The Friday Canon: Adam And/Or Ants

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Today's canon is early 80s new pop* sensation Adam Ant, with or without his trusty backing band of Ants. You get five(-diddly-qua-qua) ticks. Ridicule (in the comments box) is nothing to be scared of!


[Poll #909784]


*was he even considered New Pop, actually? What DID the music press make of him?

Comments

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

OBVIOUSLY I needed more ticks there. I nearly cried at not being able to tick Apollo 9 :(:(:(

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

11 ticks pared back with strategic unticking of "everyone else will do that one" :-(

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Paring back clearly impossible in this instance, so I didn't.

Marco Merrick Terry Lee Gary Tibbs And Yours Tickly

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

My 'preliminary ticks' landed at 10, and I don't dislike any of the other 5, except maybe Young Parisians which is an bit rub. Hard canon!

from the naughty north to the sexy south

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

a band where nobody thinks the "original cred version" were better

Re: from the naughty north to the sexy south

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be so sure! There are definitely people in the US who will rep Dirk Wears White Sox as classixor punk/noo wave album and don't care about the fa-diddley stuff.

I don't think anyone in Britain thinks this though.

Re: from the naughty north to the sexy south

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

He is the best 'sell-out' ever though.

Re: from the naughty north to the sexy south

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

ha, I saw them live in 1977! Barton Hill Youth Club in Bristol, it was. I think Jordan was the support, but not the one who is famous now. Anyway, they were rubbish then.

Re: Marco Merrick Terry Lee Gary Tibbs And Yours Tickly

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

Marco Merrick DAIRYLEA, get it right ;)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I keep not having heard any of the songs in these canons :(

When are we going to have the Missycanon? Or the Destiny's Child + solo bobbins canon?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking we've had the Missyone.

The Bouncycanon surely fits into Kat's Divas series so I'll let her do that. As does Missy for that matter.

I think you should hear some more Ant music.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The only song I've heard is 'Antmusic' and I like Rachel's take on it much better.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

One day Gwen Stefani will do a cover of "Prince Charming" and you will like that too.

Also

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The Adam Ant video collection is WELL WORTH SEEING (it sparked this poll) as:

- the Imperial Phase (Antmusic to Goody Two Shoes) is still some amazing video-making.
- the second phase is an object lesson in running out of ideas.
- You could stick his comeback videos in a time capsule with a note saying "This is what generic 1990 videos looked like" and need NO OTHER MATERIAL.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

adam and his ants were THE pop band of my primary school/starting 2y school. probs beating even madness. they are teh classiXoR. stand and deliver video an all time fave

[ruudboy.livejournal.com]

When I was in Junior 2 we marched round the playground brandishing Price Charming albums demanding that Adam be made king.

"new pop"

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

if p.morley is the official gatekeeper then yes he certainly is

a classic UK vs US (vs. wee kiddies, sorry Lex) discussion

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Or so I thought until looking at the results. Maybe the stuff I heard really ISN'T that great.

non top 40

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

10/12/1983 Strip 41
13/07/1985 Viva La Rock 50
28/04/1990 Can't Set The Rules About Love 47
11/02/1995 Wonderful 32
03/06/1995 Gotta Be A Sin 48

Re: non top 40

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

O NOES my deception at leaving dreadful "Wonderful" off exposed.

Re: non top 40

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

ha. funnily enough i remember it well, as i do 'can't set rules about love'. it sounded very OMD (i mean 90s OMD obv.).

Re: non top 40

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

WAIT! where is "save the gorillas"????

Re: non top 40

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

That the first two didn't go Top 40 is a sad comment on our fickle pop kids.

Dont drink dont smoke what do you do?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Goody Two Shoes.

What's going on there, then? I've never really figured it out.

Re: Dont drink dont smoke what do you do?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Things I've heard:

- it's an attack on Kevin Rowland ("pretending that you're Al Green")
- it's an attack on the press for attacking Adam and Kevin Rowland for their relatively vice-free lifestyles.

I do not know the truth.

Re: Dont drink dont smoke what do you do?

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

This second explanation is the one that I've always heard.

Re: Dont drink dont smoke what do you do?

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

snap. up to the point of waving guns around in public.

Re: Dont drink dont smoke what do you do?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Blimey, I thought it was about those people that gloat over you when you quite smoking. I didn't realise it had hidden meanings. :o

Argh!

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I think Adam Ant is possibly the most overrated pop star ever, except perhaps Bowie.

Anyone remember that episode of Ian Beale and his girlfriend doing the Prince Charming dance in their front room? That's what you all look like when you do that. Rub song too.

Re: Argh!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

rockist.

Re: Argh!

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I ticked Stand And Deliver though.

I think we are starting to run out of good popstars with enough of a back catalogue (have we done RyderCanon yet though)?

Should we do a One Hit Wonder canon?

Re: Argh!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Not at all. I have a big list of potential candidates.

Re: Argh!

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

mogwai canon

Re: Argh!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

To be fair that's also what all the Ants looked like too.

I think there's a possible "hadda be there" thing with Adam - his 'playground factor' was MASSIVE partly because his impact was very rapid - all those first six or so hits (some re-releases) were within about six months of each other.

attempt at history

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

the first thing in the GRATE BIG SMASH HITS BOOK OF THE 80s is a 2,000 word think piece on Adam by Uncle Mark Ellen (blimey, they don't make mags like that any more do they?). It implies that the inkies despised adam for:

a. being a cr@p punk
b. selling out
c. being an amazing pop star

i'm pretty certain he didn't count as New Pop, he's too dumb isn't he?

