General Public, C/D?

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I know the line on them is "weak offspring of English Beat, one good song." But I sorta love the first album. The actual song "General Public" is pretty great. And Mick Jones did play guitar on the record, before fucking off to Big Audio Dynamite.

OK, I'm not really saying they're classic, except for "Tenderness." And in the glory year of 1984, all the rage was definitely only a minor pleasure. But it was a pleasure. So here, I give their own thread. Your Ranking Roger haircut jokes here.

spittle (spittle), Friday, 2 April 2004 08:22 (twenty-one years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f556/f55618ezjgw.jpg

spittle (spittle), Friday, 2 April 2004 08:22 (twenty-one years ago)

(wow the design on that sleeve is really bad: the lowercase/uppercase thing, the two-tone text in the title, the overbearing symmetry of the photos...ugh)

spittle (spittle), Friday, 2 April 2004 08:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i still rock this album from time to time! i love dave and rogers vocal harmony.

Pablo Cruise (chaki), Friday, 2 April 2004 09:35 (twenty-one years ago)

hot your cool so cool you're hot sounded really great at the time, but as a whole album it didn't seem to hold together too well.

bimble (bimble), Tuesday, 13 April 2004 09:02 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...
no, and that cover...man. "digitally recorded"! the mid-80s!!!

"tenderness" is great. i like wakeling's (sp?) lower register. though that "feel like a MAN MAN MAN MAN MAN-AN-AN" part is dumb.

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

No part of that song is dumb.

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

just those two seconds, yes

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

B-but, that "dumb" part is an amazing segue into that bassline.

Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

"Tenderness" is such a great great song, all other sins are forgiven. Though no, I can't sit through this whole album.

Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 4 May 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

well yes the bassline is nice, it's just that one vocal bit is the one part that is dated in a bad way

Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 5 May 2005 04:45 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

listening to this tonight, having grabbed it on used vinyl a while back. the filler announces itself pretty loudly but this band's best moments are straight transcendent - <i>almost</i> up to the world-of-its-own level of <i>Special Beat Service</i>, which was controversial!!!1!one at my mod-heavy high school

TS "never you done that" vs. "tenderness": which is more wistful?

J0hn D., Sunday, 9 March 2008 01:45 (seventeen years ago)

three or four years later & I still can't get used to the square brackets, dammit

J0hn D., Sunday, 9 March 2008 01:46 (seventeen years ago)

two years pass...

the song "general public" itself is pretty great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzkH45CmcdE&feature=related

women are a bunch of dudes (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 6 May 2010 17:10 (fifteen years ago)

two months pass...

target commercials making me want to listen to 'tenderness' nonstop

iatee, Thursday, 22 July 2010 02:22 (fifteen years ago)

two years pass...

Been listening to this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmoHQ2DC3zo

c21m50nh3x460n, Monday, 8 April 2013 00:21 (twelve years ago)

five years pass...

A meditation on Stephen Baldwin, butts, and the Staples Singers

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 July 2018 02:57 (seven years ago)

Not only a crap cover, but one of those that nearly ruined the original for me by being the version I heard first—and, as the piece accurately reflects, far too often during the early half of 1994.

Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Thursday, 12 July 2018 05:15 (seven years ago)

I completely forgot their version existed. So weird that there was a General Public hit in the 90s. (And yeah it's an awful cover.)

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 12 July 2018 15:39 (seven years ago)

Mmmmaybe related to success of '90s UB40?

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 12 July 2018 16:09 (seven years ago)

weird, I have zero memory of this!

Οὖτις, Thursday, 12 July 2018 16:14 (seven years ago)

Yeah, I don't remember it at all!

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 12 July 2018 16:25 (seven years ago)

three years pass...

Whistling in the graveyard

No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 August 2021 04:08 (four years ago)

For a few seconds I was thinking: wait is this “Hitsville U.K.”?

No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 August 2021 04:09 (four years ago)


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