Savoy Records: Hardcore: M97002

Hardcore: M97002

PJ Proby

1987

Savoy Onomatopoeic Records

PJS6

12"

Shock One 33.3 rpm

Hardcore: M97002
(Smith/Temple/Holland)

Shock Two 33.3 rpm

Hardcore: M97002 (Elvis Was Not The White Nigger, I Was)
(Smith/Temple/Holland)

Recorded and mixed in the UK at Suite 16, Rochdale.

Hardcore: M97002 available on the Savoy Wars CD

Originally released with an opera libretto-style lyric sheet. Now available exclusively in transcript on this site.

• See the Orders page for vinyl purchase details.

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Record sleeve text:

Savoy + M97002 + PJ Proby = ART

"A New World wet dream—a modern record of the Real World."

"I think one has to accept that Rock'n'Roll is obscene. The good things about it are gloriously obscene, and the bad things are just plain obscene. But if one started tp use any kind of moral criteria on Rock'n'Roll whatsoever then one would simply say: 'No Rock'n'Roll'."

Nik Cohn

"Repetition is reality. He who wills repetition is matured in seriousness."

Kierkegaard

"I believe that we should only read those books that bite and sting us. If a book does not rouse us with a blow, then why read it?"

Franz Kafka

"The road of excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom."

William Blake

Record label text:

A New World wet dream—A modern record of the real world.

The BPI, the IRS, the PRS, the Cartel, all isms, in fact everyone—Fuck 'em and feed 'em beans!

Presenting the record that killed Rock'n'Roll! We can't tell you how good this is. The tabloids went mad (see Hardcore: M97002 Tabloid Outrage):

'Madonna In Porn Record Row' (London Evening News—full front page)

'Sued For A Million' (Daily Mail)

'Sheer Filth' (Daily Star)

The disc brought on the almost-disintegration of the company heads at Pinnacle and Rough Trade. Half-way through the track, as the vocals get more excessive, the drums are sent haywire by a click-track gone Tonto. A Sabbath guitar thunders and squeaks its terminal riff. The repeat drum/guitar riff from an earlier Savoy record, The Mugwump Dance, reappears to add the continuity which is apparent through all Savoy records.

Hardcore was single of the week in two music papers. A current record price guide lists an original copy at £80 and climbing. David Britton's prison number in pre-riot Strangeways cloaks a tale as mysterious as David Lynch's Blue Velvet...what does it mean ?

Hear it and go blind. And is that really Madonna dueting with PJ Proby?

ALBINO + ALIEN + ARTIFICE

"Even if you never hear it, another catastrophic shockwave travelling through the body pop. True, this is fanatical obscenity, a record you could probably be prosecuted for owning, even. Hip hop at its most impacted crosses HM stalactite chords and guitar-abuse solos. Be startled by the disappearance of the beat: it propogates until there is a stentorian thunder, mistracking-stylus mode. It reaches an idiot-hyper-sexuality. Innuendo, rock's usual figleaf, is bypassed. So much sexual message is broadcast that 'sex' burns out, is exhausted in an outrage of artlessness and celebration of the sexual drives that pop usually polices or orders. Absurdly apocalyptic, it calls itself "the last Rock'n'Roll record made in England", wants to be the last moment, pop's supernova. It spirals into scam, claims to be the collaboration by PJ Proby and Madonna. I listened to it twice and turned to a pillar of salt."

PAUL OLDFIELD, Melody Maker

"Hardcore is a page from Proby's life story, a rap. Over 15 minutes PJ taunts the listener, it's as if the birth and death of rock'n'roll were being viewed together with little separation."

TREVOR FAULL, Outlet ("Perhaps the worlds most eclectic rock magazine"—RECORD COLLECTOR)

"15 minutes of the kind of stuff that Frank out of Blue Velvet would probably chill out to after an evening on the inhaler."

ROB CHAPMAN, Mojo feature

Rated No. 3 in i-D MAGAZINE's 'Scary Monsters—
12 of the most frightening records ever!', Nov 1987