Word: spiv
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...tempestuous saga is fairly accurately chronicled in the production at off-Broadway's La Mama Theater. The play is flawed, but it is amazing that British Playwright Hampton (The Philanthropist) wrote it when he was only 18. He was obviously drawn to Rimbaud as a fin-de-sicle spiv, and Silver plays him that way. Markay's Verlaine is the more richly shaded portrayal, ranging from voracious sensual appetite to a discernment of the gemlike flame with which Rimbaud's poetry would burn in posterity's eyes...
...primal scream opens the record, and from then on, Jackson emerges as a more affected and effective persona than the "Spiv" of his first two efforts. Those concentrated on a poppy guitar, steady beat, and musical hooks, with songs about women, the working class, and the media. Suddenly, Jackson's oft-avowed affection for reggae has taken over. Graham Maby, one of rock's most melodic and dextrous bassists, assumes center stage, as Jackson acknowledges by allowing him to sing the title track. And Maby holds it well--the bass lines are entrancing, polished, and danceable...
...FIRST two albums made this one possible. A group could not start out this tight or knowledgeable, and the power pop background enabled the band to delve into the new syncopations and melodies. Jackson now tries to write off his days as a "Spiv" rocker, but they remain at the core of the layered sound and cynical vision he now emotes...