Chart entered : 8 April 1978
Chart peak : 19
Number of hits : 21
Well here we are. This is the first single covered here that I possess. It was bought some 20 years later from the antiques shop in Ramsbottom but never mind. By the beginning of 1980 I was giving Squeeze as the answer to who my favourite band was, an enthusiasm that no one seemed to share. They'd like individual songs but I never met anyone else who championed them as a group. This not easily explicable failure to build a loyal fanbase of any size would dog their entire career.
Squeeze started coming together in 1974 when Chris Difford , a 19 year old from Greenwich , put an ad in a newsagents for a guitarist to join his non-existent band. The only respondent was 16-year old guitarist Glenn Tilbrook so it was lucky they got on and started writing songs together. They recruited 16 year old pianist Julian "Jools" Holland and a drummer called Paul Gunn and started playing the pub circuit around Deptford. After trying out a few names they settled on "Squeeze" in ironic tribute to the little-loved final Velvet Underground album ( missing all the original members ).
Gunn quit in 1976 and the band advertised in Melody Maker for a replacement. The lucky respondent was the hefty Gilson Lavis from Bedford. The 25 year old had been active in the Rock and Roll revival backing both Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis on their UK tours. Around the same time Chris relinquished the bass duties to Harry Kakoulli who'd been in the unrecorded band England's Glory with future Only Ones singer Peter Perrett.
At the end of 1976 they were signed to Miles Copeland's BTM label and "Take Me I'm Yours" was lined up as their first single in January 1977 but it never got released due to the label's financial situation. Copeland set up another , Deptford Fun City, to release their debut EP "Packet of Three" produced by John Cale. As the title suggests it contains three songs. "Cat On A Wall" is the best regarded with its tuneful chorus introducing the distinctive vocal sound of Glenn and Chris harmonising with the airy tones of the former an octave above the gutteral growl of the latter. Glenn's snarly vocal on the verses merely reflects the times as does the punk-metal "Night Ride" about a lusty biker . I'm not exactly sure who's singing on that one ( Harry ?) ."Back Track " is pretty similar with a Glenn doing a Subterranean Homesick Blues semi-rap vocal to leave room for a Jools Holland pub piano break. It's a fair introduction to their range but you wouldn't put any of these songs among their best. John Peel liked it but lost interest in the band thereafter.
They signed for A & M at the end of 1977 and went in the studio with John Cale to record their debut LP. Cale took advantage of their youth and inexperience and persuaded them to write new songs under his direction. Fortunately the label didn't like this material much and chose the two songs the bands had already recorded without him for the singles , the first of which was "Take Me I'm Yours".
With this single Squeeze became the first punk / new wave act to integrate a synthesiser into their sound. The primitive drum machine keeping the beat while Gilson tattoos and the fuzzy Moog bass line gave it a strikingly original sound while the lyric is full of mystery and intrigue. Is the "me" heroin or is this just the account of some modern-day Odysseus returning to his Penelope ? ( Chris has said it was inspired by the Copeland family's travels in Egypt ). Chris's sepulchral vocal added to the sinister aura of the song, slightly dispelled by their odd appearance on Top of the Pops where co-ordinating their wardrobe clearly hadn't been a priority . It quickly became my favourite record in the charts and I was disappointed it didn't climb a bit higher.
In retrospect, Squeeze's inability to make any decent inroads into the album charts while they were scoring decent hit singles seem puzzling. A combo from Swindon would have a similar problem, though I find their albums a lot easier to get into than Squeeze's.
ReplyDeletePersonally speaking, I think this is one of the weakest of their top 20 hits, though it still has a charm of sorts. For a band fronted by two guitarists, it's (unlike most their later work) very synth heavy, as you point out.