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Tuesday 2 May 2017

You're So Anti-Fashion


This is from the same year as yesterday's bank holiday Jam special and from another of punk's angry and intense young men, Kevin Rowland. There, There, My Dear explodes out of the end of Searching For The Young Soul Rebels, an album that has more than its fair share of musical and lyrical explosions.

The Stax v punk horns burst the song open and Kevin begins addressing 'Robin' and then takes him apart in a variety of ways, the most audible being 'if you're so anti-fashion, why not wear flares?'. Kevin follows up with a list of writers Robin likes to quote and disparages his claims of liking Frank Sinatra. On it goes, Kevin twisting his knife further and cramming more words into the lines than should really fit (and scan) until the spoken word section where he accuses Robin of hiding the young soul rebels, finishing with 'Maybe you should welcome the new soul vision'. I don't know who Robin is, whether he is a real person, an imaginary enemy, someone at the NME, an amalgam of people from other bands- he could be any of these. And whether Robin deserves Kevin's criticism or not, its a undeniably exciting and exhilarating way to close the album.

There, There, My Dear

5 comments:

The Swede said...

Exhilarating indeed. A corker.

drew said...

I have a track from this album to post later this week too.

George said...

What a bloody brilliant song.

Brian said...

This one would close the ICA I swear I will get to at some point. Brilliant post, Adam.

Echorich said...

There, There My Dear is a musical brick through the window. It's my favorite track from Searching For The Young Soul Rebels.