Happy 35th Anniversary to Fine Young Cannibals’ eponymous debut album Fine Young Cannibals, originally released December 10, 1985.
The self-titled album from Fine Young Cannibals is one of those debut albums with so much promise that it practically leaped off the vinyl. It also has the misfortune of living in the shadow of their second LP The Raw & The Cooked (1989), which brought them global fame.
Nevertheless, the band came about under not-so-great circumstances. In 1983, bassist David Steele and guitarist Andy Cox of the English Beat discovered through a phone call from the band's accountant that their two lead singers, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger, had left the popular band to form a new group, General Public. Instead of trying to resurrect the English Beat, Steele and Cox came up with the idea to form their own band.
They listened to over 500 tapes, not finding what they were looking for in a frontman until they remembered the guy from a ska band from Hull called Akrylykz that supported the English Beat on their British tour. Even though he was the sax player who occasionally sang vocals, there was something about him that stuck with them. They found Roland Gift performing with an R&B/Soul group called Bones and he was singing lead and had that something extra that they needed, so Steele and Cox brought him on board. They came up with the name Fine Young Cannibals from a 1960 film called All The Fine Young Cannibals, starring Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood.
Initially, Fine Young Cannibals had trouble getting signed to a record deal, but a TV appearance changed all of that. The band was filmed performing "Johnny Come Home" on a show called The Tune, a Friday night program which showcased unknown bands. In a 1989 article in The Kentucky New Era, Cox stated, "The following Monday, record companies were calling us for a contract."
Upon its release, Fine Young Cannibals was critically acclaimed, but commercially ignored in the States. The lead single "Johnny Come Home" reached #8 in the UK, but was virtually unheard in the US unless you listened to WLIR in New York or KROQ in Los Angeles. I heard it for the first time on the former.
What appealed to me was Gift’s unique vocal style, which was compared to Otis Redding, by some critics. Frankly, I never understood the comparison because he sounded like no other vocalist I had heard before. There were elements of Redding in his voice, but he managed to soften them. For about a week, I kept hearing the song on WLIR, and then I just thought, ‘fuck it, I'm going to Tower Records to buy this album.’ The chorus of "Johnny Come Home" just stayed with me and made me sing along in my head (“Johnny, we're sorry / Won't you come on home? / We worry / Won't you come on? / What is wrong in my life that I must get drunk every night? / Johnny, we're sorry”).
When I got home and played the album for the first time, I thought that it captured the spirit of an English Beat album without sounding like one of their albums. The common thread between the two groups is their attacks on Thatcherism. "Blue" makes the case against it clearly, backed by some ‘60s soul and a killer vocal by Gift (“Government has got me wrong, I’m mad about that / And it makes me feel like I don’t belong, I’m mad about that / It’s making life a misery, you would have taken the liberty / Government has got me wrong, I’m mad about that
Good god almighty / There’s no denying life / Would be better if I never ever had to live with you / Blue - it’s a color so cruel”).
If I had a bingo card in 1985, the bass and guitar player from the English Beat finding a new singer and making a better record than General Public would not be on it. Their self-titled debut checks off so many boxes on my list of what constitutes a great album. It gets you out of your seat when you need to, but throws in a ballad like "Funny How Love Is" to chill you out a bit. It didn't hurt to have Saxa from the English Beat playing sax added in along with Gift humming the “Theme from The Odd Couple” to close out the song.
The highlight of the album for me is the incredible cover of "Suspicious Minds," featuring backing vocals from Jimmy Sommerville (Bronski Beat, The Communards). Written and originally recorded by Mark James but later made famous by Elvis Presley, this version is 3:58 of absolute perfection and Gift and Sommerville's contrasting voices mix so well that it is my preferred version of the song.
Fine Young Cannibals’ debut album ranks up there with some of the finest ever recorded. Give this overlooked album several spins.
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