Metamatic Forums John Foxx Ultravox He's A Liquid '79

Found this on YouTube - He's A Liquid performed live by Ultravox (Foxx era) at the Paradise Theatre in 1979. Audio only, no live footage (d'oh), just a picture of the band on the screen in place of footage. Guess which picture was uploaded for an Ultrafoxx track?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFXyZ3Esrq0

Note the different lyrics...

Thanks for that Sans even though yes the picture is completely wrong..doooohhh ..
Anyway the person who posted it is an Italian so he will be getting an appropriate commento , although if the profile is right he is also quite young so he just needs a bit of edu-cay-shion ....
The recording is from the Boston bootleg which is quite easyto find...also features 'Touch & Go' as well as others.

Ah! I've got that bootleg too, which the evil Cerise taped for me in an effort to destroy the music industry

(And it worked! Look at the state of things 20 years later!! ;0)

wow you two go way back then!

I think I ordered it from the paper Extreme Voice 'zine?
Goodness knows how I ever heard that the zine existed without the Interweb to help me though!
I would've ordered the video stuff too, but we didn't have a VCR in our house back then! lol

The boston 79, philly 79, and london \'78\' lyrics.
These are about 95% accurate but any improvements would be welcome.

I always thought that line was
"He reads the Bible, he feels so libelled with the thought! - He's a Liquid."

Yes ive re-listened to the boston '79, (with better equipment since '06) and it does sound different to my original line. Ive also found the first line of the second verse to be different too.
The up-date version continues......

I've had several goes at this too, so I'll join in later with my interpretations. Its fascinating to watch how these lyrics matured. Even just a few days a apart they were experimenting with different lines.

The same is true for Touch and Go, so we could move onto the different versions of that too

You're welcome.

Cheers Newvox, interesting that they (the band) would alter the lyrics three times.

I doubt very much that the band had any say in it-
young Dennis would've sung what he wanted.

Okay, looks like the clip has been removed from YouTube...

He told me he was going to change the picture....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHl8rq4Np30

That will take a while, but ive been going through two, from the same shows....boston an philly.

.....yes thats for sure, plus on the london version John forgot the new lyric and said 'any old line' at one point.

Which 'London version' are you listening to, Ken?

I haven't picked that line up

I noticed on the Torque Point thread (on the second page) the lyrics for the London version has "(line omitted)", this was what you were reffering to, right Newvox?

A perfect example of misinterpretation of the written word Martin. I did not mean 'any old line' literally, more that he made up something. Dadge and i cant tell what it is though, and dare i say it may mean nothing.
Its from the 'london '78 marquee', and not the one listed sometimes as 'london (dec) '78 marquee'.

Almost right, Antoinette. The omitted line is another where we can only guess if John forgot the words, or just forgot to sing them at all. Then theres the line that Martin was referring too. All in all the london version is more difficult to hear than, boston and philly.

Uh-oh .......

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=WHl8rq4Np30

?

Now instead of the Ure-vox pic there's one of JF ..circa 1982 ???

Looks like theres some re-purpose going on.

Is that The One That Goes Like This...?
The (??) bits have passed me by. This is from a transcript I did of the Marquee gig (26th Dec) in which there is definitely at least one 'impossible' line.
I haven't listened to the Lyceum one (10th Dec) for ages, but the version I have of it is appalling quality. Very slow.
I have noticed though that the last verse of this Marquee version is the first verse of that earlier one.

Ken, I'd love to see your transcript of the earlier (first??) performance.

Or get a better quality copy than I currently have...

He’s an angle
She’s a tangent
He’s a broken heart in flood (??)
He’s a watcher
She’s a mistake
He’s a liquid

He’s a take up
She’s a take down
He turns a smile she turns around
He’s says: “hey what’s up
???
He’s a liquid

He’s unnatural
He‘s afraid to talk (???)
She’s a chance
He’s a glance
He’s a liquid

She’s one step ahead
He’s two steps back
She's a smile that could give you a heart attack (???)
She looks around every corner
He’s a liquid

He’s an angle
She’s a tangent
He’s a frequency
She’s a radiance
He takes it all
He feels small
He’s a liquid

He dresses up
She dresses down
She takes in all the figures and sounds
He chases her all over town
He’s a liquid

Yeah, but at least they got the right 'Vox frontman.

Thats the one Martin, but typical of bootlegs, i have it listed as just london '78. My london '78 dec, is not the one youv'e transcriped here. And it still looks different to mine, even though its the same gig.

Perhaps you could post your transcript here, and we can see where the confusion is? It could be that its NOT the same gig, or it could be that my transcript is hopelessly wrong.

As far as I'm aware there are only two bootlegs with this song on from London. They are either Lyceum (10th) or Marquee (26th) Dec 1978.
There are then (at least) four US recordings of the same - although doubtless there were more performances on that tour.

At the very least, it would be interesting to see where we differ on the transcript.

It does seem to me that your 'london 78 dec' is the Lyceum gig. I'd love a copy of this that was actually intelligible...

I recently got hold of a fantastic quality FLAC version of the Philadelphia - Hot Club gig from 23 February 1979 - containing yet another alternative vocal.

