Starting with this…
Bill Nelson’s first post Be Bop Deluxe and Red Noise single and the first release on his own Cocteau label. Do You Dream In Colour was a preview of his forthcoming Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam album. I remember it seemed to take forever for that LP to finally see the light of day, eventually arriving some two years after the Red Noise’s Sound-on-Sound. Two years between albums doesn’t sound like much these days but it was an eternity back then. At least we got four tracks – Bill’s singles from the early 80s were usually quite generous with non-album bonus tracks.If you only know one Bill Nelson song chances are it’s Do You Dream In Colour. It got mostly favourable reviews, at least one pointing out a similarity to an old T-Rex song (I forget which one), and was a small hit, peaking at No 52 in the UK chart. It’s not really what I expected at the time, I had anticipated a more electronic sound, but I was won over by its jaunty poppy sound which is a bit at odds with the lyric.
The first two songs on side 2 are by the touring version of Red Noise, possibly destined for the planned but never released 2nd album. Neither would sound too out of place on Sound-on-Sound. If you’re familiar with that LP it’s easy to imagine Ideal Homes in the middle of side 2 and Instantly Yours has a similar vibe to Stop Go Stop.
Finally Atom Man Loves Radium Girl features Bill Nelson on all instruments and is probably nearer to the sound I was expecting.
The three side 2 songs are not currently available on CD even though they would have made ideal bonus tracks on the Quit Dreaming reissue.
Bill Nelson - Do You Dream In Colour (1980)
Bill Nelson - Ideal Homes (1980)
Bill Nelson - Instantly Yours (1980)
Bill Nelson - Atom Man Loves Radium Girl (1980)
7 comments:
One of my favourite Bill Nelson tunes- I liked this period of his a lot. Don't buy much of his stuff now but he is pretty prolific still.
I love 80s era Bill Nelson from Quit Dreaming to Getting the Holy Ghost Across. The last CD I bought was Whimsy which I can't get into but I've been re-evaluating 'After The Satellite Sings' (from the 90s) in the car recently and it's better than I remember.
The T.Rex song which this was likened to is 'Get It On'.
I wasn't convinced by this track in 1980 and 30 years on it still pales by comparison to the Be Bop DeLux/Red Noise material.
BrotheRay
(sorry, forgotten my password,could be age.)
Doesn't sound anything like 'Get It On' to me.
I think it's just the intro the reviewer was refering to.It's not long before you're singing 'Your dirty sweet and your my girl'.
I've always thought that Ideal Homes is a stronger song than Do you Dream.
I think as an A-side I'd have to go for Do You Dream but Ideal Homes is certainly the most 'Red Noise' of the four songs.
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