You're Twistin' My Melon, Man: A Quick Review Of The New Book Of Lyrics By Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays, Black Grape)

While the late Tony Wilson compared him to Yeats, I don't think anyone else was ever really viewing Shaun Ryder, vocalist for the Happy Mondays and Black Grape, as a poet. Frankly, I think most people, even hardcore fans, were thinking that Ryder was the sort of singer who stumbled into greatness. And while that might be true, he's earned his reputation due to a string of classic recordings that have come to define the whole Madchester era, and the baggy thing far better than the best Stone Roses songs do. While the Roses' numbers still warm the heart, it's the cuts from the Mondays that move the feet.

Shaun Ryder seemed intent on getting a reaction from a crowd, and starting a party every minute he was fronting a band, which furthers my hunch that he might have not spent so much time on his lyrics. Now, thanks to the folks at Faber Social, the lyrics of Shaun Ryder can be held up for study on their own. Wrote For Luck: Selected Lyrics by Shaun Ryder presents the words of the Mondays leader in a handsome volume that's anchored by Ryder's bright and straightforward prose in-between verses and choruses. Really, this is an approach that's nearly Nabokov-ian, so big ups to whoever came up with this format.

Here, in a format that makes one think of Pale Fire, where the epic poem tells one story, and the citations tell another, Ryder's commentary sprinkled seemingly at random in spots between the verses here, and elsewhere, relates the story of the rise of Ryder and his mates in the Mondays, the band's collapse in a riot of drugs, and his second life as leader of Black Grape. Here, within the margins of "Fat Lady Wrestlers", for instance, is the story of how the band dealt ecstasy, and how E took over a scene then beginning to coalesce around the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester. And there, in the sidelines of "Do It Better", one of my faves from the Mondays, is further evidence of how chaotic things became as the band did drugs and gave themselves over to a 24-hour party. And while "Step On" is sort of a cover, Ryder's performance on the cut made it a classic, and now I know how an old interview quote about a young Steve McQueen gave up that "You're twistin' my melon, man!"-line.

Wrote For Luck: Selected Lyrics by Shaun Ryder is a slim, beautiful book. Lovingly produced by Faber Social, it's a codification of the chaos one would see in a Happy Mondays performance in those days, with Ryder's lyrics the only guide through what would amount to a rave on-stage. I can tell you, having seen the Happy Mondays open for The Pixies in 1989 at D.C.'s old 9:30 Club, that Ryder and Bez and crew put on a far more memorable show than Black Francis and his team then. What I saw was something that was barely contained on that small stage, with Ryder, shaman-like, leading whoever was listening into territory that was gleefully debauched. Perhaps the very fact that Shaun Ryder wasn't trying hard to pen something important is why he did pen richly memorable lyrics, his very lack of attachment allowing him to offer up the kind of street poetry that only a few in that era could dare hope to match.

Wrote For Luck: Selected Lyrics by Shaun Ryder is out now via Faber Social.