Punch The Clock (1995) liner notes: Difference between revisions
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'' | "Punch The Clock" was our chance to get re-acquainted with the wonderful world of pop music and still maintain a sense of humour. After Nashville and the labyrinth of "Imperial Bedroom" I was ready to find a different production approach.<br /> | ||
Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley certainly knew where the charts were but they also made great records. They had produced hits for The Teardrop Explodes, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Madness. In fact, I first met Clive as a fellow producer for Two-Tone records. By the time I had finished The Specials' debut album Clive and Alan had moved with Madness to Stiff records where they cut some of the best pop singles since the finest days of The Kinks.<br /> | |||
Despite making the most "English" music on the planet "Clanger And Winstanley" even managed to get Madness to No. 1 in America with "Our House". By 1983 they were pretty irresistible and unstoppable.<br /> | |||
(Clive was also an excellent songwriter. "Clive Langer and The Boxes" opened for us on the "Get Happy" tour of seaside towns and out of the way places. I produced a version of Amen Corner's "If Paradise Is Half As Nice" for his "Splash" album on F-Beat. Alan, the quiet and patient one of the team, also had some pretty mean credits to his name including engineering The Buzzcocks' best records).<br /> | |||
They favoured the "building-block" method of recording: retaining very little from the original "live" take (often only the drums) and tailoring each instrumental overdub to best serve the arrangement. This system naturally precluded the spontaneity of our past "happy accidents" but could yield startling results when the last piece was in place.<br /> | |||
Now to be honest I haven't alwas been kind about this album. I find it hard to ignore the benefit of hindsight. However I shall try to explain how we fared among the passionless fads of that charmless time: "The Early-80's"<br /> | |||
Being in a fairly feckless frame of mind I had dashed off a couple of bright pop tunes that didn't have much else to them. The chorus of "Element Within Her" consisted entirely of the words "la-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la" (although I liked the silly Liverpudlian-slang joke in the last verse. "He said "Are you cold?" She said "No, but you are La.. La-La-La .. .etc"). "Everyday I Write The Book" was written in a spare ten minutes on tour as a spoof Mersey-beat tune. In rehearsal Clive guided us towards an arrangement that was unlike anything we had ever recorded. Although we borrowed a few touches from the r'n'b styles of the day I have witnessed, firsthand, the record's ability to clear a night-club dancefloor in seconds. Despite this it remains one of our very few entirely cheerful recordings and was even a minor hit on both sides of the Atlantic - reaching No. 28 in the U.K. and No. 32 in the U.S. charts - then our best placing for a single.<br /> | |||
The vocal responses on "Punch The Clock" were improvised by Claudia Fontaine and Caron Wheeler, known at the time as "Afrodiziak". They had not appeared on that many pop recordings and their spontaneous approach was a welcome contrast to the jaded cliches demanded of other groups of "session singers". (Both went on to grace many hit records. Caron is probably best known as the lead voice on the Soul II Soul smash "Back To Life").<br /> | |||
The other addition to our ensemble was the horn section led by trombonist Big Jim Paterson. He brought with him saxophonists Paul Speare and Jeff Blythe who had also recently left Dexy's Midnight Runners. So that we did not duplicate that groups sound we added trumpet player Dave Plews to the line-up. (However it is true that the "T.K.O. horns" employed something of the rude, unison sound they had fashioned in Dexy's, so I found it strange that the "Stax" comparison was often made in the press. I was only happy if we sounded like Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers on their version of "One Way Love").<br /> | |||
Though I scatted all the main horn refrains on my demo recordings, Clive and the players worked out some more of the sophisticated punches and flourishes. I soon found myself writing them into the other tunes.<br /> | |||
("The Invisible Man" was the final resting place of lyrics which had been part of the "unreleased" songs "25 to 12", "Seconds Of Pleasure" and "I Turn Around" - see the re-issues of "Trust" and "Imperial Bedroom" . Now this song and "Let Them all Talk" - originally "beat-group" tunes - revolved around horn figures. "The Greatest Thing" even contained a reference to my Dad's years with The Joe Loss Orchestra by way of a quote from "In The Mood" - complete with Paul Speare doubling up on clarinet. "The World And His Wife" was re-written from a solemn folk song about a drunken family gathering into a bilious knees-up with the horns playing their part in the scene).<br /> | |||
All of the above is not to suggest that I entered into the writing and recording of this record in a haphazard or lackadaisical manner. On the contrary, I was still writing most of my songs at the piano and almost all of them were melancholy ballads. Clive cajoled me into picking up the guitar at least for the purposes of writing some more lively material. He argued that there was a danger in becoming known for only the most cynical and disillusioned songs of "Imperial Bedroom". I remained allergic to the happy ending but in reply I managed a pair of proud and wishful songs on Love and Marriage: "The Greatest Thing" and "Let Them All Talk" and a couple about the Ugly Truth: "Mouth Almighty" and "Charm School". | |||
"They put the numb into number<br /> | |||
They put the cut into cutie<br /> | |||
They put the slum into slumber<br /> | |||
And the boot into beauty"<br /> | |||
"T.K.O (Boxing Day)"<br /> | |||
Between 1979 and 1983 something strange happened. The British government mutated from an annoying and often disreputable body, that spent people's taxes on the wrong things, into a hostile regime contemptuous of anyone who did not serve or would not yield to its purpose.<br /> | |||
"Work" was transformed form a right into a privileged reward. There were a few passionate and coherent calls to resistance (most notably Alan Bleasdale's "Boys From The Blackstuff") and I could offer little more than a puny echo and some of the crude references which litter the lesser songs. I might have tried to argue that this was all very ironic - while fashioning a bauble and feeling for a faint pop pulse but I've always been a dunce at making up that kind of alibi. Anyway most of what I wanted to get out of my head had gone into two songs recorded before we began work on "Punch The Clock"<br /> | |||
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Revision as of 20:14, 27 February 2021
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