Sunday 8 November 2009

David Sylvian - Pop Song

A one-off single from 1989 on Virgin records.

I heard that Richard Branson said that Sylvian had a deal for life, regardless of how his sales went. He came up with this as a supposedly 'commercial' single to whet our appetite for the 'Weatherbox' collection. Most bizarre, but a welcome return to traditional singing as far as I was concerned.

I'd seen him the year before this at the last night of the 'In Praise Of Shamans' tour at the Edinburgh Playhouse. It was a great set, but I felt slightly cheated as the super OTT lyric book that I bought (printed on tracing paper) had the words to all of the solo tracks he played on the tour, but also had Ghosts by Japan snuck in at the end of it. I thought we were quids in for that at the gig but it wasn't to be. There were still a few girls there who fancied the pants off him, including one American girl who gave me her camera after the gig, going on the theory that as I was tall I could get better pics than her. Sylvian came out and went into a waiting car so I dutifully snapped away, but the girl fucked off after the car, running up onto Princes Street and I was left with this camera, containing all her snaps from the gig. Being the honest chap I am, I went looking for her and eventually found her up on the next street - she'd completely forgotten about the camera in her quest for a close-up with Mr S. Wonder whatever happened to her...

Anyway - check this out if you've got an interest in Sylvian, definitely one of his odder moments...



David Sylvian - Pop Song
1 - Pop Song
2 - A Brief Conversation Ending In Divorce
3 - The Stigma Of Childhood (Kin)

Buy it here

1 comments:

ximeremix said...

Maybe one of his odder moments, but a great song nonetheless. I remember my local record shop at the time was next to a Christian bookshop and they made sure they put the 7" AND 12' versions in the window to 'have a go' with the bookshop.... very funny at the time.

This is really the first time I listened to Sylvian's voice as part of the overall sound, instead of listening intently to the lyrics to hear what he had to say.