Friday, February 24, 2017

Song of the Day: Billy Sedlmayr Tackles Primal Scream and 'I Can Change'

Posted By on Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 4:09 PM

Writing about Primal Scream is a chore. For one thing, they're a Glasgow band who've done pretty much anything and everything to make their reputation, one that's schizoid to say the least.

After leaving The Jesus and Mary Chain to make Scream a full-throttle effort, Bobby Gillespie and band began a series of post-punk stab's at mid-'80's stardom, hitting on a loud, Stones-Stooges kind of thing.  

Frontman Gillespie has real swagger, practiced or not. Yes, he's a rock star—a dime a dozen, right? 'Cept they ain't a dime a dozen, some got talent, a voice, somethin' to say.

Back to the buildup ... the band sure had a few weird producers who got inside people's heads. The album Screamadelica came out in '91, had big club hits, '60s Peter Fonda nods, etc. It bent lots of ears, I guess. Hell, I wasn't around, but yeah, I get it.

Could be there was vice involved. But a couple loud-ass records more than an almost perfect side; and Euro movie shorts with strange soul—not T.S.O.P. —and it swings backwards like Vanishing Point, damn good stuff.

Now 11 records on in 2016, Primal's The Chaosmosis is a big release in the hour of the locust, yet ... the album cover is that slightly off Gillespie thing, he's still here man. It shows slender bars of I.B.M. colors, the title, and Gillespie in a what appears to be a coon-skinned cap, Daniel Boone shit—er, Fess Parker Jr. actually—the actor who sold me Boone every week in the late '60's. He ain't around for this but I push my scratched glasses up and I swear it's him.

The three-minute "I Can Change" falsetto, on key, with Casio's on chorus, 4/4 groove, nice sound, Euro rock star. This record as a whole, spotty, but it's hard to deny the love. 'Cause you'd be insane to do it otherwise.

My light shines on ... Ha!

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