Cardiacs--where to start?

[Lieto]

Never say never.
While Tim's improvement is gradual, for instance I really don't think he'll ever sing again, it is an improvement.
We all look forward to a time when his health is at a point that he could perhaps orchestrate the completion of this album.
It's the thought of completing the many half-started projects (of which there are loads, believe me!) that is spurring him on to get better.
The first of which would probably be finishing the editing of the rehearsal footage which was about 80% done at the time of his collapse.

The excitement is real!

[Horse]

I'm not yet two months since my awakening. I've not quite yet managed to adequately sum up in words what discovering Cardiacs has done to my spirit and brain but I thought it important to sign up and jump on board the thread to remind myself that the sheer weight of enjoyment is shared by others. I chuckle to myself with the amount of comments that perfectly echo my own experience.

[zombywoof]

I realized recently that I'm more excited for the reissue of Seaside than I am the new Tull remix.

This is kind of a big deal since Tull have been my favorite band since I was a kid.

But, man. Cardiacs.


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[arthurfrayn]

I'm not yet two months since my awakening. I've not quite yet managed to adequately sum up in words what discovering Cardiacs has done to my spirit and brain but I thought it important to sign up and jump on board the thread to remind myself that the sheer weight of enjoyment is shared by others. I chuckle to myself with the amount of comments that perfectly echo my own experience.

Did same a few minutes before you. Isn't it wonderful to find a band like this? Their stuff is like records you listen to in your dreams...

[The Twickerman]

Glad I have some company.

My least favourite too. Or perhaps that's Heaven Born. They both are great - of course.

[The Twickerman]

It's the thought of completing the many half-started projects (of which there are loads, believe me!) that is spurring him on to get better.

Ain't that great!

[Horse]

Did same a few minutes before you. Isn't it wonderful to find a band like this? Their stuff is like records you listen to in your dreams...

It brings to a close a good 15 years since I genuinely 'felt' music. Becoming musically literate and what have you, you notice all the cheat codes people are using and, at least for me, I've struggled to appreciate music - particularly guitar music - without an alarm in my head ringing out "don't be fooled, this was a piece of piss to make up!" I've taken my search to aleatory and back and whilst I can appreciate things, there's never been that fucking glow until I tripped over R.E.S. on FB the other week. It's a daily routine now.

[aith01]

Been listening to Guns lately. Does anyone have any idea what Come Back Clammy Lammy is about? Killer track, but the lyrics leave me a bit mystified (and that's an understatement). There's some bizarre imagery going on there...

[zombywoof]

Been listening to Guns lately. Does anyone have any idea what Come Back Clammy Lammy is about? Killer track, but the lyrics leave me a bit mystified (and that's an understatement). There's some bizarre imagery going on there...

No, but it has prompted me to nickname my dog Sam (not Sparky, mind you), 'Sammy Lammy' and encourage him to Come Back when he's strayed a bit too far.

[aith01]

No, but it has prompted me to nickname my dog Sam (not Sparky, mind you), 'Sammy Lammy' and encourage him to Come Back when he's strayed a bit too far.

Well now if I ever have a dog I'll want to name him Barky.

[thedunno]

Been listening to Guns lately. Does anyone have any idea what Come Back Clammy Lammy is about? Killer track, but the lyrics leave me a bit mystified (and that's an understatement). There's some bizarre imagery going on there...

This is exactly the great appeal of Tims lyrics for me. In 90% of the cases I do not have the faintest idea what they are really about but they are just full of those wonderful lines that plant images in your head that stay with you forever :-)

[PeterG]

I'm not yet two months since my awakening. I've not quite yet managed to adequately sum up in words what discovering Cardiacs has done to my spirit and brain but I thought it important to sign up and jump on board the thread to remind myself that the sheer weight of enjoyment is shared by others. I chuckle to myself with the amount of comments that perfectly echo my own experience.

Welcome to the club. And in your words I recognize my own Cardiacs awakening back in the 80s. Nothing ever again sounded the same, no other band has matched them. Nothing since has captured my undying devotion. This may sound like hyperbole, but it isn't.

[PeterG]

Horse has inspired me to retell my Cardiacs awakening story.

It was the late 80s, in a cottage in Old Coulsdon in Surrey (Cardiacs County), when my friend Ed, who I was singing with then in one of his bands and he then played occasional guitar and occasional piano later in one of my bands with me singing, and who had previously been in a band with Bic (yes, that Bic) played me Nurses Whispering Verses, and then the rest of a knackered old copy of Toy World, then he made me a copy of Toy World and OLAITS. But before Nurses had even finished I was already hooked for life. Then at one of my earliest Cardiacs gigs Ed introduced me to Bic and we all had a drink together.

[Horse]

It pains me the amount of near-misses I must've had and it's taken till my 32nd year to find them. Dark Star were my favourite band when I was a kid, for instance.

[PeterG]

What pains me most is that as a teenager and later as a young soldier I never went to gigs, I simply had no interest in doing so back then in the 70s & early 80s. So sadly I missed loads of great 70s and 80s gigs. My first EVER gig was Live Aid at Wembley in 1985, when I was 23. BUT I've made up for it since then and seen hundreds of bands at hundreds of gigs and festivals.

[PeterG]

Hi Horse, you might like my in-depth Cardiacs thread here: http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...iacs+anomalies

[loosefish]

Can't remember if this was posted before - A fan writes a short review of every Cardiacs song in chronological order...

