"My purpose was simple: to catch the feel, the pulse of rock, as I had lived through it. What I was after was guts, and flash, and energy, and speed" - NIK COHN -
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "When the music was new and had no rules" -LUNA C
Friday, July 18, 2025
top ranking two-step
Lover's jungle!
Yeah yeah I know "Uptown Ranking'" is not Lovers
It's more like Swaggers
Why on earth would you wanna dirge this out? What a silly man he is
The SoM cover ain't great but it nevertheless seems a quite transgressive move in a milieu that otherwise (I presume) doesn't greatly acknowledge the existence of black music. As such, you could say that the band is being true to the cross-cultural spirit of post-punk that was central to your thesis in Rip It Up. They also covered Hot Chocolate's Emma of course.
I think it's more in the trad of the New Wave incongruous cover - like the Dickies or Flying LIzards. Where the original style is flattened out completely by the punkiness or in this case the Gothdirginess. The thing both the Sisters of Mercy covers have in common isn't so much that they are black as that were both Number One hits - it's pop that everyone knows.
Perhaps that to overthink it - Andrew E probably really likes both songs, so he's just everybody else.
Alan Vega covered Hot Chocolate song on one of his solo albums - "Every 1's a Winner". He would talk about the incredible soulfulness of Errol and how he could communicate pain with the slightest movement of his head.
I also remember kevin rowland on one of the Jukebox Jury type shows, hating everything played except for Hot Chocolate's "Started With a Kiss".
This is the kind of random pop ephemera that my head is choked with!
Perennial Rush opening act April Wine covered "You Could Have Been a Lady" not long after the original Hot Chocolate single was issued, actually slipped it into the US Top 40, and is or should be a staple of any Unlikely Funky Gems playlist. I mean, we're talking April Wine here.
And also: Emma is a song that in mood and subject matter is perfectly suited to the Sisters of Mercy’s style. It’s Hot Chocolate’s equivalent to Frankie Teardrop. The same with the Sisters’ cover of Jolene, which is also pretty effective. They take those familiar pop hits, and expose the darkness that was always there, just below the surface.
The mood of Uptown Top Ranking could not be more different. As you say, it’s about swagger. And Andrew Eldritch has not the faintest idea of how to represent it. No-one was ever given a heart attack by seeing him in a halter back, that’s for sure.
5 comments:
The SoM cover ain't great but it nevertheless seems a quite transgressive move in a milieu that otherwise (I presume) doesn't greatly acknowledge the existence of black music. As such, you could say that the band is being true to the cross-cultural spirit of post-punk that was central to your thesis in Rip It Up. They also covered Hot Chocolate's Emma of course.
I think it's more in the trad of the New Wave incongruous cover - like the Dickies or Flying LIzards. Where the original style is flattened out completely by the punkiness or in this case the Gothdirginess. The thing both the Sisters of Mercy covers have in common isn't so much that they are black as that were both Number One hits - it's pop that everyone knows.
Perhaps that to overthink it - Andrew E probably really likes both songs, so he's just everybody else.
Alan Vega covered Hot Chocolate song on one of his solo albums - "Every 1's a Winner". He would talk about the incredible soulfulness of Errol and how he could communicate pain with the slightest movement of his head.
I also remember kevin rowland on one of the Jukebox Jury type shows, hating everything played except for Hot Chocolate's "Started With a Kiss".
This is the kind of random pop ephemera that my head is choked with!
Actually Emma just got to Number 3 but the general idea stands
Perennial Rush opening act April Wine covered "You Could Have Been a Lady" not long after the original Hot Chocolate single was issued, actually slipped it into the US Top 40, and is or should be a staple of any Unlikely Funky Gems playlist. I mean, we're talking April Wine here.
And also: Emma is a song that in mood and subject matter is perfectly suited to the Sisters of Mercy’s style. It’s Hot Chocolate’s equivalent to Frankie Teardrop. The same with the Sisters’ cover of Jolene, which is also pretty effective. They take those familiar pop hits, and expose the darkness that was always there, just below the surface.
The mood of Uptown Top Ranking could not be more different. As you say, it’s about swagger. And Andrew Eldritch has not the faintest idea of how to represent it. No-one was ever given a heart attack by seeing him in a halter back, that’s for sure.
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