Reviewed by Paul J Zickler
Released: April 1981 Birth Control Deal Done At Night Genre: Krautrock Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Highlights: Talk To You Deal Done At Night Another Death [Warning: 1500 word review incoming...] I grew up thinking my heritage was simple: half German on my dad’s side, half Norwegian on my mom’s side. Then, around age 50, I discovered the family secret: my grandfather’s dad was actually a scoundrel of English heritage, who got my “great aunt” pregnant at 17 and fled. Grandpa was raised by his good German grandparents, and his actual mom pretended to be his sister. Suddenly my love of Monty Python, soccer, foggy days, and London town made sense, as did my lack of interest in all things Teutonic, other than sauerkraut, Oktoberfest and Wim Wenders movies. Needless to say, I never went in for Krautrock. So I don’t have much background experience to lend to this review of Birth Control’s 1981 release, Deal Done at Night. I did find the album cover delightfully daft, with its cut and paste lyrical snippets and sly, collage-style nudity. But the music is just going to have to stand on its own merits. With that in mind, let’s begin. Burnt Gas is the title of track one. I never would have guessed that’s what they were singing over and over. It sounds like “bad gals” or maybe “bird gams.” The song does seem to be literally about burnt gas, which smells bad, causing the lead singer to cough at one point, but maybe means you’re driving really fast on the Autobahn? There are a lot of guitar solos over what sounds like any of about 15 different bar band songs from my youth. He’s In The Right is played faster than Burnt Gas. I’d have to go back and check, but it almost sounds like the same chords, just played faster. Probably not. This one seems to be mostly about the bass line. It’s much easier to understand the title, but the rest of the chorus is unclear to me. There’s a snazzy guitar solo in the middle, and then one of those spoken parts through what sounds like a megaphone. “Don’t let him get away / Look out / Make way!” Then back to the chorus, “He’s in the right / He’s in the right baby / Yeah the rall blat fizzy now / He’s in the right / He’s in the right baby / Zuperan withal distawn / He’s in the right / He’s in the right baby / Now mashkin fawn dig paskin zoom this heel!” Or something like that. Track three, Talk to You, has an organ on it! I dig that fat organ sound. Very Steppenwolf. The singer sounds anguished this time. “Take it from me / Told a pretty little girl / I think she loves me.” There are lots of words, which seem to be English, just not necessarily in a making sense way. But he’s really feeling them. “Knowing real / that she knows / what she’s about / I see what they’re talking about / she keeps me waiting / yes I’m calling but / no one gets it but my mind.” Here’s another expressive guitar solo with lots of long, bent notes. The singer gets harder to fathom the more excited he gets. I think he just yelled, “I can’t fight it / I love Jesus!” Now it’s a spoken section, “Mary doesn’t know what happened to her / This girl is asking too much / You know I’m talking about vertebrae / Vertebrae cannot be worked / If it can be done at all / The chosen one would HATE you / So love me girl!” Organ solo! This is so exciting. Whatever can it mean? Does it matter? I have decided that no, it doesn’t matter. I like it. The title track, Deal Done at Night, starts out sounding like a ballad, just organ and vocals. I have the feeling it’s not going to continue as a ballad though. And there it is: bam bam drums! Distorted guitar riff! Fast Chuck Berry bass line! “I have a girl who walks raven on fame / Like so many young girls do / But her six it is all the same / Finger up for those of us who / She’s always lookin out for a chest / Wearing patent leather boots / she feels her makeup with the long eyelashes / Sparks for every show biz mood / Oh yeah.” It took 4 minutes to go back and figure out those lyrics. His girl eventually poses in the nude and then some other stuff I missed. It’s “A Deal done at Night / A question mark on you and your life / A deal done at night / Will get you nowhere only just a lie / Just a lie!” Guitar solo. The band is really rocking here, doing that whole retro ‘50’s with distortion thing, including a fake Jerry Lee piano solo. I’m digging it, daddy o. I won’t let my deal go down! Oh wait, that’s someone else. I need to preface track five by mentioning that, when I was in college, I knew a guy named Dave, who was a fantastic jazz saxophone player. I’m pretty sure he ended up becoming Entertainment Director for a major cruise line. But I digress. Anyway, Dave once told me, “Really great rock songs always start with just drums, playing a really cool beat, then the guitars come in. You hear that, and you know it’s going to be a great song. Why don’t they just start every song that way?” I didn’t have a good answer for him then, and I still don’t. Back to the Krautrock: track five starts with just the drums, playing a really cool beat, then the guitars come in. But they take it one step further because then the organ comes in. You just know it’s gonna be a great song, right? Hm, yeah, anytime now this will turn into a great song. Waiting. Still waiting. “Don’t call me up / Don’t call me up tonight babe / Don’t call me up / Cuz I just won’t be there.” OK, here’s the guitar solo, and it’s… all right I guess. Oh, that was a cool organ riff, but then it was over. OK, everything has faded down to just the drums and bass, and now the singer goes “Don’t call me up cuz I won’t be there,” and the background singers go, “Baby he just won’t be there.” It’s too cute! They are really trying to sound cool and sinister and all badass, and it just makes me want to give them a hug. And now the handclaps kick in! And the organ glissando into a long note! All the cool song stuff is here, and it should be making me go, “Wow! Cool song!” But I’m not in college, and it’s not 1981. Still, I think Dave would have liked that one. Uh oh, the last two tracks look like Serious Heavy Song Time. Song six is called Absolution, and it’s written in second person, always a dead giveaway that this is a Very Meaningful Song. “Struck by remorse / asking your conscience / Why it didn’t make no sense / while on the screen / the man in the sky says it’s you / and the hole on the show.” It’s one of those minor key, very few chords, thumpity thump songs. I don’t know enough about this genre to compare this to anything else, but I know this type of song. When it finally gets to the title word, it’s sung with big high harmonies, followed by some accusatory lyrics I didn’t quite catch. “ABSOLUTION! / Who gives absolution to the blat and bowl? / ABSOLUTION! / Your alibi could snap a flame with blah dee blah! / ABSOLUTION! / Who is willin’ to pick up / You and the cinema pop?!” Very Serious Guitar Solo. Repeat the whole thing, only more inscrutable. Even More Serious Guitar Solo. ABSOLUTION!! If that wasn’t heavy enough for you, brah, we present track seven, ANOTHER DEATH. “The fisher man / is out at sea / but there’s no patience for water / He always tried to find him a place / He knew the fish would be there.” Imagine all this with the most ominous, dramatic sounding accompaniment possible. Now maybe he’s dead, and they’re telling his wife about it. Chorus: “Another death / another life is gone / the ocean now is turning into an oil pit / another ship / another boat is gone / We only live as long as it takes us to spoil it.” OK, this is a massively epic environmental message song that will most assuredly save the world. Even as they were recording it, I’m sure Greenpeace was on the phone, begging them to play it through loudspeakers over every sea and ocean. Our only hope for the future is this song. And it still has over two minutes left. Oh. My. God. Open your Spotify RIGHT NOW, and go to the 4 minute mark of this song. I cannot possibly do justice to what is happening right now. My life has been permanently altered. There are no words in English for the joy those 36 seconds of music have brought me. I shall call it Dummemusikfreude. Danke, Birth Control, for the Dummemusikfreude. Maybe my German heritage is stronger than I thought it was.
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