Trust Me #121
Primitive Painters by Felt
Primitive Painters by Felt is six minutes of pure, shimmering perfection. Released in August 1985, it is completely timeless. This is a song that always stops my in my tracks.
The first few seconds are immediately hypnotic, then interlocking guitars kick in, underpinned by Martin Duffy's Hammond organ, then the beats come in. This is a dreamy and hazy intro, 75-seconds to get lost in. Lawrence comes in, his vocals sound a little muffled and (deliberately) lost in the mix ... but then the extraordinary vocals of Elizabeth Fraser explode over the top of everything, gorgeous swirling guitar, soothing organ and Lawrence lost in the flow.
Yeah, you should see my whole trail of disgrace
"I’m a monotone singer, and she’s the most expressive singer in the world. Put the two together, and it’s a brilliant contrast." Lawrence
Lawrence's vocals, almost spoken word, anchor the song, while Fraser's lift Primitive Painters into a euphoric haze. Sky-scraping, ethereal, captivating, celestial. Indie-psychedelia. Indie-opera. Unique. Just sublime.
The instrumental at 3 minutes 40 seconds introduces a new, more piercing, guitar sound, extra beats kick in, then it all comes back to Lawrence, lost in the flow and with Fraser singing alongside him. She lifts everything.
"When Liz Fraser sang on 'Primitive Painters,' it was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard. She just went into the booth and did it in one or two takes. I remember standing there thinking, 'This is it. We’ve made a monster.' I thought it was going to be a number one worldwide smash. It should have been." Lawrence
While researching the song for this blog I was pretty astonished to learn that there was no pre-conceived plan to have Fraser singing on the song. Her partner in life and music, Robin Guthrie was on production duties. As Felt and Guthrie were listening back, the producer ran upstairs to where Fraser was working on her own lyrics and songs and declared; "I want you to sing this song."
"I wrote the lyrics out for her on a piece of paper, she went in, listened to it once on headphones, and then just improvised around it. It was as real as that. It was a remarkable moment. When you listen back to something like that, we knew we'd got it." Lawrence, Uncut Magazine, July 2015
When Fraser’s vocals soar over the top of Lawrence's repetitive delivery in the outro it’s sheer magic. Fraser is like a rocket, bravely shooting through the stars for unchartered territory without a care for any consequences. It’s an astonishing, open-hearted, emotional performance. Hearing Fraser cry out in the climax is a spine tingling, goosebump inducing moment every single time I hear it.
There is an intensity to the song, but also loads of space, aided by Duffy's Hammond notes, that allow everything else to build and swirl around it. Dreamy psychedelic goodness. Maurice Deebank wrote the music and his majestic cyclical guitar sounds somehow float like feathers, sting like hard rain and soar like eagles. At times gorgeous, and going back to the start of the blog, capable of just stopping listeners in their tracks every single time. Unique. Primitive Painters pulls you in and when you leave you wonder what on earth you have just experienced.
Primitive Painters was released on Cherry Red Records, the perfect label for Lawrence's unique style, values and ambition. The song shot straight to Number 1 on the Independent Singles Chart, holding the top spot for two weeks.
"Primitive Painters was the pinnacle of that early era for us." Ian McNay, Cherry Red Records
Could Primitive Painters go beyond the usual Felt audience?
The NME staff were such massive fans of the song that they planned for Lawrence to be on the front cover of the magazine to coincide with the release of. For an indie band like Felt, on a label like Cherry Red, this would be a massive breakthrough. The NME sold 200,000 copies a week in 1985, and Lawrence's face would be on display in newsagents across the country.
Tragically, Lawrence and Felt were ditched just as the issue was going to print and the cover feature was pulled. Lawrence was devastated, and it became one of those classic 'what if' moments in alternative music history.
Mainstream radio didn't pick up on it and the single failed to reach the top 75. While Primitive Painters wasn't the smash that Lawrence hoped for, its legacy is enhanced with every passing year. It is a stunning song.
I read Will Hodgkinson's Street Level Superstar - A Year With Lawrence at the start of this year. It is a fascinating book - heartbreaking, soulful, funny and sad. Reading it only served to heighten the intrigue and mystery around the singer and songwriter. Something he seems to have encouraged and played to over the years - but it also just seems and feels like ... that is him. A one-off!
Lawrence is an obsessive and with Felt he wanted to execute a flawless artistic concept. His self-imposed manifesto was that Felt would release exactly ten albums and ten singles across the span of ten years (the 1980's), and then they would vanish.
There were flaws to this beautiful piece of marketing madness. Lawrence, Ian McNay at Cherry Red and Alan McGee at Creation were perhaps the only people who cared about this, or believed in it. Somehow, against the odds, Lawrence built the body of work he had the vision for ... and disbanded Felt.
The genius and madness of Lawrence is also captured wonderfully in David Cavanagh's epic My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize book about Creation Records. Alan McGee's quotes about living with him are hilarious.
Check out this
Post Felt, Lawrence has released music with Denim, Go-Kart Mozart and Mozart Estate. He continues to tour (somewhat sporadically) to this day, slowly growing his cult fanbase, his myth and legend. Still dreaming of being a pop star.
Primitive Painters is added to my Trust Me playlist; search for Everything Flows - Trust Me on Spotify or CLICK HERE. Check below for all previous blogs in my Trust Me series.
