Interview: Eddie Argos - Return to sender

Published on Wednesday 13 January 2010 18:03

WHEN you love pop music as much as Eddie Argos, the frontman of lo-fi indie combo Art Brut, it's not all plain sailing. An impassioned lyric can harbour a sting in its tail or present a troublesome moral dilemma. To this day, Argos cannot listen to Martha Reeves & The Vandella's Jimmy Mack without feeling disturbed by its emotional ultimatum to an absent boyfriend.

• Singer Eddie Argos. Picture: Complimentary

"This girl is singing 'unless you come home, I'm going to cheat on you,'" says Argos. "That song was written during the Vietnam War – maybe Jimmy Mack was in Vietnam? You can't be singing songs about getting off with boys if you've got a soldier boyfriend!

"So I was unnecessarily angry about that, probably because I'm a man who's away a lot and I've had girlfriends that don't travel with me."

Argos has now resolved his issues by forming a new group, Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now!, with his girlfriend, Dyan Valdes of LA indie rockers The Blood Arm, with the intention of sticking up for Jimmy Mack and righting other pop injustices.

Their debut album, Fixin' the Charts Volume One, revives the noble but somewhat underexploited tradition of the answer song, starting with Hey! It's Jimmy Mack, in which the protagonist hits back with "yeah, I heard your track, and if that's your attitude, I'm not coming back".

Elsewhere, Argos takes up the cause of Billie Jean's son on Billie's Genes ("you left us in such a mess, no need for a paternity test"), adopts the guise of the beleaguered boyfriend in Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend on current single G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I've Got A), replies to Kanye West's Gold Digger with Coal Digger and pours scorn on The Crystals' He's A Rebel ("he's not a rebel, it's just a pose"). The album closes with a reply to Frank Sinatra's most famous song, called My Way (Is Not Always The Best Way).

It's not all wounded ripostes though; there are a couple of more abstract responses on the album. The duo's unwieldy name comes from the lyric of Creeque Allies, their alternative take on The Mamas and the Papas song Creeque Alley, which replaces the original's celebration of the LA music scene with a who's who of the French resistance movement.

There have been many permutations of the answer song throughout its proud and varied history. Some simply take the form of straightforward answers to straightforward questions – Eric Burdon informed Jimi Hendrix Yes I Am Experienced, Dodie Stevens answered Elvis in the affirmative with Yes I'm Lonesome Tonight and Camera Obscura's Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken was inspired by Lloyd Cole and The Commotions' Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?

Others are more pointed and personal. When her ex-boyfriend Neil Sedaka wrote Oh Carol! in her honour, Carole King impishly hit right back at him with Oh Neil!, while John Lennon and Paul McCartney were not averse to lyrical skirmishes following the acrimonious demise of The Beatles.

The blues and country traditions in particular are littered with answer songs, often providing an outlet for women to say their piece. Kitty Wells was quick to step up for her sisters with the likes of It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels and Paying For That Back Street Affair. When Jim Reeves sang that He'll Have To Go, one-hit wonder Jeanne Black insisted that He'll Have To Stay. Queen Of The House was Jody Miller's riposte to King Of The Road by Roger Miller (no relation), and an artist going by the name of Josephine XV responded to the novelty hit They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haaa! by Napoleon XIV with I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haaa!

These days, hip-hop is almost single-handedly keeping the art of the answer song alive, with a steady stream of verbal gauntlets thrown down by duelling MCs.

Argos stresses his answer songs are composed with love and affection – for the most part. "I've always been angry with Avril Lavigne," he reports. "I hate her songs. I didn't like Sk8er Boi to begin with. Girl friend is similar – there's no reference in the song that the boy has any interest in her, she's just stealing some other girl's boyfriend, and I don't like it. But I would say with the exception of the Avril Lavigne song, we love every song that we've replied to. It's to give people a balanced view, another side of that story."

Fixing the charts has turned out to be such a fruitful pursuit that Argos and Valdes have started work on a fresh batch of answer songs for Volume Two, and are open to suggestions, within reason. Argos admits that he wouldn't know what to do with, say, REM's It's The End Of The World As We Know It. "I don't just want to say the opposite – 'I know it's not'."

He is also ambivalent about the idea of someone penning an answer to one of his own songs.

"My songs are all true so it would be a little bit strange," he decides. "There's a garage hip-hop cover of Emily Kane (a former Art Brut single about Argos's first love) and Emily Kane heard it, cos she's a real person, and it really scared her. Their version was stalking her a lot more than mine – they were sneaking into her house at night. My brother (immortalised in the Art Brut track My Little Brother) is real, so he might be upset. Whereas I don't think Billie Jean is a real person…"

&#149 Fixin' The Charts, Volume One is released by Cooking Vinyl on 25 January

I KNOW THERE'S AN ANSWER: NOTABLE MUSICAL REPLIES

&#149 WOODY GUTHRIE, This Land Is Your Land replying to IRVING BERLIN's God Bless America. Originally called God Blessed America For Me, This Land Is Your Land was Guthrie's earthier response to Berlin's sentimental patriotism. Both songs have been mooted as an alternative to the US national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.

&#149 LYNYRD SKYNYRD: Sweet Home Alabama replying to NEIL YOUNG's Southern Man The southern rockers stuck it to that whiny Canuck with their "rednecks rule" sentiments, creating a pub rock monster in the process. We're with Neil on this one.

&#149 THE ASSOCIATES: Stephen, You're Really Something replying to THE SMITHS' William It Was Really Nothing It has never been established beyond a reasonable doubt that Associates' frontman Billy Mackenzie is the William in the title of the Smiths' hit but why let the truth get in the way of idle speculation about his relationship with Morrissey – it didn't stop Mackenzie returning the compliment, after all.

&#149 KITTY WELLS: It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels replying to HANK THOMPSON's The Wild Side Of Life. The Thompson song lamented the behaviour of a feckless fiance with the words "I didn't know God made honky tonk angels". Wells's proto-feminist retort was actually written by a man, JD Miller.

&#149 RUFUS THOMAS, Bear Cat replying to BIG MAMA THORNTON's Hound Dog Thomas's catty response to Thornton provided Sun Records with its first hit – and a copyright suit (it's virtually the same tune and lyrical structure with the animal characteristics changed). Erstwhile Sun recording artist Elvis Presley scored big with his version of Hound Dog a few years later.

&#149 FRANKEE: F.U.R.B. replying to EAMON's F*** It (I Don't Want You Back). Mind yer language and play nice, kids. These two hip-pop ditties were back-to-back No 1s in 2004. Radio 1 DJ CHRIS MOYLES got so sick of the stage-managed bitching of this alleged couple that he recorded his own answer song, We Want You To Leave.

&#149 LYDIA MURDOCK: Superstar (I'm Billie Jean and I'm Mad as Hell) replying to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean . Murdock was quick to respond with the title character's version of events. Years later, the "kid" now gets a say on the French Resistance track Billie's Genes, completing a dysfunctional family of songs.