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Song of the day – 251: A Certain Ratio

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This song fucked me up as much as any back then. All Night fucken Party. If ever there was a song to be played in pitch-darkness, the volume on your crappy little Mono turned up past distortion levels, tears streaming down your face…

Even now I want to quote the lyrics straight from memory, because I’ve quoted them so much to myself over time.

“As I look back, my murky past/Looks black, but I know nothing I can do about it… I tried to catch some memories, but jealousy just creeps back into my mind”. Damn straight.

“I work all day, I drink all night/My life is just an angry blur”. Damn straight.

“As I was waiting for the fare on the way home, I saw man get stabbed/He made no mess, I made no fuss/The all night party just goes on – and on, and on, and on, and on/The all night party goes on.”

That’s the entire song right there, except for the exceptionally forbidding Gothic guitars and sullen bass sound and… wait… is there really no percussion or drums on either side of this seven-inch and I’ve never noticed it before, this entire time? Whoa. I loved the bleak funk direction A Certain Ratio took shortly after (probably to try and escape the inescapable Joy Division comparisons), especially that fucken double 12-inch man with ‘Shack Up’ and ‘Flight’ and everything, before they went and got a bit too slick for their own good, but this is where it all started.

The live version of this song, on the cassette-only release The Graveyard And The Ballroom, is even more disturbing. If that’s possible.*

Fuck it. You should know this one, but here it is anyway.

And, while we’re here. ‘Flight’.

*That’s bollocks actually. I’ve just gone back and listened to it. Still a damn fine album, though.

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