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AL Puppy
November 17, 2007 at 9:43 pmWhy was KYPP so unique? Well read the quote from Val below, which says it all “we were hungry for life and prepared to look for it anywhere” … Which is still true today – having just discovered the Soft Boys/ Vegetable Man an hour ago and 27 years after it was first released. Waffle waffle waffle… Listen to the song!
Soft Boys/ Vegetable Man. 99.999% certain I never heard this before, but thought I’d have a listen. What the… this sounds seriously psychedelic. Like Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. Do a quick google on Soft Boys – ah Robyn Hitchcock, recognise that name. And Vegetable Man? Ah ha – an actual Syd Barrett song, but not released until 1988…
Another old fashioned big round pre-decimal penny drops into place… in my mis-spent pre-punk youth I’d been a fan of all things weird n psychedelic and had (still have) Syd Barrett’s solo album ‘The Madcap Laughs’. I had spent many hours circa 1974/5 laboriously transcribing Syd’s strange lyrics into a note book.
Which came in handy in 1981 – was able to dig it out and the lyrics to ? song by Syd were written around the editorial page of KYPP 4.
And the point is? What Val said about the range of influences which fed into KYPP – in a Comment on All the Madmen’s myspace site [disagreeing with what I had said which downplayed the influence of Crass on KYPP]. Here is the key part of what Val said:
we were hungry for life and prepared to look for it anywhere – from 50s rock and roll via Kenneth Anger films (and rockabilly pirate radio), 60s plastic and rebellion from the Monkees to Velvet Underground, 70s glam and pomp – Bowie to another brick in the wall, but also anything new – New Order, Heaven 17, Soft Cell, Pigbag… we were musical floozies, prepared to give anything at least one listen! [Quote ends]