Stranger than Fiction, Larger Than Life: the Finn Brothers song-by-song discussion thread

The nigh-indecipherable lyrics are one of the things that make me like it so much, too - a band that's dead broke and uncommercial taking shots at the Stones and Steely Dan? It is definitely VERY punk rock.

So yeah, the guy with the OPIV avatar thinks the punky thing is cool. Oooooh, edgy. I know.

 

The Bon Marche version was the only one around at the time - I bought the single. It got zero airplay.

 

I was wondering if it made a splash or not.

 

Today, we'll start our discussion of Split Enz' 4th album, Frenzy.

After recording the Rootin' Tootin' Luton Tapes, Split Enz, Split Enz went crawling back to their former manager and renewed their relationship with Australian record label Mushroom Records.

They recorded a one-off single ("I See Red") in the summer of that year with a very young engineer/producer David Tickle and, later, in November and December, with Mushroom backing them, they recorded Frenzy, recording new versions of many of the RTLT demos which we haven't discussed yet as templates. The album was produced by Mallory Earl, who had produced a few semi-big names in his time.

By all reports Mallory Earl could not be bothered to produce the band all that much (Im sensing a common theme: perhaps the problem wasn't solely in these producers?), and much of the production was mainly done by the band (especially Eddie Rayner) and fledgling engineer Hugh Padgham.

The "I See Red" single was released in December of 1978 and became an modest hit in Australia hitting number 15.

The album Frenzy was then released in February of 1979. The first 10 000 copies were pressed without "I See Red" but subsequent pressings included it as the lead off track. The track list was this:


1. I See Red (Tim Finn)
2 "Give It a Whirl" (T Finn, Neil Finn
3 "Master Plan"(T. Finn)
4 "Famous People" (T. Finn)
5 "Hermit McDermitt"(T. Finn)
6 "Stuff and Nonsense" (T. Finn)
7 "Marooned" (Eddie Rayner)

Side Two

1 "Frenzy" (T. Finn, Rayner)
2 "The Roughest, Toughest Game in the World" (T. Finn)
3 "She Got Body She Got Soul"(T. Finn)
4 "Betty" (T. Finn)
5 "Abu Dhabi" (T. Finn, Rayner)
6 "Mind Over Matter" (T. Finn, N. Finn)


The album was their first album to go gold in Australia, selling over 35 000 units. But the band was dissatisfied with the sound, due to a bad mix and/or the fact that there were technical problems with the equipment used while recording.

Later, in 1981, the album was released in North America and Europe with a revised track list. The tracks had been remixed by Eddie Rayner...and in some cases the Luton versions were used due to the problems with the Frenzy masters. The revised tracklist was thus:


1 I See Red
2 "Give It a Whirl" 1981 remix
3 "Master Plan" 1981 remix
4 "Betty" 1981 remix
5 "Frenzy" 1981 remix
6 "Stuff and Nonsense" 1981 remix with spoken dedication
7 "Marooned" 1981 remix (Rayner)
8 "Hermit McDermitt" Luton version
9 "Holy Smoke" (N. Finn)
10 "Semi-Detached"
11 "Carried Away" (N. Finn)
12 "She Got Body, She Got Soul" 1981 remix
13 "Mind Over Matter" Luton version (T. Finn, N. Finn)
14 "Livin' It Up" (N. Griggs)


The bolded songs above have already been discussed.


Finally, in 2006, the album was re-mixed, remastered and re-released again by Eddie Rayner with this re-revised tracklist:


1 Give It a Whirl
2 I See Red
3 "Famous People"
4 "Hermit McDermitt"
5 "Stuff and Nonsense"
6 "Mind Over Matter"
7 "Marooned"
8 "Master Plan"
9 "She Got Body She Got Soul"
10 "The Roughest, Toughest Game in the World"
11 "Abu Dhabi" [Instrumental] (T. Finn, E. Rayner)
12 "Betty"
13 "Frenzy" (T. Finn, E. Rayner)
14 "Semi Detached"
15 "Carried Away"
16 "Horse to Water"


For the purposes of this discussion we will be discussing the original track list with "I See Red" leading off the album. All versions of the songs on all versions of the album can be compared and contrasted: the Luton versions, the original Frenzy versions, the 1981 remixes and the 2006 remixes. I lack the 1981 version of the album: at one point I had a needle-drop of it, but I seem to have lost it for some reason. But that's OK.

