“Bang Bang, you’re dead, stop diddy boppin’ buddy, bouncing tty on you!” – Vive Le Rock
Adam Ant – 1985 – Vive Le Rock
You know, almost nobody knows this album. It should have been Adam’s comeback record but I don’t think it was even released in the states. At least not for a while. At least not in any big way.
Amazing. Just 3 years before Adam was soaring on the back of the “Goody Two Shoes” rocket. One terrible album later and he’s not welcome at the table anymore.
Vive Le Rock was supposed to a back-to-basics Adam record. A lot of work went into it. The logos, the imagery (future rock, almost apocalyptic but more interested in cash) and the sound: A BIG guitar record. More so than ever before. We’re still one drummer down from the original Antmusic sound but the muscle, and more importantly, the fun and silliness of Prince Charming and Kings of the Wild Frontier are actually back.
Adam isn’t as happy as before but he’s goofier than ever.
“Walla ba-loomba!” (from “Miss Thing”)
“Stop diddy boppin buddy, bouncin’ betty on you” (“Vive le Rock)
“Whoopsin’ a whoopsin, Jam jam jammamin’, Yabba Yabba Ding Ding, Delta Hey Max 9” (“Apollo 9)
and so many more! Just what the hell is a “choocha laben dollylay”?
The subject matter is more objective than ever before. Like X’s “I Must Not Think bad Thoughts”, Adam decries the synthetic sound that is so popular in the day and harkens back to the great raw power of rock. Fortunately he has Marco’s power chords to support the theorem and they’ve enlisted David Bowie’s big glam sheen producer Tony Visconti for the production chores.
Subsequently, it’s Adam’s best sounding record in years.
I disagree with Allmusic when they say that Adam is rendered Anonymous on his own record (Although I think that’s an inspired description and have been known to use it often).
This should have been the next record after Friend of Foe. It builds on the swagger of that record. It’s bouncy in places (“Rip Down”). It’s nonsensical. It’s a little sluggish and apprehensive, but I imagine Ant was a little gun shy by this time. If he wasn’t then that’s the sound they were going for.
Either way, I am always happy when I hear Vive or songs from it.
Except for “Scorpio Rising”. Ripping off a little Kenneth Anger, well, actually, paying homage to that movie and the filmmaker is as turgid a song as I’ve ever heard. And I’ve listened to R.E.M.’s Around the Sun.
I love the singles on this record, mostly “Apollo 9” a nonsensical space age rock song which, I guess you could say is the Antmusic/dance take on Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. It’s NOTHING like that song but I see the connection.
The biggest problem with Vive Le Rock is the running order. Side Two is much better, catchier, energetic, aggressive and exciting than Side One. Each time I hear “Hell’s Eight Acres” I am surprised that it wasn’t a hit and even more chagrined that I never thought of covering it with my own band.
Followed by “Mohair Locker Room Pin Up Boys” and the rockabilly twinged, “No Zap” Side Two closes with the political nuclear screed “P.O.E.” (Damn your eyes, Mr. Kruschev. Don’t go droppin’ bombs over here!”)
If you’re gonna listen to Vive Le Rock and I hope you do, make a new playlist:
Side Two first all the way to the end of P.O.E. Then listen to Side One all the way through “Scorpio Rising” and finish up with the original side two closer, the a capella version of “Apollo 9”. I think you’ll agree that the record is a lot better and that it is easily Adam’s 3rd best. Just behind Kings and Prince.
I do wish the jaunty, S&M ditty, “Human Bondage Den” B-Side was included in the original release. It’s so great.
But this was the final Adam Ant record for a while as he would try his hand at acting in the states. It would, it turn out, be the last album featuring any form of “Antmusic” that the public would be allowed to hear.
Grade: B+
A-Side: Vive Le Rock, Apollo 9, Hell’s Eight Acres
BlindSide: Miss Thing, No Zap, P.O.E.
DownSide: Scorpio Rising
