FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS

If you lived through the eighties, chances are pretty good you already know who the Fine Young Cannibals were. For the one in a million that comes by this way, and isn't familiar, here's the short version.

After Dave Wakeling and Raking Roger broke up The Beat to go and form General Public, Beat guitarist David Steele and bassist Andy Cox recruited singer Roland Gift and became Fine Young Cannibals. They scored several big hits like "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Good Thing". Bigger hits (in the States anyway) than they had with The Beat.

They broke up in the early nineties, after two albums, and have only re-convened once a few years later, to record a new track, "The Flame", for a best of compilation.

Here's some songs you won't find on their two albums. Some of these may be on the many compilations that have come out since their break, but I haven't really paid attention to those.

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Fine Young Cannibals - "Wade In the Water" (traditional) B-side of their first single, "Blue".
Fine Young Cannibals - "Motherless Child" (traditional) B-side of the "Funny How Love Is" single.
Fine Young Cannibals - "Love For Sale" (Cole Porter cover) B-side of the 12" version of "Blue". A different mix of the song was later released on the charity album Red Hot + Blue.
Fine Young Cannibals - "Social Security" B-side of "Good Thing".
Fine Young Cannibals - "You Never Know" B-side of "Don't Look Back".
Fine Young Cannibals - "Pull the Sucker Off" B-side of "She Drives Me Crazy". While most of their b-sides are fantastic, this one's a fairly standard 80s throwaway track.

Some "Fine" cds to purchase:

Fine Young Cannibals, 1985 (buy)
The Raw and The Cooked, 1988 (buy)
The Raw and The Remix, 1990 (buy) (remixes. I've never been a fan of those)
The Finest, 1996 (buy) (best-of with one new track)

Yeah, it's a fairly short post today. I've been busy with work. Been a while since I've been able to say that.