"We Don't Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard: Classic or Dud?

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I know he's like some sort've god/punchline in the UK, but this -- I believe -- was his lone troubling with the U.S. pop charts. And as much as he probably represents all that I should probably loathe with every fibre of my very being, a good song is a good song, and I think this is a good song. Then again, I've had three beers on an empty stomach, so fuck do I know?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 8 December 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

I want to hear this again! Haven't heard it since then, probably. I seem to recall that it was a pretty good song.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 8 December 2005 00:57 (twenty years ago)

I liked this one, though it's been ages since I've heard it...

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 8 December 2005 01:07 (twenty years ago)

Classic!

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 8 December 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)

Dud, although the bit where he sings "I ain't losing sleep" is ok. Rest is drippy.

Devil woman was much better. Cliff tackling his darkside.

― whatever (boglogger), Thursday, 8 December 2005 01:38 (twenty years ago)

The only two songs I know by this guy have now been mentioned. I kinda remember liking them. Do they even get played on US stations these days?

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 8 December 2005 01:59 (twenty years ago)

Not where I live. Like I said, don't think I've heard "We Don't Talk Anymore" since it was an AM radio hit in 1980 or whenever that was.

How new wave is this song?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 8 December 2005 02:10 (twenty years ago)

classic, classic, classic. One of the all-time best oldster-goes-disco traxx.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Thursday, 8 December 2005 02:43 (twenty years ago)

Yeesh. Alex, dude, time to lay off the beer. I'm kind of scared of you now.

Cliff Richard fer chrissakes...

[walks away shaking ahead]

oh, and it's dud. there's no confusion here. it's just dud. I like daggy AM radio tunes as much as the next person, but I don't have wooden ears.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 8 December 2005 02:48 (twenty years ago)

No, it's classic.

We got so many Cliff records (basically, had open access to radio play from 1959 to 1999 or thereabouts), that any good Cliff record was met with gay abandon as a change from the usual 'MOR' bizness Cliff record.

Thesedays, he has a strong fanbase that buy every record, so always gets hits but doesn't get much radio play. Which may well be a blessing, but the 'really good' ones can slip by unnoticed.

Check out "What Car" from this year, which is a classic also but not 'widely' known even though it was a top ten hit (I believe).

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 8 December 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

Well, Devil Woman, We Don't Talk Anymore and Wired For Sound (especially) are about the only three songs of his I can openly enjoy and they all come from that same late 70's period.

― mms (mms), Thursday, 8 December 2005 09:44 (twenty years ago)

The whole period between "I'm Nearly Famous" and "Now You See Me... Now You Don't" (7 albums in under 5 years, not including a couple of compilations - one of which WDTA appeared first on - 1977 to 1982) is pretty good, in retrospect. For every bit of schmaltzy tat like "Daddy's Home" there's something as good as "My Kinda Life". There's at least a double CD of really good stuff in there, mainly for the reasons mentioned above - MORster tries to include new elements like disco into his sound, with some great successes.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 8 December 2005 10:28 (twenty years ago)

Also, Carrie, which came out a couple of years later is a corker - Cliff trying an early Joe Jackson New Wave style thing.

― Jez (Jez), Thursday, 8 December 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

Written by B.A. Robertson, uh ohness.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 8 December 2005 11:53 (twenty years ago)

How new wave is this song?

It's about as New Wave as the Little River Band and/or Orleans and/or Leo Sayer, which is to say, not at all.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 8 December 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

That's f*cked up. I just played "We Don't Talk Anymore" at this dingy Irish bar with some colleagues after work earlier this week, and it went over great. I suspect I would've done just as well with "Reminiscing" too. Classics, but really not very good.

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Thursday, 8 December 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

Grout's right - Cliff had so many crap UK hits (fewer here in Canada, fewer still in the USA) that the better ones are 'classic' by comparison. "Increments of pus", to steal a phrase from R. Meltzer. As '79-80 CR hits go, "We Don't Talk" ain't as good as "Dreamin'" (slightly more new-wavy) but far, far better than "Suddenly", the nauseating duet with Olivia Newton-John. (Her only misstep from '78-83, singles-wise, if you ask me. But I could be wrong.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 8 December 2005 21:21 (twenty years ago)

classic

― baht habit, Thursday, 8 December 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

WDTAM is mawkish schlock; "Summer Holiday" and "Living Doll" are the stuff.

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 8 December 2005 23:49 (twenty years ago)

"Summer Holiday" and "Living Doll" are the stuff

I love quite quite a few of his '60s songs: the Time Inbetween is a thrash-bossa classic and Please Don't Tease is easily on a par with Summer Holiday.

― Jez (Jez), Friday, 9 December 2005 12:08 (twenty years ago)

Well, as Tom said on the "Popular" Number ones list, a lot of his sixties tracks have him singing in a 'not bothered' style.

Check out "I love you" which sounds more like it should be called "I'm not bothered" or "Whatever". ("Whatever" would fit.)

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 9 December 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

"I'm The Lonely One"

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Friday, 9 December 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

Pretty good for the backing vocals alone, 'sheeeeeeeep!', but pales when set against the might of the proto math-prog rock/new wave hybrid 'Wired For Sound' and it's equally hi-tec video. Damn! that man could rollerskate.

