Microdisney ‎– Crooked Mile (1987)

Crooked Mile is the third album by the Irish sophisti-pop band Microdisney, produced by Lenny Kaye and released in January 1987 on Virgin.

The album contains twelve originals by singer/keyboardist Cathal Coughlin and guitarist/harpist Sean O’Hagan.

Former Mo-dettes drummer June Kingston sings backing vocals. Onetime Cochise guitarist B.J. Cole makes contributions on pedal steel (“Our Children”) and lap steel (“Hey Hey Sam”). “Rack” features the ‘Frugalhorns of Allah.’

A1. “Town to Town”

3:21 |

Got a peaceful feeling
I’ve found the reason
For taking nothing seriously.
Its the guessing game with
Those waves of flame and,
Sick winter for a thousand years
Me and my ex-lover
Will accept each other,
Help reap the dead harvest,
Town to town.

She’s nervous and her
Best friend is waiting,
She’s trying to pronounce my name.
Talk all we may she
Can’t but conceal
The fullness of her secret heart.
Its our lives,
Its nothing, don’t touch me,
Don’t call me,
I can’t wake up.
Can’t help you,
Someone else will,
If you just sit still.

When the daily parade of the troubles you made gets you down,
Just consider the fate of the wide open space from town to town.

Get Oslo, get Glasgow
Hit Bonn and hit Bordeaux,
Fry Dresden, fry Dublin,
Why don’t you call me?
I’ve got nobody.

When the daily parade of the troubles you made gets you down,
Just consider the fate of the wide open space from town to town.

“Town to Town” is a medium-uptempo song (in F) with a vocal melody that hovers on the dominant (C). Fell’s low-end bass ostinato drives the song, which features refined string arrangements (Ocean Rain-like) and clean, muted, twangy guitar licks.

The narrator sings of his parting ex-lover, whose friend awaits in a different town. He senses her lingering love, which he resists with misgivings. The “daily parade” concerns gossip (real of feared) about “the troubles you made.”

In the “Town to Town” video, Microdisney perform in a window-wall studio that doubles as a public transit vehicle. Members and travelers climb aboard as a leather-jacketed Cathal stands tense with his hands folded tight as tenement scenery passes behind. Midway, their traveling studio passes through a car wash. Later, their hybrid vehicle passes a group of Easterly RC Club cyclists in yellow/green uniforms.

A4. “Mrs. Simpson”

3:54 |

I went to see
Mrs Simpson
Up ten flights of stairs.
My aunt had died
Leaving me millions
Which I wanted to share.

Door was closed
Locked and barred
The sign read sealed forever.
Should not have come
Summers gone
The year hangs tarred and feathered.

Like head on legs
Rest of a person
Somewhere in between.
I took the lot
Taking her over
All crazy and mean.

What we did and said in this place
No one will ever know so what’s your disgrace?
Here comes broken backs the bloody tears
The air’s thick and black and you disappeared.

I went up
To see Mrs Simpson
But she was not there.
She may have gone
Back to her husband
But I dont really care.

Broken backs
Heart attacks
Don’t help keep me sober.
I should not have come
Cause what I’ve done
Is done and gone and over.

So hard luck
I won’t own up
At your inquest come December.
Its world war six
or twenty one
The sense has gone its over.
Over and done.

B4. “Rack”

4:30 |

I must not do this thing
I’ll wreck my social life
They’ll disinfect my chair and
Claim some uncivil rights.
They’ll say “You son of a gun”
Old lovers pleading
“Why?”

I’ll say go and ask your friend the hack
He’s putting straight the record track
Here comes the sun
To black is black.
Ask him why he turns his back
On the innocents upon the rack.
Saves his sympathy for rats.

The doctor is a fool
He’s just a callous snob
He had fifteen years in a Jesuit school,
And now he’s not fit for any job
He just sneers and he drives a big car
Is this my saviour?
Oh tell, do tell.

Go and ask your friend the hack
He’s putting straight the record track
Lets spend the night
Here comes get back.

