After causing a sensation with their early singles and debut album
Searching for the Young Soul Rebels,
Dexys Midnight Runners went through an almost total revamp before their second album,
Too-Rye-Ay, was released in 1982: the hard-edged, amped-up soul-revival sound built around a tight-as-duck-feathers horn section, the dockworker chic look, most of the band membersâ?¦all gone. What remained was
Kevin Rowland and his vision of a modern Irish soul music that mixed together horns, traditional instruments, and violins. Pairing that with a new raggle-taggle style and an updated lineup that still preserved songwriter/trombonist
Big Jim Patterson while adding violinist
Helen O' Hara as
Rowland's new foil, the album retained all the energy of their debut while adding newfound warmth and even more poetry. Of course, it all came together perfectly on the timeless classic "Come On Eileen," a brilliantly wild and woolly song that encapsulated everything
Rowland was trying to do with this incarnation of the band. This kind of uptempo soul-Celtic-rock & roll fusion makes up a good chunk of the album; tracks like "The Celtic Soul Brothers," "Plan B," and their cover of one of their main musical heroes,
Van Morrison's rollicking "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)," mix the brittle horns, soothing strings, and wall-punch backbeats into a live wire-meets-high wire act with
Rowland testifying over the top, joined by his able core of vocalists, who chime in to give support and question him along the way. It's almost impossible not to be swept away by the joyous tide of emotion that radiates light like a lighthouse on a murky night. It's music that makes one want to dance, cry, laugh, and tear things up (or down). The ballads are just as inspiring.
Rowland may not be cut from classic balladeer cloth, but he can sell a slow song like few others. He and the band display just the right touch of subtle drama on songs like "All in All (This One Last Wild Waltz)" that make proper use of a backing vocal choir, the poignant-and -then-some "Old," and the truly majestic "Until I Believe in My Soul." That last track features one of
Rowland's more inspired vocals, an incredible arrangement that manages to work in both a hard bop interlude and a whistling breakdown, and a chorus one might find in the dictionary under the heading of "rousing." The uptempo tracks get most of the attention -- and they well deserve it -- but one should never forget the power of
Dexys when they dial it down and get serious.
Too-Rye-Ay is a masterpiece of musical fusion powered by the genius soul of
Kevin Rowland, fueled by the incredible band he assembled, and built to outlast every twist and turn of musical taste and live forever as a true work of living, breathing art.
[
Kevin Rowland was never happy with the final mix of the album. For decades, the thought of what he deemed a corruption of his masterpiece nearly brought him to tears. When the 40th anniversary of the album's release came near, he took a chance and asked if a new mix could be done. The record company agreed, and
Rowland's longtime mixer,
Pete Schwier, started work to bring up the vocals, strengthen the drums, and basically warm up the sound. When he had something he liked, he shared it with
Rowland, who did cry with joy at hearing the album so close to the way he wanted it. Over the next little while, the pair (and
Helen O'Hara) made suggestions and tweaks to everything except the untouchable "Come On Eileen," landing on a mix that doesn't radically alter an album many have loved since the beginning but gives it a slight polish and changes a few little things here and there. The backing vocals on "Liars A to E" are brought down an octave, for example. This new mix of the album is the cornerstone of
Too-Rye-Ay, As It Should Have Sounded but there is also a full disc of B-sides, the pre-album single "Show Me"/"Soon," an edit of "Eileen," and three previously unreleased outtakes (Let's Make This Precious," an early version of "Liars'' called "Smoke Your Own," and "Until I Believe in My Soul") to make it appealing to collectors. Also giving the package a boost to essential status is the remixed full concert from late 1982 that shows the
Too-Rye-Ay band to be a formidable live act capable of drenching the hall in happy, sweaty customers as they run through songs from their first two albums and some well-chosen covers.] ~ Tim Sendra
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