dexys midnight runners were the true british answer to soul because the concept and sound of most british soul as a rule is an anachronism as most of it sounds just like US soul

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discuss.

― blahbarianthefirst, Friday, 20 May 2005 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think soul was asking for an answer. Of course Dexy's were soulful, in as much as that means much of anything.

― TV's Mr Noodle Vague (noodle vague), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember writing something at some point that argued -

punk:rock :: whatever you call what Dexys did:soul

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Dexy's tried pretty hard to sound like US soul!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Meaning of course, first album and up to all that Too-Rye-Ay stuff

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

of course soul wasnt *looking* for an answer, but neither was hip hop, and it got trip hop, jungle and grime from the UK.

― blahbarianthefirst, Friday, 20 May 2005 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

And you could argue that Dexy's were anachronistic in referring back to 60s soul when there were British groups/artists in the early 80s influenced by contemporary American sounds.

― TV's Mr Noodle Vague (noodle vague), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, sorry blahbarian, I just think the phrase "the answer to" implies too many awkwardnesses about authenticity and genre-gatekeeping, so I don't like it.

― TV's Mr Noodle Vague (noodle vague), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

too many awkwardnesses

I like this phrase.

― RS, Friday, 20 May 2005 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Sound like a Kevin Rowland lyric

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Already this thread is giving me a weary headache.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

"And you could argue that Dexy's were anachronistic in referring back to 60s soul when there were British groups/artists in the early 80s influenced by contemporary American sounds."

but those groups were working from disco and funk, not soul so much, no? plus, dexys were maybe using far more soul styles/devices in their music to make soul a far larger part of their overall sound than many post-punks.

― blahblahblahbarianthefirst (blahbariantheoneandonly), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:12 (twenty-one years ago)

When I hear the horns on SftYSR, I can't help but think of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I am utterly american.

― J (Jay), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:14 (twenty-one years ago)

When I hear the Beatles, I can't help but think of Oasis.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Despite the rampant horns which sound like rampaging elephants - perhaps appropriate, as Dexys were making music invented in the jungle - their first album contained plenty of pleasingly danceable and melodic songs with passionate vocals from Kevin Rowlands. Their second album was too much a due to Saint Dorothy Preview by Van Morrison, but retained the melodic song structures, this time with a Celtic twist, most perfectly realised on their worldwide chart-topper "Come On Eileen." But then they took too long off and came back with a self-indulgent third album entirely free of melody or recognisable songs or structure, and that unsurprisingly died the death in the commercial sense. They were then reduced to making the theme for a BBC sitcom Brush Strokes, but they had nothing left and so they broke up and Kevin Rowlands became bankrupt and homeless and drug addict until he put on a dress and did cover versions to hide the fact that he had lost his collaborators in Dexys, and therefore the gift of melody to be able to write his own songs.

― Comstock Carabinieri (nostudium), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"Dexys were making music invented in the jungle"

what?

― rock, Friday, 20 May 2005 12:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Marcello, what part of my second sentence did you not understand? Or are you just being a tool? Oh wait . . .

― J (Jay), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

You could hardly blame Marcello if you are American, and therefore stupid. If you spent less time killing foreigners and more time creating melodic pop, you would not require vote pleading, no?

― Comstock Carabinieri (nostudium), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you not knowing your history. Coloured music comes from the jungle drums and shouting coloured people once made before they were captured and taken to America to be slaves. This is how the soul musics began.

― Comstock Carabinieri (nostudium), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:32 (twenty-one years ago)

x posts

I wasn't thinking of post-punk, I was thinking of groups like Linx.

But really, Comstock is right. Only the children of slaves have the necessary history to make the Soul musics.

― TV's Mr Noodle Vague (noodle vague), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

comstock, are you geir hongro in idiotic disguise?

― rock, Friday, 20 May 2005 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

COMSTOCK OTM!!! BRITISH PEOPLE SING STUPID AMERICAN JUNGLE MUSIC AND MARCELLO LOVES NOEL GALLAGHER!! FILM AT 11!!

― J (Jay), Friday, 20 May 2005 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't feed the troll, people.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Friday, 20 May 2005 13:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel like there's some interesting alternate history in which what happened to ska happened to soul instead, and Dexy's had as many descendents as, say, the Specials now do.

― Guayaquil, Friday, 20 May 2005 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

There's a 'great lost' album, coming out round about now, according to Record Collector magazine!

― Mark G, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 19:53 (seventeen years ago)

There's something circular about the thread proposition, since ... well, if "British soul" didn't sound like American soul, you wouldn't be as likely to think of it as "soul," would you? There's a load of really glossy early-80s blue-eyed-soul British stuff (and new wave) that strikes me as a perfectly contemporary, non-anachronistic, and British version of soul, probably more so than Dexy's.

― nabisco, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 19:58 (seventeen years ago)

Their second album was too much a due to Saint Dorothy Preview by Van Morrison (xpost.)

????? In some parallel universe, where Van also recorded Tupperware Honey and Asshole Weeks?

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 20:24 (seventeen years ago)

There's a load of really glossy early-80s blue-eyed-soul British stuff (and new wave) that strikes me as a perfectly contemporary, non-anachronistic, and British version of soul

Like Culture Club, for instance. And Wham!

Or is the point somehow that they were true British soul music because they got it wrong? (If that's the case, aren't there tons of inept bands you could say the same thing about?)

I like them, though. But I bet, to most Americans who only know "Come On Eileen," they seem closer to the Pogues or Men Without Hats than to soul music.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 20:50 (seventeen years ago)

"There's a 'great lost' album, coming out round about now, according to Record Collector magazine!"

WHAT THE WHAT?

― carson dial, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 20:52 (seventeen years ago)

there's a what comin' out with a what now?

― henry s, Wednesday, 6 May 2009 21:20 (seventeen years ago)

the blue ox babes record is coming out soon. kevin archer's band, songs on the myspace are good.

― keythkeythkeyth, Thursday, 7 May 2009 02:05 (seventeen years ago)

The Blue Ox Babes legendary lost album 'Apples & Oranges' to be released by Cherry Red Records later in the month. The 19 track album will contain original 1981 demos which inspired Kevin Rowland to create Dexys’ Too-Rye-Ay sound along with 8 previously unissued tracks and all three of the band’s A and B sides originally recorded for Go! Discs.

Damn. And some magazine had it as Dexy's great lost album. I mean, this will be interesting, sure. I'm still hoping for the record they would have made around the single "Show Me"...

― Mark G, Thursday, 7 May 2009 13:15 (seventeen years ago)

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