Erasure • Features • Biography
Other People's Songs (2003)
The reputation of the cover version has become tarnished in recent years. With the charts full of instant talent competition ensembles attempting thin re-workings of classics, the notion that blowing the dust off a song from yesteryear can discover new dimensions or rescue the tune from undeserved obscurity is rarely addressed.
For a band to revive that idea and make a great job of covering classics, they would have to have a lengthy proven track record of their own brilliant songwriting, a deep love of pop, and of course a singer with amazing range, cross genre flexibility and a sense of high chutzpah. If only such a band would take it upon themselves to reclaim the art of the pop cover. If only someone like Erasure would apply themselves to the task.
Someone very like Erasure did in fact begin considering such a project towards the end of the '90s. Andy Bell began toying with the concept first. Could an album be dedicated to the work of just one man? Phil Spector perhaps? Would it work as a 'singer's album', like 'Dusty Goes To Memphis', only 'Andy Goes To The Wall Of Sound'? The idea was nurtured and expanded, slaved over and finally brought to fruition in the form of the new Erasure album, a collection of beautiful and startling electronic torch, classic pop and 50's songs titled "Other People's Songs", set for release though Mute in 2003.
After 9 albums of almost exclusively original compositions, Erasure consider themselves entitled to crinkle the songsheets of others. Since forming in 1985, the British pair have proved themselves with a decade and a half of flamboyant pop genius, creating some of the most uplifting electronic based tunes ever. They have had multiple number 1 albums and top ten hits, and have stretched the melodic synth pop core of their music in countless directions, from proto-electroclash to clubbable populism.
Following the experimental "Erasure" album in 1995, Vince and Andy had focussed on writing their own great, timeless songs through "Cowboy" in 1997 and "Loveboat" in 2000. It was entirely natural that their ongoing curiosity about the pop form would take them back into history. In addition, Andy Bell was starting to find himself in odd circumstances on return trips from his home in Spain. He would visit Vince to catch up, and spend time with his parents in Peterborough, and, worryingly, he started to be lured by the karaoke machines in the local clubs. Something had to be done.
"I was already thinking that there are so many tunes out there I would love do as a singer," says Andy. "So part of it was coming from the perspective of being a singer who loves great songs. At the same time I was toying with the idea of doing a solo project and I was looking into doing a lot of Phil Spector songs. I remember when I was living at home, I didn't realise how influenced I was by my parents records. My mum was a huge Elvis fan and my dad was a Buddy Holly fan, and they had this "Phil Spector Greatest Hits" album and I used to listen to that every day. I just thought, 'Oh if only I could sing like that'."
The project began in earnest in 2001, with Andy flying back and forth between Spain and the UK to work on the songs. Initially he collaborated with producer Gareth Jones, who had worked with Erasure on the "Wild!" album, but in discussions with Vince it became apparent that enthusiasm for the project was shared and that Vince's arrangement and keyboard skills were needed to complement the technological strengths of Jones. The full Erasure team was now on board. All they had to do was select the right material. With three of them collecting suitable possibilities on CD, they then took "probably about half a year" to decide on the ideal songs.
"It's quite interesting because when you choose your favourite song it's not necessarily the song that's going to work best when we record it as Erasure," says Vince. "My favourite songs are set in time and history and they're to do with my youth, and so sometimes the songs that I thought, 'Oh they're fantastic' didn't work, because we couldn't reproduce anything better than the originals."
Erasure are not newcomers to the art of the cover version. They've included non-original material on several albums and famously released a chart conquering entire EP of Abba songs, 'Abba-esque', in 1992. "Other People's Songs" is, however, a more weighty project, combining a bit of cheek with some iconoclasm, a sincere fascination with the mechanics of songwriting and a pure, fan-based love of pop.
"I think "Other People's Songs" is a bit more serious than the Abba-esque thing," says Vince. "That was going to be an album as well, in the first place, but we were pretty glad that we didn't do that because we were swamped by Abba when we did that anyway. It just seems this album is not so throw away as the Abba thing."
