FEARGAL SHARKEY – "A Good Heart"

It makes me wonder whether FS had any sense of what had previously endeared him to his audience when he released drivel like this. It’s the bland 80s synth-soul arrangement and hoarse ‘earnest’ vocal that sinks it .
Some of his former bandmates did something more interesting with That Petrol Emotion – who never enjoyed the success their music deserved.

That video accentuates the uninspired nature of the rhythm track…

Wasn’t ‘You Little Thief’ written by the other songwriter from Lone Justice, as a rather more fiery companion song about the same relationship?

i quite liked this. but it was no Never Never (as i didn’t know it was called) which i always forget was written by the amazing Vince Clark.

Bwahahaha that’s an excellent sleeve picture there! He hasn’t changed a bit.

I never bought the patronising and slightly racist notion of the Undertones being happy, innocent boys from Derry; no one could have grown up innocent in that era. And their more straightforward, boisterous boy-punk-pop (or was it that straightforward? “Teenage Kicks” is an ode to self-pleasure, as, more subtly, is “My Perfect Cousin,” and the latter was hip enough to namecheck the Human League a year before they started having hits. Moreover, the hero of “Jimmy Jimmy,” if hero he be, ends up disappearing one night – and anyone involved in the Troubles at first hand would feel the instant, deep chill engendered by that line) became increasingly balanced by a gradual enlarging of their canvas – the Afro off-beats of the nuclear war-heralding “It’s Going To Happen!,” the ravaged psych-semi-lite of “Beautiful Friend” and “Love Parade,” the unsettling question mark balladry of “Wednesday Week,” perhaps above all the exquisitely tortured liquidity of the 45 version of “Julie Ocean,” which latter really penetrated me in my first term at university, reading Joyce’s Dubliners (especially “The Dead”).

The conflict which made the Undertones worthwhile – in their semi-unassuming way, they are one of the great singles bands – lay initially between the new wave thrash of the music and Feargal Sharkey’s uncannily pure and technically agile voice, like a contralto Count John McCormack. The white soul forays of their final days (“Got To Have You Back”) suggested that this was the way Sharkey was destined to follow; his first record after the Undertones split, “Never Never,” recorded with Vince Clarke under the banner of The Assembly, was a sufficiently big and convincing hit (#4, November 1983) to make him feel that he was doing the right thing.

Whereas in 1985 the rest of the Undertones regrouped under the notably more aggressive That Petrol Emotion (though 1987’s “Big Decision,” Madchester three years ahead of schedule, was unlucky not to go Top 40), Sharkey went for the mainstream. John Peel commented at the time that he was absolutely happy with Sharkey’s new solo success, even though he was moving into a mainstream which to Peel was lifelong anathema; unlike other previous Peel discoveries such as Marc Bolan, Sharkey remained close friends and didn’t turn his back on him the second he had a number one.

Maria McKee, meanwhile, came close to a hit in 1985 with Lone Justice’s “Ways To Be Wicked” – a coruscating vocal performance, and infinitely more arresting than that which eventually did bring her a number one as an artist. But as a writer she was responsible for “A Good Heart.” The song is good – a more upbeat variant on the lyrical theme of its predecessor at number one, but also a more realistic and cynical viewpoint (“I know that love is quite a vice”) – and Sharkey’s performance uncannily powerful, ranging from his spiteful “experts say” to his soaring “please be gentle with this heart of mine.”

But alas we have to listen to it through the Pernod gauze of the sickly production by David A Stewart Out Of The Eurythmics (is he pop’s real Antichrist?); thus the gloopily booming syndrums, the “soulful” backing vocals, the spittle ponds of Fairlight mucking about which render both McKee’s song and Sharkey’s singing utterly sterile – and, as is so frequently the case, a record which sounded expensive in 1985 can end up sounding horrendously cheap a generation down the line. The career didn’t last, and Sharkey has eventually ended up telling is that home taping is killing music (essentially), but I still think somebody (McKee? Rick Rubin?) should coax him back into the studio and record this song in a way that allows both it and him to breathe.

Not a lot to add to the above. The Undertones were a great singles band, although I would never want to hear a whole album.

This is dire. The production especially.

What was happening in mid 80s mainstream pop? I can’t get my head round it. Did everyone sit around the control room nodding their heads to the playback of this?

Maybe they weren’t doing enough drugs.

Because his cousin is a wanker??? I dunno.

I’m a little surprised at the dislike for this here. I preferred ‘Listen To Your Father’ too but there’s nowt much wrong with this, though I did prefer Feargal in an anorak to a suit.

Stiff Little Fingers? Therapy? Them?

Re: 14. I think you might be overlooking Van Morrison, anto. He does cod-American a lot of the time, but not always.

I’d just like to thank punctum for that massive slab of namedropping, I’ve been poking around with That Petrol Emotion this evening thanks to that.

Also – The Assembly’s “Never Never” has been playing in my head all day, even though I only listened to it once yesterday for the first time in quite a few years. Perhaps I like it (and, by implication, Sharkey’s voice) more than I think.

Mention of Big Decision brings to mind Momus’* riposte:
“My downfall came from being three things the working classes hated:/Agitated, organised and over-educated.”

*A looming presence in Freaky Trigger’s murky, distant past.

