Released on this day in 1995, Bill Cummings looks back at David McAlmont and Bernard Butler‘s debut single ‘Yes‘.
Bernard Butler left Suede in acrimonious circumstances in 1994, during the recording of Dog Man Star, finding creative solace in the bosom of David McAlmont who had become similarly disenfranchised with the music business after numerous label wrangles. They formed a brief yet successful partnership and their finest moment came to glorious effect on their debut single ‘Yes’ that hit no.8 in the charts at the end of May and early June in 1995.“I had just left Suede and my life was falling apart and it was horrible. When you leave a band everything is connected to it like friends. When you leave one in a bad way, you end up on your own. ” Butler explained to Louder Than War in 2013 “You also didn’t have a label and all of the things you grow accustomed to in a band. I just wanted to write joyful music in the summer and I’d just been writing on Dog Man Star for the previous six months so that was tough as well. At the time, I was listening to a lot of Scott Walker and Dusty Springfield and Motown. I wanted to write something very Bacharach/David type of thing with plenty of key changes and strings and a big bassline and that was a big inspiration. I gave the tape to David after meeting him and he had the words done after a couple of days and when we met up he said that he only had one verse so we just repeated the verse. He was perfect and we recorded it in two days in France and I did the overdubs myself. The song means a lot to people.”
David McAlmont told the James Mcmahon podcast in 2022, that “ever since I heard Prince as a teenager I’ve loved an axe wielder, and I think Bernard is splendid at it. It’s one of the highlights of my working life, sitting in the studio with him watching him play. Before he played me the song, all those years ago, he said he’d been listening to lots of Dusty Springfield, and I can hear that in it. I took the record home and did some work on it, but I don’t know what I did. I’ve heard people say it’s uplifting, but whatever I did, I’ve never done it again!”
Teaming up with producer Mike Hedges known for his work with The Beautiful South ‘Yes’ attempts to recreate the Wall of Sound productional technique beloved of Phil Spector, ‘Yes’ is an affirmation writ large in a pop song, subverting the classic ‘I Will Survive’, it’s about dusting yourself down after a soon to be ex-lover has kicked you in the guts. Thus it took on a knowing double meaning for the down-on-their-luck pair, as McAlmont’s sky-scraping vocals radiated an effortless soul, a joyous redemptive power that towered toward great heights. Butler’s epic and sweeping arrangements give Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ a lick of paint, draping McAlmont’s notes in shimmering production, bounding drums and spiralling guitars. It’s wonderful.
An extract from the rise and fall of the orchestral sound of the 90s part two.
