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

I saw Stranger Than Fiction/Time For a Change on GTK (a 10 minute Rock TV show on the ABC). Next day, at school, everyone was talking about them. I first saw them live supporting Ayer's Rock at Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne and they blew the headlining act off the stage.

 

“Amy (Darling)” is one of my favorite Mental Notes songs. Sure, it’s a bit overstuffed, but that almost seems like a nod to the sudden mood changes infants experience. There’s a joy and lightness of spirit to this song that stands in marked contrast to the previous track on the album. 4.1/5 for me.

 

Kind of a long story here. Finnmusic had come and gone from my life at different stages before finally taking up permanent residence.

The first music I ever heard by a Finn was Split Enz' True Colours back in the fall of 1980. I grew up in Los Angeles and was in my first year of high school then. We used to have parties at different kids' houses where everyone would bring a couple of albums to throw on the turntable. True Colours was a regular feature at these parties. Although the album wasn't a huge seller in the US, I think it made (or nearly made) the Top 40, and I would guess that half of those sales were in southern California, thanks to the then-new FM "new wave" radio station KROQ. "I Got You" was in regular KROQ rotation, and that was the station that all of the "cool kids" listened to (the stoners listened to KLOS or KMET, where Led Zeppelin, Queen, Journey, and Boston were on regular play). I remember liking most of the songs on True Colours, but I never went out and bought a copy of the album myself.

So, I sort of forgot about Split Enz - was listening to other music, crushing on girls, doing my other high school stuff. Then, in my first two years at university in Santa Barbara, I heard "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" on a regular basis on the college radio station, as well as some of the older songs I remembered from True Colours. I remembered thinking "these guys are still really good", but, again, never bought one of their albums. Then, a couple of years later, the Crowded House album blew up big here (one of the very few times something good became popular in the US first before it did so anywhere else; too bad it wasn't sustained) and it was fairly well known that two of the members had previously been in Split Enz, at least radio DJs regularly made the connection between the voice on "I Got You" and the one on "Don't Dream It's Over".

I remember really liking the songs I heard from CH, but when my roommate bought the LP, I never had a need to. I remember hearing "Better Be Home Soon" on the radio a few times and seeing the video, but when the second CH album didn't become huge here in the US, I never sought it out. Still, my now former roommate was telling me how great Temple of Low Men was and that I should go get it. I should have listened to him, but didn't follow through.

Finally, a few years later, I had just relocated to Madison, Wisconsin for graduate work at the university there. There was a great FM radio station there (which only lasted another year) at the time. One chilly (for an LA boy) night that fall (1991), I was driving back home from a late seminar and this song came on the radio:

It's easy when you don't try
Going on first impressions
Man in a cage has made his confession
Now you've seen me at my worst
And it won't be the last time I'm down there
I want you to know I feel completely at ease
Read me like a book
That's fallen down between your knees
Please, let me have my way with you

I loved the melody and the harmonies, and those lyrics seemed relevant to my new relationship with my girlfriend: differing personalities and emotional needs, but amazing sex! When the DJ announced the preceding song as being by Crowded House, I was sold. I was in one of those "get 12 CDs for a penny" clubs at the time, being a poor graduate student, and I was now obligated to buy something like three CDs at full price. Woodface became my first club purchase. I had remembered "Chocolate Cake" being the first single, but hadn't really heard it too much. It may have taken me a full year or so before I realized that Woodface was a masterpiece. It certainly didn't click at first listen, although I very much liked a few of the songs. Over the next few years, I picked up the first two CH albums, as well as Together Alone upon its US release (frustratingly four months after it had been released everywhere else in the world). My first exposure to the wonder of live CH was via a Q magazine sampler that came to us in the mail; the live version of "Weather With You" from the UK "Four Seasons in One Day" single b-side, taped at the Town & Country Club in London. I loved that live version (which I think is still the best one I've heard), so a group of us made the 4+ hour drive to Minneapolis in March of 1994 to see CH live on the TA tour, just two weeks prior to Paul Hester's departure. Incredible show, and I was now a fan for life. I also had a housemate who was from Dublin, where CH had become belatedly hugely popular in the early 1990s, and he played Finn songs on his guitar all of the time around the house, and we would all join in singing. So CH music was a staple of my daily life in the first half of the 1990s.

In the later 90s, however, I would go through Finn-less periods where I wouldn't listen that regularly. I bought two of Tim's solo albums (self-titled and B&A) and the Finn album, as well as Neil's first two solo albums. I was crushed when CH called it a day in 1996, but loved Neil's solo work. After a stint in San Francisco, I relocated to Denver in 2002, where I've been ever since. My wife and I saw that same Finn Brothers show in Boulder in 2004, and then the reformulated CH here in 2007 and 2010. I went through a period in the mid 2010s where I didn't keep up with Finn music, but just over the past year have fully immersed myself back into it, picking up all of the CH deluxe editions and all of Tim's more recent solo work, plus filling in the various gaps in my Enz and CH collections (all of the rare b-sides, singles, etc., and finally getting all of those Frenzy and Luton mixes sorted out!).

