“Just Like Honey” –By The Jesus & Mary Chain.
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How do you decide which is your favourite album, like, ever? What rules or tests apply? Is it really about the music or is it linked to a time in your life you’d dearly wish to revisit? For me it’s a fairly straightforward question, it’s quite simply the album that I have returned to again and again, an album that is still able to console and inspire, and one which while transporting me back through time, still sounds as vibrant and relevant today as it did back in the 80’s. It is, to paraphrase Alan McGee, an album which unlike people, has never let me down and at the time was unlike anything I’d heard before.
Twenty five years ago Scottish brothers William And Jim Reid, the driving forces behind The Jesus And Mary Chain, released their ground breaking full length debut ‘Psychocandy’, mixing beauty with brutality, melody with ear splitting guitar feedback, and gave us an album that is often cited as a seminal moment in 1980’s indie guitar music. It was unleashed at a time when the post punk promise of new wave had all but disappeared up its own arse by way of the fancy dress shop via the cosmetics counter and the only guitar music that existed was a rather fey, self indulgent, limp -wristed affair. The Jesus And Mary Chain exploded onto the scene and were quickly dubbed the new Sex Pistols by some parts of the puritanical press, fuelled in part by mischievous sound bites from their former manager and Creation records owner, Alan Mc Gee, eg. “the audience were not smashing up the hall, they were smashing up pop music” and “this is truly art as terrorism”. The comparison didn’t really fit musically but the Mary Chain certainly put the danger, the snarl and the fuck you attitude back into music, producing a raw and incendiary sound which was light years away from the safe, preening dandified narcissistic nonsense that was the New Romantic movement .
The music of The Jesus and Mary Chain has been a constant presence in my world since their first single and ‘Psychocandy’ is an album that never ceases to astonish me. It was and still is, a beautiful contradiction; light-years ahead of it’s time, yet heavily influenced by the past, visceral and savage yet on occasion surprisingly fragile. A rip roaring sonic soundclash that tore up the rule book and injected some much needed good old fashioned rock and roll rebellion into a sanitised music scene populated by the sort of squeaky clean singers your parents actually approved of. There are still those who paint The Jesus and Mary Chain as sonic nihilists, nothing more than NME hyped hipsters, more style than content, a music journalist’s wet dream, and whilst people who subscribe to this view are of course entitled to their opinion, they are also quite clearly cretins. ‘Psychocandy’ proved that the Reid brothers knew their musical history, that they lived and breathed rock n’ roll but demonstrated that they were also savvy enough to recognise that it was a fluid, evolving beast often taking it’s inspiration from the past. They were rabid consumers of pop music but didn’t deify it with pious reverence like some sort of prissy musical librarian; they took influences as diverse as the Ramones, The Beach Boys, The Shangri-las, The Velvets, Johnny Cash, The Stones, Bo-Diddley, The Stooges, The Supremes and fed them through their sonic blender to produce songs of soul shredding power and beauty.
Jim’s laconic vocals which could spit venom and tenderness in equal measure, combined with the distorted, unhinged magnificence of William’s guitar work may have irked the prog rock purists, but this was exactly the sort of adrenaline fuelled musical explosion that makes rock n roll so thrilling and the Reid’s sonic enema was precisely what the soulless, constipated 80’s music scene needed. The Jesus And Mary Chain could be one of the greatest bands you’ve ever seen live, or one of the worst, depending on which gig you happened to catch but this was part of their edgy excitement, this truly was ‘event music’. They inspired so many bands and whilst their influence is still prevalent today it is the eternal conundrum as to why their musical legacy isn’t afforded the respect it undoubtedly deserves in some quarters. Whilst My Bloody Valentines legend (as good as they were) has been elevated by some slick, revisionist PR to absurdly mythic proportions, it seemed that people had all but forgotten the Mary Chain’s body of work, which I would submit is far more enduring than MBV’s.
Former Mary Chain drummer and Primal Scream front man Bobby Gillespie addressed this issue recently saying “They were a great band and I don’t think they get enough credit just for being them, for being so good at what they do, and for inspiring the amount of people they inspired.”
If you don’t posses ‘Psychocandy’ then your record collection can never be considered truly complete. Beneath the crackle and distortion you’ll hear wonderful pop songs from a band that refused to compromise their musical vision or be pigeon-holed into any particular genre. They may have dressed in black and wore shades, but were never really goth, they may have employed a wall of sound and kept their stage movements to a minimum but they weren’t really shoegaze, and maybe they were a little too ambitious to be considered truly indie by the snoberatti. Whatever the JAMC where, very few bands intuitively understand the true essence of ‘rock n roll’ as well as the Jesus and Mary Chain, it quite simply, was in their soul.