And the following bonus tracks will also be discussed after the album is finished.

"Horse to Water" (I don't have a credit for this: Tim Finn sings it and I assume wrote it)
"Things" (T. Finn, N.Finn)
"They Won't Let My Girlfriend Talk To Me" (T. Finn)

 

Today's song is "I See Red", written by Tim Finn, with lead vocals by Tim. It was produced and engineered by David Tickle.


"I See Red" was released in November 1978 and hit #15 on the Australian pop charts and #43 on the NZ chart. It has become a staple of both Split Enz and Tim Finn solo sets. Officially released live versons exist on The Living Enz, Anniversary/Extravagenza, Together In Concert, Seven Worlds Collide and iTunes Live from Windsor Castle. There is also an alternate studio version from the fan-club only release of the Rootin' Tootin' Luton Tapes, as well as one from the Peel Sessions and a rerecorded solo version on the rare disc of Tim Finn Rarities/demos/live

 

The Peel Sessions:

 

I See Red is a classic. In Australia it came out on Mushroom International. The only other band I remember seeing on that label was City Boy.



Possibly influenced by this XTC song

 

"I See Red" is a perfect mesh of theatrical pop and punk energy.

Ostensibly a song about jealously, as always there's a removed intellectual element here. It's not really about jealousy, it's more like a little comedy about an angry impotent man. Just as Next Exit presented a loser contemplating suicide in a deliberately comic light, "I See Red" presents another one, a darkly ineffectual would-be lover or ex-lover psychotically shaking his fist at the sight of his "baby walkin' down the street". It's not even that she's walking with someone else. It's simply the fact that she is walking around, free. "How can someone wicked walk round free?" demands the protagonist, nearly frothing at the mouth. It's not really about jealousy, it's more like a little comic one act-play about an angry impotent man with little control over his life. There is a sense of threat and violence about the man for all his impotence, but given that the song is essentially comic, the threat doesn't really connect with the listener in the same way it sometimes did in Phil Judd's dramatic portrayals of madness.

Musically, the band is firing on pretty much all cylinders: a raging, attacking guitar by Neil Finn, the always-active never-busy piano and rock organ of Eddie Rayner lending colour and backdrop, an oddly dissonant piano solo giving way to a cathartic guitar workout, the rhythm section of Crombie/Green/Griggs in hyperdrive all the while. There's also some nice two part harmony in the second verse from the Finn brothers, always a treat, and the whole band shouts along in the chorus. But the major star for me is Tim Finn's incredibly savage yet comic vocal performance. Frenzied, indeed.

David Tickle's less-is-more instinct presents what sounds like an almost completely different band, certainly in comparison with Geoff Emerick's work on Dizrhythmia (though, as we've heard on the RTLT's, they were going in this direction themselves.) But the difference between the last song they had released ("Jamboree") and this one could not be much greater.

It's a late-seventies classic and a general hook-fest. 5/5

 

“I See Red” was composed as a slow song. Split Enz rehearsals would often include a rediculously fast take on a song just for fun, and on this song it stuck.

 

When the single came out a lot of people compared it to XTC. Lots of Australian bands sped up their set list overnight after hearing XTC (The Reels are the most obvious)

 

There are some similarities in both bands histories: both started as arty prog-rockers in the early seventies (though Split Enz was recording first) and developed into New Wave bands.

"I See Red" was recorded before XTC's Red was released, though "Red" was released a month earlier. The songs are clearly very different. But there is some kind of energy in common, including the drumming and including Andy Partridge's crazed vocal performance, though it is not the technical display of chops that Tim's performance is; and the endings of both songs are very similar; but I tend to think that they were both tapping into similar veins of what was going on.

