Blow Monkeys the Masters
Encyclopedia
Blow Monkeys The Masters is a compilation from British
new wave
/ Dance
band The Blow Monkeys
, released in 1997
, by Eagle label, for its well known "Eagle Series", presenting many UK groups' master collections. The greatest hits album, the second, following the more famous Choices - The Singles Collection, out in 1989
, contains all their most popular singles (including all four singles taken from the band's best-selling album, the 1987
She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, which also features their best-selling single, British Number 5 hit "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way", and the most famous singles off their previous album, Animal Magic, that is "Wicked Ways", and The Blow Monkeys' very first hit single, "Digging Your Scene"), the three most popular singles from their debut album, the 1984
Limping for a Generation
, the two previously unreleased tracks on the previous collection, that is the duets with Sylvia Tella
(the big hit "Choice?", and the minor hit "Slaves No More"), and the very last single ever released by the band before they split up, "La Passionara", off the 1990
Springtime for the World. What is specially interesting on Blow Monkeys The Masters is the very hard to find cover version of "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield
, soul music
legend whom vocalist and leader Dr. Robert has always pointed to as his main musical inspiration; the song was originally a B-Side of the 1986
single, "Don't Be Scared of Me", one of the less known and one of the few not to have entered the charts. A similar fate was met by "It Pays to Belong", though a popular tune, taken from the 1988
album Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood
. It was this latter work that originally included the only two songs here which never appeared in single format, "No Woman Is An Island" and "Squaresville", two stand-out tracks on the 1988
album, closing the Blow Monkeys The Masters compilation. That album also featured the second best-charting single from the band, "Wait", which got to Number 7, in early 1989
, today considered as the initiator of the sub-genre later to be called UK Garage
. Probably, the song does not feature here because originally only credited to Robert Howard (Dr. Robert's real name), in a duet with Chicago House
diva
, Kym Mazelle
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
/ Dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
band The Blow Monkeys
The Blow Monkeys
The Blow Monkeys are a British new wave band that formed in 1981 as a new wave-oriented act. The first single, "Live Today Love Tomorrow" was released in 1982. They subsequently recorded more commercial pop rock hit makers, and finally became a dance group, shortly before splitting up at the...
, released in 1997
1997 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1997.-January:*January 9 – David Bowie performs his 50th Birthday Bash concert at Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA with guests Frank Black, The Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Robert Smith of The Cure, Lou Reed, and Billy...
, by Eagle label, for its well known "Eagle Series", presenting many UK groups' master collections. The greatest hits album, the second, following the more famous Choices - The Singles Collection, out in 1989
1989 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1989.-Events:*January 14 – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР exclusively in the USSR...
, contains all their most popular singles (including all four singles taken from the band's best-selling album, the 1987
1987 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1987.See also:Record labels established in 1987-January-February:*January 3 – Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, which also features their best-selling single, British Number 5 hit "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way", and the most famous singles off their previous album, Animal Magic, that is "Wicked Ways", and The Blow Monkeys' very first hit single, "Digging Your Scene"), the three most popular singles from their debut album, the 1984
1984 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1984.-Janury-March:*January 21 – "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood reaches number one in the UK singles chart, despite being banned by the BBC; it spends a total of forty-two weeks in the Top 40.*January 27 – Michael Jackson's...
Limping for a Generation
Limping for a Generation
Limping for a Generation was the 1984 debut album by the British band, The Blow Monkeys.In the booklet to 1999 Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys, the leader Dr. Robert writes down that, even if it was "Digging Your Scene", from the band's second album, Animal Magic, "that opened the...
, the two previously unreleased tracks on the previous collection, that is the duets with Sylvia Tella
Sylvia Tella
Sylvia Tella is a British lovers rock singer, who after working as a vocalist for Boney M embarked on a successful solo career, releasing her first album in 1981. She had a top 40 hit in 1989 in collaboration with the Blow Monkeys.-Biography:Born c.1960 in Manchester, England, Tella's career began...
