Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

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The Modernist
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby The Modernist » 21 Mar 2015, 08:25

I regret not seeing their latest shows. Watching it on the doc it looks pretty good, but you really feel it's a truly immersive experience, something you have experience live to get that connection.

I'm always genuinely saddened when the American posters on here dismiss Dexys. I really feel they're missing out on some great music because of some false construct they've projected on the band.
At the same time I do get it. Rowland throws himself so completely in what he does that there's always going to be a hubris and ridiculousness attached to what he does if you look for it. But the key to what he does is to understand that he really means it. It's actually the opposite of artifice. He wants to get to some raw emotional truth and he wants to share it with everyone.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby soundchaser » 21 Mar 2015, 08:53

The Modernist wrote:I think their finest moment was Plan B.


Yes, I'd agree with this, although the whole of side 2 was magnificent.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby naughty boy » 21 Mar 2015, 09:44

I love 'Plan B' but I do honestly think, as is the case with many bands, that their finest moments are their most well-known ones. Not much compares to 'Geno' for me - it's still a rush.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby The Modernist » 21 Mar 2015, 10:01

APE wrote:I love 'Plan B' but I do honestly think, as is the case with many bands, that their finest moments are their most well-known ones. Not much compares to 'Geno' for me - it's still a rush.

Always preferred the two singles either side..Dance Stance and There There My Dear. But I do really like Geno as well. Seeing them on TOTP doing Dance Stance was one of those epochal TOTP moments for me (rather like people always say of Bowie doing Starman, although I was too young to see that one).
I'd not really heard of them, although I vaguely connected them with Two Tone (was there a connection? I know Bernie Rhodes was involved with both Dexys and The Specials early on). The intensity of Rowland really blew me away, but it was a different intensity to rock music. He just seemed so different, the vision was there from the start.
It's funny it's only since I've been posting about them on BCB these last few years that I've realised how much I always loved them. I never used to think of them as one of my favourite bands when they were together for some reason, even though I used to buy all the records.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby naughty boy » 21 Mar 2015, 11:25

The Modernist wrote:I regret not seeing their latest shows. Watching it on the doc it looks pretty good, but you really feel it's a truly immersive experience, something you have experience live to get that connection.

I'm always genuinely saddened when the American posters on here dismiss Dexys. I really feel they're missing out on some great music because of some false construct they've projected on the band.


I wonder if any of them would get more from those recent live shows than from hearing those early singles. I have a feeling that the theatrical element might be more likely to draw some traditionalists in.

I want to emphasise just how much I enjoyed the programme last night. I would love to see that show sometime. The band were phenomenal - committed, talented - and Rowland came across very well, I thought. I was surprised by how much all the dramatics worked. The woman was hot too!
Matt 'interesting' Wilson wrote:So I went from looking at the "I'm a Man" riff, to showing how the rave up was popular for awhile.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby Jimbly » 21 Mar 2015, 23:58

I was at one of the early gigs, in fact before the album was released. Converted church in Glasgow, 350 capacity. Brilliant Stuff. They have used pictures from it in promo stuff, always gives a wee glow when I see one.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby ChrisB » 22 Mar 2015, 00:11

The Modernist wrote:
APE wrote:I love 'Plan B' but I do honestly think, as is the case with many bands, that their finest moments are their most well-known ones. Not much compares to 'Geno' for me - it's still a rush.

Always preferred the two singles either side..Dance Stance and There There My Dear. But I do really like Geno as well. Seeing them on TOTP doing Dance Stance was one of those epochal TOTP moments for me

Such a small stage for so many musicians. Always makes me smile

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby Limpin' Jez McKenzie » 23 Mar 2015, 08:32

Jeemo wrote:I was at one of the early gigs, in fact before the album was released. Converted church in Glasgow, 350 capacity. Brilliant Stuff. They have used pictures from it in promo stuff, always gives a wee glow when I see one.


Yes I saw it at shepherd's Bush early on.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby soundchaser » 23 Mar 2015, 12:58

APE wrote:Anyone watching?

I'm impressed by this soul revue thing. It really works - all the corny, showy stuff. Good man Rowland.


I watched it yesterday and very enjoyable it was. The music's not as good as old Dexys, but still very good.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby sloopjohnc » 23 Mar 2015, 14:18

The Modernist wrote:I regret not seeing their latest shows. Watching it on the doc it looks pretty good, but you really feel it's a truly immersive experience, something you have experience live to get that connection.

I'm always genuinely saddened when the American posters on here dismiss Dexys. I really feel they're missing out on some great music because of some false construct they've projected on the band.
At the same time I do get it. Rowland throws himself so completely in what he does that there's always going to be a hubris and ridiculousness attached to what he does if you look for it. But the key to what he does is to understand that he really means it. It's actually the opposite of artifice. He wants to get to some raw emotional truth and he wants to share it with everyone.


I was a Melody Maker subscriber when that weekly and the other weeklies started promoting their live shows and the first album.

