September 25 – More People Began To Love The Furs Way

A creative and talented producer can bring a lot to the game and really help make a band’s sound. On this day in 1982 we heard what happens when a veteran American rock producer began to work with a rising British post-punk/new wave outfit. The results were quite good, as any Psychedelic Furs fan will tell you. The Todd Rundgren-produced Forever Now came out 39 years ago today.

For the Furs, it was their third album in as many years, and there’d been some turmoil leading up to the record. In the Furs case, it was two members quitting prior to the recording, and difficulties with the drummer, Vince Ely, who wasn’t present for many of the demo sessions and would quit soon after the recording was finished. This left the band as essentially a trio, led by singer/ writer Richard Butler and his brother Tim.

Rising Brit producer Steve Lillywhite had produced the first couple of P. Furs records, but for this one he was busy at the time, and the band rather wanted a different take on their sound. The label liked the idea of David Bowie as producer, and he was on record as a fan of the Furs, but he too was busy (presumably putting together Let’s Dance) and they didn’t want to wait around for an opening in his schedule. Not to mention, according to Richard, the media were already making too many comparisons between them and Bowie and he didn’t want to accentuate the similarities.

They opted for Todd Rundgren and flew over to the States to record at his New York state studio over a six-week period. Rundgren, as ever, was full of ideas and challenges to the band. He at once seemed to streamline their sound a little yet add all sorts of elements simultaneously, including his own keyboard work and backing vocalists (which the band wasn’t pleased about.) Among them were ’60s veterans Flo & Eddie, from the Turtles. Butler thought them superfluous and too “establishment”, but their voices stayed, including on the single “Love My Way”. When he heard the demo of that, “Flo” (Howard Kaylan) said “we have got to sing on this one – this is the f** hit!”

He was close to right. “Love My Way” was the first Furs song to chart in North America, hitting #44 in the U.S. It did marginally better at home for them, making #42 . It was a biggie in New Zealand where it broke into the top 10. The song itself has had a great after-life, with use in movies like Valley Girl and the Wedding Singer and is probably aired more on radio now than it was in the early-’80s.

The album itself met with mixed reviews and so-so sales. It hit #4 in New Zealand, #20 in the UK. There it was given a boost by having one of their concerts in October broadcast live on the BBC. It didn’t impact American charts much, but eventually did go gold, something the two prior ones failed to. “Love My Way” was big on college radio and stations like CFNY in Canada, and “Sleep Comes Down” also got them MTV airplay.

Rolling Stone at the time gave it a 3-star rating, noting that Richard “Butler’s voice carries” the album and his voice was either “ineffably fascinating (or would cause people) to run from the room upon hearing his unique vocal cords.” While they considered it “alluring” they felt only “Danger” stood out, “the most ferocious, impassioned song the Furs have ever recorded.” All in all, an interesting album with some great tracks that, as Entertainment Weekly would go on to note later was “a shaky move toward their eventual mainstream success” in the form of their next album, 1984’s Mirror Moves.