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Certain Songs #1669: The Psychedelic Furs – “Run and Run”

October 29, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Forever Now
Year: 1982

Sorry kids, no “Love My Way.” While I never hated it, I really didn’t like it, either, and while I was glad that the P-Furs were making some kind of inroads on U.S. radio, remove the vocals and “Love My Way” could have been just about anyone.

Much much better was “Run and Run,” the final single from Forever Now, and the song that sounded most like it sprang from the same well as the first two albums, while also showing a way forward.

Opening with a John Ashton jangly guitar underneath a kick-heavy Vince Ely modified Spector beat, “Run and Run” then takes off as Richard Butler starts singing.

Go on get Tarzan
Go on get Jane
Go on get Superman
Go on get Lois Lane
Hamburger Mary
She’s got a gun
Nothing goes on all the time
And she thinks it’s fun

And with Vince Ely building before, during and after, while Flo & Eddie provide excellent harmonies, they launch into a chorus for the ages.

Come on, run, run, run, run away
Come on, run away, come on
Run, run, run, run away
Come on, run away

It’s actually a really weird-sounding chorus: Flo & Eddie sound like they’re transmitting live from Mars instead of being in the same session, much less the same studio, and so there a definite space between Butler’s lead and their backing vocals, and Rundgren inserts what for all the world sounds like a Space Invaders beep with every snare beat. It shouldn’t work at all, but instead, it works in spades.

Another thing that shouldn’t work is John Ashton’s guitar solo, which is played over a reprise of Ely’s kick-heavy Spector beat. It’s kinda spidery and jaggedy, and in any other context, I’d call it, uh, “psychedelic,” but of course, that can’t be right, can it?

At the end, Butler launches into a long rant.

I’m having this party
So come now please it’s an open house, girl
But no games with keys
No jokes in blank humor
No lines in blank verse

It couldn’t get much worse
There’s heroes and villains
Ma B. and her boys
Doing the twist
Dancing with toys
I’ve been waiting all night
For someone like you
But

You’ll have to dooooooooo

That ending is one of my favorite Butler lyrics, because it’s superficially mean and yet also kinda weirdly sweet, especially after he punctuates it with one last “I’ve been waiting all night”. That said, the question of whether or not they actually run away was never quite answered.

A song like “Run and Run” was actually what made Forever Now ultimately frustrating for me: even without Duncan Kilburn and Roger Morris, the remaining Furs definitely had a path forward where their music got slicker — as it almost aways does — but their essential personality and uniqueness still shone through, no matter what. Which I felt happened about half the time.

“Run and Run” official video

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Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: Forever Now, Psychedelic Furs, Run and Run

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2015: The Rolling Stones – “The Last Time”
  • Certain Songs #2014: The Rolling Stones – “Mona (I Need You Baby)”
  • Certain Songs #2013: The Rolling Stones – “Empty Heart”
  • Certain Songs #2012: The Rolling Stones – “Around and Around”
  • Certain Songs #2011: The Rolling Stones – “Time Is On My Side”

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