To celebrate ‘Psychocandy’s’ 25th Anniversary and the release of a new Jesus And Mary Chain compilation ‘Upside Down-The Best Of’ which also ties in with release of a documentary feature film `Upside Down: The Story Of Creation Records’ we spoke to Jim Reid and asked him to cast his mind back to 1985……
VP: Twenty five years on from the release of ‘Psychocandy’ and it’s still regarded as one of the most influential and important albums indie albums ever released. Obviously, as fans, we lack objectivity; we can only perceive ‘Psychocandy’ as a wonderful shining, snarling slice of pop rock perfection. However most people, if they were to look back on something they had produced a quarter of a century ago, usually finds something that with the benefit of hindsight they would change. As your one half of the creative forces behind the LP, is there anything in terms of the music or production that you’d change?
JIM: We wanted to make changes to ‘Psychocandy’ within a matter of days after completion – it’s like that with any record you make, it can never be perfect, you always want to keep changing things and tinkering with it. You just have to kind of draw the line somewhere because this doesn’t really make it better – it just makes it different from what it would have been. Looking back on ‘Psychocandy’ now it’s a bit like looking at an old photograph of ourselves or something, it crystallizes exactly what we were about at that point in time, but of course we change, but the record doesn’t.
VP: You’ve mentioned in the past that the idea of employing feedback and distortion almost as accompanying instruments coupled with Spectoresque melodies on ‘Psychocandy’was inspired by your love of the Shangri-Las and Einsturzende Neubauten. Did it piss you off that many dismissed you as dour sonic nihilists and essentially missed what great pop songs you’d actually written?
JIM: There were those that latched onto the feedback and then there were some that understood that there were songs, but very few people seemed to get it that we brought these two things together and this was really what it was all about, and that kind of pissed us off.
VP: How did you go about narrowing songs for the track list for ‘Psychocandy’, for example why was the actual track ‘Psycho candy’ omitted? Was it a difficult process or did it come together quite naturally?
JIM: I can’t really remember to be honest, I can remember the odd discussion I had with William about it – what should go on and what shouldn’t but generally I think it all kind of suggested itself quite naturally really, and I really cannot remember why the song ‘Psycho Candy’ didn’t make it onto the album.
VP: After the critical acclaim did you feel that the band were left in a “damned if you do/damned if you don’t” situation after the LP’s release? If you’d put out another LP of feedback and white noise you could have been slated for being one trick ponies with nothing new to offer and yet some fans moaned that the majestic and moody “Darklands” wasn’t “Psychocandy2 “ ?
JIM: Yes that’s exactly how it was after ‘Psychocandy’, I don’t know how it happened but there seemed to be a kind of backlash brewing, and we were of the opinion that whichever way we went would probably have been the wrong way. And after near nervous breakdowns we just thought ‘fuck it, let’s just make the record we want to make, and let people make of it what they will’.
VP: Again with the gift of hindsight do you think that you may have had another albums worth of material in the ‘Psychocandy’ vein? For example ‘Some Candy Talking’ and ‘Walk and Crawl’ could be considered perfect bridging points between JAMC 85 and JAMC 87 ?
JIM: Yes, I mean even if you look at all the b-sides at the ‘Psychocandy’ period and there were other songs we certainly could have made “Psychocandy 2′ if that’s we had wanted to do.
VP: What would you say are your favourite tracks from ‘Psychocandy’ ?
JIM: I can’t really think along those lines. It somehow seems a bit odd to talk in those terms about songs that we’ve made.
VP: Given that you’ve never been that keen on interviews did you find the whole PR side of the music industry a bit of a nightmare in the wake of ‘Psychocandy’s’ release?
JIM: I actually don’t mind doing interviews if I am talking to someone that seems to give a shit, or at least has done a reasonable amount of research. But I hated those press days where they were just wheeled in one ill prepared journalist after the other who would call me William and William, Jim. Yes that was a nightmare.
VP: ‘Psychocandy’s’ often cited by many fans as their favourite JAMC record, personally I’ve never been disappointed in any album you’ve released but which album would you say is your favourite and why ?
JIM: Again, bit like the earlier question really, but if you are putting a gun to my head I’ve always had a soft spot for ‘Honey’s Dead.’ Seems to be a little bit of everything on that record.
