Melody Maker - 12 November 1994

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE WATERBOYS ‘81-’85
Ensign

Between 1984 and 1986, The Waterboys took to the stage with a frenzied abandon that, for intensity at least, could probably only be compared to The Rollins Band - unlikely as that may seem.

I actually blacked out during one of their best gigs. They were storming through Prince’s “Purple Rain” at the time. “I could die happy now,” I said, and nearly did. A searing pain shot up my spine, suddenly I was slumped against the exit door being revived. The Waterboys were great at causing weird shit to happen.

This compilation rounds up the bulk of the best of their unreleased material from around that time - add a live track, a remix, Beeb sessions and hard to find B-sides, stand well back, and watch them explode all over again.

Highlights are the dramatic breakneck chase of “Medicine Bow” that kicks it all off; the oceanic shimmer of grand piano, violin, sax and trumpet that hold us rapt through a version of “Don’t Bang The Drum” that honestly sounds like it was recorded in heaven; and the awe inspiring majesty of “The Earth Only Endures” - a red Indian death chant set against the sodden chill of a masterfully recorded rainstorm and shot through by Mike Scott’s ghostly funereal howl.

Scott might have name-checked Dylan and The Clash in interviews, but it was his interest in William Blake, WB Yeats and Aleister Crowley’s female counterpart Dion Fortune that cast the shadows and fired the romanticism in the best Waterboys songs.

The version of “Rags”, a tortured wail of self-disgust from “A Pagan Place” and included here with its original lyrics, is truly unnerving. Scott’s voice cracks at one point, seemingly unable to cope with the mephitic enormity of what he’s grappling with.

Elsewhere, there’s an early, live version of “Savage Earth Heart”, the unreleased “Ways Of Men” which features a sax riff sleazier than Portillo in tights, and a cheeky “Billy Sparks”, an ‘82 romp which Scott in the sleeve notes mysteriously refers to as raggle taggle (don’t worry it’s not).

The final track, “Love That Kills”, a gorgeous ballad draped around the piano riff to Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (a song The Waterboys were closing gigs with way before Zoo TV is something so special I’ll leave it to you to discover.

If, like me, you had your life enriched by The Waterboys’ music, this album is a gift from the Gods. Same there’s no “Born To Be Together” or “Higher In Time Though.

MAT SMITH