Marillion – Brief Encounter/Clutching At Straws
“So if you want my address it’s number one at the end of the bar. Where I sit with the broken angels, Clutching at straws and nursing our scars”
Following the release of Misplaced Childhood the band jauntily set out on a world tour that lasted from May 1985 through July 1986. They travelled around the world including trips through Europe, UK, Japan, the USA and Canada, playing close to 150 shows. Part of the tour saw them opening for RUSH on their North American Power Windows Tour. To align with the band being selected for that tour, EMI released an EP called Brief Encounter (title from the Misplaced Childhood track). The release was comprised of five songs, three which were live and two studio tracks, both of which were b-sides and are highly revered by Marillion fans. Lady Nina was the flip side of Kayleigh. It is the first evidence of electronic drums on one of their songs. It is a highly infectious track that was even released as a single in the US with Heart Of Lothian on the B-Side and I LOVE it. The other non-album track is Freaks which was the flipside of the Lavender single. I don’t know if it was intentional or not but this song has been appropriated by fans to the point that they now often refer to themselves as “Freaks” – the chorus of the song being “all the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me”. It was as if the band wrote the perfect song for a bunch of prog head music fans who grew up feeling on the outside and found their inside with this band’s music. It’s an awesome song worthy of inclusion on a proper album, which It would a year later. One unrelated anecdote about records. If you have ever had a record collection and listened to a song that had a skip in a specific location that made the record get stuck in the groove or skip a line, it is something that becomes engrained in your psyche. You don’t necessarily remember it until you hear the song and immediately recognize the glitch. It is like an analog memory prompt. The version of Freaks I used to have would get stuck in a loop right before the line “Now the linen sheets seem so very far away” and when I hear it I’m transported back in time 35 years to my adolescence. Anyone else ever experience that?
The other three songs on Brief Encounter are live tracks. Kayleigh is a fairly pedestrian live take from the Hammersmith Odeon in January of 1986. Nothing particularly exciting about it. The other two songs, though labelled as coming from the same show, are likely taken from the same 1984 show that the Real To Reel album was recorded at. Fugazi and Script For A Jester’s Tear, the title tracks from the previous two albums are a nice addition to have as they are both iconic early songs and are great live renditions. As a whole the EP is a bit of a mishmash, good in what it contains, but totally lacking cohesion. Also the cover is the only release by the band during the Fish years that didn’t feature cover art by Mark Wilkinson.
The Misplaced Tour kept the band on the road for almost 18 months after which EMI pushed to capitalized on the success the band was enjoying. Chris Kimsey was brought back in to help navigate the recording of the follow up album Clutching At Straws. It was a time that saw the band at a breaking point after too long on the road, frayed relations and too much overindulgence. The album was recorded in England and released in June of 1987. Although not a concept album it does have a loose concept. The first three studio albums were a trifecta about failed relationships – not completely but sort of. Script is kind of like romanticised brooding at lost love, Fugazi is the anger that follows and Misplaced is hitting the bottom, acceptance and recovery. Clutching at straws is more a story of the strain of touring combined with addiction/alcoholism through the eyes of a character named Torch who was loosely based on Fish. The artwork for all the album and associated singles was again done by Mark Wilkinson but the imagery has shifted to a more stylized mix of real life and airbrushed photos with the jester imagery only marginally present. Eerily the painting of the person on the artwork for the Sugar Mice single looks shockingly similar to singer Steve Hogarth, who would replace Fish several years later. I’ve added a photo for comparison. It’s a conspiracy I tell ya!
I’m sure most fans couldn’t imagine the band bettering the triumph that was Misplaced Childhood. Personally my journey through the band started in 1985 with Script followed by Misplaced Childhood then Real To Reel and finally Fugazi all in one year. Clutching at Straws was the first album they released since I converted from Atheism to Marillionism. When the album was released I was at summer camp a few hours north of Toronto and I remember buying the cassette on my first day off in Huntsville Ontario. I played the shit out of that tape and I still have it to this day. I recall it taking me some time to figure out how much I liked the new material and not being immediately taken with it but over time it has grown to become my favourite album the band has ever released…and they have released 17 albums to date – 18 if you count Happiness Is The Road as two records…19 if you count Less Is More from 2009. What that means is I’ve got a lot of writing ahead of me…which is a bit daunting….but I’ll do my best.