There’s nothing wrong with me
I am just wonderful,
I’ve got pop songs to keep me calm
And faithful friends like you.
So if you ever need a view
At my barbed wire rainbow,

Go and ask your friend the hack
He’s dancing to his record track
You’re paranoid,
You’re paranoid.

This is what we call a rack, moron,
This is what we call a rack.
You’re just a straight
And you asked for it
This is what we call a rack
This is what we call a rack.

“Rack” is a midtempo song with an eighth note beat. Cathal’s assured, emotive vocals (second note in) dominate the arrangement, filled with Sixties Hammond organ (faint), clipped guitar, and subtle cello — all guided by an understated bassline in the diatonic C scale. Midway, synths merge with cello for a swelling 25-second instrumental passage (in B minor and E♭).

In the midst of a heist (“rack” is Irish slang for big money), the ringleader grapples with self-doubt and distrust of accomplices. He bemoans his getaway driver (“he’s not fit for any job”). To alleviate his nerves, he self-rationalizes (“There’s nothing wrong with me”) and mind-plays “pop songs to keep [himself] calm.”

B5. “Big Sleeping House”

3:04 |

We went to a cheap hotel
A no soap no sleep hotel
It did for us and for public scorn.
In the dying town where we were born
How I hoped she wouldn’t change her mind.
Up until it was time to find
She was even crazier than I

In the big sleeping house
Painted white
Facing south
With the ghost to grin at you
Afternoon
Now please get out.

This is the night before
We’ve had a little and we want some more
It shakes the world and it makes us sweat
We make no promises we make no threats.

And I gave her what she did demand
It was weak and it was built on sand
And she clawed through it with both her hands.

In the big sleeping house
Painted white
Facing south
With the ghost to grin at you
Afternoon
Now please get out.

– With the ghosts.

I heard she went off to America
She has position and possessions now
And I will bet she can’t remember how

In the big sleeping house
Painted white
Facing south
She held my hands

Up to her face
And said damn this place
This haunted place

In the big sleeping house
Painted white
Facing south
With the ghost to grin at you
Afternoon
Now please get out.

“Big Sleeping House” is a medium-uptempo song with a strummed, big-beat intro, joined by rippling Hammond in the diatonic D scale. On the ninth bar (at :07), the rhythm pauses for O’Hagan, who plays a fingerpicked acoustic motif (in B minor), joined by Coughlin’s vocals. The verses sway between two chords (Bm… Em…), followed by a trip-beat ascending bridge and a flowing, harmonized chorus (in G). Fenner sprays ride cymbal on the break: a call-and response of piano and legato guitar. The abrupt changes in this song are unique in Microdisney’s catalog.

The narrator recalls his first sexual encounter at a cheap hotel in his hometown with a local girl who’s long since found success overseas in the US.

Crooked Mile appeared amid an Irish music renaissance brought to global attention by the spring 1987 release of U2‘s Joshua Tree. Concurrent releases came from Ireland’s esteemed veterans (Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher) and acclaimed newcomers (Fountainhead, Cactus World News, That Petrol Emotion).

Tracklist:
1. “Town to Town” (3:21)
2. “Angels” (3:44)
3. “Our Children” (4:33)
4. “Mrs. Simpson” (3:54)
5. “Hey Hey Sam” (4:21)
6. “Give Me All of Your Clothes” (4:03)
7. “Armadillo Man” (3:05)
8. “Bullwhip Road” (3:39)
9. “And He Descended Into Hell” (3:45)
10. “Rack” (4:30)
11. “Big Sleeping House” (3:04)
12. “People Just Want to Dream” (5:20)

Credits:
Tom Fenner — drums, percussion, backing vocals
Steve Pregnant — bass
Cathal Coughlan — lead vocals, keyboard, flexatone
Sean O’Hagan — guitar, harmonica, backing vocals
James Compton — keyboards, accordion, backing vocals

Lenny Kaye — producer, backing vocals
Bill Gill — tambourine, recorder
June Kingston — harmony vocals
B.J. Cole — pedal steel (A3), lap steel (A5)