I Am Not The Beatles

Click above for big pictures, click below to play me…

This is what pop music is all about.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good one, but your patience is about to be rewarded - as this an absolutely superb song.

It starts fearlessly - totally comfortable within and ultimately utterly transcending it’s chosen genre. It is time to put away any preconceptions you have and just nod your head along to that really quite incredible intro. It struts around your ears like a euro-pop John Travolta quite literally owning the street at the beginning of ‘Saturday Night Fever’.

That, my friends, is confidence.

Billy Vera should take some serious notes here, as the subject matter is essentially the same as his interminable ‘At This Moment’ - that of a lost love - but it has a lightness of musical touch and a yearning in the vocal that Billy can only dream of.

It is also lyrically far cleverer than it perhaps even realises itself.

The ‘beat’ we are being asked to ‘touch’ is the memory of ‘the rhythm of two hearts’ of yourself and your ex love. It also plays nicely on euro-pop conventions, using a seemingly throw away line such as ‘Touch and go’ to show the ultimate fleeting nature of your daliances. ie You touched, they left - but you still ‘need (them)… so much’.

Elsewhere, lines like ‘Real life made you think my words have already been said’ is far too deep for it’s own good, whilst “It happened on a night like this, an empty table and a silent kiss” has the kind of rhythm and measure that would make Morrissey proud.

All in all, this is a perfect example of what the best love songs should sound like - luxuriating in the bitter joy of times that now leave you empty. When this is expressed in the right way, despite the sadness and loss, it should bloody well make you smile.

Just like this song.

Could This Song Be Any Better ?

You know that recurring lyrical theme it uses in the verses : ‘It was Sound on Sound’ , ‘It was Pain on Pain’ etc - wouldn’t it have been nice if Super Enig Matix had released three separate versions of this song a la Pulp’s Something Strange with the interchangeable line ‘It was Boy on Boy’, ‘It was Girl on Girl’ and ‘It was Girl on Boy’ ?

Then you could have bought your own personalised copy depending upon your personal preference.

Where Are They Now ?

It seems the band name was taken from a song by 70’s progressive rock band ‘Be-Bop-Deluxe’ who had a song called ‘Superenigmatix (lethal appliances for the home with everything)’ on their 1978 album ‘Drastic Plastic’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Bop_Deluxe

Apart from that, I spent almost a day searching frantically but could find absolutely no reference to this band whatsoever.

But then - many hours into the search - I discovered an obscure Italian music forum talking about people’s favourite songs that nobody else knows. On it was the following short, but groundbreaking statement.

Prepare yourselves… this is incredible :

” Lunica possibilita’ di riascoltare le belle canzoni anni ‘80 rare e ormai dimenticate, e’ proprio quella di scambiarcele qui sul forum. Mi vengono in mente brani fantastici come Touch the beat dei Super Enigmatix (voce di Limahl). “

You don’t need to know much Italian to recognise two simple supporting words and one Very Important One : Voice Of Limahl.

Bloody Hell.

http://www.limahl.com/

Hmmm… The only Kajagoogoo song I own is the much underrated ‘The Lions Mouth’ but I will admit - having just given it a quick spin - there are similarities.

So, if we take this one statement written by an Italian I have never met before as pure fact, I can now tell you that Super Enig Matix’s newest single was released under his much better known guise of Limahl called ‘Tell Me Why’. You can listen to it here :

http://www.myspace.com/limahl

and watch the video here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynTl4rh2DgQ

Which all reminds me - ‘The Never Ending Story’ is still a bit of a toe tapper isn’t it ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3khTntOxX-k

Money Update

Cost : 8 pence

Current Value : 2 pounds and 87 pence.

Current Profit : 122 pounds and 92 pence. Incidentally, I am still not totally convinced that this is definitely lovely Limahl - so I’ve just emailed him to ask. Watch this space.

Supporting Cast Update : Kajagoogoo - Be Bop Deluxe - Travolta, John

EDIT : Update now available in ‘Corrections and Clarifications’

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Classy, A Bit Camp, Brilliant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.