THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

616-Lloyd Cole and the Commotions-Perfect Skin.

1984-Number 24 single.

Best Bit-At 2.05. ‘Nivea’ missed a wonderful advertising opportunity, and Lloyd Cole missed out on loads of potential royalties.

Lloyd Cole was born on January 31st, 1961, in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, he is a singer, songwriter, and a musician, who plays guitar, synthesizers, piano, harmonica, bass guitar, and banjo. After a year studying law at ‘University College London,’ England, he moved to the ‘University of Glasgow,’ Scotland, where he studied philosophy, and English, which is where he, and Blair Cowan, (keyboards) Laurence Donegan, (bass guitar) Neil Clark, (guitar) and Stephen Irvine, (drums) formed ‘Lloyd Cole and the Commotions’ in 1982. The quintet remained active until 1989, but reunited in 2004 for a month, to tour and promote the release of the 25th anniversary of the deluxe edition of the ‘Rattlesnakes’ Album. Following the breakup of the ‘Commotions,’ Lloyd Cole has continued to record and tour as a solo artist, and he remains active at the time of writing.

The discography of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions includes three studio Albums released between 1984-1987, and 10 singles released between 1984-1988, there are also three official compilation Albums available. In the UK five of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Lost Weekend,’ from 1985, charting the highest at Number 17. Their three studio Albums all reached the top 20 in the UK, and Sweden, while their first two Albums both made the top 30 in Australia. They also found chart success on the singles chart in Ireland, with five top 40 hits in that country. The solo discography of Lloyd Cole includes 13 studio Albums released between 1990-2023, and 16 singles released between 1990-2016, there are also four official compilation Albums, and three live Albums available. In 1997, and 1998, Lloyd Cole played with some New York musicians, under the name the ‘Negatives,’ releasing one studio Album called ‘The Negatives,’ in 2000, and one single called ‘Impossible Girl,’ also in 2000. In the UK, as a solo artist Lloyd Cole has had one top 40 hit single, with ‘Like Lovers Do,’ which reached Number 24 in 1995.

‘Perfect Skin’ was the first of three singles released from ‘Rattlesnakes,’ the debut studio Album from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, from October 1984, the song was written by Lloyd Cole, and produced by Paul Hardiman, who also produced the Album. Paul Hardiman found his greatest commercial success in 1986, when producing the British/Irish singer Chris de Burgh’s eighth studio Album ‘Into the Light,’ and it’s UK Number 1, and American Billboard Number 3 hit single ‘The Lady in Red.’

Lloyd Cole was 23 years old when he wrote all of the lyrics, and the majority of the music for ‘Lloyd Cole and the Commotions’ critically acclaimed debut Album ‘Rattlesnakes,’ in 1984. Cole wrote the Album in the basement of the Glasgow Golf Club, where his parents lived and worked, and Cole has said that it was the impact of studying ‘English,’ and ‘Philosophy’ at University that influenced his lyrics. Musically Lloyd Cole was inspired by Bob Dylan, (see also best songs 792-621-358-103-36 and 7) and Booker T & the MGs, (see also best songs 906) Lloyd Cole has said,’I would say that ‘Perfect Skin’ is just a few ideas linked by a title. It’s just like ‘Michelle, ma belle’, wee verses that I thought sound good, the literal meaning of the words didn’t have a lot to do with it.’ Cole has also said, ‘It was a whole atmosphere. If I hadn’t listened to ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues,’ (see also best songs 792) I could never have written ‘Perfect Skin’. I was totally drunk on Dylan at the time I wrote that song, and all the imagery is deliberately Dylanesque. I thought why not be blatant? The only difference is, Dylan would have written a song like ‘Perfect Skin’ in an hour, it took me a week!’

‘Perfect Skin’ can be filed under the musical genre of ‘Jangle Pop,’ which is a sub-genre of ‘Pop/Rock,’ that emphasises jangly guitars, and 1960’s style ‘Pop’ melodies. The term ‘Jangle Pop’ originated from the Bob Dylan’s song Mr. Tambourine Man,’ whose 1965 rendition by the ‘Byrds’ (see also best songs 621) is considered one of the genre’s representative works. The term ‘Jangle Pop’ was not used during the original movement of the 1960’s, but was popularised later, during the 1980’s, as a reference to the lyric ‘In the jingle jangle morning, I’ll come following you,’ from the Byrds’ 1965 rendition of Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ as well as the chiming sound of the 12-string ‘Rickenbacker’ guitars upper-register strings. Other groups in the early 1980’s to popularise the ‘Jangle Pop’ sound included ‘R.E.M.’ and the ‘Smiths.’

‘Up eight flights of stairs to her basement flat, pretty confused huh, being shipped around like that. Seems we climbed so high, now we’re down so low. Strikes me the moral of this song must be, there never has been one.’