Yes, they were pretty much post punk from the beginning, and I think it’s why the Harvest albums have endured. Pink Flag is never really stuck in its era, and still sounds vital and contemporary today. I think Chairs Missing and 154 are better albums, but Pink Flag is certainly one of the great debut albums. It’s been so long since I last played it, I must dig it out again.
Wire is one of my all-time favorite bands, and I'm a nut about it all - 70s, 80s, 00s, etc. Side projects from Dome to Githead to Hox. Pink Flag - an obvious play on Pink Floyd, who they secretly loved (and to whose label they signed). Look where it went after this! "Strange" is the key. It's the only track that truly hints at their future. I think the narrative here is going to be boring. 75% of people will back out of the thread after Pink Flag, 20% more will back out after 154, and most of the remaining 5% will wait patiently for Send. I would love to see passionate, comprehensive analysis of The Ideal Copy or The First Letter (and would love to see those reissued someday) but I'm going to be disappointed.
Yes, I want to focus mainly on all of the studio albums, Pink Flag through Silver/Lead. If you want to discuss any of the singles and EPs, as well as the live, remix and compilation albums, please do so during the corresponding eras. We'll see how well that goes. I'm thinking about hitting Chairs Missing tomorrow night. Does three days seem like a fair about of time for one album? We've got a lot of ground to cover. I'm afraid if I open it up to the solo projects it'll just sprawl on for months. Plus, fights are already breaking out and some posters are getting cranky and impatient.
Steely Dan???!!! Newman denied being influenced by Syd Barratt, like Tom Verlaine claiming he'd never heard Richard Thompson you might think.
It's so obvious, it's here, it's there It's not just the colour It must be more, at Least seventeen-threescore This is seventy-seven, nearly heaven It's black, white, and pink, just think There's more to come Hum-hum, hum-hum It's so obvious Well it's alright, listen Can't wait for seventy-eight God those RPM, can't wait for them Don't just watch, hours happen Get in there kid and snap them
Well, Graham Lewis has admitted the early Floyd influence, and Newman has expressed his love for Steely Dan, although he didn't exactly call them an influence, but it seems patent to me.
Timely thread - I'm just re-reading "Read and Burn - a book about Wire." Been into Wire since day one, see merits in all their assorted endeavors. When Pink Flag came out I was working in a record shop that was not afraid to buck the trend and give some new stuff a play or two in the shop. During the day, Pink Flag scared a lot of people away, but in the evenings we got several "what's that?" followed by sales. So, given the pics above my post I guess I ought tom dig out pics of the pre-record DAT of Ideal Copy that I had?
Are you enjoying the book? I found it a bit of a slog, and it left me feeling more ambivalent about the band than when I started it! Luckily that feeling passed...
Yeah, I couldn't get through it. I understand that the dry, clipped rhythm of the writing was designed to evoke the musical language and philosophy of the band, but it didn't draw me in.
Personally, I listen to later periods of the band more often than the first three Harvest "classics." I'm not sure I'll be able to contribute passionate and comprehensive analysis to any of it, but I'll be putting in my 2-cents.
I really enjoyed Read and Burn; didn't find it a slog at all. If I had one complaint it's that I wished the author had covered at least some of the solo and/or non-Wire output; at least albums that are germane to the subject, like Newman's A-Z and Not To (since both contain lots of ideas that began in Wire, and both involved half of the band [or 3/5 if you include Mike Thorne]). But I still quite liked it.
