Turquoise Days captures the post-punk swagger of a band that melded the rawness and vitriol of CBGBs New York punk with trippy 60s psychedelia. More than once, in fact, Mac was compared to Doors' lead vocalist, the late Jim Morrison.
Adams's definitive history gets the story from the players themselves-from McCullouch, to guitarist Will Seargent, to leading rock journalists of the day. No stone is left unturned-the band's formation in 1978 around the Liverpool punk scene, the DIY Scandinavia tour, the Bunnymen's relevance and influence in today's rock scene.
Crocodiles, Camo, Crystal Days, covers tours, comebacks-it's all there.
For a few years, when their greatest hits
Songs to Learn and Sing rested in every college student's cassette deck, the band was indeed a contestant in the U2 Überstadium Sweepstakes. If not for a few missteps and foolish pride, we could all be singing along with a high-haired Liverpudlian rather than an Irishman in black boots at our local Enormo-Dome.
The Bunnymen remain the thinking man's rock icons. And Mac, with effortless, Bowie-like hipness and unmatchable quotability, is still on his game. Mac the Mouth's comments on U2 lead singer Bono alone, chronicled here, are enough to singe the eyebrows, and are enough to inspire current stars such as Oasis's Noel Gallagher run to his feet.
The 320-page book sports rare photographs of the band, along with the complete lyrics of Ian McCullouch. Releasing nine studio albums over two decades, Echo & the Bunnymen have earned a reputation as being fiercely uncompromising, and probably the only band whose comeback, staged in the late 90's, critically rivaled its earlier efforts.
Above all else,
Turquoise Days captures a time when all rock & roll needed was three chords, an attitude, a bit of hairspray and the truth, and you were ready for the world.
Chris Adams has been a freelance writer for twelve years. His work has appeared in such publications as The Big Takeover, Lollipop, and The Fine Print, where Adams was the music section editor. Adams currently lives in Fort Point Channel, Boston, where he is completing a narrative titled Chasing Neon Halos and attempting (in vain, according to his neighbors) to produce something approaching music from his vintage Vox Phantom.
