- Artist: Echo and The Bunnymen
- Title: Bring On The Dancing Horses
- Year: 1985
- Format: Vinyl 7 in.
- Rating (1-10): 7
- Owner: Mary
- Acquired: 1985 – Unknown origin.
- Keeper: Yes
Echo and The Bunnymen, similar to Black Sabbath, made their best music on the first four albums. “Bring On The Dancing Horses” came later. I like it more than other later singles, but much less than the music on the first four LPs. Now this I find strange: The flipside is “Read It In Books” which was on their first record “Crocodiles” from five years earlier. Mary’s theory is that since the band was finally getting popular in the US they put that on the flip to encourage new fans to also get the back catalog stuff. I think if that was the reason they should’ve picked something more immediately appealing like, say, “Rescue.”
- Artist: Echo And The Bunnymen
- Title: Crocodiles
- Year: 1980
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 10
- Owner: Tracy / Mary
- Acquired: 1980 – No idea where I got my copy but my friend Jeff Arthur turned me on to the band.
- Keeper: Yes
1980 was a very good year for music. Echo and The Bunnymen is one of my all-time favorite bands and this was their debut. This album is full of “hits” and pretty much every other modern rock bar band in the ’80s did a cover of some song on “Crocodiles.” Usually “Do It Clean” or “Rescue.” Like “Louie Louie” or “Gloria” those songs are so good, and so simple that it’s hard to do bad versions of them.
It’s almost impossible to explain their sound, yet it sounds familiar. They’re arty and edgy, but they can rock. The lyrics are interesting and intelligent sounding, but not pretentious. I think often times singer/songwriter Ian McCulloch chooses words for how they sound instead of what they mean.
I think they’re geniuses and by most accounts so do they. More Echo and The Bunnymen records and stories to come as I continue to lap through the alphabet.
