Friday Random Five: Goodbye

There’s a theme to this Friday Random Five, and that’s the goodbyes that we say in our lives. Some are better than others.

Goodbye by The Sundays Album: Blind
I’ve had to say goodbye to some old ways this year, old belief systems better off abandoned. This song has been on my mind from time to time throughout the process. Harriet seems to be giving her views on the Bible, against the Sundays’ trademark jangle.

I vow that its goodbye to the old ways
Those stories were a good read
They were dumb as well

I could never be seen
Falling down on my knees crawling
O no, talk about a sell

I, for one, got sold for a long long time. Silly nonsense. Goodbye to all that.

Ciao! by Lush Album: Lovelife
Lush was not a happy band toward the end, and it showed. During their last tour, the band seemed beaten and tired. Emma was particularly surly onstage. One fan shouted, “C’mon, Emma, smile!” and got the Death Glare. “Ooh,” Miki tut-tutted, “don’t do that.”
It was coming unstuck in interviews as well. From an interview:

Does the band work very democratically or is there a chief?

(Phil and Chris exchange glances, Emma looks down at the table).
Phil: Miki and Emma.
Emma: It depends on what you’re talking about. Miki does the set lists. I don’t think I’m a tyrant or anything… (to the guys) Am I? (Phil nods once, almost imperceptibly, Chris just grins).

You (Emma) and Miki write the songs, how do you present them to Phil and Chris?
Emma: We come with the finished songs…
Chris: “…here, do this.”

(There is an awkward silence at this point and it feels as though we’ve gone someplace taboo.)

Within six months of the interview, Chris would hang himself and Lush would finish.

On this last album, Lush gives the bitterest break-up song you’re ever likely to hear. A duet between Miki and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, the pair take turns slagging each other off and saying how happy they’ve been since parting ways. Ciao, indeed.

John Wayne is Big Leggy by Haysi Fantayzee Album: Battle Hymns for Children Singing
Oh, no. It’s Haysi Fantayzee. Hide.

I think they must have been the first band of the MTV generation to take image to the limit, all the way back in 1982. Culture Club? Jellyfish? (Who?) Imitators. Picture if you will a guy and a girl dressed in thrift store/gypsy/hillbilly/dreadlocks eclectic everything. The cover close-up’s worth a click. And the music? Ira Robbins’ comparison: “like having painful dentistry performed by an overbearing three-year-old” is not far off. Unless you’re in an extremely good mood, in which case it magically transforms into something so loony, so perfect that you must laugh.

What is this song about? What does the title mean? Does it matter? With this loping mix of country and mariachi, it wouldn’t make any sense anyway. So let’s say a cautious ‘goodbye’ to Haysi Fantayzee and move on to…

The World at Large Alone by Stephen “Tintin” Duffy Album: The Ups and Downs
A melancholic goodbye song from Stephen Duffy in his Tintin days. Look at him. The epitome of arch-style, leaning at a rakish angle. This album was cafè style and good taste, well-mannered pop in convenient disc form.

This final song on the album is a torchy tear-jerker. You can hear a sound clip at the new Duffypedia, a great place for all things Duffy. (Check out The Lilac Time while you’re at it.)

Cindy it’s over
Although it never started
I thought I’d better tell you
It’s over girl, it’s over.

There’s a story. The night before I went away forever, I met with The Girl. The one I listened to this album with over and over. Her name was not Cindy, but close enough. “Don’t play that song,” she asked. “Just don’t play it.”

Run Wild by New Order Album: Get Ready
Get Ready is an album of jagged guitar and electronica. But this last song is acoustic, like coming out of the city and emerging into bucolic fields. You get out of the car and sit down on the grass and it’s warm and sunny.

The chorus:

If Jesus comes
To take your hand
I won’t let go
I won’t let go.

Sometimes you can’t say goodbye.