Limping for a Generation
Encyclopedia
Limping for a Generation was the 1984 debut album by the British
band
, The Blow Monkeys
.
In the booklet to 1999 Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys, the leader Dr. Robert (born Robert Howard) writes down that, even if it was "Digging Your Scene", from the band's second album, Animal Magic, "that opened the door. From being a glam
jazz
obscurity we were on the TV, in the papers, getting thrown out of clubs and playing Wembley
with Rod Stewart
(...) the first album, Limping for a Generation, has some of our best stuff on it". The singer and guitarist also billed the record as jazz
-punk
, and defined The Blow Monkeys' early production by simply stating, in the same source: "Our early music was raw".
Formed in the early eighties
, the group, after a few indie
singles, signed to RCA
, and released Limping for a Generation, an album that in retrospect was considered a masterpiece, and today is very hard to find, and, at the same time, much sought for, but which didn't get any commercial success at the time of release. Limping for a Generation, though, is a strange work: at times sensual and sinister, skronky and soulful, dreary and delirious; its tunes are solid, but lack real singalong hooks that could have made the charts. The album is hard to categorize, hard to relate to many contemporaries - ABC
, Duran Duran
and The Style Council
were all far too different for true comparison.
It might be tentatively said, to really try and explain the weird but captivating sound of Limping for a generation, that it sounds like Paul Weller during the late period of The Jam
, matched to the confused sexual lyrics of Morrissey
(from The Smiths
). Some of Robert's couplets indeed remind of Morrissey's croon words: "Says he wants to be an anti-Christ/But God knows, that boy is too nice" (from the title-track, "Limping for a generation") or "You can bury me alive and jump on my head/But I'm a real Wildflower, chained to your bed" (from "Wildflower", the last single to be issued from the album), or, again very Morrissey, "I see a boy/He must be a prince/Who is he I desire?/Who am I to be shy?".
Dressed in impeccable suits, in perfect New Romantic
looks, which only adds up more confusion to it all, since their musical style is far removed from that scene, the four lads of The Blow Monkeys, who played their first unsuccessful album all on their own, with only one external help (Peter Wilson, for production, string
arrangement
s and additional keyboards
), eventually did have chart success a few years later, with a more pop rock
, funky sound, and expanding the credits on their albums, by adding keyboards
, female background vocals and more pop
hooks, until turning to another kind of music, completely different from the early days, that is dance
, before the dance scene itself would become huge, with some legendary duets (Curtis Mayfield
and especially Cheb Khaled, just to remind a couple) and the invention of UK garage
with "Wait" in one more duet, with Chicago house
diva
Kym Mazelle
.
But the legacy of Limping for a Generation, such an important record for the group, wouldn't be forgotten. Their last album in fact included either their latest dancey tunes, as well as a couple of tracks sounding exactly as if they were written in this early formative period, not to forget the above mentioned brave experiment of mixing an Arabian singer with uptempo rhythms in "Be Not Afraid" with Khaled. Three of the four singles taken from their debut album, namely "Man from Russia", "Atomic Lullaby" and "Forbidden Fruit", can be found on their first compilation album, called Choices - The Singles Collection, released in 1989, the same year as "Wait" came out. The later 1999 collection contains instead five B-side
s to the 1984 album, which, as Dr. Robert again writes in the mentioned booklet, "show us at our most relaxed and spontaneous", and since the band had the unluck to become famous during the decade which has always been accused of paying too much attention to exterior details, he adds: "...and give a more rounded picture of what was really the most important thing to us... the music".
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
, The Blow Monkeys
The Blow Monkeys
The Blow Monkeys are a British new wave band that formed in 1981 as a new wave-oriented act. The first single, "Live Today Love Tomorrow" was released in 1982. They subsequently recorded more commercial pop rock hit makers, and finally became a dance group, shortly before splitting up at the...
.
In the booklet to 1999 Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys, the leader Dr. Robert (born Robert Howard) writes down that, even if it was "Digging Your Scene", from the band's second album, Animal Magic, "that opened the door. From being a glam
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
obscurity we were on the TV, in the papers, getting thrown out of clubs and playing Wembley
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
with Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
(...) the first album, Limping for a Generation, has some of our best stuff on it". The singer and guitarist also billed the record as jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, and defined The Blow Monkeys' early production by simply stating, in the same source: "Our early music was raw".
Formed in the early eighties
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, the group, after a few indie
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
singles, signed to RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
, and released Limping for a Generation, an album that in retrospect was considered a masterpiece, and today is very hard to find, and, at the same time, much sought for, but which didn't get any commercial success at the time of release. Limping for a Generation, though, is a strange work: at times sensual and sinister, skronky and soulful, dreary and delirious; its tunes are solid, but lack real singalong hooks that could have made the charts. The album is hard to categorize, hard to relate to many contemporaries - ABC
ABC (band)
ABC are an English band, that charted ten UK and five US Top 40 singles between 1981 and 1990. The band continues to tour and released a new album, Traffic, in 2008.-Formation:...
, Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
and The Style Council
The Style Council
The Style Council were an English band, formed in 1983 by the ex-The Jam singer and guitarist Paul Weller, with keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee. Other artists such as Tracie Young and Tracey Thorn also...
were all far too different for true comparison.
It might be tentatively said, to really try and explain the weird but captivating sound of Limping for a generation, that it sounds like Paul Weller during the late period of The Jam
The Jam
The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...
, matched to the confused sexual lyrics of Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
(from The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
). Some of Robert's couplets indeed remind of Morrissey's croon words: "Says he wants to be an anti-Christ/But God knows, that boy is too nice" (from the title-track, "Limping for a generation") or "You can bury me alive and jump on my head/But I'm a real Wildflower, chained to your bed" (from "Wildflower", the last single to be issued from the album), or, again very Morrissey, "I see a boy/He must be a prince/Who is he I desire?/Who am I to be shy?".
Dressed in impeccable suits, in perfect New Romantic
New Romantic
New Romanticism , was a pop culture movement in the United Kingdom that began around 1979 and peaked around 1981. Developing in London nightclubs such as Billy's and The Blitz and spreading to other major cities in the UK, it was based around flamboyant, eccentric fashion and new wave music...
looks, which only adds up more confusion to it all, since their musical style is far removed from that scene, the four lads of The Blow Monkeys, who played their first unsuccessful album all on their own, with only one external help (Peter Wilson, for production, string
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s and additional keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
), eventually did have chart success a few years later, with a more pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
, funky sound, and expanding the credits on their albums, by adding keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, female background vocals and more pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
hooks, until turning to another kind of music, completely different from the early days, that is dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, before the dance scene itself would become huge, with some legendary duets (Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
and especially Cheb Khaled, just to remind a couple) and the invention of UK garage
UK garage
UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music originating from the United Kingdom in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music which originated in Chicago and New York, United States. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'...
with "Wait" in one more duet, with Chicago house
Chicago house
Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...
diva
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
Kym Mazelle
Kym Mazelle
Kym Mazelle is an American dance-pop, Hi-NRG, soul, and house singer. She was brought up and lived on the same street as the Jackson family and knew Michael Jackson's mother and uncle.-Career:...
.
But the legacy of Limping for a Generation, such an important record for the group, wouldn't be forgotten. Their last album in fact included either their latest dancey tunes, as well as a couple of tracks sounding exactly as if they were written in this early formative period, not to forget the above mentioned brave experiment of mixing an Arabian singer with uptempo rhythms in "Be Not Afraid" with Khaled. Three of the four singles taken from their debut album, namely "Man from Russia", "Atomic Lullaby" and "Forbidden Fruit", can be found on their first compilation album, called Choices - The Singles Collection, released in 1989, the same year as "Wait" came out. The later 1999 collection contains instead five B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
s to the 1984 album, which, as Dr. Robert again writes in the mentioned booklet, "show us at our most relaxed and spontaneous", and since the band had the unluck to become famous during the decade which has always been accused of paying too much attention to exterior details, he adds: "...and give a more rounded picture of what was really the most important thing to us... the music".
Track listing
- "He's Shedding Skin" (Howard) 4:04
- "Wildflower" (Howard) 3:00
- "Atomic Lullaby" (Howard) 5:02
- "Fat Cat Belusha" (Howard/Anker) 4:15
- "Go Public" (Howard) 4:30
- "Professor Supercool" (Howard) 4:00
- "Man from Russia" (Howard/Anker) 3:15
- "Waiting for Mr. Moonlight" (Howard) 4:22
- "Limping for a Generation" (Howard) 3:32
- "Trashtown Incident" (Howard) 4:10
Singles from the album
- "Go Public" (1984)
- "Man from Russia" (1984)
- "Atomic Lullaby" (1984)
- "Wildflower" (1985)
B-Sides
- "Rub-a-dub Shanka" (1984; B-Side to "Go Public")
- "Resurrection Love" (1984; B-Side to "Man from Russia" single)
- "Slither" (1984; B-Side to "Man from Russia" maxi single)
- "My Twisty Jewel" (1984; B-Side to "Atomic Lullaby" single)
- "Kill the Pig" (1984; B-Side to "Atomic Lullaby" maxi single)
Personnel
- Dr. Robert: vocals, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Tony Kiley: drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Neville Henry: tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, alto saxophoneAlto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions... - Mick Anker: electric bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, acoustic bassAcoustic bass guitarThe acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar...
- Peter Wilson: production, stringString instrumentA string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
arrangementArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s, additional keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
- Nick Knight: photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
Release details
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
| UK | 1984 | RCA RCA RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor... /Ariola/BMG BMG Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann... |
CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... |
ND 71495 |
External links
- MySpaceTV: The Blow Monkeys page - live video of The Blow Monkeys at the Camden Palace, London (1985), performing the song "Professor Supercool", which was released on Limping for a Generation, in 1984.
- MySpace: The Blow Monkeys page - audio clips to four songs from The Blow Monkeys, including previously unreleased track "Have No Roots".
- Fencat Online: Dr Robert's Official Website.