Words & the Beez: How Scritti Politti Re-Wrote Pop

Scritti Politti blend pop, funk and hip hop with some of the sweetest vocals and most intriguing lyrics you’ll ever hear.

Led by Green Gartside, they are rediscovered frequently by music lovers and music makers, despite reaching their chart peak in 1985. Here’s why:

DIY revolution

Scritti Politti began as a post-punk communist collective who met at Leeds Art College in 1978.

Their first release was the dubby Skank Bloc Bologna, a low-fi DIY triumph. Not only did the band produce it entirely under their own steam, they wrapped each 7” in a paper sleeve which listed all the costs involved in making the record: studio hire, vinyl pressing, distribution etc.

Green explained: “So whoever picked that record up could then go ahead and do it.”

Original drummer Tom Morley added: “That way the record business would change because everyone would be able to do it themselves.”

The song sparked interest from iconic indie label Rough Trade, who went on to release three Scritti Politti EPs plus their debut album Songs To Remember in 1982.

It featured a song named after French philosopher Jacques Derrida, reflecting Green’s ongoing fascination with language and philosophy which often surfaces in his lyrics.

The album also included The “Sweetest Girl”, a hypnotic lover’s rock single which had made the music press swoon and alerted the industry to the band’s chart potential.

Sweetest girl in all the world,
His eyes are for you only.
Sweetest girl in all the world,
His words have died before me.
The “Sweetest Girl”

Pop perfection

Green became disillusioned with the UK’s post punk scene, feeling that its self-imposed constraints had taken all the fun out of making music. His passion was now being fired up by sounds coming from the US.

“There was a discovery of black pop music and reading lots of European thinkers,” he told BBC Wales’ The Slate. “All of which ended up with me deciding that we should try to make pop music.”

This direction change led to the break-up of the original Scritti Politti, and Green recruited New Yorkers David Gamson (keyboards and programming) and Fred Maher (drums) to work with him on second album Cupid & Psyche 85.

“It was a complete change of priorities and emphasis,” Green explained. “A complete change of politics really.”

While entering the pop world, Green remained determined to break new ground. Not only did they blend synth with funk and reggae, Scritti Politti pushed 80s sampling and sequencing tech to its limit to create 1985’s most highly polished pop album.

Singles from Cupid & Psyche 85 went on to become global hits: Perfect Way, Absolute, Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin), Hypnotize and The Word Girl, Green’s mischievous response to the over-use of “girl” in pop lyrics.

A word for you to use,
A girl without a cause.
A name for what you lose
When it was never yours.
The Word Girl

As album sales raced towards a million, Cupid & Psyche 85 raised the bar in terms of pop production — for the rest of the decade, if a song wasn’t bright, slick and crystal clear, it wouldn’t make it onto mainstream radio. This also helps explain how songs made over 35 years ago still sound remarkably fresh.

Androgyny now

Among their irresistible melodies and fascinating lyrics, Scritti Politti songs have the delicate strength of Green’s distinctive vocals at their heart.

Somewhere between a falsetto and a whisper, his soft high singing voice was in stark contrast to most male vocals of the macho mid-80s.

“You move the centre of where you feel the singing from as high up the neck as it can go,” Green explained in 1984. “So you’re really only singing from your head, which makes it quite quiet, as you don’t resonate anywhere you should.”

This featherlight, genderless sound led Record Mirror and others to dismiss Scritti Politti’s output as “girly pop”.

But like Prince and Jimmy Somerville, Green embraced the androgyny and sweetened that homophobic decade with his own unique voice.

Lovesick

Scritti Politti repeated Cupid & Psyche 85’s winning formula for its 1988 follow-up album Provision.

It spawned three more hits, polished to perfection: Oh Patti, First Boy in This Town and Boom! There She Was.

But the never-ending treadmill of TV and radio promo duties had taken its toll on Green’s physical and mental health.

“Although there was the success, the vapid insincerity of all that, just how soul destroying and pointless it seemed, became a problem,” he explained.

“It was very very uncomfortable. So I quit. Which I think was the right thing to do. Because it sucked.”

Green prioritised his health and moved back to his South Wales home, where he read books, went for walks, visited the pub — and stopped making music.

“I was that unhappy with the business of making music, for a long time I didn’t want to go near it.”

Hip hop don’t stop

During this extended hiatus, Green had the chance to move into his sister’s flat in Hackney, east London.

He’d regularly dive into the racks of London record stores, emerging with armfuls of dancehall and east coast hip hop.

“I was really seriously in love with this stuff,” Green said.

His passion for hip hop reignited Green’s love for making music. “I’d denied myself this very profound pleasure for a very long time — and I wanted it back.”

Green started to imagine returning to the studio to mix hip hop with guitar pop.

This spark of inspiration ignited Scritti Politti’s critically acclaimed 1999 album Anomie & Bonhomie, which featured hip hop stars such as Mos Def, Red Cloud and Meshell Ndegeocello rhyming over the band’s biggest beats so far.

“Doing the beats is the most fun,” Green said. “I could gladly spend my entire life making beats.”

Music journalists struggled to describe Scritti Politti’s new sound, but they all agreed: sophistipop it was not. However, if you head back to 1985 and listen to DJ Ranking Ann rhyming over The Word Girl on Flesh and Blood, or the band’s 1991 team up with Shabba Ranks, you’ll realise this may have been their plan all along.

Anomie & Bonhomie was followed by 2006 album White Bread Black Beer, the final Scritti Politti album to date.

King of the collab

During the long breaks between Scritti Politti albums, Green has written and sung with a wide range of artists including Chaka Khan, Robyn Hitchcock, Manic Street Preachers, Tracey Thorn and Kylie Minogue.

Last year he covered Tangled Man and Wishing Well by folk singer Anne Briggs, on an entrancing solo EP with a synth flourish.

Scritti Politti’s next musical direction is anybody’s guess. As a self-proclaimed perfectionist, Green shares snatches of new songs at live gigs but he never guarantees another album is on the cards.

In the meantime, his sweet hypnotic vocals are always a welcome reminder of these endlessly playful pop pioneers.

Don’t feel sorry for loverboy —
He wants the world to love him,
Then he goes and spoils it all
For love.
Oh Patti