Damascus (Original Long Version) — Richard Strange and The Engine Room

#365Songs: August 13

On yesterday’s edition of #365Songs, I discussed Richard Strange’s performance art punkers Doctors of Madness. I promised more goodness from the mixed up files of Mr. Richard “Kid” Strange, and more goodness you shall have.

In the ephemeral vapors and pixie dust of Doctors of Madness, Strange released two solo records in the early 80s. Well, technically, one. In 1980, he released a live recording of his one-man show and “multimedia political fable,” The Live Rise of Richard Strange, followed by a studio album in 1981 — The Phenomenal Rise of Richard Strange. If I can admire the creative impulse, I’m not wild about either as a casual listening experience.

That said, the record features rampant saxophone use and abuse — and maybe you recall how I fell about saxophones in pop songs.

As a standalone record, The Phenomenal Rise doesn’t feel as innovative or eccentric as his work with Doctors of Madness. Other bands were doing post-punk and art-pop better by this point in 1980. Survey the landscape — David Bowie, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Talking Heads, Joy Division, Gang of Four, The Cure, Public Image Ltd — a murderer’s row of new and hugely influential artists that took at least a lesson plan from the Doctors of Madness playbook. It was both too left-of-center and too derivative; the six years spanning 1976–1981 represented a swell of dynamic innovation within popular music. Strange tried so very hard, but remained somewhat stuck in a post-glam purgatory.

During this same time he organized the first alternative mixed-media cabaret in Soho called Cabaret Futura. Broadcast on the BBC, NBC, and others, the Richard Strange-hosted program claims the honor of hosting early shows by Depeche Mode and Marc Almond.

Now sequestered in Edinburgh and writing songs, messing with Atari computers, and testing out a new sonic palette, Richard Strange assembled a band around a vocalist called Julie Hepburn called The Engine Room. The band signed with Arista and the new Richard Strange symposium set about writing dark and brooding pop music with a twist of fun for the MTV audience that would become the 1986 album Going — Gone.

“We wanted to make a record that was eclectic, using elements of ethnic music, electronics, samples and pure pop, a record that combined high and low technology.”

After months of tinkering, The Engine Room had what would be their first single — a catchy synth-pop track called “Damascus.” As Strange puts it, he wanted to conjure the sense of “steamy claustrophobia” in a middle eastern city at night. He sampled muezzins and brought in middle eastern musicians to play traditional Arabian orchestrations. The six-minute album cut features all of that plus synth and a half-dozen rising and receding layers of traditional mid-80s pop music textures. As “mad” as Doctors of Madness had been, “Damascus” exceeded those ambitions — just in a different arena of combat.

They say the city never sleeps
But his one sure looks tired
Outside the bars they shoot the breeze
But it doesn’t fan the fire.

They say the night has a thousand eyes
But your two eyes will see me through
We will dance by the light of a melting moon
And watch the sky turn midnight blue

And we’ll burn, burn, burn in the shadows
Run, run, run in the heat
We will tear down the walls that have towered above
And drown in the desert of love.

But hold on for a minute. This pick isn’t going to be that simple.

The original album cut is good, but producer Steve Allen (The Cure, Sisters of Mercy) worked this into the form of an unspectacular Billboard mid-charter. Lucky for us, Richard Strange wasn’t totally content with the result. He worked on re-editing “Damascus” into a 4-minute radio-friendly cut (it removed some of the middle eastern musicality for brevity), but also released a longer, more complex and beautifully arranged seven-minute extravaganza. The original framework remains, but the longer format gives every cacophonous element time to breathe.

On this version, he lingers in the slow build into the pop elements using a simple bass synthline and moody strings. The middle eastern elements grow alongside the synth. It’s remarkable to me that this song never really found an audience. Was it too late to join the art-pop party? Or was it merely confusing to audiences?

A trip to Discogs reveals that the seven-minute version of “Damascus” appeared as the A-side on the 1986 original 12" single with the radio edit on the B-side with Dave Allen credit as the sole producer on each. The alternate edits with the parenthetical subtitle (Burn in the Shadows) and (Burn in the Shadows - Strange Dub) dropped a year later. The constant re-edits suggest that Strange and Allen knew they’d made a great song, but one that was maddeningly, unforgivably close to perfection.

I’ve been sitting here listening to the five different versions for the last two hours on repeat. I’m standing by my original assessment that the “Original Long” is the superior edit. Feel free spin them all for yourself — if only because you’ll probably stumble into some of the other clever cuts on this record. I’d also recommend a taste of his Visage-like “Fall of the House of U.” with the juxtaposition against the bubble-gum alt-pop of “Dominoes.” (Note the lovely return of the saxophone in the latter.)

Restless and unsettled, after the release of the The Engine Room’s Going — Gone, Richard migrated to Hollywood and appeared in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). You’ll say — who the hell was he in Batman? But I bet you’ll recognize him straightaway. He’s one of the Joker’s goons.

Or how about the executioner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991).

In the years since Strange has performed a collaborative, operatic production based on the works of William S. Burroughs, reunited the Doctors of Madmen and reworked and performed The Phenomenal Rise of Richard Strange, recorded new Doctors of Madmen music. He toured the UK playing the Lou Reed songbook. He played the gravedigger in a worldwide touring production of Hamlet, directed by Yuri Lyubimov.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to track down a copy. of his 2015 memoir, Strange: Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks.

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