SOUNDTRACK: JOSEF K-“Sorry for Laughing” (1985).
In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.
Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape. So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.
In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock. Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that. In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.
Josef K were a Scottish band named after the main character in Franz Kafka’s The Trial. I had never heard of them, but they are apparently hugely influential (despite releasing only one record).
Josef K are quite unlike anyone else on the mix tape thus far. They are far darker (in a Joy Division sort of way). I mean look what they based their name on. And there are drums. But they are also very un-rock–playing sharp angular guitars and lead bass lines.
“Sorry for Laughing” opens with a snapping drum and a rumbling, almost out of control bass line. The guitars are quieter, playing sharp chords. It’s catchy in a dark sort of way. The weirdest part comes at the end of the bridge when the bass seems to play a tiny riff that doesn’t quite work–it’s almost an anti-hook and it happens twice.
The middle of the song has a kind of bass solo while the vocals make a chk chk sound. This must have been an incredibly unique song at the time. And you can definitely hear how a lot of bands were influenced by them.
[READ: January 20, 2021] “Bohemia”
This story, set in the 1950s, is about Willie, a young Indian man traveling to London for the first time.
He is going to London for school–an un-famous school it turns out–modeled after Oxford and Cambridge.
Willie didn’t know much about London–Buckingham Palace and Speaker’s Corner were the extent of it. He was disappointed by both when he saw them. He felt the Maharaja’s palace was far superior, and the people in Speakers Corner were mostly irritating.
His father had given him the names of people to get in touch with. Willie didn’t want to do that–he wanted to succeed on his own. But he found things very tough going. So he looked up one of the men–a newspaper reporter. The man was very proud of his work and very proud of his paper But Willie knew nothing of the paper or even enough of London to know what the paper wrote about. It was not an auspicious meeting.
Willie slowly began to learn how to behave in London–it was very different from India. Soon he began to realize that no one knew anything about him–that he could reinvent himself. As he did so he began to feel more confident.
This confidente attracted others. Like Percy Cato. Percy Cato was a Jamaican student (Jamaica by way of Panama). They were two foreigners who were suspicious of each other at first but who quickly bonded. Percy knew his way around. He’d had a job at at local club and he even had a girl, June.
Percy invited Willie to the club to meet June. June workled at the perfume counter in Debenhams. June was a big girl in a tight skirt and lots of perfume. Willie sat next to her and moved closer to her as the day went on. He began pressing against her more and more, although neither June nor Percy said anything.
When they left, Willie was very worked up and wanted to go to a prostitute but he didn’t know how to go about it.
The next Monday he went to Debenhams and looked for June. When he found her he asked is she would like to go on a date with him. She said yes. They had dinner and drinks and then went to a room for the night. They couldn’t go to his place at the college so they went to “the other place.”
It was a sketchy, dirty run down hovel. There were scowling people behind all the other doors. The room was a mattress on the floor. June undressed quickly and Willie could barely contain himself. After weekend of planning it was over on an instant. He asked if he could go again . It was a little longer but not much.
June said, “a friend of mine said it happens with Indians. It’s because of the arranged marriages.”
He felt bad, but they seemed to leave on good terms.
Willie didn’t know what to say to Percy. He wanted to tell Percy that he was in love with June, but he wasn’t sure if that was true.
A week or so later, he saw Percy and June together acting like nothing had happened.
This was a strange story to me–very matter of fact about what happened. And then it tacked on a coda that covered all immigrants as they came to London and learned the way of things–almost like a documentary.
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