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The Psychedelic Furs: Talk Talk Talk

reading time: 9 minutes

John Hughes' Pretty in Pink came out in early 1986, when I was 15 years old. The soundtrack for that film was probably my first musical exposure to The Psychedelic Furs.1 

I bought 1987's Midnight to Midnight, likely on audio cassette, and listened to it enough that I can still belt out huge chunks of "Heartbreak Beat" or "Angels Don't Cry" whenever some random chemical messenger chooses to drag those melodies up from the depths, and into my consciousness.

Those surfacings are rarely expected.

You know what else is unexpected?

Concerts. Particularly concerts by bands I want to see, held in places I want to go to.

In fact, I've been to only one concert since moving to California in 2011. And that one, while enjoyable, wasn't a concert of my choosing.

I hate having to go into Los Angeles County. I hate feeling trapped inside of loud venues with a bunch of people.

But, my god, I love the music I love.

So I was pretty excited to see that The Psychedelic Furs will be playing at the Pacific Amphitheatre's Toyota Summer Concert Series on July 20th. The Amphitheatre is in Costa Mesa, only a couple of freeways away from my home in Anaheim, and open-air venues are just the sort of venue that I prefer.

I immediately invited my wife to a summer night out. She also has some familiarity with the music of The Psychedelic Furs, but the songs she knew and loved were different from the ones I was still singing around the house. She'd never heard Midnight to Midnight. But she knew, and introduced me to, songs like "Love My Way" and "The Ghost in You".

What we agreed upon is that we'd both love to see the band live.

I bought tickets that day.

And that same day, I decided I would become an "expert" on The Psychedelic Furs by the time the concert rolls around. 

It didn't seem like something that would be a difficult task.

The Psychedelic Furs long career includes only eight studio albums released between 1980 and 2020, along with an equivalent number of compilation albums, two live albums, and two video albums. They've released 26 singles, and 21 music videos. 

But my particular journey toward expertise has begun with the band's 2nd album, Talk Talk Talk, which was released in May of 1981—a time when REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity dominated the U.S. charts, and a year which likely found me listening to Alabama's Feels So Right; the year before the pivotal music would come along which would ultimately pull me up by my country roots and and tune my ears toward distant shores. 

I procured the 2002 CD reissue of Talk Talk Talk, a version which includes three bonus tracks—"Mr. Jones (Single Version)", "So Run Down (Early Version)", and "All of This and Nothing (Demo)"—which are on neither the UK nor the US version of the original release. In addition, there's a hidden track within "All of This and Nothing (Demo)" which tells the listener to "buy Talk Talk Talk", a command followed by excerpts of several of the album's songs.

The song which leads off the 2011 Talk Talk Talk CD is "Dumb Waiters", with its stabby saxophone punctuations, its abrupt start, its inexplicable title, and its cacophonous ending. The album then gets to what my nostalgic little heart is here to hear: "Pretty in Pink".

But it doesn't sound right. Not because it sounds wrong, but because it doesn't sound like what I remember hearing. In fact, this song sounds radically different to the version I remember from my adolescence.

Emphasis on "remember". It could be the exact same track, and I might still remember it differently, given that I haven't spent the past few decades listening to the song on a regular basis. In addition, 15-year-old me likely perceived that song very differently than does 54-year-old me, listening with mature ears and without the film's influence pinkening my perceptions.

Right?

Well, yeah. Of course.

But the differences between one "Pretty in Pink" and the other can't be blamed solely on the quirks of my brain.

The "Pretty in Pink" included on Talk Talk Talk and produced by Steve Lillywhite, is rougher, rawer, less slick, shorter, sadder, and ultimately less likely to fit in on a mid-'80s John Hughes film soundtrack. The 1986 version sees guitar parts replaced by keyboard parts, saxophone featured throughout, and even a cleaned-up sound for Richard Butler's vocals.

"Pretty in Pink" was prettier in the film. But both the song and The Psychedelic Furs are more properly perceived on Talk Talk Talk.

The soundtrack version is "prettier", in the sense that it's been sonically ('though not lyrically) sanitized. It's "prettier" because the Furs have been over-groomed.

We can't have Andie be Caroline, after all.

Who could possibly sympathize with Caroline???

But why listen to me, when technology makes it so easy to listen to both versions of the song?

First, the soundtrack version of "Pretty in Pink":  

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=9HSoEotljwE&list=PLHwPUdoUzJQFokLT59O4R41B07fIyfE9b

Then, the Talk Talk Talk version:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fqe_XtjYhcg&list=PLHwPUdoUzJQFokLT59O4R41B07fIyfE9b

You can pick up the myriad differences, right?

