After Ultravox broke up, Midge Ure's solo career got off to a flying start with his 1985 LP The Gift and its #1 hit "If I Was". While I don't really care for that song, his between-albums single release, 1986's "Call Of The Wild" is a great tune. Reaching #27 on the UK chart, the track has been retroactively added to some later pressings of The Gift. It was accompanied by a very odd video, showing the events of Ure's typical day in great detail:
-Wake up.
-Wear atrociously ugly sweater outside to collect firewood.
-Begin drinking (you know there's a slug of whiskey in that glass!).
-Settle in to work on disturbingly-exact clay sculpture of own face, tickling it affectionately from time to time.
-Stand in windswept fields, singing.
Aside from the bizarre video, the song is Ure's best solo work in my opinion. I was lucky enough to see the man himself perform in Halifax back in 2015 (see link below), and I can attest that he was in top form during that sold-out show. And yes, he brought the standing-room-only crowd to its feet with "Call Of The Wild".
Ad for Midge Ure Halifax performance:
See you next Saturday with another song that just missed making my Top 200.
Living by gaslight ... crafting artisanal driftwood ... whipping off a perfect painting of the Cliffs of Dover in minutes ... driving a historic Sunbeam ... There is no greater Renaissance Man than Midge Ure
ReplyDelete(not to be confused with Midget Bore, aka Phil Collins)
Great tune !
haha...yes it is.
DeleteI like Midge, but this is one I wasn't familiar with. Good one!
ReplyDeleteThanks, this is my favorite of his solo tunes.
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