TS: Psychedelic Furs' "Heartbeat" vs Psychedelic Furs' "Heartbreak Beat"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

The centerpiece of their Mirror Moves album - a coiled sax-driven epic ripe for 12" elongation - or their biggest hit, an airbrushed rewrite down to the similar title?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 29 July 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

"Alice's House" is the centerpiece of Mirror Moves if you ask me, so your whole premise is faulted. However, "Heartbeat" is so much better than "Heartbreak Beat" it's not even funny.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 29 July 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

Heartbreak Beat is the best song that Neil Diamond never wrote

― The Original Jimmy Mod (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Friday, 29 July 2005 01:27 (twenty years ago)

If only the Psychedelic Furs wrote something psychedelic.

If only they wrote Neil Diamond's "The Pot Smoker's Song".

Otherwise, they were a pretty decent rock band. The first album is great.

Oh, and "Heartbeat".

― donut ferry (donut), Friday, 29 July 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

I'm pretty much incapable of objectivity where the Furs/Butlers are concerned (...or is it the world that is mad?). I'm also usually the first to defend Midnight To Midnight, and I'm tempted to make the perverse case for "Heartbreak Beat."

But I'll have to leave that to someone else - in this case, Lydon-Butler's urgency ("when they turn-off-the-TOWN!") and a trembling live-wire of a guitar line trump Ferry-Butler's jaded, metropolitan, decadent cool ("there's a perfect kiss, somewhere out in the dark... but a kiss ain't enough...")

fwiw, "Shadow In My Heart" seems to hew a bit closer to the "Heartbeat" template.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 29 July 2005 02:06 (twenty years ago)

The "Mr. Jones" single is still tops in my book. I once whizzed next to Richard Butler - at a Donovan concert on Wilshire Blvd, in Beverly Hills!

― SoHoLa (SoHoLa), Friday, 29 July 2005 02:33 (twenty years ago)

"Alice's House" is SO not Mirror Moves' centerpiece. Not only is it buried in the middle of an otherwise blah side, but it doesn't reflect the album's "Street Life" vibe as evocatively as "Heartbeat" and its brothers on the A side.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 29 July 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

Never heard "Heartbeat," but it doesn't matter.

"Heartbreak Beat".

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Friday, 29 July 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

'Heartbreak Beat'.

I love them.

― the pinefox, Friday, 29 July 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

"Alice's House" is SO not Mirror Moves' centerpiece.

Well, I only said that because it's my favorite track on the record, regardless of its place in the running order.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, 30 July 2005 04:46 (twenty years ago)

My guilt at never buying Mirror Moves is like...do you know how many times I meant to buy that? Please kill me. Thanks.

But yet then there's the fact that even though Heartbreak Beat is so terribly awful in so many ways I feel such a terrible inexplicable desire to hear it right now that I can't stand it.

i'm a hearbreak beat
yeah, all night long
and nobody don't dance
on the edge of the dark
we've got the radio on
and it feels like love
but it don't mean a lot
and it feels like love
and it's all that we've got
there's a heartbreak beat
playing all night long
down on my street
and it feels like love
got the radio on
and it's all that we need
there's a heartbreak beat
and it feels like love
there's a heartbreak beat
and it feels like love

― Hydrochloric Shaved Weirds (Bimble...), Saturday, 30 July 2005 06:06 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

I'm hearing the remix - it's bloody great. Anyone have a YSI of this? Mine is on tape.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 26 February 2006 23:29 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Somewhat unexpectedly, Van Morrison's "Wild Nights" segued into "Heartbeat" on my CD shuffle. Aren't they the same song -- conjuring a similar exhilirating, dangerous 11:30 pm walk through the club/bar district?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 03:17 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.