Bent Out Of Shape

Version one

Recorded 17th August 1981 for the Richard Skinner show, Radio 1. Broadcast August 1981. Later released on "Peel Sessions Plus" (2007) and "Wilder" deluxe edition (2013)

Julian Cope - Vocals

Troy Tate - guitar

Jeff Hammer - Keyboards

Alfie Agius - bass

Gary Dwyer - drums

Version two 

Recorded Autumn 1981, released on "Wilder" album, November 1981.

Julian Cope - vocals, bass?

Dave Balfe - keyboards

Troy Tate - guitar

Gary Dwyer - drums

Ted Emmett, Luke Tunney - brass

James Eller - bass?

Written by Julian Cope 

The instant attraction between Julian Cope and Dorian Beslity was all consuming for both partners. There's plenty of words about it in "Head on" should you need written evidence. More audible evidence was in "Bent out of shape", the first song (of many) that Cope would write for his future wife within weeks of meeting her.

America was a culture shock for Cope - the food, the distances from city to city, the culture, the people, the language. The uptight Americans couldn't understand why the English group spoke like hippies - "far out", "awlright" and "cool". It worked both ways - "Bent out of shape" was a phrase used by Beslity which Cope had never come across before. He immediately co-opted it and used it as a song title.

It appears Cope wasn't the only songwriter with that idea. A cursory search for "Bent out of shape" on Spotify shows a number of artists have used the phrase. The Replacements, August Darnell, a gentleman who invented the Refractor Piano. Most of the artists are American, which shows it's a phrase from over there coming over here. 

"Bent out of shape" has a subtitle on the lyric sheet of "Wilder" - "I love you (in ragtime)". This could be the first time the word "love" has been used in the context of a Teardrop Explodes song *. There's been emotions and joy and heartbreak in the Teardrops catalogue but love? The 80s Liverpool bands didn't really do love songs. That was for The Beatles and the older generation of bands. The Teardrops, the Bunnymen, OMD ... These bands expressed their passions in other ways. But here Cope is declaring his intentions from the start - "Oh my love I've been bent out of shape, can't you see it's killing me?" Love is already tearing him apart. Communication is clearly a problem - "the words I sing but they never mean anything I need them to". Yet the alliterative wordplay is outstanding - "illusions and allusions of losing you". Cope adds a little "a" to make it "a-losing you", a neat touch. Whoever Melanie is, she's included as a presumed nod towards "Stephanie knows who" by Love. It's a fantastic lyric with a lot of depth. 

The first recording of "Bent out of shape" was the August 1981 Richard Skinner session. This became - in real time - the final recording made by the 1981 lineup with Alfie Agius on bass and Jeff Hammer on keyboards. In a way it proves everything which was wrong with that particular lineup - the verse is a slow two chord vamp on organ, the chorus kicks in on a single snare shot and the rest of the band come in, more droning organ chords, Tate's guitar spluttering incoherently, before returning to the solo organ verse again. After the second chorus the full band play the verse in such a dull unimaginative way before the final chorus and an outro where Tate plays a guitar solo, Agius adds a little bass lick before a unison descend on organ, bass and guitar. The whole performance sounds exhausted and bored, even with Cope trying to sing his heart out on the chorus. 

There are numerous problems with this recording of "Bent out of shape". Cope told an interview later he immersed himself in a particular album at this time - "John Barleycorn Is Dead" by Traffic, an album with its fair share of mid tempo organ drones. This immersion seems reflected in this arrangement. Compare it to "Every mother's son" for a start. It also shows a lack of imagination in both Hammer and Agius's playing - or maybe they were restricted by Cope's demands. Of course the quiet verse explosive chorus format is exactly the same as the original arrangement for "The Great Dominions", as recorded for the BBC the previous year and performed on the "Culture Bunker" tour that year.

