Notable Singles From February of 1980

Midnight Oil : Back on the Borderline

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With "Back on the Borderline", released in February of 1980, Midnight Oil found the sound that would make them one of Australia's biggest rock'n'roll exports of the next decade. Lyrically, however, the song has none of the political fire to galvanize record buyers. The Head Injuries track failed to chart despite the music video, shot at a TV station.

Swell Maps : Let's Build A Car

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Birmingham's Swell Maps released "Let's Build A Car", in February of 1980.  It was the first of the band's singles Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore purchased. This is from the liner notes he planned to write for a Swell Maps compilation:

the first swell maps singles (i bought for no reason cept what th' fuck) was “let's buy a car” which still to this day gives me a soul scorched buzz'n'rush. as soon as the nikki sudden gtr comes slicing slabbing and all out fuzzifying off the crackling indie vinyl groove you know yr gonna rock. this was important to a dickweed like me cuz the sensibility of the nyc creeps i was pubing with was towards the no wave trip (and if you don't know about no wave nyc 78/79 then..well, don't worry about it) which i of course totally flagwaved.

Notsensibles : ( I'm in Love With) Margaret Thatcher

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Released in 1979, this post-punk attempt at humor did hit the Independent Singles Top 10 in February of 1980.

Spizzenergi : Where's Captain Kirk 

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With "Where's Captain Kirk? "Spizzenergi became the first band to top the newly created UK Indie Chart early in 1980.More than two decades after its release, it was included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all time. 

The Laughing Clowns :  Laughing Clowns

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When The Saints broke up guitarist Ed Kuepper moved back to Brisbane and formed Laughing Clowns. In February of 1980 the band released its first single, also called "Laughing Clowns". Saints fans were confused by the new sound. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane wrote 

"Part of the problem was that the band's sound defied categorization. Having to overcome such ludicrous labels as 'jazz-punk' ... [it] was diverse yet moody, at turns melodic or dissonant. It ranged from rock and soul to avant-jazz".

Another Pretty Face : Whatever Happened to the West

Finally, February of 1980 was also the month the Scottish band Another Pretty Face released its debut single. Lead singer Mike Scott would eventually form The Waterboys in 1983.

The One Eyed Midget

The Saints : Swing for the Crime

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In October of 1978, The Saints released Prehistoric Sounds, their third album and, according to no less an authority than Go Between Robert Forster, their best. As bored with punk rocks as the Eternally Yours single "Know Your Product" suggested, The Saints recorded a hybrid album of punk and soul. It works better than you'd guess, especially with the big ballsy brass interjections,  but sales were lacking and Harvest dropped the band.

"I think there are a few good songs on that album," says singer Chris Bailey. " But it feels stilted in places, it sounds like a record made by a band falling apart, and sure enough soon after recording the album, the line-up of the band changed quite drastically."

Bailey would keep the name,  but guitarist Ed Kuepper went back to Australia to form The Laughing Clowns while bassist Algy Ward joined The Damned.

As the years have passed, more critics have agreed with Forster, including critic Clinton Walker who writes "an extraordinary record - one of the period's best bar none - a brooding, melancholic collision of electrically charged rock balladry and swooping, brassy arrangements. Broadly misunderstood, it meant nothing to no-one." 

The Moon It Don't Shine

The Saints : All Times Through Paradise

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In the Summer of 1978, The Saints released "Security" b/w "All Times Through Paradise", their last single before the band broke up due to creative differences. The A side is a punky take on the Otis Redding classic, complete with a Stax-style horn section. The B side is a better indicatation of the forthcoming album, the great, but mostly forgotten Prehistoric Sounds.

"All Times Through Paradise " is a smart, moody and ponderous. Somehow Bailey's monotonous voice perfectly fits this late night walk through a dark city. But Bailey wanted three chord crowd pleasers and Kuepper wanted out. By the time Prehistoric Sounds was released, Kuepper was out of the picture,

These Dreams Are Not Your Own Anymore

The Saints : A Minor Aversion

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In May of 1978, The Saints released their second album, Eternally Yours. Swept up in the punk rock craze, The Saints found themselves quickly disillusioned by the London scene. They added brassy horns and played acoustic guitars on this brilliant album. I was lucky enough to find the cassette in the cut out bin at a Woolworths in Reno, a reminder that great albums don't always sell. 

Selected as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, the writer notes Chris Bailey's lyrics sounds like the "rantings of a cranky hippie". Never more so than on the deep cut "A Minor Aversion" where Bailey sings "I've taken all I can I'm not gonna stand here /And be walked on no more/ 'Cause I don't need you/ These days your facts/ They don't mean a thing, no".

Robert Christgau didn't care for the album, giving Eternally Yours a C+ and writing:

"Private Affair" is the perfect punk-cum-early-Kinks song, "International Robots" invents a Jonathan Richman clone, and Chris Bailey should dub in the vocals on Seymour Stein's Wild in the Streets remake. But the lyrics are received protest, the tempos have slackened, and if those horns are somebody's idea of a joke I am not amused. The very idea.

Smooth Talking, Brain Washing

The Saints : Know Your Product

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On February 3, 1978 The Saints introduced a truly revolutionary sound on the single "Know Your Product", punk with a horn section. The clever lyrics target the advertising industry with lines like "Our new soap that's peachy keen/ saves your soul and keeps you clean "/It's recommended, used by the Queen./Gonna improve your IQ, help in everything you do/It's economic, don't cost too much."

While The Guardian claimed the song"confused pretty much everyone: what the hell was a brass section doing on a punk record? The punchy horns are the perfect counterpart to Bailey’s drawled vocals and Kuepper’s buzzsaw guitar," there are many who believe it is one of the greatest Australian singles ever recorded. On YouTube you can find videos of Hunters and Collectors with Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett performing the song onstage as well as Courtney Barnett, King Khan and the Shrines and You And I .

