Important Martha and the Muffins question

[Minnie the Minx]

Driving to the shop just now, Echo Beach came on my mix disc. My husband enquired about the irritating 'British sax'. It's American, I yelled!
I've never heard it, he said.
It's incredibly well known, I said!
Obviously NOT, he said!

Well COME ON

[Mike Boom]

Faraway in time, man.

[Quaco]

Canadians recording in England!

One of those bands one always heard about, but I don't think I ever actually heard this. Baron was wrong to single out the sax. The whole thing is irritating!

[Minnie the Minx]

Canadian, eh! I never knew.

[Quaco]

It may explain the way neither Americans nor English want anything to do with them!

[Minnie the Minx]

Canadians recording in England!

One of those bands one always heard about, but I don't think I ever actually heard this. Baron was wrong to single out the sax. The whole thing is irritating!

You're telling me you have NEVER HEARD this song until today?

[Quaco]

Canadians recording in England!

One of those bands one always heard about, but I don't think I ever actually heard this. Baron was wrong to single out the sax. The whole thing is irritating!

You're telling me you have NEVER HEARD this song until today?

I believe that is true. But you know, I was probably listening to some ELP album or something. I remember take5 talking about this band in about 1980, and I think I thought 'Come On Eileen' was by them at first.

[The Red Heifer]

I mean there's that similar sort of sax break in the Motels "Only The Lonely", and they were from California.

[Samoan]

It's part of my musical deoxyribonucleic acid.

[Deebank]

Martha (Ladly) painted the brilliant cover of New Order’s Factus 8 EP.

She was Peter Saville’s Girlfriend at the time fact fans. Hooky produced some of her solo work I think.

Echo Beach may be trying a little too hard to be all serious and post punky, but it has an irresistible riff.

[The Prof]

Martha (Ladly) painted the brilliant cover of New Order’s Factus 8 EP.

She was Peter Saville’s Girlfriend at the time fact fans. Hooky produced some of her solo work I think.

...and sang backing vocals and played keyboards for The Associates (didn't know that either till I read it on Wikipedia)



It's a great but track Robert Forster of the GoBetweens' version may be to some people's tastes better. (No sax)

[The Modernist]

That Forster version is really boring removing the zest of the original for some 'mature' Mojo magazine bollocks.

I remember Martha's fetching TOTP performances in The Associates very well..lucky Peter Saville!

[naughty boy]

That Forster version is really boring removing the zest of the original for some 'mature' Mojo magazine bollocks.

The Go-Betweens in a nutshell.

[Silent Bob]

Peter Saville's girlfriend Martha was the other Martha in the group, she was a Muffin rather than the Martha in the name of the group.

[Snarfyguy]

It was a top 40 hit in The States; I would have thought it was considered pretty well-known over here.

It's the kind of thing I'd expect to appear in a period movie or TV show, cultural shorthand for 1980.

[Muskrat]

Peter Saville's girlfriend Martha was the other Martha in the group, she was a Muffin rather than the Martha in the name of the group.

Maybe it should have been "Muffin and the Marthas," then.

[take5_d_shorterer]

You're telling me you have NEVER HEARD this song until today?

I remember take5 talking about this band in about 1980...

Wasn't me. Probably Dave.

While we're discussing the track, I wish I had heard it before so that I could compare an older response to one now.

Because I don't know it, there no nostalgia, I also don't particularly like it. The reasons have to do with the rhythm and the overall timing. Doesn't the rhythm sound inconsistent? Sometimes it's rushing. It just doesn't seem to lock in.

Oddly, this is something that I've finally started to pay attention to. Inconsistent rhythms didn't use to bother me as much before, but now they seem to stop tracks dead in the water.

[Quaco]

You're telling me you have NEVER HEARD this song until today?

I remember take5 talking about this band in about 1980...

Wasn't me. Probably Dave.

Could it have been Dexy's?

[take5_d_shorterer]

That option is possible.

I liked "Come On Eileen" then, and I still like the tune, probably for the same reasons, which are difficult to explain.

What is easier to describe is how odd the tune is.

On one hand, you have OMD with their synthesizers sounding like video games. Of course, kids are going to like that.

But Dexy's got young people onto the dance floor with a banjo. I don't think anyone else has really pulled that off.

Such a weird mixture of new wave singing and old-timey instrumentation and costumes, down to the overalls.


It's about as radical as James Brown using essentially a big band to produce funk, which is essentially what he did.

[Moleskin]

The Muffins made a couple of more than decent albums in the those post punk / new pop days. Danseparc and Trance & Dance I have. This Is The Ice Age unfortunately OOP at the moment.