(the big hit "Choice?", and the minor hit "Slaves No More"), and the very last single ever released by the band before they split up, "La Passionara", off the 1990
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
Springtime for the World. What is specially interesting on Blow Monkeys The Masters is the very hard to find cover version of "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
, soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
legend whom vocalist and leader Dr. Robert has always pointed to as his main musical inspiration; the song was originally a B-Side of the 1986
1986 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1986.-January-June:*January 23 – The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame takes place...
single, "Don't Be Scared of Me", one of the less known and one of the few not to have entered the charts. A similar fate was met by "It Pays to Belong", though a popular tune, taken from the 1988
1988 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1988.-January-March:* January 1 – André Rieu's Johann Strauss Orchestra plays its first concert....
album Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood
Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood (album)
Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood was The Blow Monkeys' 1989 follow-up album to She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, released two years before....
. It was this latter work that originally included the only two songs here which never appeared in single format, "No Woman Is An Island" and "Squaresville", two stand-out tracks on the 1988
1988 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1988.-January-March:* January 1 – André Rieu's Johann Strauss Orchestra plays its first concert....
album, closing the Blow Monkeys The Masters compilation. That album also featured the second best-charting single from the band, "Wait", which got to Number 7, in early 1989
1989 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1989.-Events:*January 14 – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР exclusively in the USSR...
, today considered as the initiator of the sub-genre later to be called UK Garage
UK garage
UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music originating from the United Kingdom in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music which originated in Chicago and New York, United States. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'...
. Probably, the song does not feature here because originally only credited to Robert Howard (Dr. Robert's real name), in a duet with Chicago House
Chicago house
Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...
diva
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
, Kym Mazelle
Kym Mazelle
Kym Mazelle is an American dance-pop, Hi-NRG, soul, and house singer. She was brought up and lived on the same street as the Jackson family and knew Michael Jackson's mother and uncle.-Career:...
.
Track listing
- "Digging Your Scene" (from Animal Magic, 1986)
- "Wicked Ways" (from Animal Magic, 1986)
- "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way" (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987)
- "Out with Her" (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987)
- "Celebrate (The Day After You)" (with Curtis MayfieldCurtis MayfieldCurtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...
) (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987) - "Some Kind of Wonderful" (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987)
- "This Is Your Life" (1989, from Whoops! There Goes the NeighbourhoodWhoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood (album)Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood was The Blow Monkeys' 1989 follow-up album to She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, released two years before....
, 1988) - "Choice?" (with Sylvia Tella) (from Choices - The Singles Collection, 1989)
- "Slaves No More" (with Sylvia Tella) (from Choices - The Singles Collection, 1989)
- "La Passionara" (from Springtime for the World, 1990)
- "Superfly" (from the B-Side to the "Don't be Scared of Me" single, 1986)
- "Atomic Lullaby" (from Limping for a GenerationLimping for a GenerationLimping for a Generation was the 1984 debut album by the British band, The Blow Monkeys.In the booklet to 1999 Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys, the leader Dr. Robert writes down that, even if it was "Digging Your Scene", from the band's second album, Animal Magic, "that opened the...
, 1984) - "It Pays to Belong" (from Whoops! There Goes the NeighbourhoodWhoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood (album)Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood was The Blow Monkeys' 1989 follow-up album to She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, released two years before....
, 1988) - "Man from Russia" (from Limping for a GenerationLimping for a GenerationLimping for a Generation was the 1984 debut album by the British band, The Blow Monkeys.In the booklet to 1999 Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys, the leader Dr. Robert writes down that, even if it was "Digging Your Scene", from the band's second album, Animal Magic, "that opened the...
, 1984) - "Wildflower" (from Limping for a GenerationLimping for a GenerationLimping for a Generation was the 1984 debut album by the British band, The Blow Monkeys.In the booklet to 1999 Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys, the leader Dr. Robert writes down that, even if it was "Digging Your Scene", from the band's second album, Animal Magic, "that opened the...
, 1984) - "Forbidden Fruit" (1985, from Animal Magic, 1986)
- "No Woman Is an Island" (from Whoops! There Goes the NeighbourhoodWhoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood (album)Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood was The Blow Monkeys' 1989 follow-up album to She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, released two years before....
, 1988) - "Squareville" (from Whoops! There Goes the NeighbourhoodWhoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood (album)Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood was The Blow Monkeys' 1989 follow-up album to She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, released two years before....
, 1988)
Line Up
- Dr Robert: lyricsLyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal... - Mick Anker: bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Neville Henry: saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
- Tony Kiley: drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
External links
- Fencat Online: Dr. Robert's Official Website.