Thursday 6 December 2018

Oh shit! Pete Shelley's dead

I was saddened to hear that Pete Shelley, lead singer and songwriter of the Buzzcocks, has died today.

The punk/new wave era reinvigorated the sub 3 minute pop single and Shelley's quirky, angst ridden lyrics over spiky guitars brought us some wonderful pop music. His 1978 song Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn't Have? is one of my favourites from any era:

You disturb my natural emotions
You make me feel I'm dirt and I'm hurt
And if I start a commotion
I'll only end up losing you and that's worse.....
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone
You shouldn't have fallen in love with?


Not at all like the rather turgid thrash which became associated with the punk genre. The title of the Love Bites album from which the song was taken is one of those lovely double meanings (bites as a verb or noun). I've read some people trying to claim a third meaning - bites as in sound bites - but that phrase didn't originate in the American media until the 1980s. But you can read it that way now as well if you wish.

Mrs H and I saw the Buzzcocks, not in their youthful pomp but about a decade ago at Nottingham Rock City. Mrs H hadn't been a fan of stand up gig venues until then: we had a memorable evening as the band played the tracks from both of their first two albums in sequence, some 30 years on from their release.

The band's name, which was appropriated for the similarly named BBC music quiz show, isn't rude. It came from a Time Out magazine headline for a review of the TV series Rock Follies which said "It's a buzz, cock", buzz being the excitement of playing on stage and cock being northern slang for mate. (I remember the first time I got called cock when we moved to St Helens - I thought it was right weird, duck).

Apologies for the vulgar post title, but it is apposite, as that's what the B side of the Buzzcocks second single, What Do I Get?, was called.  Not perhaps Shelley's best lyric, even if it was quite funny:

Oh shit, I thought you and I were friends
Oh shit, I guess this is where our love ends
Oh shit, I thought things were goin' well
But it hasn't turned out so swell, has it?
Oh shit, oh shit.
......
Oh shit, I wish I'd known before now
Oh shit, that you were such a cow
Oh shit, I wouldn't've wasted my time
Oh shit, chasin' somethin' which wasn't mine, face it
You're shit
You're shit

....
Admit, admit, you're shit, you're shit, you're shit, you're shit, you're shit

Trust me, it sounds ok to the music: you can hear it on you tube here.  Because of the song title, the rather sensitive employees at the packaging plant refused to handle the sleeve with this now very mild sounding obscenity emblazoned on the back. Different times!

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