FEATURE:
Songs for Whoever
Paul Heaton: The Last Truly Great Pop Songwriter?
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THERE are a couple of reasons…
as to why I am bringing in a feature regarding the excellent Paul Heaton. His birthday is on Sunday (9th May). I share a birthday with the legend. Not only do I love his music with The Housemartins and The Beautiful South. His albums with Jacqui Abbott, who used to be in The Beautiful South, are terrific. I think his songs with The Beautiful South are among the smartest and most memorable Pop songs ever written (if you could call the Hull-formed band ‘Pop’). I think that 1989’s Welcome to the Beautiful South is one of the most impressive debut albums of that decade. Whilst Heaton dealt with lyrics, Dave Rotheray handled compositions (though Heaton probably inputted when it came to the music). It was one of the most successful partnerships in British music. I have said it before but, when we think of the great British songwriters, we talk about Paul McCartney and John Lennon; Ray Davies of The Kinks is also named. Some would say Morrissey (The Smiths), though his reputation has taken a battering over the last few years. I think that Paul Heaton is one of the finest lyricists and observers of modern life that we have ever seen. He has some of the acerbic wit of Morrissey and the observational powers of Davies, yet he is very much different to both.
The Beautiful South’s debut single, Song for Whoever, is one I fell in love with when I was a child. The wit and cleverness of Heaton’s lyrics is amazing. Although Heaton can be heard in the chorus, it is his bandmate, Dave Hemingway, that handled the lead vocal. In a band that had three lead vocalists – how many others can say that?! -, Heaton’s soulful voice was an essential ingredient in the blend. Alongside Dave Hemmingway and Briana Corrigan (who was the first female singer with the band), Jacqui Abbott (who stepped in when Corrigan left) and Alison Wheeler (who sang with the band until they split), Heaton showed that his vocals were as impressive as his words! The Beautiful South split in 2007 citing “musical similarities”. They sold fifteen-millions records in their successful lifetime. The compilation, Carry on up the Charts: The Best of The Beautiful South, was the second-biggest-selling album of 1994! Even though Heaton’s band, The Housemartins, released two studio albums, I think they are both classics! London 0 Hull 4 of October 1986 contains classic Heaton lyrics in the from of Happy Hour, Flag Day and Sheep – Heaton co-wrote most of the songs with the band’s vocalist and guitarist, Stan Cullimore. The Housemartins’ final album, 1987’s The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, is another collection of wonderful songs. Me and the Farmer and Five Get Over Excited are my favourites. I know the title track caused controversy because of its portrayal of the British royal family. Heaton, as a lyricist, could be political, jabbing, warm, humorous, touching and ingenious. Few other lyricists of that time (the 1980s) had his gifts and range.
Although The Beautiful South was a different project than The Housemartins, they endured for longer and put out a lot more material. Although a few albums in their career did not get massive critical acclaim (such as 1998’s Quench, 2000’s Painting It Red, 2003’s Gaze, and the covers album, Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs), the band put out some hugely enduring albums. I think that 1990’s Choke perfectly showcases Heaton’s hallmarks and strengths across a selection of diverse, distinct and remarkable tracks. It is testament to his talent and the connectivity of the band that The Beautiful South’s final album, Superbi (which turns fifteen on 15th May), is so strong! When I come to mention his latest album with Jacqui Abbott, I will bring in a couple of reviews. Thirty years after Heaton welcomed The Housemartins into the world, he closed the book on The Beautiful South. In spite of that, 2006’s Superbi showed that Heaton was still as sharp and original as always; showing that he is one of the world’s very best writers. I am going to source an interview Heaton conducted in 2019 to promote the compilation, The Last King of Pop (2018). If the lyrics of The Housemartins (largely but not exclusively) mixed socialism with Christianity, The Beautiful South was a little broader. I think that Heaton created another evolution when he paired with Jacqui Abbott for their first album together, What Have We Become?
