big heat, the (1986) - stan ridgway: irs records, IRS-5637

Stan Ridgway initially made his bones scoring films before forming the band Wall of Voodoo, unleashing a weird amalgam of minimalist synth and spaghetti-western sounds.

Wall achieved considerable local success through their 1980 eponymous EP which featured songs like Ring of Fire and Can't Make Love (both of which gained significant airplay on KROQ), and were a fixture on the LA music scene.

Local success eventually turned into a big record deal, which in turn turned into a hit video on MTV (Mexican Radio), and suddenly Stan and the boys were in the Big Time.

Of course, the Big Time lasted only a few years before tensions (both internal and external) split Wall of Voodoo apart, and in 1983 Stan went off on his own.  

The Big Heat is his first full solo album, and while not quite as ominous, paranoid, or sonically lush with synth and drum-machine loop as Wall of Voodoo songs, Stan manages to retain the core of the  Wall of Voodoo sound through a deft use of instrumentation and selective electronics.

Side 1: The Big Heat Pick It Up (and put it in your pocket) Can't Stop The Show Pile Driver Walkin' Home Alone
Side 2: Drive She Said Salesman Twisted Camouflage

The biggest difference between Wall of Voodoo and Stan is the nature of the songs.  While many Wall songs were about the shadowy corners of society, they also relied on an atmosphere that varied from slightly off  to downright creepy.  However, as a solo artist, Stan moved away from mood and more into personality.  His songs are about everyday working slobs, stiffs, and suckers.  The sort of people whose lives can involve questionable ethics and situations.  He sings about strippers (Can't Stop The Show), traveling salesmen (Salesman), a guy taking it on the lam (The Big Heat), some blue-collar drone (Pile Driver), a grunt humping in the 'Nam (Camouflage), and a dimwitted cabbie (Drive She Said).  His songs are about the decidedly un-glamorous side of urban life.  Grimy alleyways and dingy apartments.  Guys eating a couple of chili dogs at a diner after their 10 hour factory shift is done.  Ridgway is like a musical version of Raymond Chandler or David Lynch.

The album cover totally emphasized that fact, with the cover featuring Stan behind a chain-link fence
in some giant refinery, and the back a landscape of a processing plant or something.

 

As an interesting anecdote, I once had the pleasure of meeting Stan at show he did in the 90's, after his band Drywall released Work The Dumb Oracle.  I told him that I really liked how Drive She Said was a story about some everyday dope.  He looked at me and said "Well shoot, that's what all of my songs are about."

And it's true,  Stan doesn't write or sing soaring songs about an idealized love, featuring opulent strings and flowery lyrics.  He sings songs about strippers and uses lyrics like:

The curtains go up / and both lights go on
And Betsy's in her birthday suit / spinnin' her baton
But I think she did it better last year / before her boyfriend broke her arm

Essentially, listening to The Big Heat is kind of like sitting down in a bar somewhere in the City of Industry or Wilmington and just eavesdropping on the conversations of the folks there.  There's no judgment or snobbery - just stuff that happens.  Even though the songs are about the unseen (and sometimes unseemly) people, they have the dignity of authenticity.  And this is one of those criminally under-rated albums.  Unlike so many "hits" from the mid-80s, the songs here don't seem dated or cliche at all. 

Up next: Pretention, with a bit of nonsense