My Favorites #1: "Swamp Thing," by the Chameleons

I've often thought that if I ever started a band, the first cover song that I'd want to tackle would be "Swamp Thing," by The Chameleons (or, The Chameleons UK in America, for legal reasons), and for this I thought it fitting to be the first song that I covered in my "Favorite" series of posts.

Not only is this one amazing epic of a song, but I can't find that any other band anywhere has actually done a decent recording of it. The only results that YouTube shows are a couple amateur recordings. It's a shame, because the only fault I can find with this song, from their 1986 album Strange Times, is that it sounds a bit dated, an obvious product of the 80s, and a faithful brushing up just may do the trick.

Over the course of the song, the music becomes increasingly grand, mounting an attack of building guitar, drums, and synthesizers, before ultimately settling into a sort of musical resignation. It does so in true 80s fashion, with a cavernous sound that comes from an onslaught of sound generously coated in reverb and delay.

One of the most interesting things about this song is the fact that even the most naive of listeners could instantly recognize the song as an 80s song, yet it sounds very different from the rest of the 80s pop scene. It's much more complex than the New Romantic and new wave pop structures and has a darker feel, all the while remaining pleasantly listenable. The lyrics aren't too bad either: clever without being too pretentious. I'm not one to usually listen to lyrics, as I much prefer experiencing the music to whatever message the song might be carrying, but several of the phrases in this song grabbed me.

When the light in life is gone
No change for the meter
And then the king of spivs will come
Selling blood by the liter. (A spiv is a kind of shady black-marketeer, for us not in the UK.)

There is a particularly good live version of this song on YouTube, performed by Chameleons frontman Mark Burgess and his post-Chameleons band The Sons of God. While this version sounds great and is full of energy, nothing beats putting on a pair of headphones and letting the dreamy, textured sound of the studio version swirl around your head. The download link is below.

The Chameleons: Swamp Thing