This week it’s a rather tenuous Fanatical Friday. Magazine have been one of my more recent discoveries, and as a consequence of being a Simple Minds fan and through Jim extolling the virtues of the band during my years of SM fandom.
The first thing I noticed was this little visual nod that Jim gave to Howard – probably inadvertently. I’ve always felt that his pudding bowl haircut from 1979 was a direct nod to Howard, although even at that point Jim had more hair on his head than Howard did.
It took a little while for me to initially warm to them. I listened to Real Life first, as it was the first album chronologically and it also was an influence on Simple Minds having slightly pre-dated their existence. I was intrigued to find out if I could pinpoint any of that influence as I was listening. I didn’t hear it initially. I kept thinking back to what Bruce Findlay had said to me when I interviewed him in 2019. What he had told me Simon Draper at Virgin Records said when Bruce approached Virgin to have Simple Minds join the label in 1980. “We already have a ‘Simple Minds’ on the label. They’re called Magazine.”
After a few repeated listens to Real Life, I decided to move on to Secondhand Daylight. A couple of listens in and I felt I was getting much more from this album. Most of my favourite Magazine songs are on this album. I love Talk To The Body and Permafrost most but I also like Rhythm of Cruelty, Cut Out Shapes and The Thin Air. The whole album is fabulous actually. It is my favourite of the first three albums. And there is that DREAM of travelling back to 1979 to watch a gig (or seven) of Simple Minds supporting them, performing tracks from Life In A Day and their extras, while Magazine headline doing stuff from Secondhand Daylight as well as a few from Real Life too, I would imagine.
I’ve been thinking about this question lately. A question I saw posed somewhere or other recently of who would you want to see that you missed out on seeing. For me it would be Magazine. Howard retired from the music biz around… 2011, I think it was? He toured Magazine one last time around then. Obviously, John McGeoch had already left us by then, so it would be devoid of him, sadly. But if I could see them at any time, then that would be during the Secondhand Daylight tour of ‘79, when they were still the band they were then, with McGeoch on board, etc.
During my initial foray into their music, I also checked out The Correct Use Of Soap. That’s got a real signature early Malcolm Garrett design to its cover. I had high hopes for TCUOS and although there are tracks I love on it – You Never Knew Me is my fave from that album – I don’t feel it is as strong as Secondhand Daylight for me. Howard continues being a great lyricist and the band are still great but you can sense they are trying to take it to that more “commercial” place. It seemed to work for them, although not quickly enough for McGeoch as his Wikipedia entry seems to suggest he left Magazine in 1980, frustrated by the band’s lack of commercial success.
About a week ago I listened to No Thyself. The second track is called Other Thematic Material – a very appropriate title for a Creative Writing student. Coincidentally, there is a part of the current block of study I am undertaking which has a Creative Writing archive attached to it – full of resources for CW students. One of the sub-categories of this archive is titled “Thematic resources and readings.”
I digress.
Anyway…the track. It starts with the lines “I’m gonna push up your top / up over your tits, like this / and unhook your bra / and give your nipples a twist” – well, hello! Howard, you dirty bugger! That certainly pricked up my ears! Lol. It continues… “kneel down and open your mouth / and tilt your head back a bit / and look me straight in the eye / stick out your tongue ready for it.” I’ll leave it to you and your imagination as to what happens next – or you can just look up the lyrics. But the thing that makes it so great is how he weaves through everyday mundane musings in contrast to these highly erotic lines. But geez, it’s sexy! No holds barred! I was listening to it slack-jawed (Probably how Howard would want me to be, to be honest. Knelt down in front of him. Lol) – shocked but thrilled in equal measure. I mean…something like Darling Nikki is all well and good, but other than Prince saying he found her masturbating, all the rest is left up to the imagination. It’s not very graphic – as sexual as it is. Not with Howard! I could see EVERYTHING! I think I may just call him Howard “P*rnHub” Devoto from now on! Lol
Do I remember much from the rest of the album? Not really. I fell asleep a short while after Other Thematic Material, which is amazing considering how piqued my interest was. Lol. From what else I heard, I’m pretty sure I will enjoy the album. Considering so much time had passed since the previous Magazine album, it was sounding good to me and I am sure I will give it more listens. OTM will DEFINITELY be getting future listens! Lol
This is also why I love Permafrost so much. I mean…I love the bass and the synths on it for a start, as well as the tempo of it, but there’s a mood to it. Howard is great at creating mood, building on the musical structure. And then there is that chorus, “As the day stops dead / at the place where we’re lost / I will drug you and fuck you / on the permafrost.” He just doesn’t seem to hold back on the imagery – explicit – and I love that.
I’m sure at some point I listened to Howard’s solo album, Jerky Visions of the Dream. I’ve not listened to anything from the Luxuria period of Devoto’s output but I feel that at some point soon I will investigate it.
I am a “Devotee”? I think we can safely say yes, I am. It’s probably all thanks to Minds and to Jim, for had I not become the Simple Minds whore that I am now, I doubt very much that I would have explored Magazine, either.
Lastly, thinking about covers and versions of songs: Magazine made two great covers – one of Sly And The Family Stone’s ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)’ and Captain Beefheart’s ‘I Love You, You Big Dummy”, which is fabulous.
The 2007 Digital Remaster of Secondhand Daylight is fantastic as it has the Beefheart cover on it as well as one of my other most favourite tracks of Magazine’s – probably my favourite track of them all – Give Me Everything. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve played that track in all honesty. When I first heard it, it was just LOOOVE. It became this mega earworm and I played it over and over again.
And on that note, I’ll leave you with it! Enjoy!
