Mercury | UK | 2x7" | 1981 | WILL 22
Bill Nelson: Youth Of Nation On Fire UK 2×7″ [1981]
- Youth Of Nation On Fire
- Be My Dynamo
- Rooms With Brittle Views
- All My Wives Were Iron
This record is foremost in my mind today, so that means I must write about it. “Youth Of Nation On Fire” was not the first Bill Nelson record I bought. That would be the “Permanent Flame” 5×7″ boxed set of singles on Nelson’s own Cocteau Records imprint that appeared in early 1983. This was the second Bill Nelson record I bought shortly after that. The reason why Bill Nelson is sticking in my brainpan right now is because I just finished listening to the much-maligned “Warriors” album by Gary Numan and Bill Nelson produced and played on the album. The experience was so traumatic to Nelson, that he had his name taken off of the producer’s credits!
I find this amazing because, the first thing I remember thinking to myself when I first heard Bill Nelson in his PostPunk solo phase was “I’d like to hear this guy produce Gary Numan!” Numan was legendary for self-producing his by now overly introspective records and it seemed by the time of “I, Assassin” that some new blood might be good for the franchise. Shows what I know! Though Nelson’s e-bow guitar enhanced the Numan album, the dissolute, boneless synthfunk with slurred melodies and singing was beyond the help of any particular producer to upright the rapidly sinking S.S. Numan. Like an alcoholic, Numan would have to want to overcome his weaknesses. No producer could do it for him. Nelson went back to his prolific recording career singed and somewhat wiser, one hopes. His “Chimera” EP of 1983 managed to sound similar to the Numan album, only with much better material! Even with all of this Numan overhead floating around, “Youth Of Nation On Fire” is the record that’s sticking in my head today.
The A-side is a lurching, clockwork New Wave confection from Nelson’s kitsch-inspired “Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam” album of 1981. His brother Ian adds lively sax to the mix. Nelson, as ever, plays everything else. “By My Dynamo” is a ripping B-side with an insane trebly guitar solo from Nelson that’s so fast, it sounds like it might be the result of some Joe Meek-inspired half speed recording.
This single also came in a single disc variation, which lacked the last two songs. “Rooms With Brittle Views” had been previously released as an A-side the earlier year in Belgium on Les Disques Du Crépuscule. It would have sounded right at home on the “Quit Dreaming” album, but this was the sole release in the UK in this doublepack. Its melody is quite similar to “Be My Dynamo” but the pacing of the song is far more slow and methodical; echoing the A-side. “All My Wives Were Iron” is a brief, unsettling ballad; its rhythm loop awash in heavy reverb. These three B-sides would again surface on the Nelson B-side compilation “The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything,” several years later.
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Post-Punk Monk 
All are beautiful!
As much as I am a Bill Nelson fanatic, I don’t have a lot of Nelson singles, and am very thankful that he has seen fit over the years to compile them on full length albums and cd’s.
I always enjoy the musical journeys that his releases take the listener on. But I especially love his early 80’s pop work.
I’ve listened to Numan’s Warriors recently as well and I still stand by it. It isn’t in the same league as it’s predecessor’s but I don’t dislike the work. It certainly isn’t a consistent album, but the title track and Sister Surprise stand out. Nelson is all over I Am Render and it’s kind of obvious that had he been able to really control the marionette strings it would have been a different album.
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Echorich – You’re right. The two singles from “Warriors” are the best it has to offer and they are good Numan singles for sure. Most of the rest has melody stretched to the breaking point with rhythm predominating via bass. Most of the melody on the album comes from the overbearing sax! When listening to it the other day I realized just what bugged me about this album and it was the dearth of melody. I’d argue that melody is Numan’s strong suit. I’ve been listening to my three Asylum volumes and the Numa Years boxes lately and his greatest strength is his gift for melody. Much of “Telekon” breaks my heart it’s so melodious! “Dance” is his “Japan” album, and a stunner; particularly side one’s ambient suite. “I, Assassin” is “Dance” watered down with a Karn copycat filling in and “Warriors” is the dregs of the barrel. Numan is playing no melodies that I can hear on the album. He’s barely singing on it! In a flash of insight, I realized that I didn’t care too much for “Warriors” because it had too much in common with… [wait for it] The Grateful Dead! Like The Grateful Dead, the music is long, and somewhat formless and rambling; bereft of hooks. I prefer music with rigor to it and “Warriors” was just playing too fast and loose with the sauce I wanted delivered by Numan. “Berserker” was much better and a transition between his “Japan trilogy” and his PPG Wave Numa Years.
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I’ve take stock of what you’ve written about the lack of melody and I have to agree. Put against Dance and I.Assassin it does sound like what was left over rather than anything new. I also agree what is lacking on most of the tracks is a tight melody and hook. Numan, for all his experimentation and attempt at reconstructing, was great at writing a pop song from 78 – 82. Even the primarily instrumental nature of Pleasure Principle is filled with pop melody.
Warriors needed to happen though. The fact that Berserker is such a leap and is Numan re-energized has to be directly related to the let down of Warriors and the consequence of losing the confidence of Beggars Banquet. The Numa Yrs, 1.0, are simply untouchable to me. The Fury among my top 3 of his releases. I will willingly admit I have NO idea what he was thinking with the spray tan and white suite/red bow tie look though!
I still would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the studio with Nelson and Numan…I can just imagine two men on opposite corners of the room muttering to themselves in total disgust of how terribly wrong the whole project went.
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Echorich – I think the spray tan might have been left over from the “Wariors” cover sessions! Surely his worst image by far! On “The Fury” it was an attempt to make a statement about how he is an “entertainer.” As much as I love “The Fury,” “Strange Charm” vies with it with such vigor that I can’t pick an absolute favorite.
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Banal…
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I have this Bill Nelson single too,amongst many others. My vinyl Nelson section is HEAVING with goodies.I would kill to have heard BN’s mix of “Warriors”…
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I spent this evening after work listening to The Love That Whirls and Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam. Nelson was on fire at this point. He fully occupied a corner of The New Wave that allowed his creativity to really flow. He had put his ear to the ground and filter through those things he knew he could use/exploit/work with to make new music.
And listening to Quit…tonight, which opens with Banal, I think I may understand what Mr. Ron Kane was getting at in his comment above. This is Nelson “doing” Numan and is probably a good reference for what Nelson was probably looking to bring to Numan. Even Living In My Limousine has some melodic pattern akin to Numan.
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Echorich – What fun for you. I remember that when Nelson delivered the “Quit Dreaming” album to Mercury they balked at no single and asked him for something more banal and he responded with that. I felt that “Banal” was more of a glammy throwback to Be-Bop Deluxe but I hear you on “Limousine” and Numan! The lurching rhythms aside, the melody is comparable.
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