Polyrock - Romantic Me
From the LP Polyrock (RCA 1980)
Jon just reminded me that I promised someone some months ago in the comments section to the Philip Glass piece that I was going to put up Polyrock's "Romantic Me" at some point. Apologies for the lateness, but here it is.
Best known -- let's not kid ourselves, pretty much ENTIRELY known -- as the new wave band produced by Philip Glass and his engineer/right hand man Kurt Muncasi, Polyrock were an artsy sextet led by brothers Billy and Tommy Robertson. Their debut album came out on RCA in 1980, which as mentioned elsewhere here on Little Hits was pretty much a death knell for the band's commercial chances since there was no other major label more clueless about new wave music. Not that they were likely to go much of anywhere in 1980, anyway: in those pre-MTV times, the heartland just wasn't ready for the synthed-out pulses of this primarily electronic band, or for Billy Robertson's tightly wound, shrieking vocals and elliptical-to-the-point-of-meaningless lyrics. In light of current alternative-rock radio, however, Polyrock would be as big as the Killers if they debuted right now; half the bands played on WFNX here in Boston are -- probably unconsciously -- biting huge chunks of their sound directly off this one song.
Polyrock managed one more major-label album, 1981's Changing Hearts, an EP on the PVC label and an after the fact compilation of unfinished demos and live tracks that came out on the ROIR cassette label sometime in the mid-'80s. All of their material is in this style, and is all of similar quality; if you see it in the used bins, pick it up.
-Stewart Mason
posted by Jon Harrison at 4:14 AM
25 Comments:
In the second version of the Book of Rock Lists, Dave Marsh (usually not a very witty writer) makes a funny comment that RCA signed Elvis and had nothing else to show for the next forty years except Bruce Hornsby.
Well, there was Jefferson Airplane. And Lou Reed.
Cool to hear this after all these years. A band I played in (Narthex) opened for them in 1983 at the East Side Club in Philadelphia...
I remember seeing the band perform this on Nickelodeon's "Livewire" TV show.
Jon
I still love that song "Working On My Love", which I believe was on the PVC ep.. There was a video for it also, if I recall...
For a period of about 18 months, ther was some surprisingly cool stuff on Nickelodeon, musically. I particularly remember a half-hour live show by Altered Images, at a time when approximately 18 people in the states knew who they were.
My first exposure to Wall of Voodoo, pre-"Mexican Radio," was from their gig on...I wanna say An Evening At The Improv, maybe circa 1981. They did "Back In Flesh," and I was instantly charmed.
Stewart,
Yes. I also saw the Bongos and REM on the same show, and I seem to remember an English Beat concert as well.
Jon
Jon,
Okay, so given that we were both teenagers watching late night TV in Kansas at the same time, do you remember a guy on one of the Wichita stations who had a late night bare-bones show that basically consisted of him showing reruns of Dobie Gillis and My Little Margie, interspersed with him reading viewer letters? I particularly remember him doing, at least twice per night, the single worst Kirk Douglas impression ever.
Stewart-
No, but there was this guy out of KC called "Uncle Ed" who had a show called "All Night Live." He had a cat named Caffeina. And would always show The Twilight Zone, The Three Stooges, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, followed by some old movie. He would ask the viewers to perform the creed nightly:
"I promise every weekday night
To tune my set to All Night Live.
A faithful viewer I'll always be,
I'm not handin' you no jive."
I loved it at the time...
Jon
"Uncle Ed" may have loved a few too many things, as I recall he was arrested for child porn or molestation charges.
I sort of recall he looked like Larry King's skinny brother....
poor "Ed"...Larry was gettin' all the chicks!
Jon,
I just image-Googled: that's the guy I was thinking of! I had thought it was a Wichita station, but you're right, the show I'm thinking of was "All Night Live" with Uncle Ed!
The way I remember the show was that it would start with an old SF show like the Twilight Zone, but that either before or after the movie, he'd show an episode of some ancient sitcom. I particularly remember Dobie because this was where I nurtured my lifelong crush on Tuesday Weld. (In huge part because of the kickass name: one reason why my wife is perfectly happy she can't have kids is that I was fairly insistent that I was going to name my first daughter Tuesday.)
The Kirk Douglas bit was that when he was reading letters or taking phone calls, at least one person would ask him to do his Kirk Douglas, which consisted of him sticking one finger in his cheek and one on his chin to create the dimples, holding his jaw shut and saying "KIRK! DOUGLAS!" in this exaggerated gravel voice.
Very cool song. I don't have the history - but it reminds me of Sparks, both vocally and stylistically.
Hi Jon: Stumbled across your Twiggy "Beaujolais" posting from Oct. '05. Fantastic to read your story of meeting TF & finally get the opportunity to hear Twiggy. I'm one of those pop diehards who think it's a tragic loss to humanity there'll never be a second June & the Exit Wounds CD. The good folks at Parasol tell me TF has abandoned J&EW's and won't re-release the Twiggy material. Any chance I could encourage you to post more? Truly Grateful!
Duponceau: Jon actually has in his possession two Twiggy tracks I sent him a while back. Actually, it's the same track twice, the first at the speed at which it was released and the second at the speed (I'm pretty sure) that it was originally recorded. They'll show up eventually.
This very same POLYROCK song was just covered by the band BLACK SUNDAY (featuring Alicja Trout, ex LOST SOUNDS/RIVER CITY TAN LINES). It's on the flip side of a 7" on Canadian label ZAXXON......
Heya Jon, et al
For whatever it may be worth, I still have that episode of "Livewire" on tape w/ Polyrock. I was gonna encode it over to video & post it on youutube this week, so I'll give you the tip off when I do (to put it in context here, It was a special on "new wave" and/or "punk rock" w/ Penelope Spheris as a guest in a spray painted FEAR shirt, etc).
And of course being an ex-Kansas dwelling kid who grew up on giant amounts of late night TV from the 70's through the 80's I was a big ol' Uncle Ed/ Crematia Mortem/ KSHB (etc) fan as well, but since I can go on for far too long about independent TV programming if prodded, I'll leave it be at that.
I'll keep watch for Twiggy - Thanks.
Great article! Thanks.
Nice Blog!
Thanks for interesting article.
Very interesting site. Blog is very good. I am happy that I think the same!
Excellent website. Good work. Very useful. I will bookmark!
I actually saw Polyrock perform at the original Danceteria in NYC in 1980 (not the later club that was a magnet for the bridge and tunnel people). Live, they were actually a pretty cool band, with kind of a downtown avant garde feeling. Only part of their talent and charm came through on their records.
Both their albums are great examples of the "new wave" sound and the possibilities created...we need more creation like this, even now
If anyone is still reading this page... get yourself both Polyrock albums. Seriously. Do it now.
Post a Comment
<< Home