World Party – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues …album review

I’ve listened to this album before, but this week I had it on constantly, and I went through it many times. Not one clunker on this album. It’s one of those albums that is hard to pick just one song off and go with it. It needs to be listened to as a whole. I was just going to go with the song World Party but I kept listening to track after track and decided to go with the entire album. You have all kinds of musical styles on this album, including a tribute song about Hank Williams called Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?. It has something for everyone, but blended into one cohesive album voice.

The impression I get from this album is The Basement Tapes by Dylan and The Band. Not comparing songs, no, just the freedom feel of the entire album. It sounds like they didn’t plan anything, and it just happened. When you pull that off, it’s pure magic. Not many albums are truly spontaneous, but when you get that feeling, bottle it quickly, because it doesn’t come often.

The Waterboys were formed in 1983 by Scottish musician Mike Scott, the band’s leader and primary songwriter. Over the years, their music has evolved through various phases, blending elements of rock, folk, and Celtic influences. Fisherman’s Blues was the title track of their album released in 1988.

Mike Scott recorded over 100 songs during this period. Only 13 made the cut for this album, and he made a good selection. This album helped inspire a wave of folk-rock revivalists in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and later on bands like Mumford and Sons. Mike Scott has said that Fisherman’s Blues was not one sound but a voyage, not a destination, but a process.

The album had a little of everything, like spirit, freedom, risk, and reinvention. It’s the sound of a band trying something new and getting lost in something older, wilder, and more timeless. It’s one of those rare albums where you feel like you’ve lived with the band. I’m going to go song by song…just listen to this album!

All the songs except for two covers (Sweet Thing by Van Morrison and This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie) and a song called Dunford’s Fancy written by violinist Steve Wickham were either written or co-written by Mike Scott.

Karl Wallinger, who co-wrote World Party and was a key part of the early Waterboys, left during these sessions to form his own band, named World Party. I picked that song “World Party” below to highlight, plus the entire album on Spotify. What caught me was that it explodes out of the speakers with a honky-tonk style piano and a fiddle sawing like a buzzsaw through a barn wall. It’s hard not to like that. The song just makes me feel good.

The album peaked at #15 in New Zealand, #76 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #13 in the UK in 1988.

Mike Scott: We started recording our fourth album in early ’86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. There was a lot of indecision. I got too involved in the album and I lost perspective. We had blues songs, gospel songs, country songs, rock songs and ballads. I didn’t know where to take it. It could’ve been a gospel or country album. It could’ve sounded more like This Is the Sea or it could’ve been a traditional album. It could’ve been anything.”

The tracklist to the original album

Fisherman’s Blues (Mike Scott, Steve Wickham)
We Will Not Be Lovers (Scott) – 7:03
Strange Boat (Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite)
World Party (Scott, Trevor Hutchinson, Karl Wallinger)
Jimmy Hickey’s Waltz (Scott, Wickham, Thistlethwaite)
And a Bang on the Ear (Scott, Wickham, Thistlethwaite)
Has Anybody Here Seen Hank? (Scott)
When Will We Be Married? (Traditional, adapted: Scott, Thistlethwaite)
When Ye Go Away (Scott)
Dunford’s Fancy (Wickham)
The Stolen Child (Words: W.B. Yeats, Music: Scott)
This Land Is Your Land (Woody Guthrie)

World Party

Well it’s got nothing to do with anything that is realyou just believe in it and it’s trueYou can sooth like an angel or sigh like a saintyou can dream it and see it throughYou will live to see a sea of lightssparking on the face of a pearlClimb your own peakfind a new streak

Get yourself along to the world party (party!)

Now you’ve been building for yourself a cool place in the sandyou’re thinking that it’s mighty fineYou’ve got dust in your eyeballs, you got mud in your mouthbut it’s your head, it ain’t mineI’ve got a madman of my own to contend withcursing in the cave of my skullTurn the other cheekfind a new streak

Get yourself along to the world party (party!)

Well I heard a rumour of a golden agesomewhere back along the lineMaybe I dreamed it in a whisper orheard it in a spellIt was something to do with the sign of the timesand the only thing that I rememberIs a summer like a pretty girlwho shimmers and shinesMoving in timeshaking to the beat of the heart of the world

Party (party! party! party! party! party! party! party! party! party!)

