Edwyn Collins
Born in 1978 from the ashes of Collins’s college band (the Nusonics, a group of Buzzcocks-obsessed punkers), Orange Juice would spend the next eight years forging their own sound, wedding their love of northern soul and Motown to the do-it-yourself punk ethic. Orange Juice’s first few singles were put out on Postcard Records, a label set up by Collins and cohort Alan Horne. The label also released 45s by Josef K., the Go-Betweens, and Aztec Camera, and Collins and Horne both envisioned a “hit factory,” going so far as to cop Motown’s motto for their own purposes: “the Sound of Young Scotland.”
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The early Orange Juice singles were decidedly more punk than funk, yet Collins was a prankster, not protester, bringing a touch of thoughtful levity to punk rock. Collins’s self-deprecating lyrics would influence Morrissey and the Smiths and countless other preening pop bands leaving their mark on Britain’s mid-80s indie scene. Take his pithy warning to weekend punks starting their own bands, in 1980’s “Lovesick,” O.J.’s second single: “Posturing, posturing, cut yourself shaving. / Bleeding too much, please give it a rest. / If you’re not careful, I’ll grow to dislike you. / Sorry to moan, but that’s what I do best.”
A surprising number of old fans mingled with the new enthusiasts packed into the Double Door last Thursday night. Ivy, the opening band, performed original material that all seemed to blur together, especially obvious after playing a standout cover of Orange Juice’s “I Guess I’m Just a Little Too Sensitive.” Collins appeared to take the homage personally as he climbed onstage alone with an acoustic guitar. Starting off with his heart on his sleeve while still lampooning the confessional style, he shamelessly positioned Rod McKuen’s “Love’s Been Good to Me” between a couple of his own more emotionally direct songs from the current album, “North of Heaven” and “Subsidence.” He set the stage for his band’s arrival by gently admonishing fans who were asking others to be quiet: “It’s rock ‘n’ roll. You’re supposed to do what you want.” The band launched into a striking version of “The Campaign for Real Rock,” with a breakout at the song’s end that showed off Collins as a guitarist, capable of reaching a level of intensity similar to Prince’s guitar work on the Purple Rain album (yet squarely in his own eccentric style of playing). Unlike other performers who find success after years of struggle, Collins didn’t distance himself from his past. Mixing in a handful of Orange Juice songs–including the elegiac “Dying Day” and rousing renditions of “Bridge” and O.J.’s first single “Falling and Laughing”–he continually reminded us of his importance as a father to Britain’s current indie scene.