― mzui (mzui), Friday, 9 December 2005 13:31 (twenty years ago)

"And I'm not losing sleep/And I ain't losin' Sleeee-eeeep no-o-whoa-whoa-o" Or something. Classic anyway.

― Dr.C, Friday, 9 December 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

Much more classic than hardly anything else he has ever done. An attempt at "modern" pop which worked remarkably well.

"Wired For Sound" and "Devil Woman" are also great. As for the rest, no...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 9 December 2005 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Classic although VH-1 occasionally show the a video of it live from Wembley round about 1988 (when Cliff sold out Wembley Stadium ffs!) and it's like an updated Stock Aitken and Waterman version.

― JohnFoxxsJuno (JohnFoxxsJuno), Friday, 9 December 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

No love here for "Miss You Nights"?

― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 9 December 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

I've been into "We Don't Talk Anymore" and "Dreaming" lately. Haven't heard "Carrie" yet.

― Maltodextrin, Friday, 22 February 2008 07:31 (eighteen years ago)

Great song. "Carrie", not so much.

― Noodle Vague, Friday, 22 February 2008 08:11 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, haven't thought about these songs in ages. As an impressionable youngster listening to Smashy and Nicey I found them quite affecting. Not gonna run out to put them on my ipod now though.

"Carrie", not so much

How can you dismiss lyrics like these:

Sorry to disturb you,But I was in the neighbourhood
About a friend I've her picture,Could you take a look?
Oh I appriciate you're busy,And time is not your own
Yeah maybe it would be better,If I telephoned.

Carrie doesn't live here anymore
Carrie used to room on the second floor
Sorry that she left no forwarding address
That was known to me

You could always ask at the corner store
Carrie had a date with her own kind of fate,It's plain to see.
Another missing person,One of many we assume
The young wear their freedom,Like cheap perfume.
(it's useless information),Returning my call
(to help the situation),They've nothing at all
You're just another message,On a pay phone wall

Carrie doesn't live here anymore
Carrie used to room on the second floor
Sorry that she left no forwarding address
That was known to me

― ledge, Friday, 22 February 2008 12:26 (eighteen years ago)

'carrie'>'we don't talk anymore'>'wired for sound'. all great.

― or something, Friday, 22 February 2008 12:37 (eighteen years ago)

Carrie and We Don't Talk Anymore are both on this album, which I FUCKING LOVED when I was about 8.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HEA9WTKRL._SS500_.jpg

― nate woolls, Friday, 22 February 2008 12:37 (eighteen years ago)

Carrie was written by B.A. Robertson, who was reasonably famous for being a cross between Weird Al and Bob Geldof, and his own records were sort of comedy pop. Which means, something serious like "Carrie" is something he'd be unable to do himself.

― Mark G, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:02 (eighteen years ago)

I thought B.A. Robertson was brilliant when I was 8 yrs old.

Kool in the Kaftan...love and peace man.

― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:10 (eighteen years ago)

Didn't he do the theme tune to 'Maggie' that was sort of a similar thing though? x-post

(FKW I'm thinking about 'Maggie' BTW)

― NickB, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

yes and the theme to Swap Shop. His only miss-step was writing the Living Years w/ Mike Rutherford. It was Robertson's father who died a few months prior to his son's birth, and not Rutherford's as I'd always assumed.

― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:16 (eighteen years ago)

"Carrie"'s a fine record; "She's Leaving Home" for the Thatcher generation ("The young wear their freedom like cheap perfume").

― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:18 (eighteen years ago)

Both Marks be schooling me on BA today. The things you learn eh?

― NickB, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

And he wrote the greatest football song ever - "We Have A Dream," Scottish World Cup Squad '82.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:25 (eighteen years ago)

Not a patch on "Ossie's Dream" I'm afraid.

― NickB, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

"That's not the ball you're kicking, it's me!"

Classic. xp.

― ledge, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:27 (eighteen years ago)

"...and he's handing the ball to me!"

― aldo, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

(also featuring Christian though, which almost renders it dud)

― aldo, Friday, 22 February 2008 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

I'd like to hear this song again! I only have a vague memory of the chorus.

― Bimble, Friday, 22 February 2008 18:16 (eighteen years ago)

It goes like this:
It's Soooo Funneeee, how we don't taaaaaalk anymooooooooo.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 22 February 2008 18:21 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, but that's all I can remember! :)

― Bimble, Friday, 22 February 2008 20:16 (eighteen years ago)

Well, it's the only really important part anyway.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 22 February 2008 21:39 (eighteen years ago)

I kinda dig its pseudo disco-ishness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrLgdmrFaeU

― Bimble, Saturday, 23 February 2008 22:11 (eighteen years ago)

I haven't seen that much dry ice since the glory days of the Nephilim.

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 23 February 2008 22:45 (eighteen years ago)

seven years pass...

Then Play Long on Cliff Richard, middle age and all that: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cliff-richard-private-collection-1979.html

― agincourtgirl, Friday, 19 June 2015 16:02 (ten years ago)

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