VP: You and also William have often said the Jesus and Mary Chain were a band who liked to shoot themselves in the foot, knowing what you know now about the oil that greases the machinery of the music bizz, what sort of things if any, would you have done differently ?
JIM: It’s not that we like to shoot ourselves in the foot, but it’s what we always seem to end up doing. We seem to have a knack for pissing people off, when we are genuinely trying to be friendly. I guess I am quite ill at ease in social situations, which goes someway to explaining why I got so heavily into drink, and I suppose drugs at this time, which is also the main reason we seemed to fuck up at every opportunity.
VP: As is the trend in music these days bands have often got back together to tour the anniversary of a certain album, Although you guys got back together in 2007 for a number of shows and festivals and for the Nick Sanderson tribute , were you not tempted to mark ‘Psychocandy’s’ anniversary with some gigs? Will the brothers unite again for the sake of rock n roll?
JIM: As far as ‘Psychocandy’ is concerned I wouldn’t rule it out, but the truth of the matter is it’s a very hard record to play live, Christ only knows how we managed to do it all those years ago, but we probably didn’t ! We were probably just so drunk that we thought we did.
Buy Pyschocandy here
Wallpapers
Video
“Never Understand” By The Jesus & Mary Chain
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noeTCf8PLuc&feature=related]
Upside Down-The Story Of Creation Records Trailer
(featuring interviews with Jim, Bobby Gillespie and what appears to be Parker from Thunderbirds.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quC36o_9ZLo&feature=player_embedded]
Tracklist:
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Upside Down: The Best Of
DISC 1
1. “Just Like Honey”
2. “April Skies”
3. “Blues From A Gun”
4. “Far Gone And Out”
5. “Some Candy Talking”
6. “Come On”
7. “Head On”
8. “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”
9. “All Things Must Pass”
10. “Reverence”
11. “Sidewalking”
12. “Cracking Up”
13. “Upside Down”
14. “Never Understand”
15. “The Hardest Walk”
16. “Happy When It Rains”
17. “The Perfect Crime”
18. “Sometimes Always”
19. “Almost Gold”
20. “Darklands”
21. “45 RPM”
22. “Head”
DISC 2
1. “Half Way To Crazy”
2. “You Trip Me Up”
3. “Rollercoaster”
4. “Birthday”
5. “Happy Place”
6. “Something I Can’t Have”
7. “I Hate Rock ‘n’ Roll”
8. “Tower Of Song”
9. “Vegetable Man”
10. “In A Hole”
11. “Kill Surf City”
12. “33 1/3″
13. “Cherry Came Too”
14. “Between Planets”
15. “Moe Tucker”
16. “Little Stars”
17. “God Help Me”
18. “New York City”
19. “Nine Million Rainy Days”
20. “Drop”
21. “Black”
22. “Psychocandy”
The Jesus & Mary Chain Last FM
Ah, and here it is.
Brilliant work, Andy.
You know all too well how much this band means to me. Like you, how this music left an indelible impression on my life. It is through our mutual admiration for this band that I even know you at all.
Your descriptive recap of their influence and accomplishments are right on the mark.
In a pleasant coincidence, just today someone had reminded me of the feature I wrote about The Jesus & Mary Chain coming to New York for their reunion in 2007.
Anyone interested can read that here:
http://mog.com/DaveCromwell/blog/164291
Thanks for bringing Jim’s updated thoughts to us.
It is indeed a reason for celebration.
Indeed so Dave, quite simply the greatest band and oft one of the most underrated. We can only hope they take to the stage again in the future….
Wow, I so love you for doing this article and interview. This is just awesome, great to hear from Jim and the fact that he didn’t rule out performing as the Mary Chain again.
Thank you
Mxx
Thank you Ms Psycho, it was a great moment to do a feature with Jim about what i regard as the finest début ever.
:-)
Ah you’ve broken cover, watch out for those angry Horrors fans! Thanks for your help!
