22. PAUL COLLINS' BEAT: "She Doesn't Want To Hang Around With You"
In the late '70s, I hooked my best friend Jay Hammond on the music of Blondie. I betcha Jay had a crush on lead singer Debbie Harry--I know I certainly did!--and he became a big, big fan of the group. In late 1978, Jay picked up Blondie's Parallel Lines album well before I got around to it. Among the Parallel Lines tracks Jay raved about was its lead-off cut, "Hanging On The Telephone." It took me a minute to place its familiar pop sound, but then I realized and declared: Oh yeah! That's the song by The Nerves!
I first read about The Nerves--Jack Lee, Peter Case, and Paul Collins--in the pages of Bomp! magazine in '78. I picked up their EP The Nerves at Record Theater up on Marshall Street near Syracuse University, and played it a lot throughout that summer of '78. Two of the songs, "Hanging On The Telephone" and "Give Me Some Time," were written by Lee, and I liked 'em just fine. But I liked the other two tracks even more: "When You Find Out" by Peter Case, and "Working Too Hard" by Paul Collins.
The Nerves broke up. Jack Lee went off to brood and, I dunno, cash his checks from Blondie royalties. Peter Case formed The Plimsouls. And Paul Collins formed The Beat.
Even before The Beat, a simply soarin' power pop tune called "Walking Out On Love" appeared on a Bomp! Records compilation, Waves, Vol. 1 (which also included "Christi Girl" by The Flashcubes). Though credited as a Paul Collins solo track, "Walking Out On Love" was recorded by The Breakaways, a short-lived group Collins and Case formed after The Nerves' dissolution. Case split, and The Breakaways became The Beat.
I fumbled across The Beat's eponymous debut album at Main Street Records in Brockport; this was late '79. right as the LP was released. I hadn't heard anything about The Beat before that, but I recognized "Working Too Hard" and "Walking Out On Love" in the track listing, and knew I had to own it. I wasn't disappointed. The Beat is widely acknowledged as a power pop classic, one of the all-time essential power pop albums. "Rock And Roll Girl," "Don't Wait Up For Me," "You Won't Be Happy," "I Don't Fit In," "Let Me Into Your Life"--for pop fans like us, these songs have become a part of our being, our DNA, our way of life.
A U.K. band (and, granted, a great U.K. band) also laid claim to the Beat nom du bop, so the American group would henceforth be known as Paul Collins' Beat or some variation thereof, while the Brits were known here as The English Beat. Ultimately, Paul Collins' Beat never achieved its just commercial due, and the group sorta faded as the '80s droned on.
Collins continued to perform and record, as Paul Collins' Beat, as a solo artist, and as The Paul Collins Band. Expatriate Central New Yorker Chris von Sneidern played a bit with Collins before relocating to California, and the early '90s edition of The Paul Collins Band included Flashcubes guitarist Arty Lenin. Syracuse strong!
When we first began doing This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilations circa 2004, Paul Collins was very high up on our wish list of artists to beg and cajole. Although Paul and I had corresponded very briefly in the '90s, when I was freelancing for Goldmine, he didn't really know who we were, and declined the invitation to appear on a TIRnRR CD. But in 2009, when Paul was doing a living room and small venue tour as an acoustic duo with John Wicks of The Records, our mutual acquaintance Rich Rossi arranged for Paul and John to visit TIRnRR.
Whatta blast! It was a Thursday night, June 11th, the night before the pair was scheduled to perform a show in nearby Cortland, NY. We commandeered a common area in the Westcott Community Center (outside the little closet we laughingly call a studio), invited a few friends to sit on folding chairs as a de facto live audience, and live streamed about an hour of music and conversation, chatting with the lads, listening to them tell stories, and lettin' 'em play. It was a magic moment in TIRnRR history. I wasn't able to attend the Cortland show the next night (due to a previous commitment and a quick trip to Urgent Care), but Dana was there. And he said that when Paul recognized Dana, he grabbed him in a bear hug, and declared that the TIRnRR mini-gig "was so much fuckin' fun!" We've all been pals ever since.
For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, Paul Collins granted us our choice of anything from his catalog. That gave us a lot of outstanding stuff to consider, but we zeroed in on the 2008 Paul Collins' Beat album Ribbon Of Gold. Even that didn't really narrow things down all that much--Ribbon Of Gold is a terrific album!--and we vacillated between four tracks. "Hey DJ" seemed too obvious a choice. "Big Pop Song" was just as obvious, I guess, but we had it penciled in, until we replaced it with--ta da!--"Falling In Love With Her." Which, of course, we replaced late in the game with "She Doesn't Want To Hang Around With You." Any one of these would have been the right choice. But "She Doesn't Want To Hang Around With You" was the rightest choice, channeling 1970s punk-pop energy into what could almost be seen as a flip of "Walking Out On Love": she's walking out because she's tired of you!
I was a teenager when I first heard the music of Paul Collins.The Nerves. The Breakaways. The Beat. Collins has been a consistent part of my life's soundtrack since that time, nearly forty years later. I may still have the tiniest remnant of a crush on Debbie Harry, but I still prefer The Nerves' version of "Hanging On The Telephone" to Blondie's. And I do dig The Beat, man. I do dig The Beat.
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