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul Heaton with The Beautiful South’s Dave Hemmingway and Briana Corrigan
Some may have noticed I glossed over Heaton’s solo work! He released Fat Chance under the moniker, Biscuit Boy, and put out further albums: The Cross Eyed Rambler of 2008 and 2010’s Acid Country. I want to quote from the BBC’s review of The Cross-Eyed Rambler. They noted how Heaton was both offering some new (compared with The Beautiful South)…though there was still his reliable mix of themes and trademarks – all of which resulted in a fantastic album:
“Finally throwing in the hat with the Beautiful South in 2007 has seen Paul Heaton really have a proper think about a solo career it seems. Whereas his previous album under the Biscuit Boy (a.k.a. Crackerman) alias suffered from a lack of focus (and too many producers) Cross Eyed Rambler has no such problems. The album can only be described as displaying Heaton in rude health. Following the faintly creepy 78 crackle of the title track opener, I Do bursts out of the traps like a band led by someone half his age. Maybe he's finally getting sick of all these Northern whelps stealing the thunder he raised back in the good old real days of indie.
Sure, there's a hint of nostalgia fitting to his increasing years (the a capella days of The Housemartins gets a little reprise on the chorus of The Pub), but overall the new band (and it is a band, called The Sound Of Paul Heaton) of Tom Chapman, Brian Edwards and Steve Trafford makes Cross Eyed Rambler a boisterous bag of real rock. It may not be the 'new direction' that many have talked of - it's still jaunty enough to avoid any full-on Stooges comparisons here - but it's certainly ballsier than we had any right to expect.
There was always a touch of young fogyism to Heaton's work. Here it's given full throat on the loping Everything Is Everything. A suitably grumpy coda to a fine record. Elsewhere, subject-wise, Heaton's not straying from the things close to his spiritual heart. Small town attitudes (A Good Old Fashioned Town), political leftism (God Bless Texas) and love in the REAL world (The Ring From Your Hand), but buoyed up by such irrepressible grooves it's all very palatable. Not only does it signal a proper fighting chance for a solo career for 46-year-old Heaton, but it's also good news for those who found The Beautiful South's material a little too sweet and soft round the edges. And while there's even room for a south-of-the-border twang and torch on Deckchair Collapsed, in the end this is local music for local people: Intelligent, humorous and adult but ultimately quintessentially English. And all the better for it too”.
It is impressive that Heaton, technically, has been in four different outfits (The Housemartins, The Beautiful South, solo, and with Jacqui Abbott) and has been able to adapt and write such memorable songs in each phase. His work with Jacqui Abbott is among his very best! The acclaimed What Have We Become? arrived in 2014. Wisdom, Laughter and Lines was released in 2015 (Heaton co-wrote many of the tracks with Jonny Lexus); they followed that with their third album together, Crooked Calypso, in 2017. Actually, I think it is worth dropping in a review for this album. This is what AllMusic noted:
“Returning for a third dip into the well of smart pop, former Beautiful South members Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott offer Crooked Calypso, a robust marriage of plucky wit, confidence, and heart. Since rekindling their musical partnership in 2014, the two singers have turned out a distinctive brand of musical merrymaking that has resonated with U.K. audiences. There's something refreshingly organic about their big productions, which layer strings and horns over a whip-tight rock combo that sways nimbly between Motown, R&B, and old-fashioned rock & roll within the breadth of just a few notes. As ringleaders, Heaton and Abbott make a winning and surprisingly egoless duo swapping lyrics, harmonizing, and keeping their party buoyant with the effortless grace of lifelong entertainers. Approached with any less skill, the effect of songs like "I Gotta Praise" and "The Fat Man" would come off as uncouth or corny, but the two manage to walk a perfect line of tone that successfully delivers their often barbed witticisms while conveying an underlying sense that they're not only in on the joke, but are also at the butt of it. It's this crafty togetherness that has made their first two records chart successes and helps Crooked Calypso succeed on the same level. From the heartfelt Irish folk tribute "Blackwater Banks" to the unstoppably hooky "People Like Us," this is an engaging and fun listen that is easy to repeat again and again”.