The first introduction to the album came in the form of the advance single Incommunicado in May of 1987. It received a small amount of FM radio play here in Toronto on Q107. It is a whirling dervish of a song with a driving beat, swirling keyboards and pumping rhythm. In comparison to Misplaced Childhood it appeared a bit lighter than what might have been expected, but it was definitely a confident powerhouse of a song with great dual guitar harmonic lines. Prop power rock is what I’d call it. Lyrically it seemed to present the idea of desire for fame, perhaps tongue in cheek but not overtly obvious as such. Without any context to the concept of the album it was difficult to see its relevance topically, other than maybe a desire for fame. Once the album was released the context became clear. The distinctive change in tempo and approach is perhaps what led to me wondering how this album would stack against their work to date. Maybe it was just a bit too up? Once the album was released, the fact that this is actually the most upbeat and lightest song on the record would squash any concerns. The song did very will in the UK peaking at number 6 in the charts. A top ten position which the band would not find themselves in for another 17 years. It did well in the EU as well and even hit 24 on the US charts. Critically the album actually received very positive praise and for good reason.
The album begins with a trifecta of awesomeness in the form of the songs Hotel Hobbies, Warm Wet Circles and That Time Of The Night. Three very distinctive songs that all merge together and really work best as a group as each in isolation feels incomplete….like listening to Dark Side Of The Moon on shuffle and not having Any Colour You Like follow Us And Them but not quite as bad as trying to separate Brain Damage and Eclipse. What I’m saying is it is doable but not preferrable. Hotel Hobbies begins almost inaudibly before the rhythm kicks in via Mark’s keyboard. “Hotel Hobbies padding dawn’s hollow corridors…Bell boys checking out the hookers in the bar”. Rothery’s guitar adds an ominous effect as the mood deepens till the drums come crashing in at 1:30 into the song. The guitars sear and soar as Fish sets the stage for the story with lines like “frantic as a cardiograph scratching out the lines, a fever of confession a catalog of crime, in happy hour. Do you cry in happy hour? Do you hide in happy hour? The pilgrimage to happy hour”. It is a blazing opening to an album that immediately creates a sense of tension and energy via Rothery’s wild solo.
The song exists as gently as it entered, as it morphs into the song Warm Wet Circles, which was the third single taken from the album hitting number 22 in the UK charts. This is in my top 10 songs by the band ever. It is a gorgeous piece of music full of sadness and melancholy with my absolute favourite lyrics Fish has ever written. I sang this song at Brutopia in Montreal in 2011 and the lyrics roll of the tongue. They are absolutely poetic and masterfully written, ebbing and flowing with imagery. It is the kind of song that makes you want to sing along to, just because it feels so good, with words and a melody that have been deftly crafted. I never do this but I’m adding the entire lyrics to the song just because they deserve to be read if you don’t know what an amazing lyricist can be capable of.
On promenades where drunks propose to lonely arcade mannequins
Where ceremonies pause at the jeweler’s shop display
Feigning casual silence in strained romantic interludes
Till they commit themselves to the muted journey home
And the pool player rests on another cue
Last night’s hero picking up his dues
A honeymoon gambled on a ricochet
She’s staring at the brochures at the holidays
Chalking up a name in your hometown
Standing all your mates to another round
Laughing at the world till the barman wipes away the warm wet circles
The warm wet circles
I saw teenage girls like gaudy moths
A classroom’s shabby butterflies
Flirt in the glow of stranded telephone boxes
Planning white lace weddings from smeared hearts and token proclamations
Rolled from stolen lipsticks across the razored webs of glass
Sharing cigarettes with experience with her giggling jealous confidantes
She faithfully traces his name with quick bitten fingernails
Through the tears of condensation that’ll cry through the night
As the glancing headlights of the last bus kiss adolescence goodbye
In a warm wet circle
Like a mothers kiss on your first broken heart, a warm wet circle
Like a bullet hole in Central Park, a warm wet circle
And I’ll always surrender to the warm wet circles
She nervously undressed in the dancing beams of the Fidra lighthouse
Giving it all away before it’s too late
She’ll let a lovers tongue move in a warm wet circle
Giving it all away and showing no shame
She’ll take a mother’s kiss on her first broken heart a warm wet circle
She’ll realize that she played her part in a warm wet circle
It was a wedding ring
Destined to be found in a cheap hotel
Lost in a kitchen sink or thrown in a wishing well
The song progresses from a beautiful melodic song in the first two thirds, into a searing finale with more amazing soloing and vocals which take on a distinctly angrier tone. It is an astounding merging of a perfect song musically and lyrically.
