Blow Monkeys the Masters

Infobox Album
Name = Blow Monkeys The Masters
Type = compilation
Artist = The Blow Monkeys


Released = 1997
Recorded = 1984-1990
Genre = pop rock
new wave
funky
dance
ballad
Length = ?
Label = Eagle Series
Producer = Dr. Robert
Adam Moseley
Peter Wilson
Michael Baker & The Axeman
Stephen Hague
Juan Atkins
Paul Witts/Egor
Reviews = * [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000026N2B Amazon.com]
Last album = "Springtime for the World" (1990)
This album = "Blow Monkeys The Masters" (1989)
Next album = "Atomic Lullabies - Very Best of The Blow Monkeys"
(1999)

Blow Monkeys The Masters is a compilation from British new wave / Dance band The Blow Monkeys, released in 1997, by Eagle label, for its well known "Eagle Series", presenting many UK groups' master collections. The greatest hits album, the second, following the more famous "Choices - The Singles Collection", out in 1989, contains all their most popular singles (including all four singles taken from the band's best-selling album, the 1987 "She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter", which also features their best-selling single, British Number 5 hit "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way", and the most famous singles off their previous album, "Animal Magic", that is "Wicked Ways", and The Blow Monkeys' very first hit single, "Digging Your Scene"), the three most popular singles from their debut album, the 1984 "Limping for a Generation", the two previously unreleased tracks on the previous collection, that is the duets with Sylvia Tella (the big hit "Choice?", and the minor hit "Slaves No More"), and the very last single ever released by the band before they split up, "La Passionara", off the 1990 "Springtime for the World". What is specially interesting on Blow Monkeys The Masters is the very hard to find cover version of "Superfly" by Curtis Mayfield, soul music legend whom vocalist and leader Dr. Robert has always pointed to as his main musical inspiration; the song was originally a B-Side of the 1986 single, "Don't Be Scared of Me", one of the less known and one of the few not to have entered the charts. A similar fate was met by "It Pays to Belong", though a popular tune, taken from the 1988 album "Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood". It was this latter work that originally included the only two songs here which never appeared in single format, "No Woman Is An Island" and "Squaresville", two stand-out tracks on the 1988 album, closing the Blow Monkeys The Masters compilation. That album also featured the second best-charting single from the band, "Wait", which got to Number 7, in early 1989, today considered as the initiator of the sub-genre later to be called UK Garage. Probably, the song does not feature here because originally only credited to Robert Howard (Dr. Robert's real name), in a duet with Chicago House diva, Kym Mazelle.

Track listing

# "Digging Your Scene" (from "Animal Magic", 1986)
# "Wicked Ways" (from "Animal Magic", 1986)
# "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way" (from "She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter", 1987)
# "Out with Her" (from "She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter", 1987)
# "Celebrate (The Day After You)" (with Curtis Mayfield) (from "She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter", 1987)
# "Some Kind of Wonderful" (from "She Was Only a Grocer's Daughter", 1987)
# "This Is Your Life" (1989, from "Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood", 1988)
# "Choice?" (with Sylvia Tella) (from "Choices - The Singles Collection", 1989)
# "Slaves No More" (with Sylvia Tella) (from "Choices - The Singles Collection", 1989)
# "La Passionara" (from "Springtime for the World", 1990)
# "Superfly" (from the B-Side to the "Don't be Scared of Me" single, 1986)
# "Atomic Lullaby" (from "Limping for a Generation", 1984)
# "It Pays to Belong" (from "Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood", 1988)
# "Man from Russia" (from "Limping for a Generation", 1984)
# "Wildflower" (from "Limping for a Generation", 1984)
# "Forbidden Fruit" (1985, from "Animal Magic", 1986)
# "No Woman Is an Island" (from "Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood", 1988)
# "Squareville" (from "Whoops! There Goes the Neighbourhood", 1988)

Line Up

*Dr Robert: lyrics, vocals, guitar, piano
*Mick Anker: bass guitar
*Neville Henry: saxophone
*Tony Kiley: drums, percussion

External links

* [http://www.drrobert.net/discography/animal.html Fencat Online] : Dr. Robert's Official Website.