[PeterG]

Can't remember if this was posted before - A fan writes a short review of every Cardiacs song in chronological order...

Every??? That is really stretching the definition of the word He seems to have done about 30 odd.

------------------------
This is a doc I compiled a while ago, it is in alphabetical order and includes all tracks from the Cardiac Arrest demo in 78 all the way up to 91, the last release included is Songs For Ships And Irons. BE WARNED - my list includes rarities and outtakes available on bootlegs but never officially released, also some tracks were once called one thing but are now called something else, so there are a few with alternate names:

Part I- up to 1991

A Balloon For Berties Party
A Bus For A Bus On The Bus
A Cake For Berties Party
A Game For Berties Party
A Little Man And A House
A Time For Rejoicing
A Treat From Mr Smith
A Wooden Fish On Wheels
All His Geese Are Swans
All Spectacular
All The String
Ants
Arnald
As Cold As Can Be In An English Sea
Aukamacic
Baby Heart Dirt
Big Noise In A Toy World
Big Ship
Bite 3/a (alt. Vic Bite 3a.)
Bits & Bobs (rarity – alt. Piffol Two Times or Piffol Six Times)
Bitter Pill (rarity)
Blind In Safety And Leafy In Love
Buds And Spawn
Burn Your House Brown
Cameras
Camouflage
Dead Mouse
Dergo
Dinner Time
Dinnertime Is At Home (Not Here)
Dive
Everything Is Easy
Fast Robert
Food On The Wall
Gina Lollabridgida
Gloomy News
Goosegash
Hellow Mr Minnow (rarity – alt. The Music Goes Round And Round)
Hello Mr Sparrow
Hope Day
Hopeless
Horsehead (Horse Head)
Hymn (rarity)
I Bit The Vicar
Ice A Spot And A Dot On The Dog
Icky Qualms
I Hold My Love In My Arms
I'm Eating In Bed
In A City Lining
In A Waiting Room
Interlude
Is This The Life?
It's Lovely Day
Jibber And Twitch
Leaf Scrapings
Let Alone My Plastic Doll
Little Creations
Loosefish Scapegrace
Mare’s Nest
Minnow Bandage (rarity)
Nurses Whispering Verses
Over (outtake)
Over and Over and Over and Over
Perfect (Perfic)
Picture of misery (rarity
Piffol Five Times (rarity)
Piffol Four Times
Piffol One Time
Piffol Three Times
Pilf
Pip As Uncle Dick But Peter Spoilt It
Plane Plane Against The Grain
R.E.S.
Rock Around The Clock
Scratching Crawling Scrawling
Stoneage Dinosaurs
Summer Is A Coming In
Susannahs Still Alive
T.V.T.V
Tarred And Feathered
That's All
The Breakfast Line
The Collar
The Duck And Roger The Horse
The Everso Closely Guarded Line
The Icing On The World
The Leader Of The Starry Skys
The New General (rarity)
The Obvious Identity
The Safety Bowl
The Stench Of Honey
The Whole World Window
There's Too Many Irons In The Fire
To Go Off And Things
To My Piano From Mr Drake
Too Many Colours
Trademark (alt. Trade Mark)
Two Bites Of Cherry
Victory Egg (alt. Victory)
Visiting Hours
When I See That Certain Look in Your Eye (rarity)
Your Removal Of Me

[loosefish]

Every??? That is really stretching the definition of the word He seems to have done about 30 odd

Well, ok, it's a work in progress. He was doing one a day, but seems to have slowed down some.

Perfect (Perfic)

Don't think i've ever heard this, unless it's an early version of another tune

A Picture Of Misery is a great 'lost' song. Written by Mark Cawthra i do believe and not on YT sadly. Still after a good quality version of The New General also...

[Horse]

Hi Horse, you might like my in-depth Cardiacs thread here: http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...iacs+anomalies

I made my way through all that a few weeks ago on a train. Your work is much appreciated.

[PeterG]

I made my way through all that a few weeks ago on a train. Your work is much appreciated.

Thank you. You are very welcome.

[iguana]

what darren says:

[Rael]

what darren says:

I admit, I've watched some of this guy's videos and I sometimes find them entertaining, but I'm amazed at how much traction he seems to have here and other places. I'm really new to Cardiacs and I'm only familiar with this album but there is nothing "same-y" about it at all. In fact, I don't know yet what I think of it. I tend to agree with his views on a lot of modern "prog" but I don't take much of what he says very seriously either. I find his somewhat xenophobic take on popular music a little disturbing. (He tends to diss just about anything that doesn't originate from the UK) I do enjoy his unboxing videos though....

[Horse]

It's of a time. It's of a time, yeah.

Yeah. ~2188.

[loosefish]

Yeah *cough* bloody hell. Yeah...

I only made it a few minutes in. Not exactly engaging is he? The accusations of it all sounding the bloody same seem strange to us, but it's the same critique i get from most of my friends before they return to their Pantera and Offspring records. You have to give it a chance and most people aren't prepared to do that.

Some of the old NME/MM reviews that used to be archived on Cardiacs.com were pretty funny in their point missing and sheer hostility. Not liking something is fine, but you got the sense that they only listened to the first 12 seconds of eack track. The best/worst one was by some twat called 'Johnny Cigarettes', who gave Sing To God 0/10