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The thing is, I do remember Johnny Hates Jazz. I remember a few of their singles (especially their biggest hit 'Shattered Dreams', which curiously failed to find its way to a Now album) but somehow I have no memory of ever hearing this one at the time. It seems to be the one you hear the most often now, for some reason.
Not that I really took any group that seriously when I was nine, obviously, but I could tell that there were some you were supposed to think of as important, and Johnny Hates Jazz never seemed to be one of them. It's mildly surprising to hear an anti-war sentiment, even a vague one like this, coming from a teen-friendly pop act; even if that's not what they wanted to be, that seems to have been how they ended up. That doesn't make this a very subversive record, though, partly because it wasn't released during, say, the Falklands or Gulf wars, when radio might have banned it, and partly because the lyrics tend rather towards the hackneyed. Also, the tune is a bit too much like 'I Can Make You Feel Good' for comfort.
Also appearing on: Now 11, 12
Available on: Turn Back The Clock
Shattered Dreams was on the Hits album of its time, and never did the two compilation gruppenfuhrers dare duplicate each other's songs, hence its absence from a Now album.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I thought too, but weirdly enough I was looking at some old Hits LPs in a charity shop today and Hits 7 does contain one track that crops up later in this album (I shall try and remember to mention that when it arrives).
ReplyDeleteI notice that they all seem to have Echo & The Bunnymen on them too, being a product of Warners.