By the way, that Boulder radio station (KBCO) is still flourishing and they still do play a lot of Finn music. There's also a new public radio station out of Greeley, Colorado that has a far more adventurous playlist, focusing about 2/3 on new music and 1/3 on classics, but the classics they play are very eclectic and well selected. I've heard both "I Got You" and "History Never Repeats" played over the past month, so the love for Finnmusic is alive and well in Colorado. I unfortunately missed Neil's last shows here with Liam in 2016 (I think?), but did just see him here with the Mac a couple of weeks ago.

[TL/DR? I like Finn Brothers music.]

 

You moved to Denver right before I left. (in 2003.) I visited in 2016 and I stayed in Boulder, a week before Neil and LIam played -- I saw the advertising. I was bummed ,that would have made a perfect vacation in the States even more perfect.

My wife is a big fan, though at times I wish she'd listen to other music! She only listens to music I've turned her onto and it's pretty much all Finn. For awhile I couldn't listen to them, because that's all she would play. If Neil ever comes to this country, we'll be there. His last "European tour" was really just The UK, Ireland and a couple of places in France.

A little Bruce Springsteen. She just does Youtube, though she is not a collector or connoisseur like most of us here are.

 

Votes for "Amy (DArling)"

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Today's song is "So Long For Now".


A Tim-Finn/Phil Judd original.

 

This, like "Amy (Darling)" again seems more akin to their '74 and early '75 stuff. Also, on "Amy (Darling")I think there is a lightness of touch missing in the production that i think somewhat detracts from the song. Still, it's idea after idea, as if they had an infinite amount of them, which maybe, given their long careers, they did.

The lyrics are quite a bit lighter on this song (and the last one) than on nearly any Enz song previously discussed. While I wouldn't call it quite a "straightforward love song", it's kind of reaching for that, I suppose, though there's this social anxiety theme again and of course the music is nervous as all hell.

2.9/5, I guess.

Watching Tim Finn perform this (on another Youtube video), miming the song is kind of painful. His "comic" nervous performance made him come across as a lobotomized clown. But I get that he needed that weird persona to perform at all, due to his stage fright, and it's ultimately part of their act -- I imagine it worked much better in a live setting than on a video.

 

Can imagine they were at odds with the bar band scene of the time. Cold Chisel, Angels etc. Not many 'out there' Australian bands in the 70's except Skyhooks

 

They always played to full houses. They had all these conditions like the pub supplying a concert tuned grand piano and the support band not using their PA system but they actually got away with it. The main trouble they had was when they were a support band (for cutting edge artists like Leo Sayer) they'd get booed off the stage. They also weren't selling any records.

 

The clavinet really makes the song. It's sort of their version of Superstition

 

I really like "So Long For Now".....at least up until the speed change right before the end! This is another one of my favorites on Mental Notes; it just has a great sound, filled with unexpected little touches that come and go. 4.0 for me.

 

A solid 3 for this. It reminds me of Sparks at times.

 

Can’t believe KBCO is anywhere near as good as it was in the late ‘80s-early ‘90s.....
I saw the Finns in Boulder in 2004 and Neil solo in Englewood in 2005.

 

Michael Gudinski's Mushroom label signed Skyhooks who were seen as an avant garde band and they became pop stars with the introduction of colour television. Gudinski thought he could do the same with Split Enz so booked them to play between Skyhooks and Sherbet (Australia's top teeny girl band) at the Sydney Opera House. When the audience saw the Enz's hair, makeup and clothing and heard what they were playing they started booing and crying and demanded they leave the stage. In fact the reaction was so bad the band felt they had to leave Sydney and moved to Melbourne (a town with a more alternative scene).

 

Our votes for "So Long For Now"

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Today's song is "Stranger than Fiction."


This song was a Finn/Judd original with Tim singing lead, but Phil doing the odd spoken-word sililoquy in the beginning.

I believe that I have read that the notes that Eddie Rayner is playing on the synthesizer were actually written by Miles Golding, the violinist who had played on Split Enz's first single.

This song is part of a two-part medley with "Time For a Change.". For the purposes of this thread, I have split the songs into two (with the rationale that I've heard many recordings of "Time for a Change" played alone in live settings. ) And while musically they do sound great together, they are distinct songs.

 

We're back to the sprawling prog epics with "Stranger than Fiction". To me this, especially when coupled with "Time for a Change" is a masterpiece and together these two songs are just awesome. The odd spoken word bit is a bit jarring and over-the top, and the version on Second Thoughts is probably tighter and more "studio-polished" and has Rob Gillies' sublime horn playing.

