| "Dumb Waiters" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by The Psychedelic Furs | ||||
| from the album Talk Talk Talk | ||||
| Released | April 1981 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 3:35 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Producer(s) | Steve Lillywhite | |||
| The Psychedelic Furs singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Dumb Waiters" is a song by English rock band the Psychedelic Furs, released as a single in April 1981 by Columbia Records. Written by the band and produced by Steve Lillywhite, it was included on the band's 1981 album Talk Talk Talk .
To help promote Talk Talk Talk, the UK single for "Dumb Waiters" was packaged in an embossed plastic sleeve, playable at 33⅓ RPM on a turntable, which contained a track with excerpts from the songs "Into You Like a Train", "I Wanna Sleep With You" and "Pretty in Pink". [1] Singer Richard Butler opened the track by saying, "This is a Psychedelic Furs commercial. Buy Talk Talk Talk". [1] "Dumb Waiters" was the first Psychedelic Furs single to chart in the UK, peaking at No. 59. [2] It also reached No. 27 on the U.S. National Disco Action Top 80 chart. [3]
AllMusic writer Dave Thompson said that the song "captures the band at its most frenzied, a state of mind which subsequent live versions only amplified". [4] AllMusic's Ned Raggett called the song "especially striking. . .with its queasy, slow-paced arrangement that allows both [Duncan] Kilburn's harmonica and [John] Ashton's guitar to go wild". [5]
New York City dance-punk band the Rapture recorded a cover of the song, which was included on the B-side of their 1998 debut single, "The Chair That Squeaks".
| Chart (1981) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart [2] | 59 |
| US National Disco Action Top 80 [3] | 27 |
The Psychedelic Furs are a British post-punk band founded in London in February 1977. Led by singer Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar, the Psychedelic Furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post-punk scene. Their music went through several phases, from an initially austere art rock sound, to later touching on new wave and hard rock.
The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout its existence. Drummer Lindy Morrison joined the band in 1980, and its lineup would later expand to include bass guitarist Robert Vickers and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown. Vickers was replaced by John Willsteed in 1987, and the quintet lineup remained in place until the band split two years later. Forster and McLennan reformed the band in 2000 with a new lineup that did not include any previous personnel aside from them. McLennan died on 6 May 2006 of a heart attack and the Go-Betweens disbanded again. In 2010, a toll bridge in their native Brisbane was renamed the Go Between Bridge after them.
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