I think that last year’s Manchester Calling is another triumphant album. Just shy of fifty-eighty when that album came out, Heaton was showing every other writer in the country how it is done! At sixteen tracks, Manchester Calling proved that Heaton was in no short supply of inspiration! I love the music Heaton wrote with Dave Rotheray for The Beautiful South. I think his work with Jacqui Abbott proves that he is a fine composer in addition to being a world-class lyricist. Heaton wrote the songs in various locations in North Holland and Belgium. He composed the music between a hotel in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, and in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany. It is great picturing Heaton writing in all these locations. I think a lot of the material for The Beautiful South was written in the pub(s). There is something slightly more glamorous about the writing for Manchester Calling. One big reason why his work with Jacqui Abbott is so strong is because the two are so close. Abbott’s voice is as fine as ever, and the fact that they seem like an old married couple gives the songs real conviction, realness and power! This is what The Guardian observed in their review:
“Paul Heaton recently remarked that if he’d known how well his songs would resonate with ordinary people up and down the country, he’d have written more. He’s hardly been slacking. His eighth solo album (and his fourth with former Beautiful South singer Abbott) is trademark stuff, which will be familiar to fans of that band and Heaton’s previous outfit, the Housemartins. There are richly observed, gently acerbic vignettes about the vagaries of British life, delivered over a mix of steadily uptempo pop, folk, ska and soul. Heaton’s bittersweet delivery propels songs about sex (The Only Exercise I Get Is You), love (You and Me [Were Meant to Be Together])and depression (Somebody’s Superhero).
Abbott takes the lead on If You Could See Your Faults – the diary of a long-suffering spouse and one of the pair’s loveliest tunes – and House Party 2’s superb demolition of tiresome would-be suitors. She brings empathy to the symphonic soul of The Prison’s tale of premature motherhood and “woman’s overriding right to fuck her life right up”. A certain cosiness produces fillers So Happy and New York Ivy, but abandoning the comfort zone delivers some of the best things here. Over a grime/hip-hop-informed soundtrack, MCR Calling accompanies a collage of Mancunian narrators on a love-hate tour around Heaton’s adopted city, where “gangsters ride on tricycles” and “they’re pulling down the last building that anybody liked”. My Legal High is almost Beautiful South-go-Cramps, a riff-rocking paean to the idea that love is the greatest drug of all. Heaton really should play less safe more often”.
This takes me to the compilation, The Last King of Pop. It features twenty-three of the songs written by Heaton from throughout his career in the Housemartins, The Beautiful South, his solo years, and his collaboration with Jacqui Abbott. It is a smorgasbord of golden Heaton songs from his earliest offerings to his current work. When speaking with Classic Pop, he discussed his pleasure of working with Jacqui Abbott - in addition to how (the compilation) is a chance for people to discover and take seriously the incredible songwriting the world has been lucky enough to receive since the mid-1980s:
“He’s only half-joking in calling his new compilation The Last King Of Pop. Collating 22 singles from The Housemartins, The Beautiful South and Heaton & Abbott, plus sparkling new song 7” Singles, its title is a pointer that this most principled of pop stars feels troubled by pretenders to the throne. “People have been let down so badly by figures in pop authority, I’m easily able to claim the crown,” Heaton attests. His home is one of the key reasons for his monarchy: “I live like a king should live.” Gesturing to his modest garden, he insists, “This should be monarchy: an ordinary person enjoying life.” Heaton’s family moved to Surrey when he was a teenager but otherwise, he’s never lived away from the north, saying, “A king should remain in his kingdom.” Morrissey is thus instantly disqualified. “A good pop singer and writer, but he’s gone out of the country. And when he comes back, he slags Britain off for being neighbourly. You couldn’t fucking write him, could you?”
