Tonight’s selections from Dexys Midnight Runners’ first album, 1980’s Searching for the Young Soul Rebels.
Although coming four years after the first summer of punk, Searching For The Young Soul Rebels by Birmingham eight-piece Dexys Midnight Runners is probably the truest capturing of the movement's sprit ever released in Britain. Leader Kevin Rowland had indeed seen quite a bit in his "23" years, (as stated on Tell Me When My Light Turns Green – he was actually 27). He'd been in a smash’n’grab band of Birmingham punks; he'd toyed with a look that was to marry glam and safety-pin chic together (that was later half-inched by the new romantics) – recruiting a team of experienced players, he wanted to marry the anger of new wave with the emotion of soul music.
Remember, this was a time when soul was seen as something of a delicacy, liked by the northern crowd or females while the boys had their prog or Pistols. When Dexys played songs such as Otis Redding's Respect in their set, young British audiences had largely never heard of them and thought they were the group’s originals.
And what originals they had. With its biographical essay on the sleeve (“The firm was complete, now for the caper”), Searching... was unlike anything that had come before. Producer Pete Wingfield achieved a sound with the three-piece horn section that has never been recreated on vinyl. Close mic'ed and recorded right to the front, they sledgehammered their way into your heart. — BBC
Burn It Down
Searching for the Young Soul Rebels would be one of the more distinctive sounding albums of the 80s, a sound which I would describe as pop-soul. This sound is centered on a full horn section which forms the base of most of the tracks on the album and drives these songs along at full tilt. The soulfulness of the horns and organ combine nicely with the pop-punk aggression in Kevin Rowland’s vocals and the backing rhythm section which gives the overall album an intense edge much like that of punk rock. Rowland is clearly the creative force in the band, hence his survival while others have perished, and it is his slightly camp extravagant pop vocals which amazingly fit right in with this massive horn sound. His voice is not your typical soothing soul voice full of range and power think Aretha, think Otis, his style is more quirky and playful and certainly not conventional in a soul sense, which in many respects is the perfect fit for the bands quite extravagant and may I say loud sound. This combination just shouldn’t work, a kind of British brass band horn sound with soul undertones and a quirky pop singer, but it does somehow and it works very well. One influence that can definitely be heard on here is that of Northern soul – a music and dance movement that came out of the north of England in the late-60s, and although this movement isn’t directly aligned to the Dexys, it does share the soul influence of Stax and Motown and an overall ethos that involves producing music that you can dance to.
Throughout the album, the music tends to stick to an up-tempo horn-driven Motown style of pop-soul with songs like “Tell Me When My Light Turns Green” and “Seven Days Too Long”, the pop song on the album with a very catchy chorus. The band also indulge in what sounds like reggae on “Geno” especially with its bass line and horn parts, a great song which to me even sounds like a precursor to the likes of New Zealand’s own Fat Freddy’s Drop and the Black Seeds. Although most of the tracks have an up-tempo feel, there are occasional moments which contain a more downbeat jazz soul vibe, notably during “I’m Just Looking” and “Keep It”. These songs do a good job in just breaking up the intensity of the horn-infused dance tracks and allow the listener to sit and take a breather for a moment, that is if they have been up and dancing as expected. — Nowhere Bros
Geno
Rightfully, however, consensus amongst more enlightened types is that the first incarnation of Dexys was the most coherent and vital one. Their blue collar docker-like image, the puritan discipline of pre-rehearsal communal running, the righteous anger, the desperate purging of the soul (music). It all fitted perfectly. Likewise, Searching For the Young Soul Rebels is their most coherent and consistent record. In fact it’s damned near perfect.
Its greatest moments bookend the record and demonstrate that although Dexys were an anomaly on the pop landscape of 1980, they also bore the angry young man sentiments of a band for whom punk remained a catalyst. Album closer ‘There, There My Dear’ is a vitriolic open letter to hipsters delivering knockout hooks of brass as Rowland derides the meaningless namedropping of “Cabaret, Berlin, Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Duchamp, Beauvoir, Kerouac, Kierkegaard” and decries facile pop music (I’d only waste three valuable minutes of my life with your insincerity). The most breathtaking moment comes when Rowland laments his fruitless search for the titular “soul rebels” over Pete Williams’ throbbing bass and staccato blasts from the brass section leading into a frenzied finish. — Drowned in Sound
There There My Dear
Many would admit there are bands whose greatest work is produced as the product of volatile musical partnerships which seem likely to tear asunder at any given moment, and the great thing about Dexys was that this was the perpetual temperament of the group – mostly due to Rowland’s notorious inability to play nice with others. By the time Searching reached great success, Dexys Mk 1 had already dissolved. The restrictions that were placed upon the group were maddening, they weren’t allowed to stay in hotels due to their inherent ‘temptations’, drinking and drugs on the night of a gig were strictly prohibited aside from the alcoholic trombonist who was allowed half a bottle of whisky and not a drop more, plus, an embargo on talking to any and all UK music press confused an enraged the more practical of Rowland’s rebels. The final straw came when Rowland insisted on the single release of his uncommercial and obsessively insecure ‘Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One)’ (included on the 30th anniversary reissue of Searching). The single flopped and the group split apart to form other bands including The Blue Ox Babes and The Bureau (including ex-Merton Parkas keyboardist Mick Talbot who would go on to form The Style Council with the newly Jam-free Paul Weller).
With these members never to return, neither would the original Dexys sound. Thus Searching For The Young Soul Rebels is a one-off, the self-contained nugget of a genre only barely ignited – that of the working soulmen. Not to be overly grand about it, but it’s comparable to the inception of rock & roll – white people attempting to copy their favourite black music and failing. Gloriously. — The Quietus
Tell Me When My Light Turns Green
.
Kevin Rowland’s first band, the Killjoys. The A-side of their only recording.
Johnny Won’t Get to Heaven
.
WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mo Amer, Tucker Wetmore (R 4/29/25)
Jimmy Fallon: Young Mazino, Adam Goldstein
Stephen Colbert: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Pavement
Seth Meyers: Sarah Snook, Glenn Howerton
After Midnight: Jason Sklar, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Brandon Kyle Goodman
Watch What Happens Live: Snoop Dogg, Lizzo
LAST WEEK’S POLL: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF FICTION?
Fantasy 22%
Historical 4%
Horror 9%
Mystery 22%
Romance 0%
Sci Fi 30%
Other 4%
Pie 9%
