Bow Wow Wow C/D

Leigh Gorman in particular was (and is) a virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist, as his wikipedia page details.

For many years When the Going Get Tough the Tough Get Going was my favorite album by anyone.

No-one pays attention to Malcolm McLaren's Swamp Thing album from '85, but there's a kinda great version of Sexy Eiffel Towers on it (McLaren & Ashman both get writing credits for this song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6deJmxl0jaA

No-one pays attention to Malcolm McLaren's Swamp Thing album from '85

cos its an arse to get on cd/digital etc.
my cassette version died years ago, so unable to listen to it.

Yeah, I had the cassette for years (which still holds up). But not that long ago I found a vinyl version which doesn't sound as good as the cassette!

so much trouble re the back catalogue of MM that i got that 'buffalo gals go back to skool' reversion, as it had some of the original mixes interspersed with the revised crap.

"Swamp Thing" isn't available on CD. The only MM I care for is "Fans", anyway. That's quite a unique sound.

On the Swamp Thing LP…

"Eiffel Tower" = "Punk It Up" from Duck Rock + Bow Wow Wow's "Sexy Eiffel Towers"
"Boom Boom Baby" = "Soweto" from Duck Rock + Bow Wow Wow's "I Want My Baby on Mars"

McLaren is given sole credit for the two songs on Swamp Thing although the Bow Wow Wow songs were originally credited to McLaren plus the guys in the band (not Annabella).

What I wonder about is whatever happened to McLaren's friends in Paris who supposedly came up with a lot of the ideas that many early Bow Wow Wow songs were based on. They were trying to make some kind of crazy musical with an underage sex theme, circa 1979. I forget their names, but they never got any Bow Wow Wow songwriting credits at all it seems.

What I wonder about is whatever happened to McLaren's friends in Paris who supposedly came up with a lot of the ideas that many early Bow Wow Wow songs were based on.

given MMs groove, i would suggest that the answer to this is : nothing ..

Is that what Chicken was? a French paedo musical?

I thing Chicken was supposed to be a magazine. Not clear on whether it had anything to do with the musical project. The idea of the musical, iirc, was that a bunch of kids hijack a plane and then all have sex with each other on it (origin of "Mile High Club"). The name "Lieutenant Lush" that Boy George later assumed was a character from the musical.

And I think there are kid gangs in it, like the Homosexual Apaches (hence "Uomo Sex Al Apache")

here's the stuff about McLaren & Chicken, it's pretty fucking unpleasant stuff tbh

http://thestreetlampdoesntcast.blogspot.com/2011/07/sexploitation-music-part-2.html

Yeah, it was about how children could be the true revolutionaries if they use their sexuality. And on from there..

Not sure I need more than the comp I've already got but Cherry Red is putting out the complete works:

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/bow-wow-wow-your-box-set-pet-the-complete-recordings-1980-84-3cd-clamshell-boxset/

Ah, I messed up the link for my comp, it's this one: http://www.discogs.com/Bow-Wow-Wow-Annabella-The-Best-Of-Bow-Wow-Wow/master/300892

That's awesome. It's great to have all those 12" remixes in one place; I think some have not been on CD before. The 12" for "Love, Peace, and Harmony" sounds great and is notably different from the album version. This box also includes "Teenage Queen," which is "Baby, Oh No" with different lyrics and only came out in Japan. It also looks like it has the new versions of "Elimination Dancing" and "King Kong" that came out only on a Flexipop single.

The only thing it looks like it doesn't have is the re-recorded versions of "Mile High Club" & "C30 C60 C90 Go!" that appeared on a limited edition promo single when they played at the new Studio 54 in 1981 (unless the last track of Disc 4 is the former... not sure)

There’s a Bow Wow Wow appearance on “American Bandstand” from May 1983 up on YouTube. They do “Do You Wanna Hold Me” and “Aphrodisiac.” The group seem in such good spirits it’s hard to believe they would play the final show of their classic run the very next month.

Dick Clark asks them about the time they’re spending touring the US, which got me curious, so I looked it up and it’s kind of amazing how much they worked in the US. They were gigging in America for practically the entire first six months of 1983, this on top of extensive US tours in ‘81 and ‘82.

I just have to add, I have never understood the break-up of Bow Wow Wow. It seems like a major case of self-sabotage. They were all still so young, but only Leroy Gorman, the most talented one, accomplished much post-BWW. No one really remembers The Chiefs of Relief, I assume.

the bass sound on this live version of I Want Candy is immense:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjtvrYZyBEA

I dunno why people bag on this song so much. it's fucking great. the purity of it... all the elements just fused into this unstoppable beat. it honestly almost brings me to tears