Earlier entries of this series can be found here: http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/forums/vi ... ive#p45337
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“I love you now, but that don't say I'm gonna love you forever”
71. A Certain Ratio – Shack Up
The facts:
Year: 1980.
Genre: Post-punk.
Country: United Kingdom.
Released as a single.
Acclaimed Music ranking: #2649.
Song ranking on Acclaimed Music in the artist’s discography: 1st.
Ranks higher than TV Party by Black Flag, but lower than Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet by Gavin Bryars.
Place in the Acclaimed Music Song Poll 2015: Not ranked.
The people:
Written by Moses McDaniel Sr. & Joseph Anthony Carter.
Produced by A Certain Ratio.
Vocals by Simon Topping.
Guitar by Martin Moscrop.
Drums by Donald Johnson.
Trumpets by Simon Topping.
Bass by Jez Kerr.
The opinion:
One recurring theme that runs through this series is musicians and songs that where once important, but somehow undeservingly haven’t been remembered all that well (another theme is the opposite: artists that have gotten more credit for innovations than they deserve). A Certain Ratio is one of those bands that probably doesn’t ring a bell with most people, but in their time – especially during the 80’s – everybody that should know knew who they were.
In a way the story of A Certain Ratio is the story of what happens when a band does important things, but the critics and audiences aren’t paying attention. When they released their debut album The Graveyard and the Ballroom in 1980 along with the non-album single Shack Up they seemed destined for great things. Legendary producer Tony Wilson is supposed to have said he was certain they would become huge stars. This didn’t happen. Shack Up made the lower parts of The Billboard Charts and was apparently reasonably popular in underground dance clubs in New York. That’s their biggest success.
Still, the single is significant, even if it is perhaps hard to hear why in modern ears. The sound of Shack Up is rough, almost primitive. It also has a tight groove. The singer might remind you of Ian Curtis (A Certain Ratio and Joy Division were friendly with each other, a connection that deepened in the New Order years), but that seems to be the biggest reason to call this post-punk (and because they are from Manchester I guess). Don’t be fooled though: this is really funk rock. The clubs in New York recognized that this is mostly great music to dance to.
In fact, it is a cover of an actual American funk song from 1975 by the rather obscure group Banbarra. Some of the more interesting aspects of the Certain Ratio version are already there. The groove of course, but also the jangly sounds of the guitar. That surprised me, because I would have guessed that type of guitar playing was more something from the eighties and not the mid-seventies (let alone funk music of that era). The reason I think though that the cover by A Certain Ratio became more famous than the original (relatively speaking, that is), is because their version sounds dirtier and perhaps because it fit their time more.
Many rock bands of the early eighties where figuring out where to move to after punk. Some turned to dance music and to the sound of funk. A Certain Ratio and Talking Heads lead the way. New Order is sometimes claimed to have brought dance music to the British scene, but even they would admit to having paid attention to A Certain Ratio. This was the band that married the loose style of punk with the tight grooves of funk, in a way that was more direct and easily danceable than Talking Heads ever were. It’s not hard to trace the way of early A Certain Ratio to the Madchester sounds of bands like The Stone Roses. In fact, A Certain Ratio was still going strong during the late eighties and where part of the Madchester scene.
Despite all this I was surprised to see Shack Up all the way up the Acclaimed Music list at #2649. It really seems like a forgotten band now. That they haven’t a single album mentioned says it all, because some of these have dedicated fans. Nonetheless, Shack Up seems to hold up reasonably well in the list. The question is if it will be re-discovered by future music fans? It almost seems like someone is deliberately trying to bury Shack Up, as well as The Graveyard and the Ballroom. Both works don’t appear on Spotify and iTunes and haven’t been in print on physical releases for ages. So only YouTube and second-hand sales are your friends.
There is another question: should people rediscover this song? For historical reasons certainly. As a song on itself I find it less memorable. It’s danceable and the loose playing style has its appeal. I especially like the drum work by Donald Johnson. But the song doesn’t cut particularly deep and the lyrics about marital doubts fall oddly flat (they aren’t written by this band of course). I had a fun time with the song this week, but it is also not something I expect to return to a lot in the future. Then again, I can see more dance-oriented listeners than me loving it.
7/10
Other versions:
Well, it is a cover, so the Banbarra original is worth a listen. As I said before, it doesn’t have the rough appeal of the effort by A Certain Ratio and in the long list of seventies funk it doesn’t particularly stand out, but it is rather fun.
The few other covers I could find where all acceptable, but not worth much of a mention. They are all more traditional funky and likely inspired by Banbarra instead of A Certain Ratio.
The Playlist: