Blow Monkeys the Masters
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Blow Monkeys The Masters | |||||
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Compilation album by The Blow Monkeys | |||||
Released | 1997 | ||||
Recorded | 1984-1990 | ||||
Genre | pop rock new wave funky dance ballad |
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Length | ? | ||||
Label | Eagle Series | ||||
Producer | Dr. Robert Adam Moseley Peter Wilson Michael Baker & The Axeman Stephen Hague Juan Atkins Paul Witts/Egor |
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Professional reviews | |||||
The Blow Monkeys chronology | |||||
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Blow Monkeys The Masters is a compilation from British new wave / dance band The Blow Monkeys, released in 1997, by Eagle label, for its well known "Eagle Series", presenting many UK groups' master collections. The greatest hits album, the second, following the more famous Choices - The Singles Collection, out in 1989, contains all their most popular singles (including all four singles taken from the band's best-selling album, the 1987 She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, which also features their best-selling single, British Number 5 hit "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way", and the most famous singles off their previous album, Animal Magic, that is "Wicked Ways", and The Blow Monkeys' very first hit single, "Digging Your Scene"), the three most popular singles from their debut album, the 1984 Limping for a Generation, the two previously unreleased tracks on the previous collection, that is the duets with Sylvia Tella (the big hit "Choice?", and the minor hit "Slaves No More"), and the very last single ever released by the band before they split up, "La Passionara", off the 1990 Springtime for the World. What is specially interesting on Blow Monkeys The Masters is the very hard to find cover version of "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield, soul music legend whom vocalist and leader Dr. Robert has always pointed to as his main musical inspiration; the song was originally a B-Side of the 1986 single, "Don't Be Scared of Me", one of the less known and one of the few not to have entered the charts. A similar fate was met by "It Pays to Belong", though a popular tune, taken from the 1988 album Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood. It was this latter work that originally included the only two songs here which never appeared in single format, "No Woman Is An Island" and "Squaresville", two stand-out tracks on the 1988 album, closing the Blow Monkeys The Masters compilation. That album also featured the second best-charting single from the band, "Wait", which got to Number 7, in early 1989, today considered as the initiator of the sub-genre later to be called UK Garage. Probably, the song does not feature here because originally only credited to Robert Howard (Dr. Robert's real name), in a duet with Chicago House diva, Kym Mazelle.
[edit] Track listing
- "Digging Your Scene" (from Animal Magic, 1986)
- "Wicked Ways" (from Animal Magic, 1986)
- "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way" (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987)
- "Out with Her" (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987)
- "Celebrate (The Day After You)" (with Curtis Mayfield) (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987)
- "Some Kind of Wonderful" (from She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter, 1987)
- "This Is Your Life" (1989, from Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood, 1988)
- "Choice?" (with Sylvia Tella) (from Choices - The Singles Collection, 1989)
- "Slaves No More" (with Sylvia Tella) (from Choices - The Singles Collection, 1989)
- "La Passionara" (from Springtime for the World, 1990)
- "Superfly" (from the B-Side to the "Don't be Scared of Me" single, 1986)
- "Atomic Lullaby" (from Limping for a Generation, 1984)
- "It Pays to Belong" (from Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood, 1988)
- "Man from Russia" (from Limping for a Generation, 1984)
- "Wildflower" (from Limping for a Generation, 1984)
- "Forbidden Fruit" (1985, from Animal Magic, 1986)
- "No Woman Is an Island" (from Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood, 1988)
- "Squareville" (from Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood, 1988)
[edit] Line Up
- Dr Robert: lyrics, vocals, guitar, piano
- Mick Anker: bass guitar
- Neville Henry: saxophone
- Tony Kiley: drums, percussion
[edit] External links
- Fencat Online: Dr. Robert's Official Website.