B i o g r a p h y (by Richie Unterberger)
One of the quirkiest and most idiosyncratic groups to emerge from the early British new wave indie scene, Young Marble Giants (from Cardiff, Wales) were not so much new wave in sound as in strategy. They subverted conventional pop/rock methods by stripping both song construction and instrumentation to its essence. A reverberant funky bass, a shrill organ, short choppy bursts of guitar chords, a softly clicking drum machine — that was all the trio needed. The hauntingly spacious sound was made both more intimate and foreboding by Alison Statton's coolly intoned, almost neutral vocals. The words were more important for their mood than their content. Pop minimalism of the first order, it now stands as one of the first fully formed expressions of the subgenre that would be called post-punk. Needless to say, it was also quite resistant to widespread commercial success, although it quickly attracted a cult following. Almost the whole of their output is contained on their debut and, as it turned out, their only album, Colossal Youth (1980). After an EP in 1981, the group broke up. Alison Statton went into a more jazz-lounge-pop direction with Weekend and solo recordings. YMG guitarist and principal YMG songwriter Stuart Moxham formed the Gist, and in the 1990s, after a series of personal setbacks, began regularly releasing solo product with fuller and more traditional rock arrangements than those identified with the Young Marble Giants.
Colossal Youth - 1980-02-01 -
Searching For Mr Right Include Me Out The Taxi (Instrumental) Eating Noddemix Constantly Changing N.l.T.A. Colossal Youth Music For Evenings The Man Amplifier Choci loni Wurlitzer Jukebox! Salad days Credit In The Straight World Brand-New-Life Wind in the rigging (Instrumental)
Colossal Youth
Searching For Mr Right
Searching for Mr Right Waiting up half the night Feeling like I'll be dead Before I'm old Teaching myself to be The Young Untold How can I hope to be Someone for you to see? Blind as the Fate decrees I will go on Teaching myself to be The Young Untold Am I in vain tonight? Lose you against the light Who can you be Mr Right? Include Me Out
Re-arranging the atoms in my hairdo Gets me thinking 'bout good times I had with you Back in the Sixties when love was free Never need to worry bout my G.C.E. Dying of boredom in your plastic home Pretty the pictures, work to the bone Don't be depressed, you can just pick up the phone But it won't answer 'cos there's no-one home Count your possessions out one by one Include your lovers, include the one You threw away in nineteen sixty three Include me out, don't label me Eating Noddemix
Staring at the mirror on the steamy bathroom wall eating a Noddemix As the people are running the highrise starts to fall While she neatly wipes her lips The reporters pick up their pads and pens As they rush to the scene And the cameras wink on the gory views How the Editors agree Putting on her makeup she glances at the clock Next she'll paint her nails The train has collided the driver didn't stop As she slips onto the scales Looking for her car keys she finds them in her shoe Lift the magazine from the floor That long-ago mystery has revealed another clue As she quickly shuts the door Yeah, man, they just pulled over now, And it looks like it's gonna be an all-night job tonight, you know. If you could send a few cars, it would sure help a lot. And I should sip wine in front of the TV tonight Because there's a program I wish you to see. I'll start making a few inquiries already. Ok, that's all for now. Constantly Changing
And when I see you Constantly changing Never the same as, never remaining I cannot fix you in a position Where I would lose you out of my vision For you are movement And that is nothing N.l.T.A.
It's nice to hear you're having a good time But it still hurts 'cos you used to be mine This doesn't mean that I possessed you You're haunting me because I let you Shape up your body "Let's be a tree" Visual dynamics for you to see Nature intended the abstract for you and me No rain outside but tears in my eyes Out on the rooftop for a surprise Call you at teatime In off the street Sit down at table, Mummy is neat Colossal Youth
If you think the world is a machine with one cog And that cog is you, or the things that you do Then you are not in this world The world is not you If you think the world is a balloon in your head When it goes bang only you will be dead 'Cos you are not in this world The world is not you If you think the world lies at the top of your legs And you only live when you are in bed Then you are not in this world The world is your head If you think the world is a clutter of existence Falling through the air with minimal resistance You could be right, how would I know? Colossal youth is showing the way to go Music For Evenings
I don't need you to love me I don't need you to care Take your body from by me Be yourself over there Though you think you adore me Secretly you just bore me When I'm thinking of something You always come up nothing Now I'm not a neurotic Or my business spasmodic And my only excuse is: Everything comes from chaos Keep your music for evenings And your coffee for callers Say goodbye to your freedom Don't come here with your wallet The Man Amplifier
The Man Amplifier has everything but desire Is a robot when he should Never tires, ever good And we're singing Parallel sympathy with you Skin to metal overture Take a walk, he's always near Like a shadow, never fear While we're singing Like a tower in the dark He can leave you feeling stark While his fingers fall away Love is climbing in his heart So we're singing Take a towel to his brow Soothe the features of the proud Lubricate the inner man Exercise him when you can And be singing Choci Loni
Eaten out of house and home, Choci Loni starts a roam Putting on a bandolier, hearing through a nudie ear Choci Loni roams Wurlitzer Jukebox!
Parrish is dancing, his feet are a bIur Comes to a standstill, I ask him a question He doesn't hear Wurlitzer jukebox Fingers are pointed in my direction Words fly around me, Everyone's chanting Salad Days
Think of salad days They were folly and fun They were good, they were young Credit In The Straight World
Go for credit in the straight world Look a dealer in the eye Go for credit in the real world Won't you try? I got some credit in the straight world I lost a leg, I lost an eye Go for credit in the real world You won't die Instant credit in the straight world Leaving money when you die Lots of credit in the real world gets you high Brand-New-Life
So bad when you went away Nothing I could do or say And now we are a lonely two Sit at home and watch the tube I've been hurt before, Sorrow knocking on my door Pain And so I make a brand-new-life Fashioned out of brand-new strife And when I hear the doorbell ring I can never let them in to me Pain is in me every day When you went it came to stay Come and be a cure for me Make the tears come out of me So bad when you went away Nothing I could do or say And when I hear the doorbell ring I can never let them in to me
Non Album Tracks
Final Day
When the rich die last Like the rabbits Running from a lucky past Full of shadow cunning And the world lights up For the final day We will all be poor Having had our say Put a blanket up on the window pane When the baby cries lullaby again As the light goes out on the final day For the people who never had a say There is so much noise There is too much heat And the living floor throws you off your feet As the final day falls into the night There is peace outside in the narrow light Radio Silents
Be polite Tonight Just for one time Be polite Tonight You know a smile when you see one Just for once Tonight You say it's better if we don't write Radio silents Tonight Be polite Cakewalking
Yesterday we were always laughing Always good for a laugh in passing Stepping outside of the rules for asking Misery passes and so does crying Just look around when you feel like dying Stepping outside of the rules when trying Hopeless cases will drag you under Fiery lovers will make you blunder Tearing all the rules asunder Trying to cakewalk but it's too boring Coming to life at four in the morning You think you're alive But then you're just yawning Ode To Booker T.
Voices over cast doubt in my mind See what I'm hearing, Don't leave me behind I don't doubt that you will be mine Life is so much better When you're toeing the line Stay away from people you know They're out to get you Here we go