But there's an almost live feel to this version that really takes my breath away and I genuinely can't decide which one I like better.The synth hook is really genuinely catchy and Chunn's bass, as always, is out of this world.

Phil Judd really was working through some issues, I'd say, but I'm glad he did it on record.

There's what appears to be a genuinely live version on Youtube from AussieTV that is worth checking out. It features annoying video effects and way too much reverb on Tim's voice, but it's pretty cool to watch anyway. There's a bit in there that features a sort of flourish on the flute and I don't know who is playing that: because Wilkinson is out in that version, but Gillies doesn't appear to be a part of the proceedings. It could be pre-recorded, I guess, but is it possible that Tim was playing flute as early as this?

I give this a 4.6/5!

 

Here's the video I saw on GTK before the Mental Notes album was even released. 5/5

There were 2 other songs recorded at the time Sweet Talkin Spoons Song and The Woman Who Loves you with were segued together with a closeup of Noel playing the spoons, Strangely neither were on the album they were promoting.

 

Sherbet I can see but hard to imagine a Skyhooks fan being put off by the Enz's look

 

I know “Stranger Than Fiction” is considered an Enz classic, but I’ve never been able to warm up to it fully. It has an engaging tune in places, but none of the parts really linger long enough for me to fully enjoy hearing them. It feels like this track could have been longer than 7 minutes at one point. The lyrics seem very personal and even angry in places. Perhaps that’s just a misinterpretation on my part. I appreciate the song more than like it, I suppose. 3.5 for me.

 

Tim Finn’s laugh at the beginning of the line, “Singing to the birds” was in response to an ad-libbed verse by Phil Judd. Phil later replaced his part with the proper words.

The off-the-cuff verse, all about their road manager and producer, “Cowboy Dave” Russell, still exists on a cassette of rough mixes. Dave prefers to leave it out of the public ear.

 

"Stranger Than Fiction" is actually pretty good. It has that hypnotizing synthesizer riff throughout the song and has a more epic rather than manic tone to it which better suits its place at the start of Side 2. The lyrics and instrumentation combine to give a pretty good feeling of isolation / loneliness. I can see where someone might think the song could be fleshed out more but combined with "Time for a Change" it does make for a dramatic 1-2 punch. 4.54 / 5

 

Man - that was way out there. Ahead of the curve.

 

Good lord, ain’t it the truth.

I have so many various releases by the brothers in one form or another that this thread will force me to try to sort them all out.

I first made contact with them when I bought the laser etched True Colours album, but I’ll try to follow along with the thread once the first Crowded House album makes its appearance in the thread because that’s when my interest really kicked in.

I got to see Crowded House live twice also, so I’ll be following the thread with interest .

 

My first memories of the Brothers Finn came from the popularity of Crowded House's debut album back in 86-87. I remember seeing the videos for "World Where You Live", "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong" getting a lot of airtime on VH1 as well as on the radio (there was no escaping "Don't Dream It's Over" back in 87). The first time I heard them live was on the King Biscuit Flower Hour and I remember thinking just how great they were in concert. I guess "Temple of Low Men" wasn't that popular in the States but "Better Be Home Soon" certainly got some airplay. By the time "Woodface" came out I feel like most of America had moved on but I do recall being mesmerized by an hour long acoustic? run through of the album (new and improved with the brothers Finn!) that aired on Muchmusic Canada in '91 (It may have been a re-branding of their MTV Unplugged performance but looking on YouTube it doesn't look right)... I ended up buying import copies of "Together Alone" / "Recurring Dream" & "Afterglow" (can't remember if the first one was available in the USA at the time or not but the other two had bonus discs in UK/AUS) but what really elevated my love for the band were hunting down all the amazing live b-sides found on a plethora of CD singles.

I didn't get into Tim Finn until after discovering ALT's "Altitute" in 1995 with Tim, Andy White and Liam O'Maonlai (I was a HUGE Hothouse Flowers fan at the time so this was a must get). As far as I can tell it got zero airplay or promotion (I don't even remember how I found out about it; probably the internet) but I loved it just the same. I remember ordering the ALT live "Bootleg" album from Andy White's website back in the day continuing a theme of great live music.

It's a little more nebulous as to how I got into Split Enz but anything Finn related was popular on WXRT in Chicago and I'm sure I'd heard some of their hits there in the past. I think I finally got around to properly checking them out after hearing Pearl Jam's live covers of "I Got You" and "History Never Repeats" and finding a copy of the live album "Anniversary" which resulted in getting the double live "The Living Enz", various studio albums and eventually the Gold & Silver box sets.

By the time Neil Finn's first solo album "Try Whistling This" came out I was busy buying up anything Finn / CH / SE related so the fact that it became so popular was a pleasant surprise. I could go on but I think you get the picture.