"It's also been quite refreshing for us," adds Andy. "I think we found that we were heading towards auto-pilot after "Cowboy" and "Loveboat". It's not that you lose the spark, but you forget what pop's all about and just how inspiring music can be to you. What's interesting about doing these cover versions as well, is that a lot of them are really old, they're from the '50s and it's really weird that we've done synthesised versions, but the vocals still sound sometimes older than the original ones. So it's quite bizarre."
Full track listing for "Other People's Songs"
'Solsbury Hill' (Peter Gabriel)
Vince: "That was one of my choices and I just think it's a fantastic record. The thing about that track is the time signature's 7/8 which is pretty difficult to put a groove to. We struggled with that beat, myself and Gareth, for ages, trying to make it sound groovy and it wasn't happening. And then we just figured, we'll make it 4/4, and the whole thing came together. That was quite a moment. It was such a simple thing to do, but it took us ages to work it out."
Andy: "I think it's a really weird song. I would never have chosen 'Solsbury Hill' but because Vince really likes the song, you kind of take it and not listen to the original too much. So that song I think is like doing completely our own style, and it sounds almost like another record, it doesn't sound like the Peter Gabriel song. I know he was quite close with Kate Bush, so I took her as my inspiration for that song rather than him. It's a kind of gospel version."
'Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime' (Korgis)
Vince: "That's me again. That's just a fantastically sentimental, slushy song. I love it. And it's a nice simple chorus refrain, only got one verse, and it's a pretty perfect ballad/pop song. Andy sang it quite soully in the studio, so I don't think he knew anything about the song particularly. He just sang it as he felt he ought to sing it, and it was great so we thought we ought to include it."
Andy: "That's one thing 'bout when songs aren't your choice and you just come in and sing them off the cuff and it just comes out of nowhere, and you can't believe you just did it."
'Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)' (Cockney Rebel)
Vince: "Yeah. That was one of my records from when I was a teen that I loved. We struggled over that a little bit, because at first we tried I think to do an imitation, an impression almost of the original, but Andy's not cockney and it didn't work, so he just sang it in his own style."
'Everyday' (Buddy Holly)
Andy: "That's Buddy Holly. I suppose I'm quite a softie but that was my Dad's song and I felt like I wanted to do songs that they would like."
'When Will I See You Again'
'Walking In The Rain' (Walker Brothers - also Partridge Family and Modern Romance)
Andy: "That was mine, that was from the Phil Spector album, I got the Phil Spector box set and 'Walking In The Rain' just gave me goose bumps when I first heard it. I thought, we can do a really good dance version of this but now it's kind of like a, it's not hip hop, it's two step. Two step! I thought that was line dancing."
'True Love Ways' (Buddy Holly - also Peter and Gordon, Cliff Richard)
Andy: "That's Buddy again. Another torch song. Oh Cliff did it, didn't he?"
'Ebb Tide' (The Righteous Brothers)
Vince: "That was a last minute thing. We did it quite quickly because Andy was keen to sing it. We just sort of put it all together and he did a great vocal on it."
'Can't Help Falling In Love' (Elvis Presley)
Andy: "I really wanted to do an Elvis song, but it's quite difficult to choose which one of his to do. We did a version of 'Wooden Heart' before for a German TV show, which I love, and it wasn't because it was his anniversary or anything. I don't know, just that was the one."
'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling' (Righteous Brothers - also covered by Hall and Oates, Telly Savalas and Cilla)
Andy: "That was the song that started off the whole project, and we went through a few versions of it, and ended up with the original vocal that I did at Gareth's house, just on a live mic with the music in the background. It was before all the Pop Stars started doing their Righteous Brothers 'Unchained Melody' or whatever, and it was just kind of like getting a Righteous Brother-ish feeling in the voice and I think we've got it quite close.
"No, I don't remember Cilla's version. I remember a couple of the Burt Bacharach tracks that Cilla did though. They were fantastic 'Anyone Who Had A Heart', that was brilliant."
'Goodnight' (Cliff Eberhardt)
Andy: Well, I only know the version by Buffy Saint Marie, who I love, and it was written by Cliff Eberhardt. I know he's really famous but I don't know what else he's written.
