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Why does this man like The Archers?-- Record Mirror, June 1, 1985 Green Gartside and Eleanor Levy fail to reach an agreement on pop semiotics vs. the Scritti Psyche. Reproduced with kind permission from Record
Mirror.
A massive hit, if only Rough Trade hadn't been so (over) precious about their independence, and heralding 'Songs To Remember' -- a debut album that filled the late summer months with sublime sounds. Green was proclaimed the Sweetest Boy and love was in the air. Which made Scritti's return under the production guidelines of Arif Mardin some two years later all the more shocking. From something so simple and pure, Green was now electro-minded, glammed up and producing complex groove music. 'Bandwagon jumper' some cried -- but then people are often most cruel to those they once exalted. Scritti finally got chart success, with 'Hypnotize' failing to follow 'Wood Beez' and 'Absolute' into the groovy nation's heart. The Sweetest Boy had been covered by make-up and 'style'...and here endeth the history lesson. 1985 and it's all change again. With Scritti very much a group once more, Green has brought forward David Gamson and Fred Maher, two talented musicians with whom he's been working for some time. The trio produce 'The Word Girl' -- a smoother, less complicated sound, people start saying things about harking back to 'Songs To Remember'. Green turns his nose up and says: "It is more like it in the simple aspect that it's 'cod' reggae again -- and it's done more simply than the last three singles. But it's certainly not harking back to 'Songs To Remember'.
"I think it's quite a funny title really," says Green. "There's a myth of Cupid and Psyche. They were in love with each other but would fall out of love if eigher tried to find out too much about the other. Psyche can't resist the temptation to know more and Cupid flees. "I think in the end they do get back together, but this whole thing of over familiarity -- or desire for it -- is referred to in a couple of songs on the album. Just to call it 'Cupid And Psyche' seemed a bit fey though. A bit Seventies -- a bit wanky. So I put '85' on the end, more or less to ground it, and somehow, that made it less so!" 'Fey' would be one of the kinder adjectives thrown at Green over the years. When his collaborations with Mardin were first released for public consumption, the change in style musically and visually caused quite a stir. "I'm always surprised people worry about changes," Green says thoughtfully. "You'd be bored out of your skull if you didn't change. It wasn't calculated, don't you ever change the way you look? I couldn't imagine sitting down and planning these things. If you've got long hair and you fancy putting on too much make-up and wearing some Indian military uniform you've dreamt up, fine -- -do it. But then you get sick of long hair so you get it cut and try and look ordinary again. That's it. "People tend to have this idea that I switch style very calculatedly and opportunistically, which couldn't be further from the truth. Perhaps now, had I been opportunistic, I'd come up with some Washington DC/Go Go/P Funk rip off with a poppy tune added to it. But God forbid you should ever want to live your life that way."
"two things occurred to us. We'd done a log of songs that had that American back beat and we'd done enough of them in terms of being interested. We wanted to try something else -- and we wanted to try something simpler. "Wood Beez' and 'Absolute' were pop songs with 'groovy' bits to them. 'The Word Girl' is just a pop song. It certainly isn't a reggae record. I'm a bit distressed some people think it is. It must be THE whitest pop-reggae song there's been." Green is a courteous fellow. He listens attentively to your questions, thinks before he answers and is constantly checking you've understood exactly what he's saying. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who's been a more articulate and perceptive commentator than most on the very substance of pop music, he admits a strong dislike of "muso" papers. His bewilderment that anyone could think him at all calculated is so obviously genuine you feel like having a little cry on his behalf, while his determination to carry on regardless is mixed with regular jibes at his own expense. "There is this 'were you or were you not a complete dick on 'Top Of The Pops' debate," he mentions at one point. "Which is very hard for me to say because I've been on TV here and in Europe quite a few times and I can never watch myself. It's too nerve wracking. Only once have I done it," (he shudders), "so, those 'Top Of The Pops' I was on, I've no idea what I did but I gather in some instances it was as uncomfortable as I felt." Green's lack of confidence in performing live has been with him since the early days of Scritti. He gave up the chance to join Chaka Khan at the Hammersmith Odeon earlier this year. "I clearly couldn't do it," he says. "I can't sing live. Well, I probably can but to get up and duet with her at Hammmersmith? I couldn't do that -- I'm too inexperienced and she's too..." The sentence tails off. "I've met her a couple of times and we were supposed to do a record together but I was doing 'Absolute' at the time I think, and was too busy. It's nice to be asked though."
"It's funny, we get a lot of interest and approval from other musicians," he says. "With the last three singles everyone from Duran Duran to Bambaataa to Bowie to...Prefab Sprout would get in touch and say 'thought they were wonderful records'. The most unlikely and wildly famous people! That's flattering in some ways. Like getting mentioned on the Archers or hearing your song being played in the background to 'Coronation Street'." It turns out that Green was sitting listening to 'The Archers' one day when Sid Perks, the landlord of the programme's local pub, mentioned him in connection with his daughter Lucy's birthday. "He said 'I don't know! All this music she goes on about -- -Wham!, somebody else I can't remember and someone called Green and I've never heard of him.' It was something like that," smiles Green. "And Shulah Archer said 'Oh yes, I know' and Shulah clearly knew who I was and put Sid Perks right on the matter." It seems Green is a keen follower of British soap operas. "In fact," he says, "Christopher Quentin who plays Brian Tilsley in 'Coronation Street' drinks in the pub around the corner from where I live. I've never thought of him as Brian though -- he's too short to be Brian Tilsley. I like 'Brookside' too. Bobby Grant -- what a guy! "I find something comforting or morbidly fascinating about soaps," he continues. "It's like listening to reggae. You can leave them for months and when you come back it's like you've never been away."
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![[photo of Green]](RM85.gif)
Three years ago, Scritti Politti were just about the most important group in the
world. With 'Asylums In Jerusalem' you felt someone had finally come up with the
perfect pure pop song. Unbearably catchy, I'd bought it expecting the smooth,
whitened reggae flow of 'The Sweetest Girl' and ended up humming its infectious
rhythms for the next year.