It also made a list Kurt Cobain scrawled out of his favorite 50 recordings. Both "Know Your Product" and the B side "Run Down" would appear on the forthcoming Eternally Yours. 

I'll Make You Crawl

The Saints : Demolition Girl

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In September of 1977 The Saints released the One Two Three Four EP, featuring four tracks, Two were originals, "One Way Street" and "Demolition Girl". The other two were covers, "Lipstick On Your Collar" ( originally by Connie Francis) and an almost unrecognizable "River Deep, Mountain High" ( made famous by Ike and Tina Turner). Now comes as bonus tracks on The Saints Stranded CDs.

What More To Say?

The Saints : This Perfect Day

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On April 3, 1977 The Saints played a raucous set at Paddington Town Hall in Sydney, all captured on film by at least three cameras for Rage TV . The footage begins with "This Perfect Day", perhaps the greatest of the band's singles . The Saints would record the song in May of 1977.

Critic Jon Savage, who would call the song "the most ferocious single to ever grace the UK Top 40" said the tune "speeded up the Rolling Stones 'Paint It Black"'riff into pure extinction. "This Perfect Day" is almost too fast: The group nearly come off the rails before singer Chris Bailey brings everything to a grinding halt in an extraordinary cluster of negatives." 

Steve Taylor said "This Perfect Day" was "the band's masterpiece. A short statement of resistance – delivered over a chugging beat and inventively deployed guitar."The Guardian considered the song "quite the most startling, wound-up noise recorded under the punk banner to that point. Bailey spat out the opening lines, atop the band's adrenalised clatter." Mojo called it, "an ultimate expression of teenage nihilism."

That same night Rage caught Radio Birdman in action. What a night!

Story 'Bout A-Raising Hell

The Saints : No Time

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"I remember thinking 'This is obnoxious. This is probably the most obnoxious record ever made. Isn't that great?'"

Chris Bailey, The Saints

On February 21, 1977 The Saints released (I'm) Stranded. Hampered by neither the cartoon imagery of The Ramones nor the ad hoc background of The Sex Pistols, The Saints rival The Clash as punk's purest expression. Recorded live over two December days in Brisbane, Stranded is every bit as raw as the 1976 title track, which was famously selected by Sounds reviewer John Ingham as "Single of this and every week". Ed Kuepper's buzzsaw guitar dominates the proceedings, drowning out vocalist Chris Bailey's lyrics. 

Bailey says " I remember both Ed and I saying at the time 'OK. This was a good demo session. When can we record? And the response from EMI was 'No. It sounds just like your single so it must be a record.'"

EMI had just dropped the Sex Pistols and were in desperate need of a credibility.

Early reviews were favorable. Jon Savage calling the album “up there in punk Valhalla with Ramones and Raw Power”. In his B+ review Robert Christgau wrote

With its intermittent hooks, droning feedback, shouted vocals, and oldie about incest, this album from Australia achieves the great mean of punk style. Five years from now, it could sound like a classic or a naive one-shot. At the moment, it's recommended only to addicts.

In May of 1977 The Saints would move to London where they'd play a Roundhouse gig with Talking Heads and The Ramones. But the long haired Ozzies--to their credit-- would never fit in with costumed punk scene. 

40 Year Itch : A Snake Calling on the Phone

The Saints : (I'm) Stranded

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"Rock music in the Seventies was changed by three bands—the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and The Saints"
-Bob Geldorf, The Boomtown Rats

On September 28, 1976 The Saints released the iconic punk rock single "(I'm) Stranded" on their own Australian label Fatal. The single--recorded and mixed in four hours-- came out before any vinyl debuts by The Sex Pistols, The Clash and the Damned. The single might have vanished had the band not sent copies to the UK where Sounds reviewer John Ingham called it the "single of this and every week":

There's a tendency to blabber mindlessly about this single, it's so bloody incredible [...] for some reason Australian record companies think the band lack commercial potential. What a bunch of idiots. You like Quo or The Ramones? This pounds them into the dirt. Hear it once and you'll never forget it. The singing's flat and disinterested, the guitars are on full stun. There's no such thing as a middle eight. It's fabulous

The highly influential BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel played the song on his radio show and EMI signed the band to a three record deal. 

Were the Saints really punks? They certainly refused to dress the part and had, in fact, been playing loud, sped up tunes years earlier.

"The band was a full thing by 1974,"said guitarist Ed Kuepper."Two and a half years later, this incredibly fashionable movement comes along, only an arsehole would have associated himself with that."

"Stranded is an Eddie Cochran riff re-worked," says vocalist Chris Bailey.

#16 The Saints "Memories Are Made of This" 1978

Aren't you a mess? You shouldn't act like this
You stand right there and laugh in my face
You ask me why I haven't left

To the old timers looking for Dean Martin's "Memories Are Made of This", you've come to the wrong page. So slag off.
This is one of the many great songs on Eternally Yours , a cut-out cassette I bought at a Woolworth's in Reno for $2.99 in 1980.
Best three dollars I ever spent. It's an amazing album from one of Australia's greatest bands. Full of blustery horns, minor chords and major attitude.
Bob Geldorf said "Rock music in the seventies was changed by three bands—the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and The Saints".

So if you were expecting to hear Dean sing:

Take one fresh and tender kiss
Add one stolen night of bliss
One girl, one boy
Some grief, some joy
Memories are made of this

Sorry. You've got Chris Bailey snarling lyrics that wouldn't pass the PC test these days:

You're living your life in a chain gang - you're so well guarded
You're living your life in a chain gang - you're so retarded

The Saints Memories Are Made of This