I was really excited to buy it and hear it when the import version got to the local Tower records. The weeklies had been pimping Geno for months and I just had to hear it.

I put the needle on the first song, Burn it Down. Interesting start I thought, with the radio turning to different stations and styles. I got excited by the shouted "Burn it Down" with the drums and horns kicking in. And then Rowland starts singing - if you were a new wave fan, you bought it into that style of singing, but as the album went on, I just couldn't reconcile it with the soul music I'd grown up with on the radio and had started getting into again as a music collector. The music was okay, not great, and was all part of that DIY thing of punk/new wave, etc.

But I just couldn't buy the construct and didn't relate to it at all. But I don't think the construct was made for me. I think a kid in the UK could relate to Kevin Rowland's brand of homemade soul. I had my own, I didn't need any other, and I thought the versions I was listening to were done much better. I didn't even pay attention to Plan B.

I was working in record stores when Too-Rye-Ay came out. Of course, C'mon Eileen was hugely popular as a song and video and the album got played a lot in store. I didn't like it - the act seemed phony to me and I couldn't get past that whole street urchin thing. Again, the music didn't do anything for me. I understood the musical and visual posture - I couldn't relate to almost any of it.

I think Rowland meant it or means it - and I think he spends a lot of time and energy crafting his songs and the looks to go around it. I think your theory about the artifice going full circle to honesty is probably valid, but valid for you and not me.

I think he spends a lot of energy on music that is leaky with limitations.

You can love it if you want, but I don't have to and have given you my reasons why. It's not like I didn't come to it not wanting to like it or not open minded. Just the opposite and found it disappointing.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby Osgood » 23 Mar 2015, 15:26

Any love for My Beauty?

Image

Erm ... well, I like it.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby Jimbly » 23 Mar 2015, 18:33

Osgood wrote:Any love for My Beauty?

Image

Erm ... well, I like it.


got both his solo albums. Great stuff.
So Long Kid, Take A Bow.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby sloopjohnc » 23 Mar 2015, 21:24

I was just talking to guy a couple cubicles down. He's a contract worker around my age. He's a music fan and British - fan of Fulham and if you start talking football, he won't stop. We talk Johnny Guitar Watson, Syl Johnson, Alabama Shakes, Steel Pulse, Eddie and the Hot Rods, you name it, we've talked about it.

We were just talking about a project we're both involved in. Near the end, I asked, "Hey, Adrian, I'm in a music forum discussion with some of your countrymen over Dexy's Midnight Runners. They're trying to convince me they're good. Dexy's - yay or nay?"

Scrunching up his face like a foul odor had wafted by, he responded, "Kevin Rowland, right? Didn't care for 'em. Bit of a poser, that Rowland."

I said, "That's what I thought too. I'm not crazy. Thank you."
Last edited by sloopjohnc on 23 Mar 2015, 23:40, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby jimboo » 23 Mar 2015, 22:19

Sloop , Fulham and Eddie and the hot rods ? Ask him if he knows what being a knob is .
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby sloopjohnc » 23 Mar 2015, 23:39

jimboo wrote:Sloop , Fulham and Eddie and the hot rods ? Ask him if he knows what being a knob is .


:lol: :lol: :lol:

Tomorrow.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby Jimbly » 23 Mar 2015, 23:46

Sloop, your first post about why you didnt get Dexys was great, i could totally understand and appreciate your view. The you had to drag the Fulham fan into. Have you learned nothing from this boards dealings with that uberbastard MacAndy.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby Rayge » 15 Jan 2018, 19:05

bump
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby The Write Profile » 15 Jan 2018, 21:13

I think my favourite Dexys is the stuff where Roland is at his most upfront and defiant. Certainly, I play the first album the most, largely because it's so confident in its approach and the way it pulls no punches. Right from "Burn It Down", they're setting out their store as being different from the rest. And yes, the horns have a big part to play in that: whether they're forceful in "There There My Dear", carrying the melody in "Geno" or just ripping apart the fabric in "Burn It Down". Rowland's vocals could take a while to get used to, but on that first album they're integral. Simply put, he doesn't back down.

I like Too-Rye-Aye and Don't Stand Me Down in bits, most particularly the desperate "Plan B", which is as close you'll get to a nervous breakdown as possible in pop music, and "This is What She's LIke", which, for all its rambling, is a surprisingly eloquent (and even funny) new way of writing a love song about someone- by drawing up all the things that the protagonist isn't like.
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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby The Modernist » 15 Jan 2018, 22:03

It's the rambling that makes it for me, that and the Brian Wilson like middle eight which goes all hymnal. That's so inspired.

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Re: Beyond the 130 - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Postby The Write Profile » 15 Jan 2018, 22:13

The Modernist wrote:It's the rambling that makes it for me, that and the Brian Wilson like middle eight which goes all hymnal. That's so inspired.

Oh don't get me wrong, I like the song, particularly that middle eight, but I prefer it when he's more direct. One thing that baffles me though: why does Rowland take a swipe at the CND?
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.


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