Be Bop Deluxe-Futurama (1975)
Artist: Be Bop Deluxe
Title: Futurama
Year of Release: 1975
Country and Year of Edition: US 1975 Winchester Pressing
Sell Price: $6.56
Sell Date: 1/27/26
Condition: VG+/VG
Discogs Last Sold: 1/17/26 VG+/VG $5.00
Low: $1.11
Median: $4.50
Average: $7.05
High: $19.95
Current low price: $1.47 G/F, $3.47 VG/VG+
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 14
Have/Want: 628/84
Where Sold: Ogden, UT
Time It Took To Sell: 4 years
Where and When Bought: $3 Facebook marketplace lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+
Sad To See It Go: No
Futurama was the follow-up to my default favorite Be Bop Deluxe album Axe Victim. That one I mail ordered the vinyl after having a recommendation from my dear departed friend Kevin Wyzzard, then bought the rest of the catalog on CD. For some reason, Axe Victim was hard to get on CD in the early aughts or it was super expensive compared to $5 mail order for the LP in the pre-Discogs era where gemm.com was the go-to if you couldn't find a record anywhere else.
Anyway, a few years back I got this and the record that sold with it, Modern Music in a Facebook Marketplace vinyl lot along with the third album Sunburst Finish, which was the first to crack Billboard in the lower regions of the top 200 even though they were an indie charting band in the UK from the start and then reaching 60,000 UK Sales (BPI Silver) with Sunburst. The Hot Valves EP with "Maid In Heaven" peaked at #36 on the UK Official Singles Chart in 1976, but did not chart in the US. The band hasn't toured since 1978 and leader Bill Nelson has only done gigs sporadically in the UK since losing hearing in his right ear in 2014. He did play a 70th birthday one-off in Leeds and apparently again in November 2019, the last date noted on Setlist.fm.
The catalog of Be Bop Deluxe is one I've had forever in my mind "for further review." Somehow, even though I loved Axe Victim, that day never came. No time like the present to put a little time from two peak period albums. This one fills the void somewhere between glitter rock Bowie and mid 70's state of the art prog. How else can there be a tribute to Jean Cocteau? "Sign your name with a star." the lyric intones before the second single "Between The Worlds" kicks in sounding almost like a cross between Thin Lizzy's "Emerald" and the Small Faces "Lazy Sunday Afternoon." "Swan Song" sounds like a cross between-you guessed it--Led Zeppelin with Mott The Hoople.
The 3rd track on the album is the lead off single: "Maid In Heaven." Right before that is a slow burn melodicaly similar to the opening title track from Axe Victim, "Love With The Madman." I'm a sucker for those sorts of anthemic declarations Then the single "Maid In Heaven" kicks in with a muted hook breaking up a Bowiesque anthem. Phasers phase and choruses soar before After Heaven, "Sister Seagull" kicks in with a proto-metal lick atop further musings. Then the guitars dissolve into sounding like the birds are actually flying away.
"You'll go crazy with the wonder of it all."
Comments
Post a Comment