A few months later and a slightly different iteration of the Teardrop Explodes was in AIR studios in Oxford Circus recording their hotly anticipated second album. Agius and Hammer were gone, David Balfe was back in the group and there was a new attitude - not only to strip down but to rebuild the songs from the ground up. "Bent out of shape" is a prime example of this. 

It starts with a slightly stilted drum beat with some unusual synthetic noise bursts. There's a guitar, a piano, a burst of bass guitar, small cells of different instruments building one element at the time, a little guitar lick here, more synth dabs there until the full chorus comes in. The drums smarten up into shape, there's a walking bass, the synths coalesce and Cope sings his heart out, passionate in his confusion. The second verse really swings and by the second iteration of the chorus, Cope is stretching out - the final "everywhere" is almost six syllables. Also the chords ascend at the end of the second chorus, giving the song a lift. Enter Troy Tate with a simple but effective guitar part and those beautifully arranged patent Teardrop horn parts arrive. The final chorus has Cope dragging "ecstasy" to strange lengths before a slow fade where the horns pop in and out, Balfe's synths chime in odd ways while Cope sings "Oh I like it" somewhere in the distance.

"Bent out of shape" became the opening song on "Wilder" and set the standard for the rest of the album. Balfe's ideas of utilising his Prophet 5 synth in new and interesting ways pays off handsomely. Little keyboard parts leap out and grab attention throughout the song but don't dominate the mood - the human beating heart of Gary Dwyer's drums keep the song grounded, Tate's guitar interjections and the imaginative horn arrangement maintain the listener's interest throughout the song. It's definitely not synth pop. It's a million miles away from the drone and blast of the August BBC recording.

Of course, it wouldn't be the Teardrop Explodes without them snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. During the early sessions for the second album, Dave Bates - the A&R man who'd signed the band to Phonogram Records - wanted a different song as the single prior to the album's release in the autumn of 1981. Cope disagreed and wanted "Bent out of shape" to be the single. Cope said it was "classier and much less obvious". With time running out to meet deadlines and overrunning budgets, Cope conceded to Bates' request. "Colours fly away" became the single and by the time it was released, Bates agreed that "Bent out of shape" would have better. 

Would it though? It's hard to say. Would Radio One have been more likely to play "Bent out of shape", a song with such a peculiar intro? Well within a few months they would be playing "Maid of Orleans" by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, a song with an even stranger introduction - "It's ok listeners, they're just tuning up, ha ha" (to paraphrase Marcello Carlin). "Open your heart" by the Human League (descending the charts as "Colours" entered it) starts with what sounds like a synthesized cat miaowing. "O Superman", "Prince Charming", "Visions of China", "Joan Of Arc", "Under your thumb", "It's my party", "Tears are not enough", "Favourite shirts"... It was a time for forward looking adventurous and different sounding singles. "Bent out of shape" could have fitted in like a glove. Or it could have sunk like a stone. We will never know.

The live history of "Bent Out Of Shape" is rather short. It was played during early gigs at Club Zoo in November 1981 but doesn't quite work. The verses sound incomplete but the chorus is great, the lack of horns leads to Cope scat singing the brass parts after the second chorus before Tate gets a lovely clean guitar solo during the coda, beginning in the style of the brass parts then going into improvisation while Cope scats along. It doesn't sound under rehearsed, but the lack of horns and some of the keyboard parts in the verse don't help. I can't find much evidence of the song being played later in the year, it was superceded by fresher material which was well played by the time of the 1982 tour. So it disappeared from view, rarely seen or heard. 6music have been more likely to play the session version than the "Wilder" version - three times to twice, according to the 6music bot on Twitter - which is a shame. The "Wilder" version is the start of a journey towards an almost funky style that the band would embrace with the arrival of Ron Francois on bass in November '81. It's also a bloody great way to start a bloody great album. 

But we'll get to that in time.

In the meantime, enjoy the band firing on all creative cylinders.

* Technically no it isn't - "Passionate friend" had been written before "Bent out of shape"