Psychedelic Furs

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.

Certain Songs #1663: The Psychedelic Furs – “Mr. Jones”

October 23, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Talk Talk Talk
Year: 1981

. . .

While you really can’t count Bob Dylan as a musical influence on The Psychedelic Furs, there is no doubt that he was a lyrical influence on Richard Butler, and Mr. Butler acknowledges that on the rip-roaring “Mr. Jones,” a post-punk sequel to Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man,” which traded in the slow-burning thin wild mercury sound of Dylan’s track for speedy post-punk.

25 Musical Moments To Die For

July 25, 2008 by Jim Connelly

You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of hooks is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Certain Songs: Psychedelic Furs – Into You Like A Train

July 2, 2008 by Jim Connelly

“Certain songs,” Craig Finn sang on The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me, “they get scratched into our souls.” That’s the basis of “Certain Songs:” a look at the songs that have done just that. These aren’t necessarily our favorite songs or the songs that we think are the best, but rather songs that — every single time we hear them — instantly transport us back to a place and time in which that song is forever intertwined. This is one of the reasons we so hate the RIAA’s attempted stranglehold on the dissemination of music: you never know where that next certain song is going to come from.

Sometimes the things that totally change your life happen so randomly as to be almost impossible.

Probably usually, actually, which is why you can never think too much about them. In any event, the first great thing to happen to me as an “adult,” was getting involved with KFSR, the Fresno State radio station.

And it happened because Tim made friends with a guy while we were both a Fresno City College.

At the time, Tim and I had only been out of high school for a few months, and we were going to City — or at least I was — because there was really no plan for adulthood besides drinking as much beer and buying as many records and seeing as many concerts as was humanly possible before actual responsibilities started creeping in.