Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Notice a comment from South London’s resident wunderkind, the impressively nomenclatured Owen “the Hathster” Hatherly (possibly not a man to try and show your slightly ropey knowledge of the modernist movement off to down the local Wetherspoons. Pah! Man? According to his Blog profile he’s twenty –four. Obscene! Illegal! Unfair ! ( You’ll be telling me K-Punk's just finished his GCSEs next!) I prostrate myself before him. Hathster- Fari liveth and conquereth!) that “Tell Me Easter’s on Friday” is in fact the best song ever written, or at least the best by the Associates.

I’m listening to it as I type and I’m forced to confess that it is amazing, especially the way that backward spinning, speeded up tape loop resolves into the plinky, toy plastic-piano riff at the start ( merely one among a multitude of other bedazzlements), but, more significant than doctrinal disputes among the disciples of the Church of Big Billy Mackenzie ( now I’m listening to “Fourth Drawer Down,” I might actually go for “ The Associate” as their best… oh… hang on, what about "Message Oblique: Speech”?) can we not at least agree that “ Tell me Easter’s on Friday” is certainly one of the funniest titles in pop?

I mean, under what circumstances would you ever say that? “Tell me,” usually precedes some impassioned cry for re/assurance. “Tell me that’s not last orders being rung,” “Tell me you love me Roger!” “Tell me I’ve got at least a few more weeks, doctor, at least until the baby’s due!” “ Tell me Easter’s on Friday!” It always implies to me some kind of wheedling Larkinesque, ultra-fop, (aha! Morrissey), Kenneth Williams in high dudgeon over his holiday plans…

Oh, hang on, there goes “An Even Whiter Car,” doing it’s kind of cod-Wagnerian, synth-dub, metal banging thing, so ….it’s an embarrassment of riches, mate, will we see their like again?

2 comments:

owen hatherley said...

*shucks*

incidentally billy mackenzie explained that title thus- 'it's like, tell me elephants have giraffe legs' (it sez in the actually v good cash-in posthumous biog)

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