…

World Party – Way Down Now

The first song I heard from this band was She’s The One that I saw in the movie Matchmaker. I liked the song more than I did the movie. The second song I heard from them was Ship Of Fools. Lately, I’ve been diving into the albums and more songs than those two. Their album Goodbye Jumbo is a pop masterpiece. When I thought of them at first, it was for their Beatles-type melodies and phrasing, but they also throw in the Rolling Stones.

Before World Party took form, Wallinger had already built up a behind-the-scenes resume worth bragging about. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he grew up listening to everything from soul and psychedelia to classical and punk. He was a true musical sponge. His big break came in the early ‘80s when he became the musical director for The Rocky Horror Show play, which led to studio work and eventually landed him in The Waterboys for their This Is the Sea era.

Right out of the gate with this song, you’re greeted with that slinky, rubbery guitar riff that instantly calls to my mind Sympathy for the Devil, and that’s no accident. Wallinger even throws in some “woo-woos” in the chorus.

By now, he’d fully embraced his role as DIY guy, writing, producing, and playing virtually everything himself. Goodbye Jumbo was a masterful example of building an album. Every song is stitched together from analog and digital, but nothing hits quite like Way Down Now, which kicks the album off like a cool joyride through pop

He was armed with a drum machine, some trusty analog gear, and a pile of vintage records for inspiration. This album, to me, is a cross between Britpop and a bar-band.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts, #5 on the Alternative Charts, #53 in Canada, and #66 in the UK in 1990. Goodbye Jumbo peaked at #36 in the UK, #26 in Canada, and #73 in the Billboard Album Charts.

Way Down Now

Inside my TV, INever stop to wonder whyI’m way down nowI’m way down now

Some faceless get on the screenThe most honest man I’ve ever seenI’m way down nowI’m way down now

Won’t you show meSomething true today?C’mon and show meAnything but this

She took us by the handHell was the promised landI’m way down nowI’m way down now

I’m lying by the roadBecause she cut off all my clothesI’m way down nowI’m way down now

Won’t you show meSomething true today?C’mon and show meAnything but this

Inside my future lifeWhat I see just makes me cryI’m way down nowI’m way down now

The clocks will all run backwardsAll the sheep will have two headsAnd Thursday night and FridayWill be on Tuesday night instead

And all the times will keep on changingAnd the movement will increaseThere’s something about the living, babeThat sends me off my feet

There’s breeding in the sewersAnd the rats are on their wayThey’re clouding up the imagesOf my perfect day

And I know I’m not aloneAnd I know I’m not aloneAnd I know I’m not alone

Anything but thisCan you hear me?

Inside my TV, II never stop to wonder whyI’m way down nowI’m way down now

Then some faceless get comes on my screenThe most honest man I’ve ever seenI’m way down nowI’m way down

Something newSomething trueSomething newSomething trueSomething newSomething newSomething true

…

World Party – She’s The One

I heard this song in a movie called The Matchmaker and I liked the song better than the movie. A great song that was a hit but not for World Party, unfortunately. When I listen to the song I think of Jeff Lynn.

World Party began as an outlet for the pop of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Karl Wallinger, previously best known for his tenure with the Waterboys. He grew up with the Beatles and Motown as influences. World Party released this song in 1997 on their Egyptology album.

Robbie Willams covered the song in 1998 and took it to number 1 in 1999 in the UK charts. The song’s producer, Guy Chambers, used World Party’s touring band to perform the backing track for Williams, resulting in an identical sounding cover.

World Party’s frontman and songwriter Karl Wallinger was not made aware that a soundalike cover was going to be released using his own band. When the song became a hit, Wallinger stated that he experienced “ongoing bitterness”, going on to state, “The song had a much better time than me, popping off to the Brits while I was at home eating crackers dipped in water”

Williams often claims it is one of the best songs he’s ever written, despite not actually having written the song. This culminated in a telephone outburst from the song’s actual writer, Wallinger, to Chambers, stating “Your fucking friend Robbie Williams. Tell him from me that he’s a c**t”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrJL23YDmS4

She’s The One

I was her
She was me
We were one
We were free
And if there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one

We were young
We were wrong
We were fun
All along
And If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one

When you get to where you want to go
And you know the things you want to know
You’re smiling
When you said what you want to say
And you know the way you want to play it
You’ll be so high you’ll be flying.

Tho’ the sea
Will be strong
I know we’ll
Carry on
Cos if there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one

I was her
She was me
We were one
We were free
And if there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
She’s the one
If there’s somebody calling me on
She’s the one
She’s the one
If there’s sombody calling me on
She’s the one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She%27s_the_One_(World_Party_song)