MARILLION - Market Square Heroes single (1982)

Despite having little in the way of a life and despite already being enmeshed in two projects that in theory should demand every moment of my "blogging time," I'm adding a third that will probably take precedence over the other two and hence probably drive away any audience I could conceivably be building.  Yay?

In advance of (and possibly after, depending on how slow I am) of his farewell tour - for which purpose I am going to Sweden this fall specifically to catch a few gigs - comes a series of blog posts highlighting the music of Scottish singer-songwriter Derek William Dick, better known by the somehow less embarrassing stage name of Fish.

Since the beginning of 2021, before which I'd never really listened to any of it, I've become deeply enmeshed in this man's songs and devoted a large portion of my earbud time to all things Fish.  Hopefully I'll be able to communicate why.  Unlike the way I've been writing previously, this is not a first listen or a new discovery/evaluation of music.  This is not an exploration of something I'm not sure I'll like or a critical dissection.  This is a fucking hagiography, because I fucking love Fish's songs and I want to try to write about them.

...except that of course I don't love every moment of every track, and I won't be shy about that.  I like the better songs better than I like the less-good songs.  And although I'm focusing on the music, if the guy whose highest profile interview on most search engines has the pull-quote "I was an areshole!" hasn't always shown the world his best side, I'm not going to defend any of that.  I just really like the body of work overall.

The only way I know how to dissect a discography is from the beginning, chronologically, one record at a time.  So!  In the early '80s a young Fish quit his job in the Forestry Service and joined an up-and-coming prog band called Marillion, and they built a local following in a series of events that's been catalogued extensively elsewhere.  And in 1982, Marillion - guitarist Steve Rothery, bassist Pete Trewavas, keyboardist Mark Kelly, founding and soon-to-be-departed drummer Mick Pointer, and this hulking Scottish weirdo shrieking into the mic - put out their first single...

 

 

Track One - "Market Square Heroes"

Marillion chose MSH as basically their first introduction to the wider world, and it's not hard to see why.  Within just a few minutes you get a punchy pop-rock song with a surprising amount of depth.  But before you can get into the depth, it's hard not to be hooked by first the dizzy riff from Mark Kelly's keyboard, and then by the conviction with which Fish delivers that chorus.  The former in particular transforms the song from a rock song into something with elements of prog.  And the lyric really uses a specific setting (and apparently was inspired by one specific dude) to convey the universal energy of self-righteous youth looking for a cause to fight against.  And it makes you want to pump your fist as you bring your own suffering on yourself.  WE MARCH!

Thing is, though, listening to "Market Square Heroes" now makes me long for it to sound the way I it sounds in my head.  It's in part because in my early days of exploring Fish/Marillion I'd always look forward to MSH as a live highlight, and the live versions generally kick more ass.  To hear "Market Square Heroes" sounding like itself non-live, you really need the "Rerecorded Version" that the Fugazi-era version of the band released a few years later (I believe on the "Assassing" single, but it makes it into some of the rereleases of Script For A Jester's Tear on the streaming platforms).  If for no other reason than that it's the only studio version that doesn't omit a whole verse ("I flash peace signs when I wage war in the disco...")! The drums are crisp and in time, that iconic weebly woobly keyboard riff sounds less a product of its time and more timeless, and even through he's buried a bit more in the mix, Fish's performance is less affected and more intense.  If you could bring Fish forward into the mix like on the original but sing more like he does on the remake, the song would approach the total and complete brilliance that it has in my head.

Track Two - "Three Boats Down From The Candy"

Again, the keyboards really shaped Marillion's sound (and still do, I suppose).  When Mark's banging out a catchy riff, the song just gets one's heart pumping, and when he's doing the more restrained bit, the whole song stands still, waiting to spring.  I like this one quite a bit too, even though "objectively" it has a bunch of different elements that shouldn't work.  I'm not even opposed to Fish's super-theatrical singing - he often laid it on really thick in this era, and it's not always pleasing to the ear, but somehow it works for "Three Boats" - or Mick's proggy drumrolls to punctuate the end of selected measures.  Lyrical notes: based on the various ways Fish has introduced the track over the years, on one level it's about fucking on a beach, but on another level it's about the most toxic of masculinity, perhaps written from personal experience.  Here the narrator, a self-proclaimed minstrel and poet, has a pretty brutal kiss-off for the object of his transient affections:  

