Chameleons "Swamp Thing".. best song ever ?

Finally, for anyone who remotely cares, yes I'm the same Tim D from a while back... I've taken a long hiatus from ILM for various reasons. But I'm back because "I love music" and I'm a dork.

One of the three shows is 'semi-acoustic' -- very cool.

Ned you naughty man where is that info about a 'Chameleons list' ?

Plus - I DESPERATELY NEED TO KNOW WHAT WAS ON THAT COMSATS CD

(obv.)

The Comsats CD was the Dream Command album.

Among the Chameleons songs, I've created an unscientific survey (web poll) of The Chameleons fans 3 all-time favorite songs by the Chameleons.

So far, I've received about 70 votes, out of the 70 votes on about 25 great songs by the Chameleons the most chosen Chameleons song was:

(please join the Yahoo Chameleons club and participate in this survey at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chameleonsukgroup/ )

"Second Skin"-12 votes; "Soul in Isolation"-8 Votes; and "Swamp Thing"-6 votes.

I think Swamp Thing is an important song by the Chameleons to me since that was the first song I heard by the Chameleons which pretty much much made me an addict of their music.

I think a stronger case can be made that the four "Tony Fletcher Walked on water, la la la la la.......recordings are the best four Chameleons songs played in sequence.

http://www.thechameleons.com/

I asked him point blank about his fandom when I met him in 2000 and he confirmed he adored the band quite a bit.

i was there too, what an amazing night it was.

And I've said it on other Chameleons threads, but I'll say it again : "Soul In Isolation" is their best. This is not going to change. On the "She Sells Sanctuary" thread, there was talk about a particular whoop or yell from Ian Astbury near the end. That yell really cinches the ending. Well, in the last two minutes of "Soul In Isolation", Mark Burgess is responsible for about a dozen of those moments.

I will alert the mods and have the thread title changed accordingly.

MUST ALSO CONVINCE CHAMELEONS TO DO AT LEAST ONE (1) MORE TOUR

wow.

HOW have i missed this song? given that it's pretty much the acme of epic post-punk, and epic post-punk is pretty much what i live to hear, i feel i've spent my entire listening life missing out.

there's a whole shitload of joyous chameleons-related listening to come, i feel. anyway: it's times like this i love ILM. thanks, dudes.

The first time, Grimly! My heavens!

I missed the earlier revival, yeeps.

And yes, enjoy it all. And enjoy the AMG reviews. I forget what savant wrote them all. ;-)

i have a hard time listening to "monkeyland" for non-obvious reasons (namely, my friend walked in on me once while i was singing along (badly) to it and now i tend to associate it with that embarrassment)

U R WELCOME

Apparently I might perhaps be inside your head dictating your musical choices.

i'm on my 10th listen, easily, since yesterday morning. HOW THE FUCK HAVE I MISSED THIS SONG? i'm having to make up for lost time. mind you, if student-me had heard this, he'd have combusted on the spot, so perhaps it's just as well.

no, i'm not going to listen again. i'm going to finish this new order live thing i downloaded the other day and go to bed.

no, really.

for me, the unsung hero on strange times has got to be 'caution'. i love the tenebrous guitar line, the massive drums and how everything is so loosely kept in check. i love the intro to 'swamp song' but find parts of the track to be a little bit, i don't know... saccharine? i really tend to prefer the overtly dark shades this band touches on.

If it isn't the best rock song ever, it's close.

You've probably seen them, but there are nice notes on lots of the songs on the Chameleons webpage. These are the ones for 'Caution':

Notes by Mark - As I said on the album description the vocal was completely spontaneous, nothing actually written when I stepped up to the mike to do the take. I'd tried to write something down but to be honest I was struggling and decided to use a 'stream f consciousness' approach, which involved a litre of wine in a very dark vocal booth. We did about six takes all in all, each completely different, but I could tell from the Producer's voice on the intercom that we had something special. I'd placed a glass on the floor, in the dark, and during te takes I'd somehow broken it without realising and cut myself. The Producer and engineer couldn't see me so when it was finished they drew back the curtain and turned on the lights to find me covered in blood, they thought, I think, that I'd been mutilating myself in the name of method performance. I did nothing to kill the myth :-)

The wine might explain the laughter at the start of the track, have always loved how that song starts.

yeah the laugh is great as a segue into the guitar line.

I was listening to Strange Times yesterday on my ride back home and you better believe I cranked up "Caution" and "Swamp Thing" loudest. Good job ILX. "Caution" wins out over "Swamp Thing" because it's their most goth track, and second-most psychedelic after "View From A Hill," and it sounds like "Is It Any Wonder?" except it's way more creepy and hypnotic

and it has that awesome LOUD ENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!

it sounds like halloween and christmas at the same time