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ORANGE JUICE - Rip It Up (1983)
Before CDs slip down the rabbit hole of history the labels’ll be damned if they don’t try everything to get us to buy it all ONE! MORE! TIME!, and one of the more popular approaches for seducing a certain type of well-heeled afficionado is the complete recordings box set.
It works especially well on bands with a fairly small recorded output - The Velvet Underground made a mint off a warts’n’all set during the first box set boom of the early ’90s, and last year’s Big Star set was ideally timed to provide a shoulder for Alex Chilton fans to cry upon when he died unexpectedly a half-year later. (It got even more gruesome when bassist Andy Hummel expired four months after Chilton.)
Now, just in time for the shopping season, U.K. label Domino has given us Coals To Newcastle, a seven-disc treatise on indie pop curiosity Orange Juice, a pretty good Scottish band best-known for recording legendarily ramshackle 45s that turned collector’s items upon their label’s quick demise, as well as making one U.K. top ten single, 1982’s resoundingly terrific “Rip It Up.”
Head boy Edwyn Collins has staged a couple of comebacks since OJ’s short heyday, engendering a fair amount of goodwill in the process. In 1994, his simple ’60s throwback ”A Girl Like You” caught everyone by surprise when it broke from the Empire Records film to become a stylish dancefloor staple and radio hit (#4 U.K./#32 U.S.). A cerebral hemorrhage in early 2005 presumably put paid to his public life, but the now 51-year-old singer has completed his second post-illness album and has played some live performances in recent years, which makes him something beyond a physical marvel: maybe a super trouper, as ABBA would have said.
Anyway: “Rip It Up.” What a great tune. Orange Juice had always wished a gangly, funky strain upon their songs, although the nuances of the form initially laid well beyond their untutored grasp. White-boy funk was a popular sub-genre in post-punk Britain, with everyone from Dexy’s Midnight Runners to Haircut 100 to Spandau Ballet to Pigbag following a trail blazed by David Bowie in 1975. On “Rip It Up,” OJ slowed the tempo and built it around the amazing Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer, a sequencing keyboard that allowed the user incredibly flexible options for accenting and shaping notes. In skilled hands it sounded irresistably cool, and “Rip It Up“‘s expert demonstration of the synth’s possibilities gave the song its wonderful hook.
In fact, if you’re still reading I’m going to direct you to the actual video for the recorded version of the song, right here. It’s a pretty dated bit of gauche mugging, but the song’s worth the time. Listen first, laugh later. It’ll have you bouncing happily off the walls.
The version linked in this blog post features a game attempt to recreate the bassline by feeding bass guitar through a phaser. OJ pass the test with flying colours, actually. This live take, recorded for the British program Old Grey Whistle Test, shows what happens when a bunch of kids start hammering away at a brilliant groove, especially during the closing quarter, when Collins loses himself in the thrill of the moment. At heart, he’s just a music fan like the rest of us.
“Rip It Up” was Orange Juice’s lone mainstream hit, making #8 U.K. in early 1983.