Very interesting. It is also possible that members either band saw the other band in concert and lifted. It happens all the time. It also might be a result of Tickle's influence.

 

Split Enz probably were influenced by XTC in the late ‘70s, but also by many other punk/post punk/pop bands.

Sham 69 were recording at Startling Studios in mid 1978 and Split Enz used the band’s off days to record “I See Red”, plus an early never-released version of “Next Exit.” Sham 69 turned up during the latter song’s session and started producing it!

 

Yeah, 5/5 for this and I gained a new appreciation of it recently.

Listening to it through headphones out of necessity really highlighted Eddie Rayner's contribution and now that (the part that starts at 1:00) is probably my favourite thing about the song. Like a young Rick Wakeman.

 

Yes, I know that moment. There is glorious work going on there, but it's all rather understated and subtle.

 

5/5 - It's a classic. Even if other things that are "stronger" as songs don't score as high, part of the greatness of this tune is that it was just the right thing at just the right time.

 

I don't consider "I See Red" to be a proper part of the Frenzy album. It was conceived as a non-LP single and was released in late 1978 a few months prior to Frenzy. My version of Frenzy omits it and starts with "Give It A Whirl", which works better as the intended album opener.

The single version of "I See Red" (same as the version that was added to later versions of Frenzy, although given a modest remix for the 2006 CD reissue) is a classic, of course. I can't add much to what others have already said about it. The sonic debt to Elvis Costello's contemporary work (This Year's Model) seems obvious, although I can't recall if this was recorded prior to the release of that album or not. Clearly many UK-based artists were drinking from the same water sources at the time. The ending of the track has always been abrupt, as if the tape ran out or the power was cut. It's interesting to compare the single version (produced by David Tickle and recorded at Ringo Starr's studio) to the earlier Luton session version, which was included on the fan-club second disc of The Rootin' Tootin' Luton Tapes. The Luton recording is significantly faster, as if they are just about to fall apart. It doesn't have the keyboard touches that the single take does and isn't as polished.

The "I See Red" single was backed with two Luton tracks: "Message Boy", which we've already discussed, and "Hermit McDermitt", which was later re-recorded for Frenzy.

 

I agree, it does stick out on Frenzy, though I think it makes a fine intro to an album, otherwise, musically.

But "Give It A While" introduces the Frenzy theme of positive action affecting reality and is a more logical opener.

So what kind of playlist do you put "I See Red" on? A playlist comprised mostly of B-sides and standalone singles, Luton stuff or what?

 

Can't say I'm a great fan of I See Red although I understand it's appeal to others. A bit too raucous for my tastes and the tune doesn't really stand up too the onslaught. 3/5.

As for the album, the original mix really is poor but, as a collection of songs it is, perhaps, my favourite Enz album. I would love to hear the 1981 remix but would dearly love to hear the 2006 remix in its unmastered form without the horrific limiting.

 

I See Red is wonderful. Great lyrics. Tremendous energy. Terrific vocal from Tim. Outstanding performance from the entire band.

5/5.

 

The 2006 CD uses the same mix as all previous issues. I’ve heard a cassette of rough mixes from the Startling sessions in which an alternative mix of “I See Red” features more synth, and the track fades out rather than cutting abruptly, but this has never been released.

 

I have a European greatest hits CD with a version that fades out (annoyingly) , but otherwise it’s the same. “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” also fades out on that one, before the jam.

 

“I See Red”, along with “Six Months In A Leaky Boat”, is often cited by parents as their children’s favourite to dance and sing along to. Easy chorus to remember and full of energy.

 

I think it works fine in any Split Enz playlist. The transition from the sudden ending to whatever follows it is always going to be a bit awkward. It just feels weird to me leading off Frenzy.

Oh, my rating for it is 4.6/5.

 

Boy it sure sounds different, but the differences are much more subtle than on the other tracks. Still, this surprises me. I guess the mastering makes it sound so different?

 

Yes, it’s the mastering alone.