Animals from the Dark Side…
Occasional Albums Thing 046 - The Damned “Music For Pleasure”
Shhhhhh…whisper is quietly but I prefer “Music For Pleasure” over their debut…even if was produced by a member of P*nk feckin’ Fl*yd !!!
“MFP” was released in November 1977, just 9 months after their Stooge-esque debut “Damned Damned Damned”. That debut had been recorded and mixed in 10 days by Nick Lowe at Pathway Studio, anecdotally a facility the size of a phone box. The Damned had wanted Pink Floyd’s eccentric founder Syd Barrett to produce their next album, but being unable to get this arranged they settled for Floyd’s drummer (!) Nick Mason instead. Mason chose to record at his bands state of the art Britannia Row studio. The Damned arrived for the first session hoping to record several songs, by the end of that first day Mason was still deciding on his microphone placements and tuning the drums !
This was a newly expanded Damned now including 2nd guitarist Lu Edmonds (who is these days an integral part of Public Image Ltd) and saxophonist Lol Coxhill. The album was fanfared in September ‘77 by the single “Problem Child” which served as track 1, side 1 of the album and we all know how important that is don’t we ? “Problem Child” does in fact serve as a very accurate sample of what “MFP” is, less thrashy than anything on their debut and overall sounding far more sludgy. And there lies what was initially many people’s problem with this record, I bought it when originally released (although this copy we’re talking about now is a replacement 1987 Demon re-issue on Orange vinyl) and at first I thought it sounded muffled and dull, yes sludgy, but over the years I’ve come to like it a lot, in fact as admitted earlier, I prefer it over “DDD”.
If I had to pinpoint a difference between “MFP” and “DDD” I’d say “MFP” is more Glam Rock than Stooges punk onslaught. The first two songs support that, the aforementioned “Problem Child” and the riff heavy “Don’t Cry Wolf” which was also released as a single coupled with track 3 “One Way Love”, and is that a slide guitar we hear on the latter ? There are certain metal bands who would have been happy with the riff that kicks off “Politics” but they still Punk it out for the rest of the songs. The Damned are certainly moving on.
At the end of the side 1 we reach my one difficulty with this album, “Idiot Box”. There’s nothing wrong with the song, it’s the subject. On their first trip to the USA The Damned we’re billed to play some shows with New York’s Television who refused to play with The Damned due to their somewhat colourful reputation. The song disses (get me, down with the kids !) each member of Television individually and their debut album “Marquee Moon”. The music is kinda in the style of Television including a pseudo-Flamenco guitar solo. My difficulty with all this ? I’m a fan of Television and particularly “Marquee Moon” as you may recall (https://www.whiterabbitrecords.co.uk/blog/read_206266/20234-albums-thing-380-television-marquee-moon.html).
Side 2 has pummelling riffs (“You Take My Money”, “Alone” which referring back to the earlier Glam analogy sounds more than a little like Alice Cooper) jangly-ish Goth-pop (“Your Eyes”) and a slice of “DDD” thrash (“Creep (You Can't Fool Me)”). It all comes to a close on the 5 minute+ repetitive, Krautrocky drone of “You Know” where Lol Coxhill adds his screeching, off kilter saxophones.
The Damned were changing their sound on “Music For Pleasure”. It took some people by surprise as, while now it is regarded highly, at the time it wasn’t particularly welcomed by fans. We’ll never know where it could have gone as this was guitarist and main songwriter Brian James last album with the band. He left, Captain Sensible took on guitar and songwriting duties and everything changed again. Special shout out to Barney Bubbles for the fantastic cover art which I’ve loved since I first laid eyes on it. It looks like Mondrian met Picasso in a paint factory which Dali then detonated a bomb underneath, a fantastic image.
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