Growing up in the early 90′s meant one of a few things. Firstly, you dressed predominantly in shell suits and knew never to stand near naked flames, secondly you had an avid fascination with wrestling, dreamt of having long mulleted highlights and finally, you had a delusional notion of what good taste was, particularly, in music.
I remember dancing around to DNA Diner and Boom Shake the Room (for which, I admit, I choreographed a dance to) when I overheard my sister listening to Simon and Garfunkel tapes, followed by a bit of the Housemartins. I labelled it, in my 9-year-old wisdom, ‘hippy music’.
After dalliances with Meatloaf, Bon Jovi and the Scatman, i went through the the glorious epiphany of my teenage years. The cycle finished at 16 when I bought Bridge Over Troubled Water on CD, oh how the sister was jealous, and really discovered a polyphonic merger of rock, folk and vocal mastery that drove me on to my fascination with The Beach Boys, The Zombies, The Kinks and to later use in my song and literary writing.
It was over this time also that I rediscovered the epic quality of the Housemartins and their clear admiration for the artists I revered so much. Vocal harmonies a-plenty, lyrical melancholy and sympathetic but complex instrumentation that made music that I dreamt of making myself.
The HM’s relatively short life reflects their musical temprament, making music for music’s sake not necessarily for commercial gain. The words of their tunes were often laced with marxist and christian comment and their split in 1988 seems apparently more to do with each of their ambitions to develop in different areas rather than simply a clash of growing egos. And how they did develop, with Heaton and Hemingway forming The Beautiful South and Norman Cook going on to become Fatboy Slim.
If you are to get one record of theirs, despite the animosity to such compilations, i would suggest Now That’s What I call Quite Good, their Greatest Hits album, and if you can, buy vinyl.
The reason I say this is that only in this medium can you truly respect the quality behind the construction of the songs, the quality and originality of the vocals and above all the nods rife in their recordings to their own record listening as children.
Happy Hour, their big break through hit, has everything you need as a fan. The feint adulation of Morrissey present in the vocal tones but without the depressing gladioli wielding, combined with a less rocky but obvious taste of The Jam. Add the driving dance beat of a simple tom and snare drum set, and the abandon and sun filled style and you have the Housemartins, a band that went on to influence Blur, James, Dodgy and a whole raft of folkier side Brit Poppers.
They’re love for the quality songs of yore are perfectly epitomised in their many covers. You’ve Got a Friend shows the simplicity of all the greatest songs as well as their harmonic excellence for example. He Ain’t Heavy is as good an example of why it is right to cover someone’s song with a unique rendition, a capella, that not only shows the classic tune in a different light, but makes you realise just how good a record it is.
But it is Caravan of Love that will always carry their name in future. Having been released in 85 in the states by Isley-Jasper-Isley, making the top of the RnB Chart, the Housemartins took it on ditching the keyboards and production for a beautiful a capella rendition, famed now for its brilliantly kitsch music video.
The quality of the recording is the unrivalled blend of vocal layers that had not really been since the days of the Four Freshmen, Beach Boys and original RnB masters of the 60′s.
Their influence over current bands can be heard through the growing affinity with vocal harmonising from bands like The Mystery Jets, The Klaxons, The xx and Arcade Fire. Proving the causal link between these bands would be hard, with the Martins only having such a small back catalogue, but at least you could argue that quality comes from good taste, and that is what The Housemartins had in abundance. Whether they influenced similar sounds in music today, who cares, but at least we know that in some areas at least, quality is shining through.
Tags: apples, blur, brit pop, caravan of love, classic album, happy hour, james, marissey, music 2011, parklife, PES 2011, pro evo 2011, serotonin, sit down, suzanne vega, the brits, the housemartins, the mystery jets, theo, will smilth