The final song of the opening trio is That Time Of The Night which is bridged by a truly lovely piano/bass/keyboard/guitar solo section. It is a beautiful song set to a wonderful keyboard motif. The verses are delicate and desperate while the choruses are ragingly angry and earnest. The balance of these sections is hypnotic and elevating in the feeling it evokes. Fish sings “So if you ask me how do I feel inside. I could honestly tell you we’ve been taken on a very long ride. And if my owners let me have some free time some day. With all good intentions I’d probably run away clutching the short straw.” In the context of the band and what they were going through at the time this lyric is like a cry for help and a warning at the same time. The result of which in real life would transpire a year later in an almost premonitory way. The song ends by returning to the melody of Warm Wet Circles but with an added dose of anger both musically and vocally. It brings 14 minutes of intensely affecting music to a conclusion with the addition of vocals by Tessa Niles who has sung on everything form Pop Goes The World by Men Without Hats to Synchronicity by The Police. A formidable talent and a great subtle addition to the song. Check out the trio of songs here https://youtu.be/iIPP2uwiA9M.
Going Under follows That Time Of The Night and is a song that was listed as a bonus track on the CD when first released. It was the flipside of the Incommunicado single where it appeared in a longer form with an added guitar solo. Those who listened to the album when it came out have differing opinions on its inclusion on the album. If you listened on cassette or vinyl it wasn’t part of the record. If you had the CD which I bought very shortly after the cassette, it was a natural part of the album. It is a short song, less than three minutes, mostly supported by plucked electric guitar and keyboards. I love this song and always consider it part of the proper record regardless of whether it was intended to be or not. It does not feel like it doesn’t belong and lyrically it is fully tied to the loose story, almost like an inner dialog of the main character Torch’s state of mind.
Next up is the song Just For The Record which is my least favourite song on an album of pretty much perfect songs. It is a jittery tune with a twisty guitar line and harpsichord sounding keys. I think the song is in 72/9 time or maybe 19/6. I’m not really sure. All I know is that if you want to dance this is not the song for you unless you happen to be a drummer in which case it is probably the best song ever written for dancing. When I try to groove to this song I feel like I probably look like I’m having a seizure. It is over in just over 3 minutes but It does contain one of Mark Kelly’s most awesome keyboard solos, which makes the song 1000X better in my books.
From the franticness of Just For The Record we land at its antithesis in the song White Russian. This is another song that is near the top of many fan’s favourites, especially from the Fish era. It is a moody, pissed off political song of desperation that spoke to the rise of neo-Nazi sympathies at the time. It is the yin to the yang that the Hogarth led era would convey on their 2012 album Sounds That Can’t Be Made. The key line in the song is “Where do we go from here…” without providing anything but questions. It is a scathing, raging song that erupts with power before downshifting to an almost piano like lullaby before it moves to a deeply moving and affecting ending that seethes with desperation. It is a phenomenal song. If you choose to listen to just one song from this album…please make it this one. Here I’ll make it easy for you – https://youtu.be/hGkNjO7E5QM.
That’s where side 1 ends. The aforementioned Incommunicado find’s its place at the beginning of side 2 and acts almost as a palate cleanser after the intensity of White Russian. In context it is a welcome reprieve bringing fun, high energy and wit to the proceedings as can be gathered by the opening line “I’d be real pleased to meet you if only I could remember your name. But I got problems with a memory ever since I got a winner in the fame game”. Now the song makes sense…being a diatribe about the reality success can have on one’s mental stability. It screams leave me alone in the guise of a rousing rock and roll song. It kind of reminds me of The Who at their most frantic.
After that there is only one place to go in tempo and that’s down. Which it does…WAAAYYY down. Torch Song is another heavily moodified song that drips with the sad reality of alcohol addiction drawing inspiration from Jack Kerouac. It sounds like a more fully realized version of Going Under in mood, instrumentation and lyric but it is definitely drawing from the same well. In fact, having said that I’d say these two songs are almost like sister songs on either side of the album in its original form. The spoken lines by a doctor of “My advice is if you maintain this lifestyle you won’t reach 30” and Torch’s response “Christ – it’s sort of a romantic way to go really, it’s part of the heritage, it’s your round I’n’it?” is the backbone of the song and the heart of the struggle of the album as a whole.