Oh, I’m not bothered at the prospect of “angry Horrors fans”… bring it on, I say, bring it on!!! You never know, they might read this particular feature with Sir James of Reid and go out and purchase Psychocandy for themselves, and then realize exactly why we make all the fuss we do about the JAMC, and then put their Horrors discs in the next charity shop bag that comes through their door…. heh heh heh…
I cling to the fact that he “didn’t rule it out” about future gigs, but as I said before, I don’t think I’d ever want to see them try and recreate their glorious debut in its entirety, I don’t feel it’s that type of record, nor are/were they that type of band. But, oh dear lord, I would love to see them tread the boards again…
And you’re welcome! :-)
Fantastic . So good to hear from Jim, surely one of the coolest front men in rock n roll. This album also meant a heck of a lot to me in my youth and I still love it to bits. A great album that paved the way for more fantatsic albums from a truely visionary band. You nailed it in the intro , the Reid boys had ‘soul’ . Kudos for this interview
“preening dandified narcissistic nonsense that was the New Romantic movement .”
-Thats a keeper ! LOL
Brilliant preamble and great interview . My all time favorite band xxx
Can’t believe the new double CD best of is only £4.99 . Talk about a give away! It is superb. great little interview too with Jim, as ever well done Pipness. How you pull these interviews out of the bag I don’t know. x
I remember listening to Psychocandy when it first came out around a mate’s house after school and it sounded like the end of the world. I still don’t thiink I’ve had a moment like that upon hearing something for the first time since, but the bizarre thing was you could actually hum the tunes afterwards. Their subsequent albums especially Darklands and Automatic are also up there because they stoically refused to stick to the formula of Psychocandy and took their sound somewhere else. A truly maverick and underrated band.
I’m not sure that it’s exactly right to describe the Mary Chain as “underrated”, certainly not when talking of their debut LP, which is after all what VP’s article is about. To be fair, that album does get credited with being a hugely important artefact in the history of British indie rock n roll, but I think it’s sometimes difficult for us as fans to accept that not everybody raves about them as much as we do and we can’t understand why not! We just don’t like the fact that they’re not regularly listed in every corner of the media as “best band ever” :-) I just think it’s the nature of the beast to be cyclical, a band has its time in the sun, the chart hits and whatnot, and then things move on. And the media is so fickle with this sort of stuff that this time next year there might well be front cover features, JAMC being namedropped everywhere and everyone proclaiming them as the best thing since sliced bread… then 6 months later … b*gger all again and they’ll have moved on to someone else! There’s a handful of LPs (usually the bloody Beatles, Dylan, Stones etc etc) that are always in those infuriating “best albums ever” lists, and everything else is like a moving shifting tidal wave of things being under- or over-rated according to the whim of the day. I think we should just be quietly smug and happy in the knowledge that WE know they were godlike, and sod what everybody else thinks! :-)
If I ever meet the VPME they will be showered with love for this fantatsic article. xxxxx
Amazing Amazing Amazing !
Please do more work together William and Jim.. You were the perfect Rock n Roll band
Damn Andy, you going to interview the Pope next? How you gonna top Jim Reid?
I’ve an interview with God planned later in the year..;)
Ah, yes. My favourite band. Psychocandy is my favourite album of all-time.
we’ve set up a group on facebook called ‘candy girl’ as we’re hoping to get enough people to ask for this, 25 years since arguably one of the greatest pieces of vinyl to be pressed needs to be celebrated and a gig or two would be awesome
we’ve set up a group on facebook called ‘candy girl’ as we’re hoping to get enough people to ask for this, 25 years since arguably one of the greatest pieces of vinyl to be pressed needs to be celebrated and a gig or two would be awesome
this band is the world to me, just the greatest… I liked how you pointed out the *soul* of the Jesus and Mary Chain, to me that has always stood out the most about them: the authenticity of their music and their attitude… great article! it was wonderful to find such an up-to-date interview, thank you
Thank you, and yes people often miss that about the JAMC, the ‘soul’, their knowledge of musical history, their appreciation of it and their ability to meld it into something wonderful. One artist once said to me “a band for journalists- no tunes’ . How I laughed at the sheer sweeping sky scraping absurdity of that statement. Do some people not have ears? Or maybe its actually soul that they lack. Mary Chain= Most perfect Rock N Roll band ever !
best band ever
psychocandy was a great album, no doubt… and a great way to open a band’s history, but i’ve never felt it was their best.
the reid brothers were way too modest about the influence behind it, i can hear sampled feedback, motown, crAss, prog-rock, the beach boys, iggy and the stooges… but it’s not my favourite album(speaking as a fan), on the later albums the songwriting seemed to improve once they ditched the noise( “honey’s dead” being the album where they “killed” the previous incarnation, hence the title… and “stoned & dethroned” which is the peak of their songwriting…).
It is really an intellectual treat to read your views on the blog. Keep sharing.
What a band. Great feature VPME.