The Flying Lizards | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 1980 | |||
Recorded | 1978–1979 | |||
Studio | Berry Street Studio and Brixton Academy additional recordings in NYC, Munich, Maidstone and in transit | |||
Length | 42:07 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Producer | David Cunningham | |||
The Flying Lizards chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Record Mirror | [2] |
Smash Hits | 7½/10 [3] |
The Flying Lizards is the 1980 debut album [4] by The Flying Lizards and was released on the Virgin Records label. [5]
Preceded by two surprise hit singles, the album reached No. 60 in the UK Albums Chart. [6]
Following the unexpected success of the group's 1979 singles—covers of "Summertime Blues" and "Money"—David Cunningham and Deborah Evans were offered a deal with Virgin Records. [7] New material for the album featured improvisational musicians Steve Beresford and David Toop. [7]
The album encompasses "dub-style audio experiments" and "bent interpretations of pop music constructs." [7] Critic Simon Reynolds called it "an exercise in pop absurdism" which included "a Brecht-Weill cover, Sanskrit chants, found sounds, and unlikely instrumental textures" alongside "Cunningham's penchant for excessive studio processing and daft effects." [8]
Chart (1980) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian (Kent Music Report) | 37 [9] |
United Kingdom UK Albums Chart | 60 [6] |
New Zealand Official New Zealand Music Chart | 28 [10] |
US Billboard 200 | 99 |
All tracks by David Cunningham except as noted
11. "All Guitars" ("Summertime Blues" single B-side) - 2:41
12. "Tube" (instrumental remix of "TV" - B side of "TV" single) - 5:09
13. "Money (That's What I Want)" (single edit) - 2:32
General Strike are David Toop and Steve Beresford, who also made the album Danger In Paradise with David Cunningham in the years 1979-1982 [11]
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a political-satirical opera composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was first performed on 9 March 1930 at the Neues Theater in Leipzig.
Steve Beresford is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera. The song tells of a knife-wielding criminal of the London underworld from the musical named Macheath, the "Mack the Knife" of the title.
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was a bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells in the early 1960s and the Steve Miller Band from 1967 to 1968.
The Flying Lizards were an experimental English new wave band, formed in 1976. They are best known for their eccentric cover version of Barrett Strong's "Money", featuring Deborah Evans-Stickland on lead vocals, which reached the UK and North American record charts in 1979. They followed this with their self-titled album that year, which reached number 60 on the UK Albums Chart.
"Summertime Blues" is a song co-written and recorded by American rock artist Eddie Cochran. It was written by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. Originally a single B-side, it was released in August 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 29, 1958, and number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. It has been covered by many artists, including being a number-one hit for country music artist Alan Jackson, and scoring notable hits in versions by Blue Cheer, the Who and Brian Setzer, the last of whom recorded his version for the 1987 film La Bamba, in which he portrayed Cochran.
The "Alabama Song"—also known as "Moon of Alabama", "Moon over Alabama", and "Whisky Bar"—is an English version of a song written by Bertolt Brecht and translated from German by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925 and set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahagonny. It was reused for the 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and has been recorded by the Doors and David Bowie.
"Money (That's What I Want)" is a rhythm and blues song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, which was the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959 as a single for the Tamla label, distributed nationally on Anna Records. Many artists later recorded the tune, including the Beatles in 1963 and the Flying Lizards in 1979.
David Toop is an English musician, author, curator, and emeritus professor. From 2013 to 2021 he was professor of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication. He was a regular contributor to British music magazine The Wire and the British magazine The Face. He was a member of the Flying Lizards.
Jamaican Heroes is a 1980 reggae album by Prince Far I. The musicians included Roots Radics and The Flying Lizards. The album was mixed by Anthony "Crucial Bunny" Graham at Studio One, Jamaica. The cover was designed by Jill Mumfield.
Musics was a music-related magazine that was published from 1975 to 1979.
David Cunningham is a composer and record producer from Northern Ireland. His first significant success came with The Flying Lizards' single 'Money', an international hit in 1979.
Vivien Goldman is a British journalist, writer and musician.
Peter Cusack is an English artist and musician who is a member of CRiSAP, and is a research staff member and founding member of the London College of Communication in the University of the Arts London. He was a founding member and director of the London Musicians' Collective.
Live in Boston is a triple CD live album by American rock band the Doors released in 2007. It was recorded at the Boston Arena on April 10, 1970, during the band's Roadhouse Blues Tour. The band performed two shows, one starting at 7 pm and a second scheduled for 10 but not actually starting until past midnight. Jim Morrison appears to be intoxicated during the entire latter show, and continued drinking heavily throughout the performance. The late start ended with the venue's owners cutting power to the stage to force the end of the concert.
Strange Weather is a 1987 studio album by British singer Marianne Faithfull, recorded after recovering from a 17-year addiction to heroin in 1986. The album's three predecessors on Island Records were all recorded while Faithfull confronted personal struggles, and contained a majority of lyrics and some music penned by Faithfull herself. In contrast, Strange Weather is a striking mix of rock, blues and dark cabaret, and though none of the songs were written by Faithfull, all are tied together by the spare and nuanced production of Hal Willner, using a notable group of contributing musicians, such as Bill Frisell. The title track has since become a Faithfull concert staple and has appeared live in three additional recordings.
Live in New York is a six-disc box set of four complete concerts performed American rock band the Doors on January 17 and 18, 1970 at the Felt Forum in New York City. Two shows were played each night, with 8:00pm and 11:00pm scheduled start times on January 17, and 7:30pm and 10:00pm scheduled start times on January 18. The final show featured an extended encore with guests John Sebastian and Dallas Taylor (drums) that concluded around 2:30am. Select tracks were previously released on the Doors' live album In Concert and as part of The Doors: Box Set. About a third of the material was previously unreleased.
Canadian Sunset is a compilation album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in the spring of 1965 by Columbia Records. The cover bears the phrase "formerly titled Andy Williams' Best" underneath the title, suggesting that the same songs can be found here that were on that 1961 release by Cadence Records, but his number one hit "Butterfly" and its top 10 follow-up "I Like Your Kind of Love" that were included on the Cadence album were replaced on this release with the B-sides of two of the other songs here.
American singer Deborah Harry has released five studio albums, five compilation albums and 24 singles. Until 1988, Harry used her nickname "Debbie" on all releases but she is now known professionally as Deborah Harry.
Fourth Wall is the second studio album by English rock band the Flying Lizards. It was released in 1981 by record label Virgin. The album features numerous collaborators, including Robert Fripp.