Book of Love by Book of Love

Book of Love's self-titled freshman album also ended on a self-titled song. Although never released as a single, it remained one of their best songs, I always thought, neatly encapsulating everything that BoL did right on their first CD. Combining a cheerful yet dreamily romantic danceable sensibility with light synthesizers, numerous chimes (or "tubular bells" as they're often credited) and of course Susan Ottaviano's lush, nearly baritone feminine voice singing poetic imagery in the lyrics, it's a perfect send-off for their album, and a great iconic song if you've got to name a song after your group.

I Touch Roses by Book of Love

Daniel Miller is a gigantic figure on the world of 80s synthpop. Not only did he dabble in music himself, penning the highly influential cult song "Warm Leatherette" in the late 70s that paved the way for synthpop and industrial to go kinda mainstream, but he also founded Mute Records, who brought us Depeche Mode, Yaz, Erasure, Fad Gadget, and more. There was a long and fruitful collaboration with Mute Records and American company Sire Records, who had been bringing over progressive British music since the mid 1960s; most of the Mute catalog got a Sire release in the States. Daniel Miller also made a name for himself as a producer and remixer, including, as it turns out, remixing this rare version of "I Touch Roses" by Book of Love. I actually hadn't ever heard this version until I found it on youtube just now, and I assumed that it was just a mislabeled "I Touch Roses (Long Stemmed Version)" but this is certainly a different remix altogether. A little digging around shows that it was originally packaged with the "You Make Me Feel So Good" 12" release. I never bought that because most of the remixes on the 12"ers for all of the releases from Book of Love were also present as bonus tracks on the CD release that I got. The casualties there were just this one mix, a dub version of "Modigliani" and a dub version of "Boy."

Of course, keeping in mind the fact that in the 1980s remixes were much gentler creatures than they are now. Now, what you expect from a remix is that remixer take the vocal track and essentially redo the instrumentation all over again, possibly with a nod back to original or possibly not. But in the 80s, they truly were mixed; they played around with different segments of the song, rearranging them, and lightly producing them by adding a few sounds or instruments here and there to change it just a bit. And, of course, to make it longer. This version isn't an overly long version of "I Touch Roses" though, and it just highlights the natural charm of the song.

This is also the first song I heard of Book of Love's, so it was my introduction to the band. Yep, in the 1980s, even tracks like this got some airplay, even in a rather small town that had barely one radio station that was just a slight bit off-center in terms of going beyond Casey Kasem's weekly top 40.

Although its neither here nor there, we had several country stations.

Tubular Bells by Book of Love

Book of Love was an interesting slice of mid to late 80s synthpopiana. In a time when the New Order and Depeche Mode influenced darker sound was becoming extremely prevalent, Book of Love popped up into the scene with a wistful, dreamy, ethereal romantic sound. At a time when male vocalists were dominating the synthpop scene, Book of Love put front-woman Susan Ottaviano on duty (although her vocal register is low enough that most male fans can probably sing along without too much trouble.)

I've always been a huge Book of Love fan... well, that is I was a fan of their first two albums. The eponymous 1985 freshman effort is truly one of the shining stars of the 80s synthpop scene; one of the best overall CDs ever released in the genre. The sophomore effort, Lullaby, is not as consistantly good, and has a bit more filler, although to make up for that gap, it has some of Book of Love's best individual songs, the title track "Lullaby" and the "Tubular Bells/Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls" medley (and "Witchcraft" and "With a Little Love" are good songs too. "Champagne Wishes" ain't bad either.)

Sadly, their third effort, Candy Carol was disappointing, with only three or four songs that are even worth mentioning at all (although since it came out in 1991, it's out of scope for this blog) and their fourth and final studio album, Lovebubble was even more disappointing. What started out as a great run kinda whimpered away.

That said, Book of Love did some great work. Never a pop chart topper in the US, they did, however, manage to make an impressive showing on the dance charts, and later mid-90s re-releases of some of their better songs actually performed even better on the charts then they did the first time.

Back in the 80s, I was also a big fan of the 12" single, so named because the vinyl releases came in 12" format, like an actual album (as opposed to the 7" smaller pressing, which played at a higher speed.) Now, I'm not necessarily a big fan of the vinyl format (especially now, since I don't even have a player to play my old 12"s anymore---although I do still have all those actual 12"s in my basement. Just in case.) Sadly, many of those remixes from that era never got digital re-releases, and the song I've chosen to highlight next, the decoupled so-called 7" version of "Tubular Bells" (a remake of Mike Oldfield's song, which was used as the theme for The Exorcist) is one such song. I have it on the "Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls" 12" single, but lacking a record player, if it weren't for youtube, I wouldn't even be able to hear this anymore. So, thanks a lot, youtube!