(Answers guitarist/vocalist Dave Fleminger discusses the genesis of another crucial track made more poignant by the years.)
The Answers, “Annual,” recorded at Ewing’s SoundTech studios, one of 13 songs recorded one day in February 1983.
I originally wrote this song in advance of receiving my high-school annual. Even before I got the book I didn’t want to read it … I was already trying to form a picture of how my connections with my friends and classmates would last over time and how I would view that period of my life in retrospect … And now in retrospect, I see this more as a way to disassociate rather than feel and experience the process.
“Out in the street” was my nod to the mods and to that joyous first song on the first Who album, which was a total fave … but I didn’t feel a part of the mods’ world either. Wouldn’t bring myself to either look through the past brightly (a future past in this case — complicated) or go out into the light and join my friends. So the lyrics portray a protagonist standing still, clinging to the idea that he’s remained the same while the world has changed around him.
- Read more about how high school shaped our scene.
A safe concept when you’re facing the future’s uncertainties … and things they do look awful cold, errr, tentative …
Dave Fleminger (guitar, vocals); Jeff Lowe (bass); and Dave Anderson (drums).
— David Fleminger
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I especially love that guitar pulloff where Dave effectively plays lead and rhythm at the same time.
I think the arpeggiated bass riff that Jeff plays in this song is pure genius.
It’s a wonderful, subtle major7 (?) melodic hook that softens the music behind the vocals and keeps the tune from sounding too stark..instead it becomes impressionist to my ears.
The only other way I can describe it is that it sounds like the future…
All these years later, I still can’t figure out how you guys came up with some of this stuff … Watching Dave play guitar is still the closest thing to a rock-‘n’-roll magic act I’ve ever been proximate to — there’s always something that totally poleaxes me!
This is great… I love the guitar part… even without vocals this would have made a great instrumental.
BTW, note that this is one of 13 songs the Answers recorded that day, a mere month after Jeff rejoined the band! (I think a lot of the material was written in that tiny window, too.) I’m trying to think how long it would take me to generate this much tight material. …
..If you don’t know me, no! I’m a gonna’ know you! 🙂
Hair Theater with “Rolling Soul” is followed by The Answers’ “Annual”? Wow.
It is amazing that there’s the influence and admiration for other, older locals like the Unknowns and Penetrators in this track -- and it is also so vital and unstudied. Unstudied? That word doesn’t suggest the precision of the three musician’s execution -- down to the brevity of the track. Not 4 bars longer than it need be.
Jeff was a fan of Joy Division, some of that is showing too -- in a way I didn’t get, until Fleminger ponted out the bass in his comment.
As usual, Jeremiah’s citation of Joy Division illuminates a facet of the work I never even considered …
Joy Division was a band beloved by Jeff, Kristin and other artists I admired deeply. At the time, the Ian Curtis death cult detracted a bit from my appreciation of the music. But listening to them again recently after a long hiatus from sad girls in mascara — they were a really rockin’ band! 🙂
Wow! Crazy song! Very cool, very good. The chorus really grabs me.
Matt --
Yeah. The Ian Curtis cult was a real turn-off for me, as well as the fixation on failure and emotional nadirs. Ian was epileptic, and fraught with other problems. People looking for their generation’s “heroic, doomed artist” in the mythical mold of Jim Morrison pin this on him. It’s hard to escape this, when approaching the band.
24-Hour Nonstop Party People gets what I think is the right mix of humor and exhilaration into this story, and less romantic doom. After all, it’s hard to be a figure of myth in Manchester!
I can listen to ’em now -- but not like I go outta my way. I think the best product of Joy Division is still the inspriation provided to Jeff’s playing. 🙂