CHER, CHRISSIE HYNDE AND NENEH CHERRY WITH ERIC CLAPTON – "Love Can Build A Bridge"

LUUURRRRRVE CAN BILLLLLD A BRIIIIIIIDGE
BETWEEN YOURRRR ARRRSE AAAAAND MIIIINE

(sorry)

This video however, is something to behold…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CrHpq9c1G8

It’s on jukeboxes? Blimey..

This got a semi-pass for not being a lousy comedy single once more, all of which were getting less and less funny as they went on..

It’s the musical equivalent of the serious documentary after the amusing sketchy bits involving random BBC tv show cast members. Something to make everyone go ‘yes, but let’s not lose sight of why we are here..’

Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull. Almost criminally dull for such a talented conglomeration of artists.

Though the original is also dull dull dull dull dull, if with rather less “late 80s soft rock instrumentation revived for the mid 90s preusmably to persuade people by now in at least their late 20s to dip into their pockets for charity, mate”.

It seems wrong that this is the only legitimate chance that we have to discuss the incomparable Neneh Cherry here, but well, it was tax evasion that got Al Capone behind bars, so..

She should have interrupted Eric Clapton’s guitar wank by doing her genuinely timeless “Whatz ‘e like? Whatz ‘e like anyway? Yo’ man what do you expect the guy’s a gigolo… man…You know wotti mean? ” routine. That would have been a real comic relief.

I really have no idea why she is on this record at all (although the different timbre and texture of her voice works as a good compliment to those of de rockier chicks, even though she is very clearly the 3rd-ranking on the bill), or what the idea behind inviting her was (raising her profile just before a new album?). She wasn’t mega-prolific, but I think I can say with some confidence that this was by some way the worst track she was involved with (*well, unless she was on Band Aid 2, which she may have been. But actually this is still duller than that uninspired confection) . Even though for something that is clearly not one of her preferred styles, she performs admirably. Indeed so much so that in an alternate universe it raises the possibility of her being in a band like Vixen, adding her touch to numbers like “Love Made Me” and “Cryin'”.

Jumping Jack Christ, what the hell is this.

It’s like they wanted to beat the Simpsons and Sting’s We’re Sending Our Love Down The Well at its own game.

The ill-advised photo montage backdrop of African poverty aside (because the singers seem even more in on the joke of the music than we are), from the video I find this far funnier than any “comedy” Comic Relief single.

Highlights include Clapton’s guitar solo barging its way in uninvited, as if we aren’t a decade on from Edge of Darkness (with the first episode’s CND meeting where every adult male under 25 was the lovechild of Martika and Jim Reid) and Hynde shoving Cherry in the forehead at the end – presumably in retaliation for looking like Diego Forlan’s mum. And it’s a very incongruous appearance from three experienced, talented heads, as if they’d been picked out of a hat at random. How about Kylie, Kate Jackson (ificouldtellyouthatitwasthelongblondesandnotthecharliesangelsoneforonedayyourworldwouldn’tfallapart*) and Azaelia Banks for 2015?

Infinitely funnier than Rednex, though that was for a cause that benefitted virtually nobody but the syringing of adult eardrums; but the kitschest number 1 of the decade used the least promising ingredients to create something really quite likeable.. to the prepubescent, and misguided suburban line-dancer anyway. This was ostensibly for a good cause, but not particularly tastefully, it nearly caused me to die laughing.

2.

I have nothing else to add other than this beautiful slice of comic disbelief I found today. What is it like, it’s like a juggalo, man.

http://tinyurl.com/qzzyh2e

* Sorry. I won’t do this again on Popular. Well, I’ll only do it twice.

I never heard this version until recently….but oh am I familiar with the country original by the Judds. In 1993 or so, my elem school incorporated this in every program/assembly possible. 9 year old me considered this a slight improvement over the previous year’s ubiquitous school hit Achy Breaky Heart, but not by much.

Haw haw, the wiki entry for this reads ‘…was released and reached #1 in the UK charts for a week and won a Academy Award for Best Original Music.’ Nice.

I don’t have much to add to Tom’s review of this record; it’s not completely terrible by any means and maybe even works well as a call to duty to be charitable, but it plods and it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone choosing to listen to this if there was anything else from Cher, etc. … around to choose from (which there always will be).

Clapton’s wailing here reminds me of the guitar on TLC’s sultry Red Light Special from around this time (the single between Creep and Waterfalls from CrazySexyCool, the inescapable album of ’95 in the US; RLS seemed to be where they reeled in the boys).

In 1995 Comic Relief decided to become serious and big budget. After 1993’s truly abysmal number four smash “Stick It Out” by a below par Right Said Fred (“and Friends,” said “Friends” including Jools Holland and sundry underemployed British comedians and actors of the period) this was perhaps no bad idea, but the end result, with its whimpers of walking across the desert sans shoes and joining the tribes of man, sounds like any generic post-“We Are The World” charity record with performances ‘phoned in from celebrities who had long since demonstrably proved that they were capable of better; the ritual upward tuggings of Soul and overstated Passion are more than the poor old Judds song can bear. One wishes that they had used 1994’s Youssou N’Dour/Neneh collaboration “7 Seconds” instead – in Britain a number three hit which stayed on the chart for almost six months and outsold many of that year’s number ones – a record whose quiet power works because of its anti-grandstanding, its intensely intimate suggestions of telepathy; whereas with “Love Can Build A Bridge,” I nod my head sagely, take in the message and lose interest approximately seven seconds after it has ended, or (given that it was produced by Peter Asher) petered out.