If not, none of the rest of this is likely to matter to you.

At least not as much as Richard Butler's take on Midnight to Midnight initially mattered to me:

…the band set out on tour to promote the Midnight to Midnight album. Butler wasn't pleased with the album ("there's nothing lyrically I'm proud of on it at all," he declared), and hated performing songs from it.

— SongFacts

2

It always sucks to find out that some piece of art you enjoy is reviled by its own creator. Before listening to Talk Talk Talk, I wasn't thrilled to read the quote above. I could sympathize with having what is arguably one's most successful work also being one's least favorite. But I didn't really grok the sentiment.

Once I listened to Talk Talk Talk, though, I understood why Butler might feel the way that he felt about Midnight to Midnight.

It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with the later album. 

It's that on Talk Talk Talk, The Psychedelic Furs always had something to say, whether or not the audience understood what was being said.

Midnight to Midnight didn't come from the same place.

Those "mature ears" I mentioned above have a much better idea what Butler is actually singing about than my adolescent ears did. My current experience of "Pretty in Pink" is proof of that. But there's still room to play with interpretations on most songs. And nearly the entirety of Talk Talk Talk is both lyrically and sonically interesting. It's infused with a chaotic truth.

"Pretty in Pink" is followed by my least favorite track on the album: "I Wanna Sleep With You". But there are no songs on Talk Talk Talk that get skipped in this house. Nothing is filler—except for maybe the hidden ad. Every song has a reason to be, and every song fits with the album. And even my least favorite track spends some time ear-worming through my early morning hours.

"No Tears" follows "I Wanna Sleep With You", and takes the album on a melodic turn before the guitar-driven, danceable-despite-lyrical-objections "Mr. Jones".

The drum-driven "Into You Like a Train" is catchier than it ought to be, despite its lyrical similarity—and likely due to its emotional dissimilarity—to "I Wanna Sleep With You". It's become one of my favorite songs on the album.

The wall of sound that is "It Goes On" fills the seventh spot, followed by the grating, percussive exhaustion of "So Run Down" (the song which provides the title for the album); and another favorite: the cluttered desolation of "All of This and Nothing" (with its intro and outro that sound like they belong to a different song). The surprisingly mellow "She Is Mine" finishes up the non-bonus tracks on Talk Talk Talk, an album which—in a short number of weeks—has placed itself amongst my best-loved.

The ultimate upside to this is not the hours spent enjoying Talk Talk Talk at home, but the fact that, when my wife and I see The Psychedelic Furs live, and they play "So Run Down"3, I'm going to recognize that song, I'm going to know that song, and I'm going to enjoy it as if I hadn't missed out on it in its previous life, in all of my life before California.

The Furs' gig in Costa Mesa is part of a tour which begins in June in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and ends in November in Valencia, Spain. The United States legs—for there are two, with a Canadian junction—include dates in Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin, in addition to three other California dates. After the show in Costa Mesa, the Furs will go on to play in Ventura on the 23rd, Rancho Mirage on the 25th, and San Jose on the 26th of July. As of this writing, the New Orleans and Santa Fe shows are sold out, but you can access tickets to the band's other shows via the Shows section of The Psychdelic Furs website.

This is a Furs which will be touring without saxophonist Mars Williams—who had played with the band since 1983—due to his passing in 2023. Guitarists John Ashton and Roger Morris, saxophonist and keyboardist Duncan Kilburn, and drummer Vince Ely, were all part of The Psychedelic Furs when Talk Talk Talk was made, but have since left the band. The lineup for the Costa Mesa concert will likely include both Butlers (Richard and Tim), keyboardist Amanda Kramer (who has played with both Information Society and 10,000 Maniacs), guitarist Rich Good, and drummer Zack Alford (who has most notably worked with David Bowie both in the studio and on tours). 

If you make it to the concert in Costa Mesa, drop by before, after, or between shows and say "Hi!"

I'll be sitting quietly in Section 4, Row P, Seat 1.

NOTES

  1. At some point, I'd read a pool-side interview with Richard Butler in Star HitsSmash Hits' younger, American sister—and the phrase "punks do not tan" is still stuck in my head, but I couldn't tell you with much precision when that interview was published.
  2. SongFacts. "Heartbreak Beat by The Psychedelic Furs". Accessed 16 May 2025. https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-psychedelic-furs/heartbreak-beat.
  3. As they did in Inglewood late last year.

Sharonda Woodfin

Sharonda Woodfin lives with her wonderful wife in the great small city of Anaheim, California.

She lost her entire physical music collection in 2011.

Someday, she will rebuild.

You may contact her at iddy8sam@gmail.com.