my old Italian text by/ Tradotto da Nicholas Green)
Not only were the Happy Mondays celebrated figures of the "Madchester" scene that shook Britain in the 1990s, but they were also emblematic of its social origins. Formed in 1981 by juvenile delinquent and drug addict Shaun Ryder, the Happy Mondays represented the alienation of underclass youth in industrial areas (including Manchester itself) during Margaret Thatcher's Conservative period. As nightclubs replaced pubs as dens of iniquity for young people, Detroit techno supplanted the old rhythm and blues of the pubs, and - in parallel - ecstasy dethroned alcohol.
The album Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)
(Factory, 1987) was a somewhat amateurish exercise in psychedelic funk, harkening back to the dance music of the 1970s
(Olive Oil and Cob 20 are the best attempts).
However, it was the single 24 Hour Party People that brought them to the attention of the disco audience. As if by magic, techno, rock and soul had finally found its balance, and the results provided the perfect soundtrack for ecstasy overdoses.
The sociomusical vision of Shaun Ryder (vocals) and Marc Day (guitar) came to fruition on the album Bummed (Factory, 1989).
The unifying element here is trance: both the debased Country Song
and the psychedelic litany Moving In With are drawn out and slowed down, teeming with soft polyrhythms and barely modulated melodic lines. It's a method that triumphs in the "boogie" - no longer such after adulteration - of Wrote For Luck. Since trance is ideal for raves, this is where the group's fortunes originate. When the group tries to mint its own form of dance music
(Brain Dead), they end up producing a bad imitation of New Order;
when they revise styles from the past (for example in Mad Cyril an orchestral rhythm and blues ), they usher in a kind of "genre remix".
After a couple of mediocre singles (Hallelujah and a cover of John Kongos's Step On) they released their third album,
Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches (Elektra, 1990).
Ryder has now become a quintessentially sarcastic and nonchalant techno star, having completely abandoned the hooligan and rocker persona with which he had presented himself. Overall, the lyrics of this album can be read as a chronicle of a day in the life of a club rat. And - perhaps in part because of Paul Davis's funky keyboards - the influence of black dance music is obvious (Kinky Afro, reprising LaBelle's Lady Marmalade, God's Cop, Loose Fit),
albeit masked in the group's "ecstatic" tone. In a sense, their third album marks a regression to the first, in light of the rave culture that the second helped launch. The Caribbean novelty Bob's Yer Uncle, the soulful touch of Dennis And Lois, the rhythm and blues pacing of Grandbag's Funeral, and the Rolling Stones-esque swagger of Harmony
maintain a sufficiently broad scope. Few albums so accurately document the atmosphere of those years.
At this point Ryder had fallen headlong into the abyss of drug addiction and seemed unable to get out alive. Not only had his singing been reduced to a faint wisp, but his lyrics had devolved into mere word salad.
Yes Please! (Factory, 1992) fails to rise above the usual third-rate funk (Stinkin Thinkin),
in spite of the commercially driven injection of inane ballads and Caribbean moves (Sunshine And Love, Angel).
A victim of its own ignorance and its own excesses, the group disbanded. Their parable mirrored that of their own city, which quickly went from paradise on earth to a den of organized crime and a hotbed of the "AIDS and drugs" catastrophe.
Ryder would resurface as the leader of Black Grape in 1995, a lineup with two rappers (Ryder and Paul Leveridge), the searing guitar of Paul Wagstaff, and a small orchestra of horns and keyboards. The multifaceted dance music (funk, hip-hop, jungle, raga, house, reggae, and heavy metal) of It's Great When You're
Straight (Radioactive, 1995) unleashes the easygoing impetus of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the epic choruses of the Clash, from the frenzied shuffle of
Reverend Black Grape to the raga-psychedelic merry-go-round of
In The Name Of The Father, and from the decadent, spacey nursery rhyme of
Kelly's Heroes to the soul-organ rap of Little Bob.
But what makes them famous is mostly vapidity like Tramazi Parti.
An unpretentious album that simply carries on in the "crazy" vein of Madchester, it also marks a comeback in a big way for Ryder.
Even more disengaged,
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid (Radioactive, 1998) pivots to the sarcastic, sacrilegious dance of Get Higher and the catchy
Marbles, but once again specializes in off-color jokes and dazed shenanigans like Money Back Guaranteed .
The lively swagger of Rubber Band and especially Dadi Was A Badi
keep the myth alive at high schools across the globe.
Session (Planet Groove, 2001) is a deluxe double album of covers
and the first Shaun Ryder solo.
The Happy Mondays reunited for the terrible Uncle Dysfunktional (2007).
