The 17 Series: The Psychedelic Furs

 

The 17 Series: The Psychedelic Furs (Glen)

I have no words to describe the pure musical and lyrical euphoria the Furs provided and still do - let them speak for me.  They changed me - I only knew radio rock and just got into heavy metal. Then Nick turned my on to "Forever Now" and blew my fucking mind forever.  It was like I was Algernon getting suddenly smart.  Coincidentally, I included the song 'Flowers' in this set.

I couldn't believe what I was missing: there was a band this intensely intelligent, this dream-laden, weaving melodies like an instant poppy field, but leaving the mind stimulated and excited for more.. life could be a merry-go-round swirl of simultaneous bliss and sociological blase criticism, wrapped in playful phrases like "I'm so in love with your T.V., they're so in love with you and me."  The Furs in my opinion, deliver the closest thing to a mind-altering substance - like the best of the 60's offerings but with snide, cheeky savoir faire.  Or as Richard Butler would probably say "a beautifully stupid chaotic savoir faire".  "Yes I Do" the final song, literally produces endorphins in my brain when I hear it; and I will continue to return to that glorious feeling of being lusciously lost in time and space, again and again, my carousel spinning my soul into the eternal ether.

-Glen Grefe

Comments

  1. NickJanuary 23, 2021 at 3:02 PM

    Thanks Glen. Music creates community when we share what we love with others. I am proud to have something to do with sharing the Furs with you! I can still picture in my mind the first time I heard the Psychedelic Furs. Like almost all of my early "new wave" discoveries, I was tuned into one of 2 college radio stations I listened to. I believe it was "Forever Now" but it could have been "President Gas" (one of those 2) Not long after, I had Forever Now on cassette and was playing it for Glen. Their next album was "Mirror Moves" and Glen and I went to see that tour in Minneapolis. It was one of the first concerts I had gone to. Glen and I were too poor (or too cheap) to get a t-shirt, so we got these Psychedelic Furs headbands! I can remember us riding the bus wearing them. I ended up seeing the Furs about a half dozen times which is more than any other band, for me.

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