mad parade: Jesus and Mary Chain

Friday, December 28, 2007

Jesus and Mary Chain - Three Records

thanks to Time Bandit for Barbed Wire Kisses

The Jesus and Mary Chain originally revolved around the songwriting partnership of its two main members. To fully realise their vision of the band, the Reid brothers recruited bassist Douglas Hart and drummer Murray Dalglish.

The band recorded their debut single, "Upside Down", released in October 1984 on Creation Records. The melody, structure and lyrics ("Inside I feel so bad/So low I feel so sad/Feels like I'm going mad/Best friend I've ever had.") are reminiscent of 1960s pop music of the like created by the Brill Building or Phil Spector, but "Upside Down" gives the material a noisy post-punk treatment, with brutally simple drums and one guitar playing shrill feedback throughout most of the song.

Dalglish was replaced shortly afterwards by Bobby Gillespie (who would go on to front Primal Scream), and William Reid subsequently claimed that he had played the drums on the debut single himself because of Dalglish's lack of ability. Though the single received universal critical acclaim from the British music press, and the band was championed fanatically by the NME, it was their riotous live shows that drew them the most attention.

Their music fuses together the Reids' two primary influences, the guitar noise of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground with the '60s pop leanings of The Beach Boys and Phil Spector.