Before anyone queries this transcript...

1) I know the Metamatic version is "watch hand glows" but this is definitely "watch hands glow".

2) I've put the hyphens in verse 4 to emphasise John's staccato style of narration at this point of the track.

3) I'll get me anorak!

This version of He's a Liquid '79 transcribes as follows...

He’s an angle
She’s a tangent
He’s a sticky white shirt and tie
In those viscose clothes his watch hands glow, he’s a liquid

He suggests
She’s impressed
He takes the lead, she follows through
And all the time their checking numbers, he’s a liquid

Ohhhhhh

He’s adhesive
She’s elusive
They’d read The Bible about The Flood
He takes a chance, she says “let’s take a dance”, he’s a liquid

He looks around once or twice
He re-fu-ses to take any kind of ad-vice
He says “what’s your name?”
She says “what’s your game?” He says “I’m a liquid”

Ahhhhhh

(long instrumental piece at this point with lots of Billy viola)


He’s an angle
She’s a tangent
Reads The Bible about The Flood
He wears viscose clothes and his watch hands glow, he’s a liquid.

He checks her up
She says “no no go down”
He says “Well, I’m not made that way. I can’t turn round, all my faces face the wrong way. I’m a liquid”

Ahhhhhhh

Ahhhhhhh

I hadn't realised NewVox had also posted these on Torque Point. (Note to self "Must read whole thread next time). That said, I think that as we have independently come up with exactly the same that the Philly lyrics can be considered 100% accurate (punctuation excepted).

Excellent thanks - one or two bits clarified for me too.

So now we just need to establish the two lyrics from the London performances

I'll have a go at the "Echoes of Pleasure" version later on and let you know what I come up with.

Are we happy with the Boston Paradise Theatre version? I haven't checked that yet but have a very, very clear version in stereo direct from the original reel-to-reel (No adverts!!!)

Which one is that??

Echoes of Pleasure was the triple Japanese vinyl Bootleg containing 3 sides of FoxxVox 26/12/78 @ The Marquee - and 3 sides of UreVox Dec 1980.

Thanks for clearing that up. I've got this boot on a CD then, and its the one I've had a go at transcribing, and posted above.
never heard it refered to as "Echoes of Pleasure" before...

Look forward to your interpretation.

I don't wanna go too off topic but 'Echoes of Pleasure' was a bootleg that I first came across at a record fair in Russell Square, London around 1983.

Boots at the time were something like £10 for a single LP, £15 for a double so you can imagine that only being 15 yrs old, Echoes of Pleasure was slightly beyond my reach.

I can't imagine there were many produced as boots in the early 80's were very ltd affairs, maybe 250-500 max.

About 10 years later a collector from Brighton (can't remember his name... but sounded French) had a mint copy up for sale in Record Collector so I thought as I've only ever seen this once what the heck... and I got it. Paid for the privilege tho'.

So anyone who has this on CD, the original source is more than likely the vinyl boot from 1981.

I supplied pictures of the cover (front and back)to the Japanese site 'Ultravox Station' a few years ago, see here for track listing...
http://jage.jp/ultravox/disco/Discography_UV_MU_Boot.html#EchoesOfPleasure

Wondering off topic again.

On side D of the boot (the 1980 urevox one) track 1 is listed as Theme'80.

Never heard of a Urevox track called that

Theme 80 is the bootlegger's title for the 1 minute intro before the band launch into the 1st song. It's an instrumental rhythm piece reminiscent of elements of The Quiet Men... which funnily enough is the next track.

Is it worth starting up an Echoes of Pleasure thread to discuss?

This version of He's a Liquid '79 is from the February 25 gig at the Atlantis Club, Washington DC... Bit's in brackets I'm not sure about. Note there are no aaahs or ooohs in between the verses on this version.

He’s an angle
She’s a tangent
He’s a clatter on next door's floor
He takes it all too far
And he wishes it (bizarre)
He's a liquid

He pulls,
She push
He's a trickle down a falling wall
He says "Hey what's the (difference. It's too late)"
He's a liquid

She's elusive,
He's adhesive
He's a milky white shirt and tie
In his viscose clothes his watch hand glows, he’s a liquid

He smiles
She chats
He's so brash, she's a laugh, he's a (?)
He's a rinky-dink & it makes you think
He’s a liquid

They're going up
[Instrumental break]

He’s an angle
She’s a tangent
He's a sticky white shirt & tie
In those viscose clothes his watch hand glows, he’s a liquid.

He smiles
She takes a chance
He ripples down the falling wall
They read the bible
He takes a chance (too far)
He's a liquid

Not sure if this is negative or positive - there are several trains of thought that lead both ways! Anyway, listening to this clip several times, the inevitable split of the original Ultravox sounds so imminent. By this I mean that the song is a bit incoherent, and just being played by the wrong people. I say this as both a JF and Ultravox fan - I think the other members were clearly playing something that they did not feel comfortable with. Compare it to other songs from that period and maybe you can get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

Positive, as the true potential of the material was eventually realised in a succesful solo career, but negative because SOR is probably my favorite album and I want to hear the sequel!! One more album would have been great, but in this one track I can hear things falling apart.