242) Dexys Midnight Runners - Don't Stand Me Down

Dexys could do no wrong, first album go for a look with donkey jackets and storm to number one with Geno then let’s go with dungarees and score an even bigger number one with Come on Eileen on the second album Too-Ry-Ay.

Musicians and singers were in double figures for Too-Ry-Ay so after such success you would imagine the third record would follow a similar route, funnily enough no.

By the time the record was released we were down to a quartet, and all dressed as estate agents on the front sleeve. Kevin Rowland refused to be interviewed or release a single so not surprisingly the album flopped, and the band broke up as Rowland pretty much disappeared.

I spent many a weekend in Byres Road in Glasgow and there was a shop ran by two brothers called Echo and they had a load of CDs that had a part of the plastic cut out of the CD case that they sold cheap. I picked up this album for about two pounds, even if rubbish, so what, it was two quid.

After a few listens I didn’t get it, I thought this was meant to be one of the biggest disasters ever and I thought it was magnificent.

The Occasional Flicker you can barely hear before Kevin and piano and the drums hit hard, he shows on this opening track, and the rest of the record, he is in fine voice.

This Is what She’s Like I could do without the talking at the start but when it storms in at the two minute mark it’s exhilarating before we calm down six minutes in with piano and harmonising before Rowland explodes back in and then kicks off again at the eight minute mark and still at ten minutes we go again, worth the admission price alone, a masterpiece.

Knowledge of Beauty it’s the voice and the “bum, bum, bum” backing vocals are a lovely touch. One of Those Things is the band not impressed with music on the radio with Rowland having a chat with Billy Adams with horns going off in the background and the band picking up speed as Rowland soars on the chorus.

Reminisce is predominantly Kevin talking (with the odd vocal) over minimal piano and the odd flash of guitar.

Why the hell did he not release Listen to This as a single? Over horns and a thumping piano, we have classic pop, probably the closest we have to the classic Dexys sound, but I can’t help feeling this may have got people on board with this record.

Helen O’Hara’s poignant violin takes us into The Waltz where rightly we have a huge emotional storming finish.

It’s acknowledged at the time that Kevin was troubled. People just forgot to insert the word genius after troubled.

10/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: This Is what She’s Like