Pychedelic Furs: "All that money wants"

[revolt]

20 years ago the Psychedelic Furs released a single, "All that money wants", that has come to epitomize – at least for me – the idea of artistic rebirth as well as that of the independent spirit. Although they always recorded for a major label, the Furs were a new wave / post-punk band that aligned themselves with the more alternative side of rock music in the 80s. At least in their beginnings. But when success began to bless them they found themselves trapped in pop stardom, and they came to release albums with progressively higher budgets and increasingly devoid of edge and true personality, culminating in 1987's "Midnight to Midnight", both their highest point sales-wise and lowest point creatively. This seems to have troubled the band and they eventually came to the conclusion that success was really burning them down. "All that money wants" was both a recognition of the trappings of success and the start of a new creative phase for the Furs, one that would lead to albums "Book of Days" (1989, produced by Cure habitué Dave Allen) and specially "World Outside" (1991), possibly their best album ever.



Here are the song's lyrics:

City sky comes down like rain
Through all the alleys to the sea
I hear footsteps getting louder
Drowning in my sleep
Painted lies on painted lips
That promise heaven tastes like this
I don't believe that i believed in you
All that money wants

All that money wants
All that money wants

Sunday's child will fall through faith
I feel i'm falling out of grace
Grey city sky comes down like rain
To drown me in my sleep
People fade and i forget you
I hear footsteps see their faces
But it all means nothing to me now

All that money wants
All that money wants
All that money wants

City sky comes down like rain
Through all the alleys to the sea
I hear her footsteps getting louder
I'm drowning in my sleep
Painted lies on broken lips
That promise heaven tastes like this
Came home pushed and full of pins

Sunday's child will fall through faith
I feel i'm falling out of grace
I see the sky comes down like rain
To drown me in my sleep
People fade and i forget you
I hear footsteps icy faces
But it all means nothing to me
All that money wants

All that money wants
All that money wants
All that money wants




And here is the video:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--2150510

[Janko]

As with any other band that broke up - it's the lack of commercial success that leads to the end of the band, not the lack of "the edge" or "creativity".

Furs broke up in 1991, after 3 years without a charting hit single.

When they calculated that the band could make some money again, they reunited as a touring band in 2000...

All in all, I never believe in art too much. But I do believe in money!



PS

I hope I don't have to mention the fact that The Psychedelic Furs remain one of my favorite bands...

[revolt]

As with any other band that broke up - it's the lack of commercial success that leads to the end of the band, not the lack of "the edge" or "creativity".

Furs broke up in 1991, after 3 years without a charting hit single.

Well, you're right there. The Furs last 2 albums went by unnoticed by the majority of the public, which could very well have been reason enough for them to break up and try more lucrative activities. However, by 1997 the Furs seemed to be ending not literally as a band but as group that was worthwhile listening for artistic reasons. And that was what I tried to emphasise: there was a time when the kind of success the band had was too straining for the people in the group, who found themselves recording albums that they themselves did not care much for ("Midnight to Midnight"). And since at their core, however much sucess they might have had sometimes, The FURS WERE NOT a commercial band, they had to find an artistic reason to go on. Which they did. They could very well have done what the label wanted them to do, record "Pretty in Pink part 3" or "Heartbreak Beat part 2" or something along those lines, but they chose not to. And that's something we should respect and admire, isn't it?

[japanesebaby]

All in all, I never believe in art too much. But I do believe in money!

oh yes, even georg philipp telemann knew that money is the "greatest art" when he wrote the song "the greatest art is to make money" some 400 years ago, in the 17th century:

die grösste kunst if geld zu machen,
aufs geld kommt endlich alles an.
wer dieses handwerk nicht verstehet,
und mit der weisheit betteln gehet,
der ist wahrhaftig schlimm daran.


or, perhaps (just perhaps) he was just being sarcastic...

it's the lack of commercial success that leads to the end of the band, not the lack of "the edge" or "creativity".

no. the fact that bands break up for such reasons only proves that people in those bands were making music for all the wrong reasons - and therefore didn't really even deserve to be heard - or to be successful either....
(because those people could have just as well been office workers or factory workers or sweeping the floors or cleaning toilets out there somewhere - or if they are a bit smarter they could become corporate executives etc. IF all they really wanted was only money...)

[revolt]

All in all, I never believe in art too much. But I do believe in money!

oh yes, even georg philipp telemann knew that money is the "greatest art" when he wrote the song "the greatest art is to make money" some 400 years ago, in the 17th century:

die grösste kunst if geld zu machen,
aufs geld kommt endlich alles an.
wer dieses handwerk nicht verstehet,
und mit der weisheit betteln gehet,
der ist wahrhaftig schlimm daran.


or, perhaps (just perhaps) he was just being sarcastic...

Well, he was at least being German... Can you translate those verses? I can understand a little, but not all: the greatest art is making money / from money comes all endlessly (?) / who this hand work doesn't understand... (I'm lost about the rest of it)

no. the fact that bands break up for such reasons only proves that people in those bands were making music for all the wrong reasons - and therefore didn't really even deserve to be heard - or to be successful either....
(because those people could have just as well been office workers or factory workers or sweeping the floors or cleaning toilets out there somewhere - or if they are a bit smarter they could become corporate executives etc. IF all they really wanted was only money...)

Well, you know, Frank Zappa once proclaimed "We're only in it for the money".  But even for the greedy cynical rock "artists" there's more than just money in all that: fame, sex, drugs...