bad hearts 7"
[1978, cherry red]

to me the tights, from worcester, always seemed like one of punk rock's greatest tragedies. how does a band craft one of the best 7"'s ever and then fade away just like that? surely there must've been some scandal involved. drugs? infighting? arrests? sadly, no. they just moved to london and then stopped making music. what the fuck? unacceptable. granted, the group (malcolm orgee (vocals), robert banks (guitar), barry island (bass, keyboards) and rick mayhew (drums)) would put out another 7" (howard hughes) in 1980, but it was disappointing, compared to this one, well not even when compared to it, though it did reach the fourth spot on the uk punk chart. inexplicably, this single only found its way to number six, and that was only after tastemaker john peel gave it a spin on his show. seeing as how they did manage to turn a few heads in the late 70's, it comes as a surprise that they're so unheard of currently. as far as punk goes, bad hearts stands as a bit of an oddity, rather than sociopolitical commentary the three songs on here are rather sweet and (mostly) upbeat, yet they managed to stave off the pop-punk classification, and rightfully so. at least in the annals of punk history the tights legend is secured, via the cherry red label giving them top billing on their exhaustive (and exhausting) eight disc box-set, i'll give you my heart, i'll give you my heart, by not only beginning the compilation with them, but using their lyrics to give it its name. now if only everyone else would treat this 7" with the reverence that cherry red, deservedly, gave it.

bad hearts gets off to a fantastic start thanks to the first thirty-five seconds of the track being nothing but a distorted guitar and malcolm's chanted vocals "i'll give you my heart you know it by heart" after that we get a good bouncy bassline thrown in with the drumming. the guitar is good enough to keep you at least mildly interested in it, but the subtle chord changes that marry the chorus "little lost and dreamin', little lost and it's on my own" make a far greater impression, as far as the music goes. ultimately, malcolm's melody, and the lyrics, are what make this such a fantastic song.

sweetness abounds in it. even if the lyrics were about drowning fluffy bunnies, it would still sound optimistic. what this song is actually about, hmmm, open to interpretation: "it's so good, it's so good it's bad, it's so bad, it's so bad it's good, that's unsafe...." i think i've got it narrowed down to fucking or drugs, but that's just me. regardless, it sums up adolescent thought pretty fucking perfectly. one thing that's not up for debate is the awesomeness of the music; the fuzzy guitar mimics the vocals while barry's bass takes on a prominent role, especially with its elastic bounce in between the verses and on the chorus (which consists only of plainly repeated shouts of "it!").
in a (rather amateur) 2005 q&a session with punk77, guitarist robert banks mentioned that one of the reasons for forming the band, apart from boredom, was that they were hoping to get laid, which i thought went without saying, but that they never did. if the closing song, cracked, didn't at least get orgee some pussy (a handjob at minimum), even by way of pity sex, well, i just don't know what to say about those british dames. that's without highlighting the fact that the man's last name is fucking orgy, for christ's sake! at least that's how i'm choosing to pronounce it... but i digress. when it comes to punk rock's tales of heartbreak, cracked is right up there with the buzzcock's ever fallen in love? both beautiful and sad, it's the pace of the music that keeps it from being too melancholic and sappy, and when the lyrics contain such stomach-punchers as "this place is cracked and so am i, i can't remember how die... i can't remember how to live, in these days, it must be a gift", that's quite an accomplishment. while the lyrics are definitely the focus, capped off by the amazing gang-sung melody of the chorus, the music is also terrific. it all really centers around barry's great bass lead, which the guitars will then build an awesome repertoire with. the most striking moments are when both bass and electric guitar match ascending chords, they way they compliment each other is brilliant.

after a good twenty years of inactivity the tights actually reformed in the early 00's and are still playing shows. i think they've also put out an album since then, though i'm not brave enough to touch that. it's just a shame that they either didn't know what a good thing they had or didn't have the drive to pursue it at the time. at least we all have this wonderful 7" to enjoy, i know it's good enough for me.

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bad hearts