In August of 1980 Echo and the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch presented Smash Hits with his Top 10 all time favorite songs. It's clear he's a student of all things alt rock, though the Kingston Trio tune is an unpredictable choice.
The Bunnymen's debut album Crocodiles was on its way to peaking at UK#17, thanks to songs like "Pride" which essentially berates friends and family members who didn't believe in him.
On July 18 of 1980 Echo and the Bunnymen ushered in the "New Psychedelia" or "neopsychedelic" scene with their UK#17 debut album Crocodiles. Forging 60's rock and lyrical imagery with punk anger, the Liverpudlian quartet would consistently release decent albums throughout the 80's. Frontman Ian McCulloch, however, quickly tired of the "psychedelic" description.
"Whoever the turd was who first said that, they should chop his head off," Mac the Mouth said. "It doesn't mean anything, 'psychedelic'. If only rock critics could learn to be as original as we are. If the music's got a dreamlike quality, maybe it comes from dreams. It doesn't have to be drug induced. We get drunk like once in a blue moon but that's about it."
Despite the silly name, Echo and the Bunnymen were seeking to record an album that was anything but. McCulloch has told Smash Hits earlier that year " I reckon it's more to do with a dark mood; dark music you play on your own in the dark, which is how I like listening to my favourite music: stuff like Bowie and Leonard Cohen."
There are also echoes of Love and especially The Doors. Rob Dickens, who signed the band to Warner's Korova imprint said of McCulloch:
"The singer looked so charismatic. He was beautiful. His voiced had that Jim Morrison ring to it. The songs weren't well-formulated, but you say 'Star' in neon above his head."
Contemporaneous reviews were mostly ecstatic.Writing for NME in 1980 Chis Salewicz described the album as "being probably the best album this year by a British band". And there was this review in Smash Hits:
In the US Robert Christgau gave the album a B , writing :
If anything might convince me that the term "psychedelic revival" means something it's "Villiers Terrace," a real good terror-of-drugs song. And the music flows tunefully, in a vacant, hard-rock sort of way. But oh, Jimbo, can this really be the end--to be stuck inside of Frisco with the Liverpool blues again?
And Rolling Stone's David Fricke gave the album 4 our of 5 stars writing
Instead of dope, McCulloch trips out on his worst fears: isolation, death, sexual and emotional bankruptcy. Behind him, gripping music swells into Doors-style dirges (“Pictures on My Wall”), PiL-like guitar dynamics (“Monkeys”), spookily evocative pop (“Rescue”) and Yardbirds-cum-Elevators ravers jacked up in the New Wave manner (“Do It Clean,” “Crocodiles”).
Recent releases include ten extra tracks, mostly early versions and live versions of the songs on the album. There will be many more posts about these Happy Death Men to come.
On May 5, Echo and the Bunnymen released their breakthrough single "Rescue", a UK#62 hit, and a great appetizer for the forthcoming debut album Crocodiles. Where does this song belong in my heart and memory? It's the tune I use to wake myself up every morning when I set an alarm. Will Sargent's siren-like guitar line isn't a bad way to get the day started.
Ian McCulloch apparently doesn't care for his vocals on the first four classic Bunnymen album, telling the Irish Times:
"Hearing them back I was like 'who the f*** is that?! I was young but I was trying to be old – [sings] 'Seeven seeeeeeas'. I just don't like it. Everything else on the records sounds great – except me!
