Happy Mondays
When I was younger and first getting into music it was the whole baggy, ‘Madchester’ thing which caught my attention. For some reason I missed listening to any of the Happy Mondays stuff properly until recently and only then after a prompt from watching the film ‘24 Hour Party People’.
The track which caught my attention in the film was ‘Tart Tart’ which had such an effect on me that I decided to read Bez’s autobiography and then get hold of two Happy Mondays videos ‘Call The Cops’ and ‘Rave On’. My instincts had not failed me and since then I have been almost constantly watching the vids and finished reading Bez’s book in a day and a half.
To me they represent a movement which should have exploded during the Nineties but was limited to the underground raves in an impure form. Bands like Joy Division and Nirvana expressed everything that was wrong with the world but imploded as a result. The Happy Mondays took this and added everything that was good about the world to it. The band’s name came about as a reaction to the New Order song ‘Blue Monday’ which perhaps proves my point.
Shaun Ryder’s lyrics come from a part of the human psyche forced out by acid, mushrooms and Ecstasy. Their effect is similar to a David Lynch film such as ‘Mulholland Drive’ where there is no obvious meaning yet Ryder’s words speak to people in a profound and individual way unlike very little else at the moment. They, of course, did have great commercial and critical success helped largely by Bez’s dancing which clearly tapped into something other people wanted to feel and consequently did so at many a rave. His visual input which still would have registered on the Nineties mindset afforded the band their earlier commercial success which may not of been so evident without him.
Shaun is releasing some new stuff at the moment which I’ve yet to hear but have been hearing very good things about. Now that we are picking up again from where we got lost at the start of the Nineties I recommend all listening to some Happy Mondays stuff to remind yourself of where we should all be heading.
The track which caught my attention in the film was ‘Tart Tart’ which had such an effect on me that I decided to read Bez’s autobiography and then get hold of two Happy Mondays videos ‘Call The Cops’ and ‘Rave On’. My instincts had not failed me and since then I have been almost constantly watching the vids and finished reading Bez’s book in a day and a half.
To me they represent a movement which should have exploded during the Nineties but was limited to the underground raves in an impure form. Bands like Joy Division and Nirvana expressed everything that was wrong with the world but imploded as a result. The Happy Mondays took this and added everything that was good about the world to it. The band’s name came about as a reaction to the New Order song ‘Blue Monday’ which perhaps proves my point.
Shaun Ryder’s lyrics come from a part of the human psyche forced out by acid, mushrooms and Ecstasy. Their effect is similar to a David Lynch film such as ‘Mulholland Drive’ where there is no obvious meaning yet Ryder’s words speak to people in a profound and individual way unlike very little else at the moment. They, of course, did have great commercial and critical success helped largely by Bez’s dancing which clearly tapped into something other people wanted to feel and consequently did so at many a rave. His visual input which still would have registered on the Nineties mindset afforded the band their earlier commercial success which may not of been so evident without him.
Shaun is releasing some new stuff at the moment which I’ve yet to hear but have been hearing very good things about. Now that we are picking up again from where we got lost at the start of the Nineties I recommend all listening to some Happy Mondays stuff to remind yourself of where we should all be heading.
Comments
Post a Comment