I've been a James fan for 24 years now, aside from a short break between 1991 and '93, which I guess is longer than average, but I felt like a latecomer at first. Peel sessions and NME cover features came and went, and I was curious enough to pay attention, but not impressed enough to follow up.
Jeremy and I were intrigued by their performance at WOMAD in 1985, though I can only reconstruct tiny fragments of that from memory: Tim Booth dressed from head to toe in white, feeling wasted, and the look J and I exchanged at the end of Folklore when Tim sang, "Most things are better not written or heard / When you open your mouth, out drops a turd".
It was after I got Stutter and saw James again in 1987 that I got hooked. The early singles were already hard to find by then, but I got this 12" EP, which combines the first two, second hand from Record Collector in Broomhill.
I like What's the World, where Tim's voice first threatens to go off the rails. I still like Folklore, too. It's gauche and naive, sure, but it's cheeky advice, "Add a touch of mystique where the writing gets weak / Break up coherence with a cut-cut-cut up technique" anticipates that shortcoming, and disarms criticism.
I've seen your mouth moving, heard others here say,
Those words are a piece of a part that you played
That sounds like your father, a teacher, the church
Didn't spring from the heart, but research
The only way I learn is put the fist in and get burned
Go get burned
Old wives, mystics, hearsay
Wise men, rich men, shamen and sage
When you're meek on the Earth, when you die you will pay
For accepting that lot, in the cheapest of graves
The sexes divided, men mustn't be weak
Sensitivity is a vice of which we shan't speak
And women are a plaything that are just made for men
To treat how the boss he respects treats him
And I am going to grow up like daddy wanted me to be
To impress all those, who so impressed me
And young boys melt into men
And we'll start the process again
Add a touch of mystique where the writing gets weak
Break up coherence with a cut-cut-cut up technique
When you've got nothing to say
Shut up
Or show that you're willing to play
With words that simply aren't out of touch
With the genuine feelings which lead to their birth
Most things are better not written or heard
When you open your mouth, out drops a turd
Salutary to be reminded how much they were already whingeing about the miseries and injustices of the music business right at the start of their career — in What's the World and Hymn from a Village —. This was when they were still with St Anthony of Manchester's Factory, years before the travails with Seymour Stein's Sire that bedevilled their career around the time of Strip~mine up to One Man Clapping. I guess they just enjoyed whingeing.
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