Bill Drummond - "The Man" (LP 1985 - Creation)

Este disco lo pinchaba mucho el Albi. Atención no sólo a "The King of Joy" -el single- sino también a la spectoriana "I Want That Girl".

Bill Drummond - The Man5 stars

HE USED to be a deep sea trawlerman, used to manage the Bunnymen and the Teardrops and had the dubious honour of playing with Holly Johnson in seminal Liverpool compbo, Big In Japan. And now as he turns 33 and a third, he releases his testimony, ‘The Man’, a long playing record. When managing the Bunnymen, Drummond had a fascination with ley lines that led him to send the band on a tour that began in the Scottish Isles and ended in Iceland. Perhaps it’s this familiarity with the supernatural that allows him to release his album to coincide with the resurgence of Julian Cope and thus attract much publicity with the track ‘Julian Cope Is Dead’. This composition combines Drummond’s plea for Copey to commit suicide as a publicity stunt with the Bagpuss theme, and is every bit as funny as it sounds. Not that ‘The Man’ should be regarded as some adjunct to the career of everybody’s favourite Tamworth sex god. This album, which crosses the eccentricities of Ivor Cutler with the rock ‘n’ roll fascinations of Kim Fowley, is a touching if idiosyncratic biographical statement. Recorded with The Triffids and Voice Of The Beehive in a village hall in his native Galloway, ‘The Man’ veers between Scottish jigs and Phil Spectorisms. ‘I Want That Girl’ is a breathless tale of love forgotten, ‘I’m The King Of Joy’ a ridiculously optimistic account of his lust for life: “I’ve a heart like a Viking, and faith like a child/ Have you ever heard the song ‘Born To Be Wild’?” And the lynchpin, ‘I Believe In Rock & Roll’, is an eloquent exposition on Bill’s primary fascination. ‘The Man’ is a work of humble genius: the best kind.

ROY WILKINSON (Sounds - November 1985)

"Bill's my pal, but I thought his record would be crap. He gave a cassette to me and I didn't play it for ages. Then I put it on when I was I the bath one night, I nearly drowned I laughed for about half an hour. It s the work of a complete nutter"

ALAN MCGEE