You’re funny and you don’t even try
(DB Records 45, 1981)
If I were ever to try to compile a list of my all-time top ten favorite songs ever, this single is one of the few that I am absolutely sure would be on it, and probably quite high. Though “Crazy” was eventually released on CD on Pylon’s now extremely out of print 1990 compilation Hits, it’s not currently widely available. However, I’m posting it to alert the LH faithful to the recent reissue of an expanded version of Pylon’s 1980 debut album, Gyrate Plus, on DFA Records. Including the band’s instant-classic debut single “Cool” b/w “Dub,” all the tracks that appeared on both versions of the original Gyrate LP (the UK issue replaced “Driving School” with “Recent Title”) and the one new song on 1980’s Pylon!! EP, “Danger,” along with a previously unreleased 1979 demo, Gyrate Plus is an utterly essential overview of the early years of America’s first great post-punk band. The Gang of Four for people who still wanted to dance, Pylon were as flinty and angular as they come, and singer Vanessa Ellison (now Vanessa Briscoe-Hay) was at times a tiny southern answer to Yoko Ono; this song is about as “normal” as she ever sounded. But the rhythm section of bassist Michael Lachowski and drummer Curtis Crowe never lost sight of the fact that if you couldn’t make audiences in their hometown of Athens, Georgia dance, you weren’t going to make it. More minimalist, artsy and elliptical than their initial inspiration, the B-52s, and lacking their kitschy trash-culture persona, Pylon were both historically and creatively the key point in between the B-52s and R.E.M., but in my own personal pantheon, they rank above either. Fingers crossed that DFA is planning a similarly expanded edition of Pylon’s second album, Chomp, including this single. In the meantime, go get Gyrate Plus.
–Stewart Mason
Karim Amir said,
November 4, 2007 @ 11:22 am
I saw Vanessa onstage when Mission of Burma played in Atlanta. Cool stuff.
Pete said,
November 5, 2007 @ 9:28 am
I had been planning on posting this one on my blog at some point. Chomp was my favorite album by Pylon, as I found Gyrate just a bit too angular for my tastes (not that it isn’t great). Maybe I’ll post something else from Chomp one of these days. It would be very nice to see the album reissued.
jonderneathica said,
November 10, 2007 @ 7:52 am
I too would love to see a reissue of Chomp. Gyrate Plus sounds great, and it would be wonderful to have “Crazy”, “M-Train”, “Beep”, “K” and “No Clocks” on CD. I saw Pylon in Atlanta this month, and they were fabulous. BTW, the blog Warped Reality has an mp3 of Vanessa singing “Feast on My Heart” with Mission of Burma from that Atlanta show back in January.
James said,
November 28, 2007 @ 11:40 pm
I just discovered Pylon through the touring collection of videos, Nightclubbing, which I reviewed here: http://www.torontoscreenshots.com/2007/06/11/nightclubbing/
This song is familiar. Didn’t R.E.M. do a cover of this, maybe on the Chronic Town EP?
Stewart said,
November 29, 2007 @ 9:21 am
Yes, R.E.M. covered this — it was a single b-side that ended up on DEAD LETTER OFFICE. Of course, the CD of that also had the tracks from CHRONIC TOWN on it, so that’s probably what you’re thinking of.
Stu Pope said,
June 19, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
While I was living in the Florida panhandle back in the early ’80s, I drove all the way up to Atlanta to see Pylon open for, of all bands, OMD. An odd yet somehow complimentary pairing.