Re: attempt at history

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

he was KING OF NEW POP -- he entirely sidestepped the inkies and never gave them interviews, but p.morely was v.pro

also he was massive in iran

Re: attempt at history

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

rly? ok, i am happy to bow to yr wisdom and knowledge :)

i always think of New Pop (caps intentional) as being slightly more "literate" (there is probably a better word than this) than dear old adam...

Re: attempt at history

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Adam is "an 18th century brain in a 21st century head"!

Re: attempt at history

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

you are confusing it with the s.reynolds/k.punk restatement of same, i think: new pop always had space for dollar or bascially any shiny kim-bright-but-dim random giving texture and depth and difference to the charts -- it wasn't all abt smuggling theory, and i wd say more of it than not wz about unknowingly effecting theory (morely also v.pro siouxsie sioux who wz proto-nupop)

(p*man still argues that the thing to be doing w.theory is talking abt it AS IF IT WERE POP; ie NOT only talkin abt pop if it is "in line" with this week's theory...)

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

This was the toughest canon yet. I wanted to tick almost all of them. Not to say that all of them are GREAT, but nearly all of them are at least good. So he doesn't have any 10/10 songs, but he has a whole mess of 8/10 songs, including all the ones I ticked and at least a couple I didn't.

This poll is missing "Wonderful", which I wouldn't have ticked, but I'm a stickler for accuracy. Adam always had more success in the UK than the US, only about half of these would be on the US canon, and he only has only one song that went US top 40 but not UK top 40, "Physical (You're So)".

OK, I can't resist, for those curious, the US Adam and/or the Ants canon is: "Dog Eat Dog", "Antmusic", "Physical (You're So)", "Stand and Deliver", "Goody Two Shoes", "Wonderful". And most of those barely scraped in. Other than "Goody Two Shoes" he is pretty much forgotten in the US today.

BRUSH ME DADDIO

[greatesthit.livejournal.com]

Not enough love for "Dog Eat Dog"!

It *is* impossible to just pick five of these, though.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

With relevance to what I said in the 'what do you think of Adam Ant generally' box:
http://www.cartrouble.nl/images/busted2.jpg
On the left, for those not informed. It was possibly the best thing I'd ever seen when I first saw it, combining both the band that made me realised I liked pop and Adam Ant.

[kill-yr-idols.livejournal.com]

What OG New Pop had to say on Adam Ant!


2. The Birth Of The New Pop

Picture the scene. It's a grey afternoon in early 1980. Jon Moss is sipping tea with Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni in the living room of a small Harrow semi-detached - Marco's parents' place. None of them are very famous yet. Oh, Jon was once voted 'the prettiest punk' in a fanzine and Adam's name gets sprayed on the backs of a few black leather jackets but that's about it. 'Cult,' Adam has decided, 'is just another word for loser.' Even the indignity of paying Malcolm McLaren £1000 for an intensive four-week attitude overhaul and then watching the former Sex Pistols manager walk off with his band hasn't softened Adam's resolve. Fired with fresh ideas, he's already recruited Marco Pirroni as a new collaborator and the pair are now looking for other musicians.
Jon Moss is also fed up with being a loser. A drummer, he's done time with them all - Damned, Clash, London, Jona Lewie, The Edge, Jane Aire and the Belvederes - but never managed to settle down with any of them. After spending three months staring blankly at his bedroom wall, he's just forked out £250 for an attitude overhaul of his own: a weekend Exegesis course. Although he came out of it a bit mad - thinking he could 'zap' things and change the colour of traffic lights and all that - he's determined to hit the big time now. Adam has approached him through an old girlfriend and this is their first meeting.
Mrs Pirroni flutters around excitedly offering everyone more tea. Adam munches a cupcake. Jon's finding all this a bit weird. Adam's so quiet and intense it's eerie. He's almost robotic. He leans over to Jon and explains, 'I've got this idea for two drummers.' Out comes a tape of some Burundi drumming, part of a whole batch of stuff McLaren recorded for him. Jon listens, shrugs his shoulders and says, 'Okay, er, great.'
Two weeks later, Jon gets a call from Adam, loads his drum kit into the back of his estate car and drives down to Rockfield studio in Wales. He double tracks his playing to achieve a fair copy of the Burundi sound for Adam's last independent single, 'Cartrouble', bungs his drums back in the car and drives home. Jon gets a session fee but doesn't much fancy a full-time job with Marco and the mechanical man and Adam soon finds his two drummers elsewhere.
That was it really.
Except that eight months later Adam was topping the charts. And a few months after that the group McLaren stole from Adam and turned into Bow Wow Wow gave one George O'Dowd his first turn in front of a mike. And that it wasn't long before George, Jon and Culture Club were topping the charts too, along with Spandau Ballet, Wham!, Duran Duran and all the rest of the New Pop stars of the 1980s.

But Adam, in his own sweet way, was the very first of them all. In his rapid rise to the status of first teen idol of the 1980s, he mapped out all the moves for those who came after.

(OK that's enough for now - will type out the next few pages of Adam Ant stuff tomorrow morning @ the bookstore)

Room at the Top

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

I coincidentally listened to the Ant Canon over the weekend, and decided "Room at the Top" was important blueprint for Robbie Williams solo single canon.

Re: Room at the Top

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Good spot!!