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Thatcher-off: Number eight
If you're just joining us, as you shelter from an inevitable Bank Holiday deluge, hello. Today, we're trying to decide if the charts were better before or after Thatcher, by using one of our patented poorly-conceived analytical methods. In this case, comparing the best sellers from the last months of the Callaghan and Thatcher premierships. So far, it's one-all.
Round three, then:
Number 8, April 1979 - Sex Pistols & Ten Pole Tudor - Silly Thing/Who Killed Bambi
The best thing about this late-period Pistols/Tudor split 7" was the angry letter written to Smash Hits complaining about the advert they ran for it. It was distressing to see a page which referred, obliquely, to a dead cartoon deer.
The record itself? Ed Pole's effort was alright, but clearly only added to give some extra heft to a Pistols track from a band who had run out not just of steam, but even the ability to pretend they were what they were supposed to be. Bambi wasn't the only cartoon character getting laid out by this one.
Number 8, November 1990: Belinda Carlisle - We Want The Same Thing
Ah, a woman with a successful career, having broken out from her group, desperately claiming that she wants the same thing as you. Did, I wonder, Thatcher sing this to the men in grey suits as they came in, one-by-one, to tell her they couldn't support her any more? Almost certainly not.
This is far from classic Carlisle - even a little by-rote - but still edges ahead of 1979. Pre-Thatcher 1 - Post-Thatcher 2.
1 comment:
I was only a young'un at the time but I'm almost certain that the "Who Killed Bambi" ad which featured in Smash Hits and reduced a generation of popkids to uncontrollable sobs featured a photo of a dead fawn with an arrow through its neck. I'd have to unpack all my boxes of stuff which have just arrived on the other side of the world to find the actual magazine and confirm this so maybe it would be better all round if you just take my word for it. I was right about the Fat Tulips after all.
On a more opinion based note, I reckon Silly Thing is a smashing little pop song and knocks Belinda's tune with its nasty 80's production into a cocked hat.
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