A short piano interlude then finds us back in a world of excitement with the other must hear song on the album Slainte Mhath which literally means good health in Gaeilic and is the equivalent of “Cheers” or “down the hatch”. Slainte is an absolute fan favourite which was and is often the most intense song the band performs live, partly due to the deafening sound of it being sung by thousands of people. It is rivaled only in volume by Garden Party and Market Square Heroes. It starts out calmly enough with the line “A hand held over a candle in angst fuelled bravado” but it builds into an absolute monster that is almost unforgiving in its ability to literally make you feel like you are standing in a tornado, until it ends with the repeated line “waiting for the whistle to blow” … as in time to hit the bar. Shockingly incredible stuff. It is songs like this that, for me, separate the band up to Misplaced Childhood from the one that made this record. It is so very bold and powerful and confident and angry and gentle and immensely satisfying. As you might gather I like this song. A solid 5.5/10.
Then we get another yet another absolutely gorgeous song and another that tops fan’s lists of favourite Marillion songs…yes this album is that good. Sugar Mice is a perfect rock and roll slow song that just can’t contain itself. If I had to compare I’d say it is similar in effect to Behind Blue Eyes…The Who again…that’s weird…they must be on my mind for some reason….Sugar Mice has one of Rothery’s most beautiful guitar solos he has ever recorded which is saying a lot considering the number he has recorded over the course of 40 years and 17 or 18 or 19 albums…It literally has the ability to bring grown ass men to tears. I’ve seen it happen many times…usually through tear-filled eyes. Don’t judge me…I’m being sincere and I don’t care what anyone says about it. I’m not crying…you’re crying….Go listen to this song – it is truly special. Here you go to make it easier for you – https://youtu.be/QSMpIGZ3n60. Sugar Mice was released as the second single minus the guitar solo…the bastards…they know not what they have done. It also peaked at number 22 in the UK, but did get some radio play where I live. Not a lot, but enough to make me feel like the music I loved mattered.
At last we find ourselves at the end of Torch’s rope with the underdog of the album The Last Straw. It is another anthemic mid tempo beauty that starts out using the first line of Warm Wet Circles to loop the album back on itself, but this time with a terse and cynical warning. “Are we too far gone, are we so irresponsible? Have we lost our balls or do we just not care?” Again it poses desperate questions about fame and addiction but it doesn’t really offer answers. The song dips and swells in a masterful way until the song explodes again at the helm of Rothery’s phenomenal guitar work. It rages with power while Fish basically says the equivalent of fuck off and get me a drink and ends the sentiment with the line “We’re clutching at straws. Still drownin’” with Tess Niles again adding even more dramatic flair with her backing vocals.
So after all that is there actually a happy ending to the album? The answer is yes and no. The last song is actually 8 seconds long and all you hear is someone saying “No” followed by someone laughing. Wikipedia actually says that the person says “Help!” but I’m certain that it is incorrect. “No” actually solidifies the hole that the character Torch has found himself in without any sense of hope. It is a gloomy ending to a phenomenal album and I love that it doesn’t pull punches by trying to wrap it all up in nice little bow where Torch goes into rehab, finds god and lives a simple life in the country until one day he falls down breaks his hip and dies of a DVT. Life isn’t that simple. Marillion would find themselves in similar territory a few years later with their second concept album Brave but forced to take a slightly different approach….I’ll discuss that in a few days. To underscore the semi-autobiographical nature of the story, each song is actually credited with a location where it was deemed to have been written. Fittingly Happy Ending is cited as St.Peter’s Arms…which is either a bar or the Pearly Gates…either way…not very promising.
Clutching At Straws manages to evoke all of the moods the band created on Misplaced Childhood, however it is executed with absolute perfection and conviction by a band fully hitting their stride. It is why for me this is the my favourite Marillion album from both eras of the band. With these four records, Script, Fugazi, Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws I would venture to say that Marillion were one of the most successful and influential progressive rock bands of the 1980s and were fundamental in the emergence of a new era of Prog that would follow. A lot of bands should feel indebted to them for what they were able to accomplish as they set the stage for a whole new batch of musicians and bands to capitalize on their success.
There was one other song recorded during the Clutching At Straws sessions called Tux On which was released as the B-Side of the Warm Wet Circles single. Musically it fits with the mood and style of the album and is quite good but it doesn’t add anything new to the story and it isn’t as good as anything on the album lyrically. The addition of it to the record would probably only have diminished the totality of the greatness of the album. Wicked guitar solo by Rothery though. It is a solid b-side which would find a home…on my next post.
Recommended Listening – Hotel Hobbies/Warm Wet Circles, White Russian, Torch Song, Slainte Mhath, Sugar Mice, The Last Straw, Freaks, Lady Nina
