Time Wounds All Heels

Back in 1990, when Peter Hook put out the first (only? I'm too lazy to check) album by Revenge, I bought it, listened to it, dismissed it as fairly cruddy ersatz New Order and traded it in at the used store within a fortnight.

However, this morning I was at a record store and ran across a copy of it and, in the "the absolute worst example of the kind of music I loved 20 years ago is going to sound great to me now" mindset I so often fall prey to, I decided that fairly cruddy ersatz New Order from 1990 was exactly what I needed to hear and snagged it.

Sure enough, I spent the drive home listening to it and loving it, although I still realized that it was indeed fairly cruddy. But now, 22 years after its release, I can look at it as an accidentally brilliant unintentional satire of the classic New Order sound, right down to the fact that Hook is obviously trying to sing exactly like Sumner (a foolish aspiration if ever there was one) and his lyrics somehow manage to be even worse and more nonsensical than Bernie's.

So I have a new favorite old album for the next two weeks until I get sick of it.

It doesn't hurt that the cover art is nothing but very attractive young women in varying states of undress, though the enjoyment of that is tempered by the realization that all of those once young women have probably spent this summer shopping for colleges with their eldest children.

I got rid of the Revenge album over a decade ago (and haven't missed it), but I still have the two Monaco albums, which I'd argue are just as bad. Oddly enough, I still pull out the Other Two album for reasons of nostalgia--and enjoy it, despite cringe-worthy vocals and ill-aimed attempts at New Order gestures.

I'd also argue, however, that Electronic were never as good as anyone wanted them to be--but that we held them in higher estimation because of the personnel involved.

its probably not very feasable (geographical proximity,deaths, building demolished, band members not speaking, etc) for most bands to return to the site where an album cover was shot twenty odd years ago and do it again for a new Lp but damn, that might be fun.

i probably shoulnt, but i cant help but wonder how well Dick manitoba would fit back into that wrestling gear he wore on GO GIRL CRAZY!

> i probably shoulnt, but i cant help but wonder how well Dick manitoba
> would fit back into that wrestling gear he wore on GO GIRL CRAZY!

Probably better. All the more recent pix I've seen of him looks like he's dropped a fair few pounds.

I've made claim to being the biggest New Order fan on this board previously, not that that's a highly-contested title, and I have way, way more of this stuff than a sane person requires (301 New Order songs, according to iTunes), and there are multiple Revenge 12" singles in my garage.

Which is all to preface: Revenge is the worst of the New Order side projects, by a long shot. Monaco is at least 5 times better than Revenge (Hook's not attempting to sing), and Monaco's still not in the ballpark with New Order.

Peter Hook is obviously the best musician in any room he walks in, and he's streets ahead of Sumner, Gilbert and Morris, but given the opportunity to let his ego blast, Hook becomes Les Claypool. That's my take.

I see that New Order announced a new US tour--Gillian is back, Hook is out, newish dude who replaced Gillian is still in, and a new-new dude is in the photo.

[www.chartattack.com]

Btw, no one mentioned Bad Lieutenant. I liked the album, though it was toothless in most spots. . .



Post Edited (07-28-12 22:32)

Jermoe wrote:

> Peter Hook is obviously the best musician in any room he walks
> in, and he's streets ahead of Sumner, Gilbert and Morris, but
> given the opportunity to let his ego blast, Hook becomes Les
> Claypool. That's my take.

I have a friend who swears that Stephen Morris is one the best drummers in the world and likely at least on the same street as Hook if not a block ahead. (OK, I added that last bit, but he absolutely gushes about Morris' chops, but never has much to say about Hook.)

I was discussing the relative merits of Nirvana with a friend over the weekend, and he made the point that Dave Grohl was not just pivotal to their development, he was by far the best musician of the three.

What, if anything, does it mean when the drummer's the consensus best musician in a group?

Rush comes to mind here, as well.



Post Edited (07-30-12 10:08)

"Rush comes to mind here, as well."

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are stellar musicians.

And I'm not sure that Peter Hook's unorthodoxy with a bass (i.e. evolving into high-up-on-the-neck melodicism early on because he really couldn't play the thing the traditional way) puts him so far ahead of the rest of New Order. I've always thought of him as a "unique" musician, but not exactly a maestro.

And if rock and roll history has taught us anything (and if our conversations have circled around anything again and again), it's that musicianship is not the key to Valhalla. There are better (technical) musicians in many groups' cover bands than there are in the group itself.

We wouldn't be talking about Dave Grohl without Kurt Cobain's songs and vision. Trying to decide who is the best musician in the band is often an abstraction, because what really matters (and what we really know best) is what works best in the context of the band (and out comes the Al Kooper/Bob Dylan organ anecdote). My favorite piece of musicianship in New Order is the guitar on the New Order studio version of "Ceremony"--played by Gillian in this case. (Sumner did not play it, despite popular belief.)

All of which is to say that I am not settled on the idea that Hook is leagues, streets, or steps ahead of the rest of the group as a musician (though Barney's guitar work doesn't create a compelling argument for himself).

Points well made and well taken, Erik.

I'd like to add that Sumner's guitar playing is much better than his "singing"–to say nothing of his "songwriting–yet the sum is far greater than the parts...

Quote

So I have a new favorite old album for the next two weeks until I get sick of it.

So. What you're saying is ...

"REVENGE IS SWEET?"