If you're like me and Buckaroo Banzai is your favorite movie, and you've seen it twenty times, you probably remember Jeff Goldblum musing, "Hmm . . . Grover's Mill, 1938 . . . why does that seem so familiar?" Mentally assembling various clues, he painstakingly uncovers evidence of an alien invasion.
Fast forward to Sacramento, 1984. Hmm . . . why does that seem so familiar? This time the alien invasion came not from Red Lectroids, but newly-spawned Exit Records, which quietly launched debut albums from three newcomers: Charlie Peacock, the 77s, and Steve Scott.
Each of these salvos would prove to be an underground time bomb, forever altering music history, but whereas the first two have violently detonated, seventeen years later the third has yet to go off. Love in the Western World was easily the most creative album of the year, maybe of the decade. Even outside of the asylums, there were those who thought that this Brit performance artist, with his Beat poet lyrics, minimalist band, and Lou Reed monotone, was just the needed antidote to tired mid-80s radio-as-usual.
"Make this man a pop star," Peacock used to joke about his label-mate, but Scott was about as far off the dial, and thus the pop charts, as one was likely to get. Even after Island Records tentatively released discs by Peacock and the 77s, they cancelled on the next in line, the decidedly uncommercial Steve Scott.
Yet tastes change, and now, in a new era, it sounds strange to talk about "hits of the eighties." But as the lucky few know who snatched up M8's millennial limited edition rerelease, Love has lost none of its quirky brilliance. In the meantime, Scott has wandered the globe, written travel journals, lectured on art, toured as a performance artist, played with various bands (notably the 77s), and made more albums. These are of two kinds, both even less commercial than Love. Steve's rock and roll heart finds expression on two Alternative Records collections, Lost Horizon and Magnificent Obsession.
His crazed-beat poet wanderlust side roams free on The Butterfly Effect and We Dreamed That We Were Strangers. More Than a Dream ignores even that flimsy boundary, combining both of the above styles. Empty Orchestra (the literal meaning of "Karaoke") is a stark instrumental album with a printed lyric sheet -- (you) sing the songs.
Violently departing from the "catchy, bang-you-on-the-head" school of song writing, Scott's artistic bent doesn't always go over so well. Ask anyone who was at the Kansas City concert when someone screamed that Steve was the antichrist and then fled the hall. Thought I'd get your attention.
Love definitely ranks among my top ten desert island discs, and on a very good (or very bad) day, it's #1 (although I'd have to have some Larry Norman). As long as Love were available, I should not despair of the state of the world. That it's currently out of print is my personal paranoia. Yet, as in Buckaroo Banzai, the seeds of the invasion are still out there, scattered like land mines in dusty attics, and lying in wait at vintage CD shops.
Similar sounding releases
1994Steve TaylorNow the Truth Can Be Told
1989Peter MurphyDeep
1984BarnabasFeel the Fire
199277sThe Seventy Sevens
1998Daniel AmosOur Personal Favorite World Famous Hits
1990Charlie PeacockWest Coast Diaries Volume Three
