Echo & the Bunnymen is the fifth studio album by the British post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen, and the last with founder member Ian McCulloch and drummer Pete de Freitas. The album was produced by Laurie Latham who recorded the album in Germany, Belgium, London and Liverpool after an aborted attempted at recording the album without de Freitas and with producer Gil Norton. With Latham being an exacting producer and singer Ian McCulloch receiving star treatment and drinking heavily, the recording of the album was more difficult than the band had initially hoped. The album made more use of keyboards than their previous albums, which had been string heavy.
2003 digitally remastered reissue with 7 extra bonus tracks. Echo & the Bunnymen are one of rock's great contributions. Fronted by Ian McCulloch, the Bunnymen deliver consistently excellent recordings, and this self-named 1987 release is no exception. The lyrics alternate between the surreal and delightfully depressing. Always, though, are they delivered in McCulloch's inimitable, heart-achingly earnest style. For the surreal, try: I dream of my days as a desert farmer, Living my life on the fat of the sand. Or for the delightfully depressing, try: All the ghosts have gathered round me, Come to tell me of a change. In the darkness that surrounds me, I am falling down again. And then there's the Bunnymen's music. It's endearingly complex; the songs sound fresh and new with repeated plays. Will Sergeant's guitar work, in particular, is outstanding. "Lips Like Sugar" is the best of the bunch, but all are good. All in Your Mind is full of good old-fashioned angst (I pray, and nothing happens/Jesus, it's all in my mind), and has a killer tune to boot, as does the somewhat Doorsish Bedbugs and Ballyhoo. Lips like Sugar, Bombers Bay, and Blue Blue Ocean are also standouts. All in all, if you like the Bunnymen you should get this album.
1. "The Game" - 3:50 2. "Over You" - 4:01 3. "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo" - 3:28 4. "All In Your Mind" - 4:32 5. "Bombers Day" - 4:22 6. "Lips Like Sugar" - 4:52 7. "Lost and Found" - 3:37 8. "New Direction" - 4:45 9. "Blue Blue Ocean" - 5:08 10. "Satellite" - 3:04 11. "All My Life" - 4:07
Bonus Tracks
12. "Jimmy Brown (Early version of Bring On The Dancing Horses)" - 4:07 * 13. "Hole In The Holy" - 4:44 14. "Soul Kitchen" - 3:56 15. "The Game (Acoustic Demo)" - 3:57 16. "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo (Original Version)" - 3:41 17. "Over Your Shoulder" - 4:10 18. "Bring on The Dancing Horses (Extended Mix)" - 5:50
Everyone was running scared
Someone talked and someone heard
The twisted end to all the words
That I'd hung on to
One more time inside the dream
Where nothing has to be this real
And I don't ever have to feel
What I don't want to
You once said I thought too much
But never thought enough to touch
Eyes so sad
Evergreen
The saddest eyes I've ever seen
Lost all reason and belonging
Can't do right for doing wrong and
I don't like the way I'm feeling
Need your faith healing healing healing
Faith and healing...
Pick me up and hold me there
Leave me hanging in the air
'Til I promise I will care
The way I used to
Diamonds in the pool tonight
Reminds me of what nights were like
Before I fell into a life
That I got used to
The shining sea, the silver sky
A perfect world before my eyes
Don't be scared, don't you cry
If all the world goes passing by
Lost all reason and belonging
Can't do right for doing wrong and
I don't like the way I'm feeling
Need your faith, faith and healing
Faith and healing...
You once said I thought too much
But never thought enough to touch
TOAD (Lyrics)
Feeling strange and unsure
In the place where I'm standing
Feeling stained and impure
And I'm frightened of landing
Tie a flag on my head
Take a walk on a moonbeam
Just forget what she said
She doesn't know what she means
Five fingers and four divisions
That was all I ever counted
Love provided with all provisions
That was all I ever wanted
No escape from the truth
No return from the deep
Just a failure in faith
And a hunch in a heap
Stop the light coming in
Tell the day not to break
Let the night draw me in
And the walls not to shake
Call out the fire engines
Let's go down in a blaze of glory
Turn all the hosepipes on and
Bring in the hanging jury
Hang 'em high
1. "Honeydrip (Album Version)" - 4:39 2. "Proud to Fall (Acoustic Version)" - 4:44 3. "Vibor Blue (Acoustic Version)" - 3:14 4. "The Ground Below" - 2:46
HONEY DRIP (LYRICS)
It's in my mind
In my body and soul
Stuck in the I can't understand
They're selling me views
Wave my flagpole
Don't need my eyes
Tie my hands
Drip honeydrip, drip your innocence
Drip, honey, drip through the night
Drip honeydrip, drip your inner sense
'Cos I'm feeling guilty tonight
Madness comes and then madness goes
Another warship in the night
Know your god, hope Heaven knows
Your wrong from his right
And drip honeydrip, drip your innocence
Drip over me through the night
Drip, honey, drip, drip your inner sense
'Cos I'm feeling guilty tonight
It's Guy Fawlkes night, pistols at dawn
Let's walk upon the misty moors
If luck runs out I'll go and buy some more
Chance for the chancers
Fate for the poor
It's in my mind, in my body and soul
It's in my mind, body and soul...
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
No you can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes
You just might find
That it's in your mind
Body and soul
It's in my mind
Body and soul...
Body and soul...
"Proud to Fall" is the first single released by Ian McCulloch from his debut solo album Candleland in 1989. The song reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US and number fifty-four on the UK Singles Chart.
I remember buying the cassette tape album during my college days at Adamson University with Norman at Masagana Department Store. The album "The Best New Wave Music Nouveau 3" and recalling this as the first track. Also include James - What For, Cactus World News - The Bridge, Three O' Clock - On Paper, Soup Dragon - Soft As Your Face, The Railway Children - Every Beat of the Heart... Sounds like good old 89.1 DMZ - Wave 180 every Sunday...
Proud To Fall
1989
IAN McCULLOCH Ian McCulloch(v),Ray Shulman(b,k),Boris Williams(d)
Video:
"Proud To Fall" - Live at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral January 22, 2011
1. "Proud To Fall" - 3:40 2. "Pots of Gold" – 4:20 3. "The Dead End" – 4:45 4. "Proud To Fall (Long Night's Journey Mix)" – 7:10
nWu Bonus
"Proud to Fall (Acousic Version)" (From Honey Drip Single 1992)
7-inch single (YZ417)
1. "Proud to Fall" – 3:40
2. "Pots of Gold" – 4:20
12-inch single (YZ417T)
1. "Proud To Fall (Long Night's Journey Mix)" – 7:10
2. "Pots of Gold" – 4:20
3. "The Dead End" – 4:45
12-inch single (YZ417TX)
1. "Proud to Fall" (album version) – 3:57
2. "Everything Is Real"
3. "The Circle Game
PROUD TO FALL (LYRICS)
here you come again acting like a saviour
there you go again talking like a stranger
you said we all must learn to face what we're becoming
and then i saw you in the distance off and running
but from start to finish i was proud to fall
and I fell so deep within it i got lost inside it all
inside it all, inside it all
looks like rain again feels like it's rained forever
can't remember when don't remember whether
i ever really told you who i was it must have been because
because, because
from start to finish i was proud to fall
and I fell so deep within it, i got lost inside it all
inside it all, inside it all
i fell between the bruises and the red curtain call
i prayed you'd light the fuses and we'd burn and torch it all
long day's journey into, long night's journey out
knee-deep, so deep within you, i kept and keep without
you said we all must learn to face what we're becoming
and then i saw you in the mirror off and running
Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant shaped Echo & the Bunnymen's dreamy post-punk into something timeless. Their 1997 reincarnation sparked new life for the band, and McCulloch and Sergeant have maintained their strong appeal of passionate rock & roll. On a live setting, they're charming and their first proper live album, Live in Liverpool, proves that. The duo have a weird musical madness together, and they're comfortable with it. The two night stint captured August 2001 at Paul McCartney's Liverpool of Performing Arts, McCulloch's romantic brood and Sergeant's riveting guitar work are at its best. It's a merry collection of cult classics ("Seven Seas," "The Killing Moon," "Never Stop") and new material ("SuperMellow Man," "Eternity Turns"), but a homage to the band itself. The psychedelic bombast of "All That Jazz" is slick and savvy. Songs from the Crocodiles album take on that tone, but with a signature lust and a sneaky intensity. "Over the Wall" brings that side of the band to the forefront. In a live setting, it's eerie and alluring. "Rescue" and "The Cutter" soar with lush guitar riffs and McCulloch's warm vocals illustrate something primitive. "Nothing Lasts Forever," from 1997's Evergreen, is a sweet sign of age, but it's also graceful. McCulloch and Sergeant are fond of what Echo & the Bunnymen have become. Two nights churning out fan favorites and band mainstays in their hometown makes it much sweeter.
Live In Liverpool '02
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN
DVD Ripped
[Enjoy]
Track Listing: 1. "Rescue" 2. "Lips Like Sugar" 3. "King of Kings" 4. "Never Stop" 5. "Bing On The Dancing Horses" 6. "Seven Seas" 7. "Buried Alive" 8. "My Kingdom" 9. "All That Jazz" 10. "An Etemity Turns" 11. "The Back Of Love" 12. "The Killing Moon" 13. "The Cutter" 14. "Altamont" 15. "Flowers" 16. "Villiers Terrace" 17. "Over The Wall" 18. "Nothing Lasts Forever" 19. "Silver" 20. "Angels And Devils" 21. "Ocean Rain"
Bonus live tracks: 22. "Crocodiles" 23. "Zimbo (All My Colours)"
Bonus tracks: 24. "It's Alright" 25. "Make Me Shine"
More Songs to Learn and Sing is a compilation album by Echo & the Bunnymen. Released September 11, 2006 (see 2006 in music), it is an update to the 1985 singles collection Songs to Learn & Sing. A number of tracks have been added to cover the band's career up until 2005's Siberia.
More Songs to Learn and Sing
2006
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN Ian McCulloch(v),Will Sergeant(g),Les Pattinson(b),Pete de Freitas(d)
1. "The Cutter" 2. "The Back of Love" 3. "The Killing Moon" 4. "Seven Seas" 5. "Never Stop" 6. "Rescue" 7. "I Want to Be There (When You Come)" 8. "Don't Let It Get You Down" 9. "A Promise" 10. "Silver" 11. "People Are Strange" 12. "Do it Clean" 13. "The Game" 14. "Rust" 15. "Lips Like Sugar" 16. "Nothing Lasts Forever" 17. "Bring On The Dancing Horses" 18. "Hang On To A Dream" 19. "It's Alright" 20. "Stormy Weather"
Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk group, formed in Liverpool in 1978. Their original lineup consisted of vocalistIan McCulloch, guitaristWill Sergeant and bass playerLes Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer, and their debut album, Crocodiles, met with critical acclaim and made the UK Top 20. Their second album, Heaven Up Here (1981), again found favour with the critics and reached number 10 in the UK Album chart. The band's cult status was followed by mainstream success in the mid-1980s, as they scored a UK Top 10 hit with "The Cutter", and the attendant album, Porcupine (1983), reached number 2 in the UK. Their next release, Ocean Rain (1984), continued the band's UK chart success, and has since been regarded as their landmark release, spawning the hit singles "The Killing Moon", "Silver" and "Seven Seas". One more studio album, Echo & the Bunnymen (1987), was released before McCulloch left the band to pursue a solo career in 1988. The following year, de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident, and the band re-emerged with a new line-up. Original members Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson were joined by Noel Burke as lead singer, Damon Reece on drums and Jake Brockman on keyboards. This new incarnation of the band released Reverberation in 1990, but the disappointing critical and commercial reaction it received culminated with a complete split in 1992.
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After working together as Electrafixion, McCulloch and Sergeant regrouped with Pattinson in 1997 and returned as Echo & the Bunnymen with the UK Top 10 hit "Nothing Lasts Forever". An album of new material, Evergreen, was greeted enthusiastically by critics and the band made a successful return to the live arena. Though Pattinson left the group for a second time, McCulloch and Sergeant have continued to issue new material as Echo & the Bunnymen, including the albums What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (1999), Flowers (2001) and Siberia (2005). The band are scheduled to release a new album, The Fountain, in 2009.
Early years
Ian McCulloch began his career in 1977, as one third of the Crucial Three, a bedroom band which also featured Julian Cope and Pete Wylie. When Wylie left, McCulloch and Cope formed the short-lived A Shallow Madness with drummer Dave Pickett and organist Paul Simpson, during which time such songs as "Read It In Books", "Robert Mitchum", "You Think It's Love" and "Spacehopper" were written by the pair. When Cope sacked McCulloch from the band, A Shallow Madness changed their name to The Teardrop Explodes, and McCulloch joined forces with guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson to form Echo & the Bunnymen. This early incarnation of the band featured a drum machine, assumed by many to be "Echo", though this has been refuted by the band. In the 1982 book Liverpool Explodes!, Will Sergeant explained the origin of the band's name:
We had this mate who kept suggesting all these names like The Daz Men or Glisserol and the Fan Extractors. Echo and the Bunnymen was one of them. I thought it was just as stupid as the rest.
In November 1978, Echo & the Bunnymen made their debut at Liverpool's Eric's Club, appearing as the opening act for The Teardrop Explodes.
Echo & the Bunnymen's debut single "The Pictures on My Wall" was released on Bill Drummond's Zoo Records in May 1979, the B-side being the McCulloch/Cope collaboration "Read It in Books" (also recorded by The Teardrop Explodes approximately six months later as the B-side of their final Zoo Records single "Treason"). McCulloch has subsequently denied that Cope had any involvement with the writing of this song on more than one occasion.
By the time of their debut album, 1980's Crocodiles, the drum machine had been replaced by Trinidad-born Pete de Freitas. The lead single, "Rescue", climbed to UK #62 and the album broke into the Top 20 at #17, following critical acclaim. Their next album, Heaven Up Here (1981), was an even bigger critical and commercial success, reaching the UK Top Ten (#10), although a single lifted from the album, "A Promise", could only reach UK #49.
Mainstream success
In June 1982, the Bunnymen achieved their first significant UK hit single with "The Back of Love" (#19). This was followed in early 1983 with their first Top 10, the more radio-friendly "The Cutter", which climbed to #8. The parent album, Porcupine, hit #2 in the album chart. Now firmly established as a chart act, further hits followed with a one-off single, "Never Stop" (#15), and "The Killing Moon", a preview from the new album featuring a dramatic McCulloch vocal, which became the band's second UK Top 10 single at #9.
Following a PR campaign which proclaimed it "the greatest album ever made",1984's Ocean Rain reached #4, and today is widely regarded as the band's masterpiece. Single extracts "Silver" (UK #30) and "Seven Seas" (UK #16) consolidated the album's continued commercial success. In the same year, McCulloch had a minor solo hit with his cover version of "September Song".
Echo & the Bunnymen toured Scandinavia in April 1985, performing cover versions of songs from Television, the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads and The Doors. Recordings from the tour emerged as the semi-bootleg On Strike. Unfortunately for the band, Ocean Rain proved to be a difficult album to follow up, and they could only re-emerge in 1985 with a single, "Bring On the Dancing Horses" (UK #21), and a compilation album, Songs to Learn & Sing, which made #6 in the UK album chart. However, all was not well in the Bunnymen camp, and Pete de Freitas left the band. The next (self-titled) studio album was recorded with ex–ABC drummer David Palmer, but when de Freitas returned in 1986, it was largely re-recorded.[9] Eventually released in mid-1987, the record sold well (UK #4), and was a small American hit, their only LP to have significant sales there.
In the United States, the band's best-known songs were "The Killing Moon" (from Ocean Rain) and "Lips Like Sugar" (from Echo & the Bunnymen), although "Bring On the Dancing Horses" is well-known as one of the songs on the soundtrack to the John Hughes film Pretty in Pink. They also contributed a cover version of The Doors song "People Are Strange" to The Lost Boys soundtrack.
1988 split
McCulloch quit the band in 1988 and de Freitas was killed in a motorcycle accident in mid-1989. After former Colenso Parade singer Oscar turned down an offer to take over from McCulloch, Pattinson and Sergeant recruited ex-St. Vitus Dance vocalist Noel Burke and drummer Damon Reece. Keyboardist Jake Brockman (a touring member of the band for several years previously, and a contributor to the 1987 album) was promoted to full member, and the five-piece recorded Reverberation in 1990. This did not generate much excitement among fans or critics, and the group was abandoned in 1992. McCulloch, meanwhile, had continued his solo career, with the albums Candleland in 1989 and Mysterio in 1992.
Reformation
Echo and the Bunnymen at Paradiso, Amsterdam, in 2005.
In 1994 McCulloch and Sergeant began working together again under the name Electrafixion; in 1997 Pattinson rejoined the duo, meaning the three surviving members of the original Bunnymen lineup were now working together again. Rather than continue as Electrafixion, the trio resurrected the Echo & the Bunnymen name and released the album Evergreen (1997), which reached the UK Top 10.
Immediately prior to the release of the band's next album, What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (1999), Les Pattinson quit to take care of his mother. McCulloch and Sergeant have continued to tour and record as Echo & the Bunnymen, touring repeatedly and releasing the albums Flowers (2001) and Siberia (2005). The group's current touring incarnation comprises McCulloch and Sergeant along with Stephen Brennan (bass), Gordy Goudie (guitar), Nicholas Kilroe (drums) and Ceri James (keyboards).
In 2002 the group received the Q Inspiration award. The award is for inspiring "new generations of musicians, songs and music lovers in general." The band were said to be worthy winners as they have done much to promote the Mersey music scene. In a later interview for Magnet magazine, McCulloch said "It validates everything that we've tried to achieve—cool, great timeless music. It's not like an inspiration award affecting the past, it's affecting the current music."
On 11 September 2006, Echo & the Bunnymen released an updated version of their 1985 Songs to Learn and Sing compilation. Now re-titled More Songs to Learn and Sing, this new compilation was issued in two versions, a 17-track single CD and a 20-track version with a DVD featuring 8 videos from their career.
In March 2007, the Bunnymen announced that they had re-signed to their original record label, Warner, and were also working on a new album. The band were also said to be planning a live DVD, entitled "Dancing Horses", which also contained interviews with the band. This was released in May 2007, on Snapper/SPV.
On 11 January 2008 Ian McCulloch was interviewed on BBC Breakfast at the start of Liverpool 08. He was asked about new Bunnymen material and he revealed that a new album would coincide with their gig at the Royal Albert Hall in September. He went on to say that the album was, "The best one we've made, apart from Ocean Rain."
In a 20 April 2008 interview with the Sunday Mail Ian McCulloch announced The Fountain as the title of the new Echo & the Bunnyman album with producer John McLaughlin, which was originally due to be released in 2008 but has now been put back to mid-2009. The first single will be "Think I Need It Too" which was scheduled to be released in August 2008, but didn't materialise.