It’s this freewheeling levity that has stopped critics – if not the public, time and again – from realising just what a golden talent Paul Heaton has been ever since The Housemartins’ Flag Day first played by John Peel in 1985. Despite his playfulness around its title, Heaton hopes the compilation will make people appreciate the quality of his songwriting. “I can’t take myself seriously for longer than a couple of minutes,” he smiles. “It’s a fault of mine, because I should be more serious, a bit. Lauren Laverne interviewed Paul Weller on 6 Music recently, and it was perfect, because he is able to talk seriously about his music. If it was me, it’d just break down into fart jokes.”
It’s not that Heaton isn’t able to analyse his songwriting in detail – he’s passionate about the importance of music in people’s lives. But he also grew up loving Spike Milligan and longtime Beano cartoonist Leo Baxendale, so absurdity is Heaton’s default setting. At the start of his career, he says he was a singer who wrote songs… now it’s the other way round.
Such candour aside, Heaton is delighted that reuniting with former Beautiful South co-vocalist Jacqui Abbott
has led to three Top Five albums. The Last King Of Pop features seven of their songs, compared to just one – the celebratory Manchester – from the final three Beautiful South albums, and none from either of Heaton’s two solo albums. He admits he “withdrew into myself” in his solo career, making “smaller” albums because their impact had lessened.
“When I left The Beautiful South, I didn’t realise that my name doesn’t really mean anything,” he concedes. “People around me were saying ‘You’ve had all these hits, you’ve had 20 years at the top. How can they not play your new song?’ I was more philosophical about all that. And when I was in my shell, I did some good things.” He cites his musical The 8th and twice touring round Britain by bicycle, playing at pub venues – Heaton would love to formally establish the pubs which invited him to play as a nationwide circuit for up-and-coming musicians to learn their live craft.
Heaton is first to admit he was lucky The Housemartins arrived when they did, at a time when, “Once you got played by John Peel, there was a 50% chance at Radio 1 that, unless your records were totally mad, then Janice Long might play you, too. And if she did, then Bruno Brookes probably would. There was a framework for getting success. There are probably just as many great young bands out there now as ever, they just don’t have the chances we did.” As king, he’s therefore forgiving of new acts that allow their songs on adverts.
Heaton is also pleased that his children don’t especially share his musical tastes – his eldest daughter is into drum ‘n’ bass and grime, his middle daughter prefers “really dark hip-hop”. Apart from his in-car Radio 2 addiction, Heaton only listens to new music. For decades, he’s kept monthly Top 20 charts of his favourite new songs in notebooks. He shows me his latest, a range of reggae, folk, hip-hop, R&B and pop as entertainingly freewheeling as the contents of his kitchen. At the end of our interview, he offers up a banana and an apple for the journey home. A passing Linda points out, “There’s all this fruit. You’ll notice none of it is in the fruit bowl.” She’s right – it’s too full of stuff. But that’s how a king should be: entertained by all of life’s diversions, living among his people. Paul Heaton deserves his crown”.
Ahead of Paul Heaton’s fifty-ninth birthday on Sunday, I wanted to spotlight not only one of the greatest British songwriters ever; I feel Heaton can rub shoulders with any songwriter from any era! We have some great songwriters around at the moment, though how many of them are in Pop? I think that Laura Marling is one of the best songwriters in the country. Arlo Parks is a very promising songwriter. I look around the rest of music and the Pop mainstream and we rarely highlight songwriters as opposed the artists. Many popular artists have others writing for them. In that way, I feel Paul Heaton is still head and shoulders above many others. A legendary and hugely respected songwriter who has lost none of his genius and observational prowess, many should be looking up to him! I think that Heaton is one of the last truly great Pop songwriters. Maybe The Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner is someone who can sit alongside Heaton. The Sheffield-born lead proves that the finest and most highlight-worthy lyrics are coming from the North! I have respect for a great songwriter who can not only widen their palette and yet have their own identity; being able to endure and continue to release consistently brilliant songs is something that warrants respect! This is why Paul Heaton is such an inspirational writer and hero to the next generation. If you need an example of a legendary songwriter whose lyrics are among the best we have ever seen, then look towards Paul Heaton: a songwriting giant…
WITH very few equals.