Thursday 9 June 2011

‘Hex Enduction Hour’ – The Fall (1982)


"White collar hits motorway services;
It’s the hip priest.
From the eyes he can see they know;
It’s the hip priest."

"What’s this meant to be?!" That was pretty much the shared reaction from the sixth form common room whenever my friend Chris or I popped an album on the stereo. Which just encouraged us further. Climaxing in us attending a Prince-themed party with a copy of ‘Hex Enduction Hour’. Yes, I know. Let’s rewind. A lot to take in there.

One: Why am I at a party? Well, I think I went to about three parties in total between the years 1980 and, well, present day really. I like to go to one every decade to remind myself why I don’t go to more. Two: Prince-themed? Really? Yep, Chris and I had a mutual friend named Christopher ("Well, that's just confusing") who loved Prince and had a birthday bash every Christmas Eve. I think I’ve mentioned him before. Yes, I have, in my very first post. Keep up. Anyhoo… he lived on a steady diet of Prince. He had every record by his Purple Majesty you could imagine. ("Even the Black album before it was officially released?" Yep, even the Black album before it was officially released.) So any party Christopher held was in effect a Prince-themed party. Three: You’re taking 'Hex Enduction Hour' to a party? Well, it would seem so. But I can’t quite recall why. I think Chris and I were just so captivated by it at the time that we carried it around to share with people at every opportunity. Just look at that wonderful sleeve for starters. Banned from the windows and shelves of Virgin record stores at the time for being too amateurish, fact fans.  

Now after three hours of non-stop Prince records, I think you’ll agree it was about time someone hi-jacked the stereo. But I guess what you may not agree with is us hi-jacking the stereo to play such party floor fillers as ‘Jawbone and the Air-rifle’ and ‘Mere Pseud Mag. Ed’. We actually never made it that far through the album – from memory we got to about track three (‘Hip Priest’) before the revelers broke through our makeshift sofa cushion barrier and Prince was restored. You can perhaps now see why it was another ten years before I ventured out to my next party. But I left ‘Hex Enduction Hour’ at home that time.    



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4 comments:

  1. Here's a fun game you can play with all the family: spot the song title typo :-)

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  2. Oooh - I forgot (or never knew) you had white Hex AND Room to Live. Do you have white PBL too?

    I actually have similar problems with putting Hex on the family stereo now. Once the sweary excitement of "The Classical" has finished, people tend to lose interest...


    My recollection of parties at Doney's house more involve endless repetition (the 3 R's) of This Corrosion - but you've already posted about that. You may be interested to hear that despite my best efforts Doney has given up on modern music entirely and currently only listens to Beethoven...

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  3. How odd that we only chat through blog comments these days. Have actually lost all your contact details (which are probably long out of date now anyway since they pre-date our modern mobile world), so apologies.

    Yep, have white 'PBL' to complete the set - which will probably be a future blog post :-)

    Hope all's sunshine and smiles with your family. And Doney too - I can well imagine him safely ensconced in the world of classical music, polishing his trumpet and working on some epic suite.

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  4. Well, it's a start

    chris.x.jones -at- me.com if you're interested

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