“Forever Now” by the
Psychedelic Furs is one of my favorite albums from the 80s. From 1982, this was the third album from the Furs, who emerged out of UK punk (the urban legend is that they couldn’t play their instruments when they first formed) and mined an original form of pop with vast success in the 80s. Their first two albums, 1980’s
self-titled debut and 1981’s
“Talk Talk Talk” evinced a steady maturing and mastering of an early form of post-punk with strong pop yearnings. Songs like “Imitation of Christ” and “We Love You” from the first album and “Dumb Waiters”, “Into You Like Train”, and “Pretty in Pink” (the latter singlehandedly inspiring a
movie of the same title) reflect a punk sophistication, replete with nihilism and sardonic social criticism, as well as a growing sensibility toward listenability and pop hooks. The sound, which continued to be honed into a unique pop creation through the next two albums (“Forever Now” and
“Mirror Moves”) until it crashed and burned with the still-good (for their fans) but overproduced, overhyped, and critically panned
“Midnight to Midnight”, was in the same approximate vein as
The Jesus and Mary Chain ,
Flesh For Lulu, and the rest of the
Ramones-inspired post-punkers of the time, perhaps with a bit more of the standard
Roxy Music and
Bowie influences that abounded in punk’s aftermath. What set the Furs apart most from these other bands was their brilliant songwriting, which (through four albums) was easily able to keep the attention and admiration of critics, fans, and musicians from the alternative/indie music world while at the same time able to launch pop success on an international scale, at least temporarily (in the case of
“Love My Way” and
“The Ghost in You”), that was only really overshadowed by the mega-acts of the day like
the Police,
U2, and
Duran Duran.
“Forever Now” brought in producer
Todd Rundgren, who was by that time legendary for his psychedelic and progressive work as a solo artist and with
Utopia and was in the process of embarking on an influential career as a producer. This work led lead singer
Richard Butler and the band to their first, and still greatest, smash hit, “Love My Way”, which is probably, and deservedly so, one of the most loved 80s pop songs.
Virtually all of the other tracks on “Forever Now” also repay many listenings.
“Run and Run” is one of the more hooky and upbeat of them (clicking on the link leads you to the video, which depicts them in their full and jauntily novel popularity, likely from the stellar afterglow of “Love My Way”.
Here are the
lyrics :
go on get tarzan
go on get jane
go on get superman
go on get lois lane
hamburger mary
she's got a gun
nothing goes on all the time
and she thinks it's fun
come on run run run run away
come on run away come on
run run run run away
come on run away
doorbell plays beethoven
i open the door
yesterday's there
and i fall on the floor
practicing makeup
she laughs at us all
hey look at you
she's seen it all before
come on run run run run away
come on run away come on
run run run run away
come on run away come on
run run run run away come on
run away come on
run run run run away
come on run away
i'm having this party
so come now please
it's an open house girl
but no games with keys
no jokes in blank humor
no lines in blank verse
it couldn't get much worse
there's heroes and villains
ma b. and her boys
doing the twist
dancing with toys
i've been waiting all night
for someone like you
but you'll have to do
i've been waiting all night
Here, we find ourselves in the same ambivalent psychoemotional territory as
the Cars . (Interestingly, Rundgren has also been part of
the New Cars, a sans
Ric Ocasek (and the late
Ben Orr) reformation of the Cars.) The Furs' sound and vibe influenced many of us faced with the daunting task of coming of age in the alienation-inducing early 80s.
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