I don't think that Echo and the Bunnymen have ever featured on these pages.
Apologies for that. But hey, Nothing Lasts Forever.
From 1997 and picked up recently in the BRICC thriftshop in Ballantrae it was their first single from Evergreen the album from when the band reformed after a four year hiatus.
It reached the dizzy heights of number 8 in the UK charts.
As was the way back then the single and the 2 x CD singles all have different track listings For the collector the French and German CD versions have different track listings still.
Mine has Watchtower and the rather splendid Polly on it.
Echo & the Bunnymen - Nothing Lasts Forever
Echo & the Bonneymen - Watchtower
Echo & the Bunnymen - Polly
What a great, great single. I didn't realise that the French and German CD's had different b-sides though.
ReplyDeleteA great song and I also didn't knew that there were different songs on these CD's though. Great job CC
ReplyDeleteA great tune
ReplyDeleteThanks CC, the bsides are new to me too
ReplyDeleteThe seeds of music and direction for Evergreen can be found in McCulloch and Sargaent's work Electrafixion from 94-95. Hatchets properly buried, the primary writing force of the Bunnymen found the embers were not quite cooled over and with the spark which both Grunge and the resurgent Brit Rock Scene provided, lit the flame of collaboration again. The result, Burned was an album that had things familiar to the pair, but also a fresh energy about it as well.
ReplyDeleteIt was during sessions to work on a follow up that the decision was made to work as The Bunnymen again, along with bassist Les Pattison who was willing to jump back in. Some of the comeback album Evergreen's songs were already pieces under way as Electrafixion - Baseball Bill, Just A Touch Away and Empire State Halo among them. But some of Nothing Lasts Forever's B-Sides as well. Polly has all the hallmarks of the more overtly psychedelic Electrafixion and Jonny and Colour Me In marry the Bunnymen of old with the rougher sound of Electrafixion quite nicely. Watchtower is the B-Side I love the most. There's a statement of strength about it that, as a fan, just hit home.
I think that may well be the first comment which has been longer than the post Echorich!
ReplyDeleteInteresting and informative stuff as always
I did a wee feature on this single about 18 months ago.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned that Mac was probably stunned that the band had carried on without him having brought in Noel Burke as a new vocalist, albeit without much commercial or critical success.
Echorich has already supplied (fantastically as always) the backdrop to Mac rejoining; to my ears, this comeback single was, and remains, an absolutely stunning piece of music, right up there with many of the tracks released when the band were at the height of their powers, Worth mentioning that it hit #8 in the charts and that equalled their previous best ever position with The Cutter back in 1983.
Informative post and comments! Now to make sure I have those French and German B-sides.
ReplyDeleteI loved this song, and the album it came from, at the time. Still stands up today.
ReplyDelete