Arthur lovely Arthur some times I think you’re a dream


There are some people who I really think had a serious passion and served that passion with all the energy it deserved. And so it is with Charles Arthur Russell Jr. or to all of us Arthur Russell. To his Mum and Dad he was just plain old Charlie.

I am not quite sure how I came across him. A friend Duncan used to run a night in London called “pop your funk” after one of Russell’s tunes, so maybe it was from there? Maybe it was from classic disco tune “is it all over my face” which I am sure I would have heard ages back but… to be straight it was probably only in the last three years I found Arthur through the myriad of reissues of his work.

Arthur Russell: That's Us/ Wild Combination


Like all good artists he played under lots of different names and in lots of different bands, giving him the opprtunity to play around with a crazy amount of different styles. So... you might know him as: Dinosaur L, Indian Ocean, Killer Whale, Bright & Early, Dinosaur, Felix, Flying Hearts, The, Lola, Loose Joints, Necessaries, Turbo Sporty… The final name is my fave.

I seem to have spent the last few years buying reissues and wondering at the breadth of his talent and the seemingly endless supply of energy he has in his songs and his prodigious output. If you want a flavour of his output and an insight into his world then please watch “Wild Combination”. I have watched that many boring and pointless music documentaries that this one stands out by mile. It combines an eye-watering amount of his material with great interviews with his parents, partner and key friends and collaborators. Plus. It is named after my favourite song of his.

Wild Combination: Movie Trailer


Honestly fancy being that talented? Imagine being a cellist, composer and singer and then as you traipse through life you find yourself in New York and become one of the leading lights in the whole nascent disco scene. And then, just because you can, you find yourself playing with the likes of Philip Glass to David Byrne (Talking Heads) to Nicky Siano. Cool n’est pas?

His sound ranges from the most abstract classical through to new wave, country and of le disco.

As i love this fella so much and also love to join tunes together in a semi seamless way, i have posted links below to two mixes. The first (Arthur) was made very recently and is more ... modern. The second is a couple of years old but is very of the time being mostly 70s and 80s disco. Sort of. It has a track called Springfield which was a reworking/ finishing of a tune by Arthur by the DFA peeps i.e. Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy (both from LCD Soundsystem) which has beats and rhytmn that are to die for.

Arthur

Poshlust

Arthur died on April 4, 1992, at the age of 40. The obituary for him in the Village Voice wrote: "his songs were so personal that it seems as though he simply vanished into his music." Mayhap, we can all visit him there?