( * Happy Mondays and ... )
Chart entered : 9 June 1990
Chart peak : 46
The diminutive yodelling Scotsman was making his chart comeback after 26 years away.
Karl had hit the Top 20 with his first five singles including the number 4 hit "Wimoweh"; a still-remarkable recording of hysterical gibberish before the novelty wore off and the Beatles chased him out of the charts. He spent the next quarter of a century on the cabaret circuit drinking heavily and fending off financial demands from ex-wives and the taxman. He was declared bankrupt on three separate occasions.
The single came about through The Bailey Brothers aka Keith Jobling and Phil Shotton two mates of Tony Wilson who were planning FACT 181, a movie to be called, ahem. "Mad Fuckers !" They knew Karl from his regular gigs at The Yew Tree in Manchester and planned to cast him in the film. They also planned to use the closing track from Happy Mondays' album "Bummed", "Lazyitis" as the theme tune and pitched the idea that the band should re-record it with Karl as guest vocalist. Shaun Ryder didn't like the idea and regarded the song itself as nothing more than a space filler using borrowed melodies but Tony Wilson persuaded him to do it.
As originally recorded "Lazyitis" uses melodic lines from Ticket To Ride and Family Affair ( both properly credited ) on an acid-fried song which sounds suspiciously like unused snatches of lyric were just strung together to complete the album, with vague references to prison and cold turkey. When Shaun went in to re-record his vocal with Karl the drugs and booze flowed freely and Shaun further compounded the copyright issue by sardonically singing the hook from David Essex's Gonna Make You A Star. The result was one of the most bizarre hits of the decade. Karl sounds exactly what he'd become, a dodgy pub singer who doesn't seem to be familiar with what he's singing. It sounds like the mike has picked up some mad drunk warbling outside the studio. Paul Davis adds some new piano parts to the mix but God knows why he thought it was worth the effort. It was released as a single in May 1989.
The Bailey Brothers shot a video for it under a Mancunian Way flyover. They used an artificial rain machine drenching Karl , who wasn't in the greatest health to start with, and giving the poor bloke pneumonia. It wasn't a hit originally but, still hoping to raise some interest in the film project, Factory reissued the single in the wake of the success of "Step On" and thus Karl chalked up a final hit.
After nearly finishing him off , Factory rewarded Karl with a recuperative trip to Jersey ( where Shaun got busted ) and then allowed him to record a couple of singles with them. "Wimoweh 89" amazingly manages to bleed all the character out of the original burying it under a generic acid house arrangement and the more interesting "Indambinigi" collaboration with Steve Lima which blends Karl's signature wailing with native chants in an Enigma-like arrangement.
Karl got a chance to record something more traditional for his final single in November 1990 , "Voices of the Highlands" on the Plaza label. If not quite in his vocal prime , Karl holds his own against the massed tattooing drums and bagpipes to deliver a hymn to his homeland.
An album of covers in a country and western style "Just Loving You" eventually followed in 1993. Even a sympathetic obituary by Stephen Leigh had to acknowledge that "he missed almost as many notes as he hit". He doesn't even attempt the high notes himself on an awful attempt at "Runaway". He was working on another album when ill health forced him into a Manchester hospice where he died just before Christmas 1998 aged 67 . The completed tracks were included on an expanded edition of "Just Loving You" re-titled "Movin On" in 2001.
Another piece of evidence in the case of "Why Factory Records Went Bust", I suppose...
ReplyDeleteGood folk like mister Denver gave factory the legendary reputation it doesn't really deserve
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