I don’t recall where we first saw The Waterboys. It may have been at the Triangle at Aston University in Birmingham, in fact we saw them first on Channel 4 show The Tube after initially being introduced to them by old friend Phil Barlow. I do know it was around the time of this album and it’s one of my very favourite records of the 1980’s (it wasn’t all synths and tutu’s). It’s also my favourite of The Waterboys opening trio of albums.

This time out we have a real drummer throughout, Karl Wallinger has joined the band to handle the keyboards. Mike Scott is still producing but a list of notable recording engineers might help account for the overall improved and consistent sound of “A Pagan Place”. Every song here feels like an old friend I’ve played this record so much over the years. The “she” sung about in “Church Not Made With Hands” and “All The Things She Gave Me” feels like someone I know; the thrill that has gone from “The Thrill Is Gone” feels personal; when Mike Scott sings “Somebody says "Well, hey, what are you waving at?", Well what have I got to lose, Somebody might wave back” I’m thinking "I would"; “The Big Music” is a manifesto in song, the thing Scott is reaching for “I have heard the big music and I'll never be the same, Something so pure has called my name”.

But to me this album hinges on 3 songs. At the end of Side 1 is “Rags” a post punk slash and burn built of crashing guitars and a vocal that sounds like a lifetime of emotion and frustration led to that outpouring. “Red Army Blues” comes at you like an alternative “Song Of The Steppes” and tells of a Soviet soldier in WW2 “seventeen years old, never kissed a girl”, the things he saw and did, his excitement to be going home crushed by the realisation they were all being sent to Siberian prison camps “All because Comrade Stalin was scared that we’d become too westernised”.

The finale is “A Pagan Place”, massed 12 string acoustics play the chords, they never change but they build and Build and BUild and BUIld and BUILd and BUILD to a shuddering crescendo. It’s a masterclass in simplicity and meticulous arrangement in just over 5 minutes

There’s not a song out of place nor anything that outstays it’s welcome on “A Pagan Place”. It’s not held in as high regard as its follow up but this is the one I turn to most often.

Red Army Blues - https://youtu.be/Ncgb8qBbD1U?si=KtfEGWKSzwRfbXIg

The Waterboys debut album is effectively a compilation of previously recorded demo’s that were cobbled together to create this. Well, not this exactly. There are chunks of this debut album that I don’t really like and then I happened upon this copy that I now own. It is a Canadian Mini-Album version with only 5 tracks instead of the regular releases 8. It includes all the ones I really like (“A Girl Called Johnny”, “It Should Have Been You” and “Savage Earth Heart”) and omits all the fluff that I wasn’t really interested in and don’t feel like I’m missing out on (“The Three Day Man”, “Gala” and “The Girl In The Swing”), thanx Canada.

Mike Scott and his band Another Pretty Face (who by this time had changed their name to Funhouse and Scott described as sounding “similar to a jumbo jet flying on one engine”) had relocated to London to record. Unhappy with the results and at his record company’s encouragement Scott went into a studio by himself in December 1981 to record some of his own songs with drum machine while he played piano and guitar. From these sessions “December” and “The Three Day Man" made it onto the album. Over the next 10 months or so Scott poached Anto Thistlethwaite and Kevin Wilkinson from Nikki Sudden’s band and recordings continued. 

My copy begins with the strident piano intro to “A Girl Called Johnny” Mike Scott’s paean to Patti Smith. The only thing wrong with it is the stilted nature of the rhythm. The following “I Will Not Follow” while not sounding as good at least has a real drummer so it swings better. Side one of this version ends on my personal favourite “It Should Have Been You”. Over a motorik beat Scott delivers a scathing lyric aimed at someone he obviously once admired but who seemingly let him down by not giving it everything he had (“I saw you hang back now! I watched you hesitate! You're a well respected man, but bullshit! You could've been great!” the exclamation marks are not overdoing it).

Side 2 on this mini version has only two tracks. The epically sweeping “December” (which on the original album is track 1 side 1) is followed by a proper Waterboys classic. “Savage Earth Heart” in this incarnation is quite restrained, acoustic guitars and a drum machine keep it in check. But I’ve seen it performed live on a couple of occasions and it can be a thundering, slashing, savage thing (check out this, slightly ropey, version from The Tube in 1984 https://youtu.be/Z5omMSNSoZE?si=lJRR0u5KhHyiJj-i). It’s a song that still occasionally finds its way into The Waterboys live set

While The Wonder Stuff were recording “Never Loved Elvis” in 1991, producer Mick Glossop (who had produced around half of “This Is The Sea” which was one of a number of reasons he was asked to produce NLE) suggested that this album was a collection of demo’s rather than having being recorded as an album. And you have to listen to it in that light, many of the songs are very constrained by some pretty rudimentary drum machine programming which holds them back in places. But in others you can see the promise Mike Scott would soon realise.

It Should Have Been You - https://youtu.be/y6OYnybdTlE?si=YmLuHdM-2_gViX7k

A 1981 compilation of Scott’s recordings of Jacques Brel’s songs. I have them all on his previous albums, in fact it even duplicates the sleeve from “Scott”, so although there is nothing new here it’s cool to have them all in one place.

Brel was Belgian and wrote orchestrated, theatrical songs in the style known in the French speaking world as Chanson (literally “song” in French), a style of French language song that became popular in the 50’s and 60’s which concentrates on the lyrics and the rhythms of the French language rather than making concessions to English. This made Brel incredibly popular in France and Belgium and eventually around the world. His most famous song is probably "Ne me quitte pas" which was translated into English as “If You Go Away”. The song has been recorded an estimated 1400 different times in 52 languages ! His songs have been recorded by artists as varied as Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Marlene Dietrich and of course Scott Walker.

Two Brel songs, “Mathilde” b/w “My Death”, made up Scotts debut solo single in Japan and “If You Go Away” was issued as a single there too. “Jackie” was a #22 hit in the UK so it’s clear to see Scott really liked these songs. Even in their English translations there is something very European/French about their sound and the language used in the lyrics. They don’t feel at all English.

The Girls And The Dogs - https://youtu.be/8p70xFGQTOs?si=Q_A67237mZ8z0eSg