Hiya Simesy, Pete and all,
Here's my two-ha'penny's worth:
> I would hazard a guess that the reason there were only two
> releases from 'Rise And Fall' were twofold. Firstly, a non-album track
> had been released in between albums in 1981 ('It Must Be Love'); and
> secondly, because the compilation album 'Complete Madness' usurped the
> release of 'Rise And Fall' by six months, spawning another non-studio
> album release ('House Of Fun'). That meant, that there were 4 singles
> between '7' and 'Keep Moving' - effectively an album's worth of releases.
Simesy! You forgot all about Driving In My Car!!! Shame on you;-) And on a
completely pedantic note, the wondrous band that they are, they managed to
release It Must Be Love between SINGLES from the same album! I can only
think of The Smiths as another band who released singles NOT from their
current chart album like that.
I don't know how they ever managed it but they were amazing at going into
the studio between albums simply to record another single rather than come
up with a whole album. At least that's the way it seemed at times, even
though they never went much beyond a year without an album.
Anyhoo, to The Rise & Fall. I don't think there's any way you could suggest
Driving In My Car was a taster for THIS album!!!;-) I remember them saying
in an interview when Keep Moving came out that their singles preceeding
albums very rarely reflected the sound of the whole album. They were
actually talking about Wings Of A Dove and The Sun And The Rain, which
ended up not on the album anyway. I think this was an interview in No.1
magazine which had one of the most prophetically ironic headlines of all
time! "Madness in not to split shocker!" This was around October 1983 and
we all know what was transpiring around then:-(
But I digress yet again. The Rise & Fall was Madness' real *ALBUM*. Unlike
the rest of their albums it was a collection of songs related to each other
in varying degrees. It was not a collection of potential hit singles. At
the time I thought they could have got away with releasing Primrose Hill,
Calling Cards, Are You Coming With Me or Rise & Fall, but none of these
were *obvious* singles, unlike Our House, which jumped up out of the record
player and Tango-ed you, crying out "greatest pop single of all time"!!!
Even Tomorrow's Just Another Day had to be spruced up slightly for single
release. That was another strange thing about The Rise & Fall. No single
preceeded the album. I had a few weeks of playing Our House non-stop on the
album from its Guy Fawkes day release until the single was eventually
released itself. But that song apart it was an album to listen to all the
way through so that you could really appreciate it. And the running order
was also very important. As the 1983 US album proved, changing the order of
the songs and interspersing them with hit singles did not do the songs from
The Rise & Fall justice. It is a complete album and should be listened to
as such (IMHO).
So overall, I think a major part of why there were only two singles from
The Rise & Fall was that Dave Robinson, and probably the band too, didn't
think there were more singles to come from it. And probably this is partly
why Madness Is All In The Mind was made the AA-side of Tomorrow's Just
Another Day. Only two singles, strictly speaking, but the public got a
third taster of what the album was about too.
OK, that was closer to ten bob's worth;-) But I had to make use of the rare
opportunity to use a fully functioning computer.
Cheers for now,
Peter
****************************************************
Dr. Peter T. Gardner
Rowett Research Institute
Bucksburn Tel: 01224 - 712 751
Aberdeen AB21 9SB Fax: 01224 - 716 629
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
****************************************************
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