Re 23: Unless he’s still with us, in another guise…

Here’s a link to That Petrol Emotion which reminds me again why I loved them at the time and makes me more pissed off that they didn’t enjoy greater success.
Now that they have reformed perhaps Manic Pop Thrill will be rereleased.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3KL9IrcxJA

Yes, worse than I remembered too. Who bought it? In Australia, people my age who were too young and too opposite-end-of-the-earth to remember “Teenage Kicks” (John Peel’s broadcasts didn’t carry that far). When this was your first exposure to Feargal, the high vocals had a certain novelty value. We duly gave “A Good Heart” two weeks at the top in February 1986.

Now, though, it feels like one of the most dated tracks of this year. The energetic concert video is an utter mismatch for its soundtrack; the puttering keyboards and incongruous soul-singer backing sap all the life out of it, and that strangled squawk of guitar doesn’t inject any back in.

I had expected this would be a 4 or 5 for me, but that 3 is looking pretty reasonable.

#9 “Slightly racist” is ridiculous in the context of 5 white guys from, legally at least, the same country ! I do agree that “Ways To Be Wicked” is a great song. I remember hearing that on “5-a-side” on the old Radio 5 on the same day as “Cemetery Gates” by The Smiths and thinking what a great music policy they’ve got. Of course it was destroyed by John Birt a few months later and I’ve yet to meet in person or print another fan of the station.

I was surprised that this got to number one though pleased for Feargal.For all the praise, The Undertones’ chart fortunes were relatively modest and as Feargal didn’t write the songs he wouldn’t have been able to retire on the proceeds. Having said that it is a rather flat record.

TOTPWatch: Feargal Sharkey thrice performed ‘A Good Heart’ on Top Of The Pops (The Christmas edition we’ll come to in good time);

31 October 1985. Also in the studio that week were; Matt Bianco and King. Janice Long and Simon Bates were the hosts.

14 November 1985. Also in the studio that week were; Lloyd Cole & The Commotions. Gary Davies and Mike Smith were the hosts.

Two rather sparse editions there.

I’m very prone to letting love of some act carry forward to worse or worthless later recordings, so I’d have scored this a bit higher just for the pleasure of hearing that extremely distinctive voice, which had led several records I’d deeply loved, at #1. But really it isn’t any good and 3 is fair enough.

Billy (again) – yes, you’re right – it was the guy (I think) writing about the girl. A better song, if only because it was a faster track and I think suited his voice better (closer to the good old undertones days than this shoulder-pad ballad)

I’m with Erithian on the subject of the Undertones – hugely overrated are the words I’d use too and although I was never going to be out buying their records thought the later singles were at least an improvement.

Punctum @9: yeah it namechecks the Hunman League but in a pretty pisstaking way ie “they’re the kind of pretentious band that a wanker like Kevin would enjoy – probably didn’t like them not using guitars too” (when to me the Human League had more originality in one song than the Undertones had in a whole career)
it reminds me a bit of Steely Dan namechecking the Eagles in one of their lyrics (also in a derogatory way in this case the annoying neighbours playing them)and the Eagles completely missing the point and thinking they were getting props from them.

BTW, more or less as some blog-wags predicted a month or so ago, the 5 song trek from ‘I got you babe’ to ‘Good heart’ is the first five song sequence all of whose Tom-scores (which I’ve found generous!) are 4 or lower (the 5-song averages and medians are easily the worst so far too, I’m pretty sure).

The light at the end of the tunnel… is presumably a set of pearly-white chompers.

@42 Tom. Nice. Thanks for correcting my quickly eyeballed estimates.

If I had to guess, I’d say that of the *very* fragmented charts in the ’90s and ‘OOs, often anchored by (to my ears, to the extent I heard them at all) apparently musically undistinguished boy-bands are going to score lower in stretches than the ‘dark days’ of 1985. But we’ll see.

Hello All

First poster here, and what a truly awful time to find this site! I made the mistake of going back a few ‘toppers’ and stumbled across the stain on humanity that is ‘I got you babe’ by UBfucking40 ( that is their actual name ).

That shower made me phobic of reggae ( hey, I was only 11, and they were a reggae band, apparently ) for at least 10 years. After discovering that they weren’t reggae at all I was even more gobsmacked to find that they actually had a few good tunes early doors.

But back to Feargal…….this sounded alright to me on my ‘Best of 1985’ double album – bought with my Boots vouchers from Auntie Maureen – but as I say, I was only 11.

The video’s quality – TWO FEMALE DRUMMERS! And where did they rent that hysterical crowd from?

The song? Typical 80s overproduction including a completely unnecessary guitar solo. Not a bad tune really underneath it all and it would be interesting to hear it stripped down and not sung by some floppy-fringed chancer.

Slainte.

Aha! Didn’t know what that meant….

There’s a bluegrass-meets-Farfisa live version by Maria McKee on Spotify which is way tougher than Feargal’s version, though it also sounds 80s-size thanks to the thunking drums. I was imagining that a songwriters demo version in the style of Ellie Greenwich or Toni Wine could work, but tougher and emotionally knackered certainly works too.

Either way I think the song is a 6 or 7 and what lets the record down is, as Abe says, the classic mid 80s production. So I’m not sure why this is being singled out for a kicking: the viciously unfunky snare, the heartless guitar solo, and the chick bvs (blame Paul Young?) were all over the unpop pop of the era, and without re-checking (I do love the element of surprise and the feeling of ‘oh, of COURSE that came next’) I’ll guess we’re in for much more of the same over the next 20 or so entries.

You Little Thief – which I liked more at the time – has a truly unlistenable production, by someone (the cultural engineer again?) who associated ‘Motown Sound’ with nothing more than a relentless snare. Another good song (more suited to Feargal than A Good Heart) trashed by sausage fingers on the console.