty much my thoughts are in line with the concensus. This was & is one of Slades weaker songs and was no doubt at No.1 due to their overwhelming popularity at the time. Noddys vocals are just plain un-appetising when he shreiks out the chorus. Like stilletos down a blackboard. My No.1 of choice at this time would have been the awesome ‘Life On Mars’ Bowie’s oddly late released ‘My Way’ inspired consideration on the eternal fascination with fame & the silver screen. Another artist at the height of his powers but strangely unable to translate that into No.1 singles until much later.

Slade did at least though continue Glam’s domination for a while. Hopefully I’m not giving anything away by saying their reign at the top was ended by a fairly unlikely effort about as un-glam as you can get.

Oh, get off that fence MC!

I sometimes used to think that there existed good and bad pretentiousness, but as with the notion of good and bad stress it’s a bit of a chimera. There’s nothing wrong with successful pretentiousness since that is the literal purpose of art (in direct flaunting of the second commandment) but failed pretentiousness is like failed capitalism; its failure leaves an embarrassing stench under the diplomatic carpet.

“Life On Mars?” from that question mark downwards is an example of failed pretentiousness; indeed it is a failed pop single – a two-year-old album track pressed into abrupt 45 action to promote the back catalogue. Bowie’s attempts to do a Hockney/Ballard remix of “American Pie” flounder under the unsupportable weight of all its misfiring lyrical metaphors, the pomp-prog musical backing (complete with Rick Wakeman) which in a parallel world would have been the Moody Blues and Bowie’s own, exceptionally unpleasant yowling vocal.

It’s probably no accident that Bowie’s songs tend to work better when sung and performed by others; “All The Young Dudes,” for instance, has equally preposterous lyrics (Dylan after all these years still had so much to answer for) but Ian Hunter and Mott attack the song with such fervour that you believe them, are swept along with the flow. The fact that Lulu and Kurt could elicit such diverse meanings from “The Man Who Sold The World,” each giving an entirely individualistic reading of the line “I thought you died a long, a long, long time ago” indicates the ruined nobility which a good interpreter can evoke from an initially unpromising song.

The two best versions of “Life On Mars?” on record both treat the song with studied irreverence; Co.Ro’s Euro happy hardcore version – a shock smash hit at Club Poptimism – works for the same reasons as Peter Noone’s “Oh You Pretty Things”; in each instance, the singer clearly hasn’t a clue what Bowie is going on about but does their best anyway – in Co.Ro’s case, the dropped diphthongs and mangled vowels actually help stir the words into the nonsensical bouillabase that they constituted all along. In contrast, Django Bates and Human Chain’s reading from a couple of years ago succeeds by out-arthousing the arthouse man with its Bartokian string quartet reharmonisations, singer Josefine Lindstrand’s equally uncomprehending vocal, trademark Loose Tubes chord changes and saxophonists Iain Ballamy and David Sanborn (! – but then the latter did play on Young Americans) attempting to out-Ornette each other. Its pretentiousness is now so ludicrous yet bold that it succeeds.

It got a bit silly when they had to give Leo McKern a shave and haircut before resuscitating him.

Tom – The last episode, yes. As Marcello says, when Leo walked into the House of Lords through the St Stephens entrance having alighted the crazy bus driven by the dwarf, it had finished its orbit of the planet Silly.

Marcello – you are obviously in Bowie denial. I can’t let you get away with your misguided dismissal. If a failed pop single can sustain the number 3 position for three weeks then I’d like a few myself. LOM is classic Bowie and indeed classic Ronson, who arranged it. Yes Wakeman played piano but it is one of his better moments (he still plays it at his own gigs). The dense lyric interweaves images and iconic references into a meditation on the vagueries of fame & the media & although it leaves plenty of room for interpretation it doesn’t, to these ears owe anything to American Pie. Bowie, himself provides a magnificent vocal performance reaching notes he never quite could again. It is rare that I prefer an interpretation of an artists songs over the original artist performance and it is testament to the quality of an artists songs that reasonable cover versions can be made at all. Bowie’s version of LOM though has no parallels. However ATYD by Mott is one example (although, of course Bowie sings the chorus) and both Lulu (with Bowie again) & Kurt made very reasonable attempts at TMWSTW – the original, though still stands.

I also quite liked Linda Lewis’ Rock-A-Doodle-Doo at this time especially the middle bit.

I think Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day” does a much better job with the Lear/Milligan/pop interface, as indeed did Robert Wyatt passim at the time. “LOM”‘s half-baked images are the kind of thing you write in your English ink exercise jotter when you’re fourteen and you’re convinced you’ve written The Waste Land, only you get it back with a D- and “See me” inscribed in red ink.

By failed pop single I of course mean aesthetic failure. Otherwise we’d all give “Tie A Yellow Ribbon” a 10.

Sitwell/Walton(/Lambert) Facade is of course the beginning of rap…

Agree with ITFU about Linda Lewis though. Good record that.

Yowzah! I stop looking for a couple of weeks and suddenly there are hundreds of posts? I knew this one was coming up, so I bought the 45 in a charity shop over the weekend, and I can now make the informed comment: er, it’s just sort of going through the motions a bit isn’t it? Still, at least I got ‘Kill Em At The Hot Club Tonite’.

Oh, and according to Noddy Holder, the first batch of promotional copies of ‘My Friend Stan’ did indeed have a spelling mistake – they were labelled as ‘My Friend Satan’. No wonder it never got to Number One!

I seem to have stumbled upon the Popular “Life On Mars?” sub-thread, and would it not be fair for all to observe the splendour of Bowie’s Burroughs-esque songwriting technique here? 1973…little wonder (arf!) that Bowie’s most famous song is re-released as an anthem for a confused generation. A generation that conceals young Blairs and Browns within its’ ranks.

You can make the lyrics mean what you want. You can dismiss the song as pretentious. You can do what you like, but this song off “Hunky Dory” is gonna keep coming back…whether we love or loathe it.

It’s a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
And her mummy is yelling “no”
But her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen

As she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she’s hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
Cuz she’s lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
If they asked her to focus on

Sailor’s fighting in the dance hall

Oh man

Look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show

Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy

Oh man

Wonder if they’ll ever know?
They’re in the best selling show

Is there life on Mars?

It’s on America’s tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
And that workers are struck for fame
Cuz Lennon’s on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
Cuz I’ve written it ten times or more
It’s about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailor’s fighting in the dance hall

Oh man

Look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show

Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy

Oh man

Wonder if they’ll ever know?
They’re in the best selling show

Is there life on Mars?

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nasa_launches_david_bowie_concept

seems appropriate at this juncture 😉

love ‘life on mars’ but this – “LOM”’s half-baked images are the kind of thing you write in your English ink exercise jotter when you’re fourteen and you’re convinced you’ve written The Waste Land, only you get it back with a D- and “See me” inscribed in red ink.” – is so very otm.

TPL returns to Slade, and in my opinion their greatest album although it is of course also their “greatest” album.

Childhood, Peanuts, “I got a rock”: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/underdog-hotshots-snoopy-vs-red-baron.html Thanks for reading, everyone!

This is a little too relentless for my tastes – a riff and a chorus hammered over and over with diminishing returns. Regardless of what you think of Life on Mars? Bowie had the sense to avoid boxing himself in musically like Slade and Bolan did