IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Echo and the Bunnymen was a post punk, new wave band from Liverpool, England. The band earned very favorable critical notices here in the US, but never seemed to make a really big splash even though they received some considerable airplay from college and alternative rock radio stations.
Does anyone remember the ads for their fourth album Ocean Rain that boldly claimed it was “the greatest album ever made?” US record buyers felt otherwise – it only reached #87 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
Despite that over exaggeration, Echo was a very good band with a bunch of songs that I really like. Their first album, Crocodiles (1980), contained my favorite and today’s SotW, “Do It Clean.”
Ian McCulloch was the artistic leader of the group, but as this garage rocker shows, it was the rhythm section of drummer Pete de Freitas and bassist Les Pattinson that really had the balls.
And that’s important because the lyrics are pretty weak — a lot of gibberish that’s probably a drug reference. But this song is really all about getting the body to move, and that it does (at least for me).
Enjoy… until next week.
As an unrepentant garage rocker, I protest. There is no in-your-face that is the sine qua non of the style. Even E & the B’s’ idols, The Doors, managed better several times. My brother in law Andy said they were good live back in the day, and I kinda liked Bring On The Dancing Horses, which has a nice tune, although it’s more that a little derivative of their other idols, the great Roxy Music. All hail the avant-garage:
Gotta love Mackay’s pants.