I’d have liked this song a lot more if they’d picked a proper one-off group name instead of that absurdly long co-credit. My suggestions:

– The Comical Relievers
– The Africa Savers
– The Supergroup
– The Hilarious Red-Nose Fun-Time Band feat. Cher

This is so dullissimo. Although oddly enough, “Buffalo Stance” is the only rap I can perform perfectly. yanowoimean?

#18 ‘Sting followed by SUAD is very K-Tel’

A schoolboy error – of course SUAD must always dance BEFORE The Police come.

#18 Now 30 was the last installment that I bought in the 1990s (being on the verge of switching to Britpop-compilation-a-geddon ‘Best Album In The World… Ever’s). When I got to ‘Glory Box’ I was knocked for six, spent my next pocket money on the cassette of ‘Dummy’ and a black velvet floppy hat and THE GOTH PHASE COMMENCED.

The rest of the comp isn’t bad either, some absolute bangers on disc 2 – even the M People and Oasis tracks are above average for them. The only ones I can’t bear to listen to now are ‘Whoops Now’ (Tena lady advert soundtrack if ever there was one) and the forthcoming bunny. ‘Hoochie Bootie’ by Ultimate Kaos, now there’s a tune….

Here are some more credits that would have been better than “Cher, Chrissie Hynde and Neneh Cherry with Eric Clapton”:

– Cherichricherry
– The “Love Can Build A Bridge” Singers
– The Po Faces
– Quadruple Act
– The Non-Stonkers
– Neneh Cherry, Eric Clapton and Cher with Chrissie Hynde

@Patrick, 26. Cher’s worth springing for at least a post-Believe Greatest Hits Collection in my view. That’s what I have, and there’s not a duff track on it, and the peaks are outstanding – one of those coming up, un-Bunnied in 1996.

Don’t ya think it’s time… don’t ya think it’s time. *smiles wisely*

I want to punch this song.

Clearly Chris Morris, and the respective casts of Father Ted and the Fast Show, all said no to doing a single. After all as were seemingly told repeatedly in 1995 ‘comedy was the new rock ‘n roll.’ That said Vic and Bob worked with EMF later in the year to cover I’m a Believer, which could easily of been mistaken for a Comic Relief release.

#22 – If is wasn’t for this project I doubt I would ever have heard LCBAB again. I’m sure I can remember every number 1 after this until 1999.

#31 – Whatever about the other 2 Father Ted did not begin until around May 1995 so it was well after comic relief time. Even then the entire cast was unknown and the show itself only gained classic status after the flawless second series in 1996.

@26 “Neneh Cherry was a pop chameleon”.

Too right. It’s a mighty long way from LCBAB to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jovsxh8FeYo

The (Aforementioned) Real McCoy subsequently turned up as part of Poland’s 2006 Eurovision effort. Nobody was entirely sure why, least of all the televoting public.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5UzdWKg-gw

Re 37: Poland gave Germany Podolski and Klose, they return the favour with that (and a singer who looks like a crust punk from Hebden Bridge seemingly sniffing the girl’s crotch at the end.) World War III on the cards?

Re 38: I really quite like Another Night but it’s one of the cheesiest songs ever recorded. Not necessarily a buzzkill but I don’t like using “cheese” as an informal adjective any more than old school marms like using the word “nice.” But that, the Bronski Beat-sampling Automatic Lover and It’s On You (for the guitar solo alone) are prime slices of Cathedral City. On toast. WITH WORCESTER MOTHERFREAKIN’ WORCESTER SAUCE.

Sorry, got a bit carried away there.

In fact, as well as Cotton Eye Joe, the former’s one of the “bad example’ tracks used on Kerrang! Radio ads, given the good ones feature C******y (1) I somewhat doubt their authority to declare “death to false metal.”

The Ted Maul/Uzi Lover bit was CUT? Criminal. Yes, depending on your kitsch-o-meter, there’s some very interesting slices of Eurodance to come – after the unexpected and brilliant feedback on Omen III in Popular ’94, can’t wait to dissect future bunnies. That alone is motivation to carry on Popular till the bitter end. (Not quite the video for Morrissey’s Interesting Drug!)

(1) Censored less because they’re a bunny, and more because they’re crap.

Struggling to find a better slot to say farewell to JJ Cale, blues guitarist, songwriter, inspiration to the likes of Mark Knopfler (who picked up his guitar style) and Eric Clapton (who covered a couple of his songs and thus stole much of the credit due to Cale who was a fine but underrated performer in his own right.

As Clapton it namechecked here it will have to do.

Not to be confused with John Cale, of course.