Monday, February 9, 2015

Nights are too long for a single man...


Desperate, dogged and undistilled, Giorgio Moroder and Joe Esposito's 1983 Solitary Men sounds like Trussardi Uomo, cigarette smoke, sweat-stained Armani linens, lambent, candy-color fluorescents, cocaine and cunt - it's hedonistic electro-noir, an audiophile's neon speedball; a relentless, uncontrived, underrated, underheard, seminal masterpiece released in the same twelve-month period Moroder scored DePalma's Scarface, Schrader's Cat People and Lyne's Flashdance (*), and collaborated with Nina Hagen on the spunky fluke Fearless (in whose liner notes the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are credited as 'Inspiration')

Title track's an anthem, a pleading, private lamentation delivered with Southern Baptist zeal - both Esposito and synth testifying; Joe confessing regret and longing, synth responding in judgement like a hellfire preacher. So deceptively, persistently intense it would be stressful if it weren't so lush.

It also contains the best of Moroder's career-spanning covers of The Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin and the operatic, swoon-inducing Lady, Lady (shared on the original Flashdance LP release).

A meditation on the hurricane underbelly of a selfish sophisticate's semi-saved soul, Don Draper would've loved it - though he would never have admitted so.


 * Arranger/keyboardist Sylvester Levay and composer/drummer Keith Forsey would go on to score Stallone's Cobra and Hughes' The Breakfast Club, respectively, whilst bassist/guitarist Richie Zito is the auteur behind your favorite 80s hair band hits. 



Never sleep by myself / Cuz nights are too long / For a single man / 
No connections, no ties / Hello and goodbye / That's the way I am / 
I can't satisfy your dream / Don't you hang your heart on me / 
I love you hard, I love you long / Leave before you know I've gone...  


The evening heat / On the city street / The light a shade of sleazy blue /
Sick and tired of thinking / Did some serious drinking / Rang numbers that I thought I knew /
A silky white blouse / Full of promise to rouse / The motor that controls my soul / 
Laced with private perfume / She made me an offer / An offer too good to refuse (just couldn't refuse)...


For further historical and badass cred.