EATB vs. NO

[withahip]

http://www.ijamming.net/Music/Echo1.html

Tony Fletcher wrote my fav book about the Bunnymen - I found this interesting from his ijamming site:



It's safe to say Echo & the Bunnymen were never the same after drummer Pete de Freitas first left in 1986. At that point, following four great albums in barely five years, Echo & the Bunnymen had already transcended rock's conventional boundaries in the studio, and were one of the most dynamic live bands on the planet. They had also made a good sum of money and were ready to take some take time off. De Freitas took that time, along with a royalty check and a bunch of friends, and headed to America with the idea of filming their collective adventures as the Sex Gods, a new rock band for which De Freitas would be guitarist. Within months, he had waved goodbye not only to a small fortune but to a large amount of his sanity. He had also left Echo & The Bunnymen.

The bond was broken. The founding trio - vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant, bassist Les Pattinson - reluctantly decided to tour without de Freitas and started recording without him, only to have that album scrapped at the behest of their label. They accepted de Freitas back once he announced himself ready to rejoin, and then undertook re-recording their fifth album under the production auspices of Laurie Latham. But the joy had gone and it turned into a laborious and lethargic process. I know, because I was there, attempting to write the book Never Stop (a perfectly good title for the unending recording process). When that fifth album finally came out in 1987, three years after its predecessor, the group couldn't even think of a title for it. (It became the 'eponymous' album.) Their long-standing British audience immediately recognized it as a turd and dropped it like it was a hot one.

America, though, was a different story. In the States, especially in those days, if you could build a following for long enough, stay together for long enough, and keep touring long enough, it was a statistical certainty that at a certain point the pieces would all fall into place and you would break through. Echo & the Bunnymen duly broke through on that fifth album. The airplay afforded 'Lips Like Sugar' certainly played its part, but so did the group's cult reputation and their ongoing live superiority. The album moved higher and higher up the American charts for nearly a year. A gold album - the magical 500,000 sales mark - lay just on the horizon.

Not so ironically - band stories rarely resemble fairy tales - the group were coming apart at the seams even as they were finally conquering America. There were physical fights. Les was forced to wear sunglasses on stage for a few nights after catching a black eye off Mac. On one occasion, the group took to the stage two hours late after demanding their management fly in from the west coast to mediate their personal animosities. Two of the group were heavily into cocaine. All of them drank heavily. And yet every show was brilliant. The anger they felt for each other - much of it borne out of the knowledge that they had made a mediocre album - was directed into the music, and the shows were electrifying.

Further time off from each other could possibly have saved their creative soul. But we'll never know. At the end of that year's world tour in Japan in April 1988, Mac's father had a heart attack and died just before the singer's flight landed in Liverpool. Mac told me later that he felt his dad communicate with him at that very moment of departure. Ever a believer in the power of the human spirit, he took it as a sign, and soon informed the others that it was time for the group to call it a day. Echo & The Bunnymen had achieved more than they had anticipated - both creatively and commercially - but they weren't enjoying their new-found American fame, were embarrassed by their sudden British fall, and no longer liked each other much. They should end now, Mac insisted, and leave their legacy intact.

[Frank The Bunny]

Ok, so that was a great piece about the Bunnymen.

What the fuck's it got to do with New Order?

[withahip]

haha, Good question.
By the time I got to posting, I was so wrapped up in that little gem I forgot the main thesis of the link:

"That same week as I [Tony Fletcher] felt distanced from Echo & the Bunnymen, I received, unrequested, the new New Order CD Get Ready several months up front of release. Given that I don't know New Order personally, and have rarely written about them, this was an unusual bonus - and made up in many ways for feeling neglected on the Bunnymen front. So I went out and bought Flowers, started listening to the two albums alongside each other, and began talking to friends about them both. What immediately struck me was the difference in reactions: almost total disinterest in the Bunnymen's return countered by a near sexual excitement at the prospect of New Order's come back."

The guy is borderline NME "look at me, I'm writ~~~~ing!" but balances his writing with enough substance to be a good read.

[Frank The Bunny]

So, I guess it's more about "Flowers" vs. "Get Ready".

Anybody who has half an ear (or doesn't drink the Bunnymen Kool-aid) would quickly conclude that Get Ready is a far better album.

[withahip]

So, I guess it's more about "Flowers" vs. "Get Ready".

Anybody who has half an ear (or doesn't drink the Bunnymen Kool-aid) would quickly conclude that Get Ready is a far better album.

Ok, Frank - you didn't read it, did ya.
The question was why that was the case.

[Frank The Bunny]

Ok, Frank - you didn't read it, did ya.
The question was why that was the case.

I dunno - I don't think it's a fair comparison. Flowers wasn't really a comeback, was it? Now if Fletcher were to judge the reaction to Evergreen vs. the reaction to Get Ready, it may have been a more even reaction.

Then again, maybe it's got to do with a band's name as well.
Echo and the Bunnymen is a band name that screams 1980s - like A Flock of Seagulls or Oingo Boingo or Wall of Voodoo. My employees - all 15 to 20 years younger than me - ask who I'm listening to in my office. "Echo and the Bunnymen" generally gets a blank stare or a "no, really...who are you listening to".

[black francis]

As much as dislike Flowers I still think it's better than Get Ready. Now as far as the excitement surrounding New Order's comeback, Tony Fletcher nailed it. They never really jumped the shark until much later (Billy Corgan a touring member?). I mean the Bunnymen carrying on with a new singer was just slightly better than hosting a reality show to find a new one. If New Order were to release another album right now it would probably generate as much excitement as say The Fountain.

[withahip]

I have an amazing ability to ignore facts like Corgan touring with the band when it is a band I like.

[black francis]

I never really got into New Order anyway. Once you were Joy Division just about anything else you try would pretty much suck.

[withahip]

Get Ready was fantastic. Fantastic that it had more than half the songs being great - you pick the half - which is about imho the most one can expect from NO.

Single album - except maybe Low Life - never put out a complete album the way Bunnymen did on the first four - leaving us all hoping it will somehow happen again despite the fact two members aren't playing anymore.

NO's Substance is a compilation. Pick and choose and you can come up with NO's Porcupine.

And as much as I love NO, listening to Neu! Kraftwerk and stuff I googled on the net by producer Giorgio Moroder and the luck of getting producer Arthur Baker to do a hip hop version of Temptation and Johnatahn Demme doing a video for Perfect Kiss all played so much into defining their legacy.

EATB has a legacy despite the band.

[JackT]

I never really got into New Order anyway. Once you were Joy Division just about anything else you try would pretty much suck.

Naah. I think JD was becoming NO anyway. NO was better.

[archivistmgc]

Flowers requires an "altered" mind to really appreciate it.

[withahip]

Flowers requires an "altered" mind to really appreciate it.

I dunno. The phrase, "This would sound so good stoned" puts a band in the category of the Grateful Dead.

[archivistmgc]

I dunno. The phrase, "This would sound so good stoned" puts a band in the category of the Grateful Dead.

Not necessarily.

[withahip]

Not necessarily.

Yeah- if pot is required for music to sound good chances are it is crap. Not better- but good.