'Video Killed The Radio Star' (Buggles - Trevor Horn)
Vince: "That was me. I knew that Andy wouldn't like to sing this one particularly, so I asked my brother Mick to get the computer to sing it for me. Which is what we did. So the computer sings it and Andy does backing vocals. And it's the perfect pop song, that's the reason I chose it. I'm not like a Trevor Horn fan but I like a lot of what he's done, and that particular song, I think that's pop at its poppiest and truest and most sincere and yet insincere."
In addition to providing a framework for a fascinating, revealing and entertaining album, "Other People's Songs" has been a healthy exercise for Vince and Andy. Their working methods in terms of structure, arrangement and lyrics have been loosened up, opening new possibilities for the next record.
It's a perfect point in the band's career to swerve off the self-written highway. Each Erasure phase has seen them cut pop into dazzling facets, exploring the dimensions of synth-driven music without bowing to the gratuitous demands of fashion. By the time Andy Bell answered Vince's 'vocalist wanted' advert in 1985, the taciturn electronic 'boffin' had already come through his chic phase as Depeche Mode member and then Yazoo and The Assembly lynchpin. Bell, the embryonic diva from Peterborough, was simply too celestial a singer to allow Vince to wander off into the margins.
The first Erasure album "Wonderland" was released in 1986, including the soaring 'Oh L'Amour'. By the time of their second album, 1987's "The Circus", the pair had blossomed into a hits machine, going top ten with 'Sometimes' and 'Victim Of Love' and following through with 'Ship Of Fools', 'Chains Of Love' and 'A Little Respect' from 1988's number one album "The Innocents". 1989's "Wild!" notched up another number one and the pair set out on the road to excess, touring with a stage set of jungle plants and inflatable creatures. As 1991's "Chorus" album again headed for the chart summit, they took the live show to an extreme of theatricality. The 'Phantasmagorical Entertainment' tour featured Andy riding a giant white swan and wearing infamous cowboy chaps. The show also included an Abba cover sequence in advance of their 1992 chart conquering covers EP 'Abba-esque'.
The Benny and Bj?rn-esque route of the charts slowed in the early '90s as the band took time off after the "Pop! The First Twenty Hits" singles collection went to number one in '92. 'I Say I Say I Say' spawned the top ten singles 'Always' and 'Run To The Sun' in '94, but amidst a guitar band dominated climate Vince and Andy veered into darker experimental terrain for 1995's "Erasure".
The sustainable appeal of a truly gifted singer with a deep love of Motown, gospel, Country & Western and Elvis and a keyboard craftsman with deep knowledge of the musical spectrum has since been proved as styles have come around again. "Cowboy" and "Loveboat" took Vince and Andy back into the heart of contemporary radio. All signs are pointing to a renaissance for the band.
Vince has been indulging his abstract side, composing lengthy ambient pieces with his colleague from the early days of Brit electronics -Martyn Ware. Andy has been checking out the new wave of electronics from Fischerspooner to Miss Kittin and DJ Gigolo. They have already commenced work on the next Erasure album, hungry to re-experience the lift that comes with writing great songs of your own.
Clearly the 2000's are agreeing with Vince and Andy. Having become reluctant to tour towards the end of the '90s, even setting up shows where he could play 'virtually' from his garden shed, Vince is now keen to get out on the road. The experiences of dodging typhoons while visiting off-the-regular-schedule parts of the world in 1999 (with Bowie and No Doubt as fellow travellers in South East Asia, South Africa and South America) have not daunted Erasure.
For the first time this century they're taking their wildly rhapsodic show on the road, this time in Edwardian costume, to honour the era when the gramophone was invented, with a gradual change of wardrobe up to the present day. Back bolder than history, Erasure have returned to cover themselves in their own, and a bit of other people's glory.
"I feel a lot better about myself generally in life," says Vince. "I feel more positive, lots of interesting things are going on, so I think if you've got a good spirit, then touring isn't as bad. I've been looking at the dates and thinking, that's going to be quite exciting!"
"I just feel like I need to be out there because I'm a performer and I really miss it," concludes Andy. "I threatened to do 'Taboo', the show, so they said 'Don't do that, do this'. And it'll stop me doing karaoke in Peterborough."
Leave the karaoke to amateurs. Hell can be other people. Heaven is "Other People's Songs".