Stuff I'm Listening To - A Week of Covers - Day 2 - Talk Talk Talk Talk

Artist: Talk Talk 

Original Artist: The Reaction

Favourite Lyrics: (Original)
Well yeah, I told you before when I was up, 
Society was bringing me down.
Politicians they keep talking in rhymes.
Twisting around to make me think you're straight down the line

Favourite Lyrics: (Cover)

Well, did I tell you before when I was up?
Anxiety was bringing me down
I'm tired of listening to you talking in rhymes
Twisting around to make me think you're straight down the line

Why?: If I ever needed an excuse to post things by Mark Hollis three times in one go, this is it! 

The desire to know if Talk Talk had ever done a cover song has been stuck in my head for a long while. So far as I knew, Talk Talk never recorded any cover songs.

Recently, I had queried in a few Facebook groups a fun "what if...?". What if Talk Talk had indulged themselves and done an album of covers, what do you think would be on it or what would you have liked to see them cover? It was a fun discussion that gave me few new (to me) discoveries of some great music. But alas, we will never know what songs they would have wanted to remake.

There was one hint in an interview once with Mark noting how he loved Singin' in the Rain and the Gene Kelly dancing through the streets part. But trying to envision a Talk Talk cover and accompanying video for it has stretched the very limits of my Peanut brain (this is the same brain that, fueled by spicy pizza, managed to cast Mark Hollis and Lee Harris in Bladerunner one night)... trying to imagine Mark recreating Gene Kelly’s number has been hard to do. But as usual, I digress. 

After the fantasy covers album discussion had peaked and went away, my brain decided, in a 'too much shwarma the night before' laced dream, that Talk Talk did indeed release a cover song, originally recorded and released by a different band, albeit one that had the same lead singer. I'm not sure if this qualifies officially as a cover song as Mark co-owned the rights to the song with his brother Ed, but for the purposes of my list, it is a cover. Part of this whole cover/not cover debate was brought on by John Fogerty, who used the music from Run Through The Jungle and stuck his Old Man Down The Road lyrics over it. He was sued for copyright infringement by CCR's label. This was part of my justification for this as well, though I know the situation is entirely different and the outcome not entirely in favour of my criteria... but my brain, my logic, ok?*

Naturally, the first version of the song I'd ever heard would be Talk Talk's version from their debut album. I have these vague recollections that I may have known about this song back in the day but never made the connection that this was the same band that sang It's My Life until last year. Did I like the song in the beginning? I can't remember. Given that it was most likely the Russell Mulcahy version of the video (below) that I saw first, I'm going to say no. Mulcahy's video was likely too weird for six/seven year old me and definitely spurred some strange men in white-suits nightmares for me at that age. Hmmm... Let me explain. They only seemed to play decent music videos late at night back then. I was anywhere from four to eight years old back in those days. So here I was, up late when I shouldn't be. It's dark, quiet and a bit spooky (think older, creaky house). I'm sitting there watching these music videos, as quietly as possible and sometimes on mute because I'm waiting for something familiar, a little tired and with all the wrong heightened emotions running through me. It should be easy to see why a Talk Talk video, of all things, would cause me to have a weird dream/nightmare.

I have discovered in the past year that Mark Hollis fronted another band prior to Talk Talk, a mod/punk band called The Reaction. The Reaction have released exactly three songs. The single for I Can't Resist, and it's B-side I'm A Case, and this, their contribution to a compilation record. Their track for Talk Talk Talk Talk (audio only) is below. As for which version is my favourite? I'm a little torn. Of course Talk Talk rates high, as it's that 80s synth-pop I will forever love, but then the original version by The Reaction, a much younger and angrier Mark Hollis has its charms as well. I'll say that my favourite version is largely dependent on if I'm wearing my safety pins for earrings that day or not. BONUS: Russell Mulcahy's 'I'm gonna film stuff and throw in a monkey and use the same weird shots and concepts for Bonnie Tyler later' attempt for Talk Talk is also linked below (featuring Paul Webb's most aweome gravity defying pompadour... Yeah, I'm still jealous of it). 

(Personal aside: So far as I'm concerned, what worked for Duran Duran (i.e. Colin Thurson, Russell Mulcahy), clearly did not work for Talk Talk... everybody needs to stop comparing the two. It's lazy journalism. Thanks.)


*Thanks to my cohorts, Penny, Curmudgeon and the Queen for letting me bounce this idea off them a few weeks ago.