Wipe the tears from your eyes

Wipe the sweat from your thighs
Don't crawl to me with sentiment

My laughter drowns your cries

But from the way that complete display of dickishness is followed by the repetition of "I'll remember you, I'll remember you," I think the idea isn't just that the two characters in the song each wanted something different out of their encounter, it's that the dude wouldn't allow it to become something more than a quick lay - which it could have been - because his idea of what's "expected" makes him put on this persona.  At least that's what I get out of the tune.  Dark in an interesting way.  I'm detecting a theme here...

BTW, the explanation I've heard for the strange and silly title is that the tryst described in the song takes place beside or in one of the many boats moored on the pier; it's a small enough boat that it doesn't even have a name, just a number.  It's the one that's three down from the nearest named vessel, the Candy.  

Track Three - "Grendel"

So, our single ends up being like a mini album thanks to having an eighteen-minute-plus epic all included.  "Grendel" stands in Marillion lore as a legendary old chestnut to be held in the highest regard.  Presumably there was an excitement in seeing these young bands and their young audiences discovering the joys of prog-rock after being told that it was oh so unfashionable nowadays to consider that longer songs with parts and time signature changes might be worthwhile.  Taken in that context, "Grendel" can be viewed as an exuberant tribute to the likes of Genesis (the song is frequently accused of aping "Supper's Ready," even by those who dismiss most of the Marilion/Genesis comparisons), which I.... can't comment on, not having heard the inspiration.  Honestly, "Grendel" helps me remember why I often like the idea of prog better than the reality.  Less a symphony of pieces adding up to a bigger whole and more a slow and only fitfully interesting collection of random bits thrown together, disguised as an epic.*  Every time I try to latch onto something, the song moves on to holding a few keyboard chords for a few minutes to ensure all momentum dissipates.  Six minutes in and we've still only done two verses?  Here's Pete adding a little life and the band steadfastly refusing to do anything with it.  And here's another part that doesn't really follow from the other parts.  Like I said, prog isn't always my thing.  And maybe the Genesis song is brilliant and cohesive and this is the fanfic version, and maybe I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

This is making it sound like I hate the track, which I really don't.  It sounds fine for the most part.  I'm just physiologically incapable of really engaging with it as more than mostly pleasant background music.^  Lyrically, whatever, the monster/force of nature casting judgment on humanity, sure.  It's been done.  At least Fish seems to be having fun playing the troubadour.  I'll say that I do quite lack the last few minutes, both the "let the blood flow" part and the outro riff, which is tasty enough to make me wish they'd built more of the song around it (maybe use a variant version of it as the soft intro, for instance).  Ah, well.

"Grendel" is fine for what it is, but I'm glad they got it out of their systems and moved on to better things.  They had to try it once, but everyone involved can do better.

Final thoughts

What an exciting way for a band to introduce itself to the world.  You've got three different sides of what they do - the pop song, the theatrical performance rock piece, and the lengthy Genesis tribute - but all are bombastic and bursting with bitterness.  All three tracks are hailed as classics by different people, and I'd rank two as career standouts despite how prolific both singer and band have been since then.  I'm not loving everything about the shrieky way Fish goes with his vocals or the production, so the songs sometimes sound a little cheesy as recorded, but listeners should be able to appreciate that the songs themselves hold up big time.

Favorite track:  "Market Square Heroes"

Runner up:  "Three Boats Down From The Candy"

Least favorite:  "Grendel"

Overall rating:  4/5

Thoughts on Script For A Jester's Tear whenever I get around to it!

*Marillion, of course, would eventually part ways with Fish and go on to become huge names in the field of throwing random shit together and claiming it's one piece of music.  Their 2015 record F.E.A.R. stands out as their pièce de résistance when it comes to haphazard tedium.**

**Chill, I'm just kidding.***

 

***Sort of.

^The live version of "Grendel" on Gone Fishing, when he brought it back decades later as a vocalist's showpiece, is a little more engaging but marred by a sub-par vocal performance.