Flock of Seagulls
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Music CD Cover
Performer: Flock of SeagullsEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Jive
Soundtracks:
- I Ran (So Far Away)
- Space Age Love Song
- You Can Run
- Don't Ask Me
- Messages
- Telecommunication
- Modern Love Is Automatic
- Standing in the Doorway
- D.N.A.
- Manmade
Free Music Notes for Flock of Seagulls
Free Music Review: where to get the original version of "I Ran"; plus ...
Hit: 5 Stars
When this, the Flock's explosion of a debut album, was released in 1982, "I Ran" started with a bang (literally, one drum stroke followed immediately by the first guitar note), not with the slow cutesy fade-in that someone inflicted upon it when they released the CD version much later. To each his own, but I have always thought it is a much better song in its original version.
Until today I thought that the original version of the song was available only on the old cassette. I have bought several compilations (for all the songs, not just theirs) and have always hoped for the old version but it had always been the one on the re-release CD. But Flockers who want to have the ORIGINAL of "I Ran"--fully titled "I Ran (So Far Away)"--can find it on "Chart Toppers: Modern Rock Hits of the 80s Vol. 1." (However even it is not quite identical to the original album version; for example, it has a slow fade for an ending, while the original album track ended abruptly: I presume it is the original single release. Anyway it is where you can get the original beginning...). I bought it used on Amazon. (It is a very good compendium of New Wave hits in its own right, also containing hard to find tracks like The Church's "Under The Milky Way" and After The Fire's "Der Kommissar, plus "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday and "The One Thing" by INXS. You can also find the original beginning of "I Ran" on VH1's "More of the Big '80s," along with Der Kommissar, and a few fairly unusual '80s tracks including a great song I had forgotten all about: "Cry," by Godley & Creme).
This band was very talented. Their third, "The Story of a Young Heart," was their masterpiece. Following the overtureistic first title track, the album tells musically the story of a young person's "coming of age" from youthful optimism ("The Dancer," "The More You Live") through adolescent longings to be someone else ("I Wish I Were A European"), on to the inevitable guru ("Remember David") through a heart-rending break up with a girl ("Heart of Steel", "The End") and ending with silly-esque thoughts of Suicide (not for real, "Suicide Day" is written in too light a tone to be taken seriously). It is a whole album about the loss of innocence. The album never took off, partly because by the mid-80s new trends were hitting, partly because the band made (in my opinion) a crucial mis-step when they released the title track as their showcase single, instead of one of the several far better songs (especially Track 2, "the Dancer," a very "up-ish" song which would have shown the world a totally different side of the Flock at exactly the right time).
I recently found this used on CD in a small-town record store to my utter amazement. I have been looking for it for 10 years on CD.
The Flock's first self-titled debut and their second "Listen" are more similar to each other than either is to "Story of a Young Heart": that is, both of the first two are uncompromising early 80s new wave. The reviewers are right--every song on their first CD is strong. But not strong in the same way: from "I Ran" through two powerful instrumentals (well, Track 2 is almost an instrumental) to the contemplative ending track ("Man Made Machines"), it is a great ride through early-80s synth/pop new wave.
This band has several unique features. First, they use a guitar sound for accent that actually SOUNDS like a seagull's cry, it is their signature sound (even more surprising, they do it repeatedly without it ever sounding "hokey" or "forced"--it fits the music perfectly). Second, this band has an amazing ability to start their songs "over at one spot," then switch in amazingly powerful and complex transitions into a completely new musical theme "at another spot," while still maintaining a musical link between the early part and the main body of the song. I've been listening to rock music for decades and I've never heard anyone do something quite like this, except for, of all bands, Chicago's early hits (On the Flock's first CD, the best example of this technique is Track 8 "Standing In The Doorway," On their second CD "Listen," it is Track 10 ["It's Not Me Talking," their first single release] and to a lesser extent Track 6, "The Traveler." On "Story of a Young Heart," it is very prominent in Track 7 "Heart of Steel," and also noticeable in the title track and Track 8, "The End.") These guys wrote and played some unusually subtle music, which challenges the listener to pay attention and "get it." All this without losing an intense chordal and rhythmic sense throughout all their work.
"Listen," their second, has the minor hit "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)," really an unusually good and strikingly original song, featuring another unique sound similar yet different in feel from anything on the first album. The second album, recently released on CD, is to me mainly a "growth" or "transitional" album, with more complex elements than the first, although the link is clear. It is also very good, but a bit darker. There is quite noticeable growth in songwriting.
The Flock's later albums following "Story of a Young Heart" were the releases of a band scrambling to stay in the picture, and it showed. For me, the only interesting track to come in the later stuff was a really nice song called "Hot Tonight," which I don't think was ever released as a single (It was on their 4th LP, I didn't like any part of their fifth and last one). Near the end they abandoned their signature sound to try, unsuccessfully, to fit in with the mid- to late-80s styles. It must have been a discouraging period for this outstanding band.
At its peak the band was dynamite, and in a different culture they would have gotten a great deal more enthusiastic attention. But, from the mid-80s through 1993 or so when alternative began rising, there was no audience for this band's best music among those who set the trends in music (whoever or whatever they are). The Flock are one of the better known of many excellent bands crowded out in the '85-'92 period by the rise of Rap, "hair bands", grunge, and other nihilistic trends that better suited MTV's incessant attempts to shape the culture toward more atonal, musically anarchistic, politically revolutionary "music."
A personal note: In 1982 I was in college and the Flock came to our town, to play in a small facility. I had heard the group on radio and may have already bought their cassette but chose not to go. My roommate did go and said they rocked the house, but that they ran out of songs [!] and had to start again at the beginning of their docket. Of all my musical bloopers, this one was the worst--I could have seen them riding the wave of their early success, in a small and intimate venue, and God knows what convinced me otherwise. I'll always wonder what it would have been like to see them live at the peak of their success.
(Later) Check out the Flock on YouTube! Some great clips! Reynolds was one heck of a guitarist!
Flock of Seagulls Poster
Digitally remastered and expanded edition of the Liverpool New Wave quartet's 1982 debut album featuring four bonus tracks. While many have called AFOS a Synthpop band, one spin of this debut will remind listeners that guitarist Paul Reynolds' distinctive sound was just as important to their success as Mike Score's ridiculous hairstyle. This reissue includes a comprehensive booklet featuring sleeve notes and a full UK discography utilizing many of the original sleeves. Includes the massive hits 'I Ran' and 'Space Age Love Song' plus radio favorites 'Telecommunication', 'Modern Love Is Automatic' and 'Messages'. Cherry Red. 2011.Alternative Rock Music CDs
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