The Devil Has All The Best Tunes

Joe writes: The first record I remember buying (as opposed to having bought for me) was Prefab Sprout's Nightingales/The Early Years EP on 7". It took me a while to get into it but they were possibly my favourite band for a long time.

The A side featured a harmonica solo from Stevie Wonder.

The B sides were two early singles, released in 1982, prior to their first album Swoon (which is my favourite Prefab Sprout album).

I was going to post The Devil Has All The Best Tunes and I even went to the trouble of ripping it from vinyl. But, although it's quite charming, I would mostly have been posting it because of the title and it doesn't qualify amongst the world's greatest music.

Maybe Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone) doesn't either but it did signal the arrival of an incredibly ambitious group who sometimes fulfilled that ambition.

buy from iTunes

(update of post from 19/09/07)

song for Bobby Fischer

Joe writes: I was away this weekend so I felt sure another blog would beat me to it and post Cue Fanfare by Prefab Sprout in tribute to Bobby Fischer.

I recommend The Guardian's Bobby Fischer obituary for the story of a truly remarkable life, written by a fellow chess player.

I also recommend Prefab Sprout's debut album Swoon, from which Cue Fanfare is taken. It's raw but dazzlingly intelligent and ambitious (a bit like Bobby Fischer I guess), and it's probably my favourite Prefab Sprout album.

Prefab Sprout - Cue Fanfare (iTunes)