Something dirty: The Happy Mondays anthem made “for the ladies”
Ranging from the moody post-punk of Joy Division to the pounding acid house of The Haçienda, the music which surrounded Factory Records was not tied to any one genre, style or era. In fact, Factory seemed committed to only one thing: freedom.
“The musicians own everything, the company owns nothing. All our bands have the freedom to fuck off,” was the essential ethos of the label, written by Tony Wilson in his own blood. Although this freedom might have caused the label to eventually collapse, it also allowed its artists to write about whatever came to mind, regardless of how marketable it might have been.
Particularly during the late 1980s and early 1990s, mainstream music was populated by a deluge of soulless, marketable pop outfits which were at odds with the growing rave subculture. The youth of Britain yearned for an alternative to the generic sounds of Stock Aitken Waterman, and revolutionary labels like Factory offered that in abundance. Fostering the infamous ‘Madchester’ scene, Wilson’s label succeeded in bringing attention to a crop of incredible new groups, with Happy Mondays firmly at the forefront of their roster.
An essential part of what made Happy Mondays so appealing was the fact that Shaun Ryder was just an ordinary kid from Manchester. Worlds away from the glitz and glamour of mainstream pop stars, Ryder had his roots in Little Hulton. Everybody in the UK knows somebody like Ryder or Bez; their image and music were relatable to audiences across the land. Sure, their lyrics weren’t the most poetic or profound, but they succeeded in capturing the zeitgeist of the time.
The band’s magnum opus arrived in 1990, with the release of Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, via Factory. Featuring some of the Mondays’ best-loved tunes, including the likes of ‘Step On’, ‘Kinky Afro’ and the ultimate baggy anthem ‘Loose Fit’, the record also signified the band’s rise to mainstream success, reaching number four in the UK album charts. For the album, Ryder and company could seemingly find inspiration anywhere, imbuing the release with an infectious kind of spontaneity.
Perhaps the greatest example of this is the track ‘Bob’s Yer Uncle’, which apparently arose from producer Paul Oakenfold’s instructions to “make this one sexy”. Recalling the recording process to the NME at the time, Ryder said, “Oakie said let’s make this one sexy for the ladies, and the words just spilled out. It was just the way the guitar was…it sounds sexy but it’s really fucking sick”.
“The words are just like a schoolboy rhyme that any kid could make up,” Ryder continued, before concluding, “It sounds right. I’m not capable of writing something sexy, but I can write something dirty that sounds sexy”. This might go some way to explaining the compelling sleaze inherent in Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, which went on to be reflective of the Madchester era as a whole.
Ryder might be underselling his songwriting prowess by saying that “any kid could make up” ‘Bob’s Yer Uncle,’ but, again, that is part of what makes Happy Mondays such an enduring and important band. Their accessibility and embracing of normality set them apart from virtually every other group appearing on Top of the Pops in the early 1990s. They weren’t polished, marketable or ‘safe’, but they were honest, and they were free.
