Echo & The Bunnymen “The Cutter” b/w “Way Out and Up We Go” 1983. Korova records. Today, May 5th, is Echo frontman Ian McCulloch’s birthday (b. 1959). “The Cutter” appears on Porcupine and the single reached #8 on the UK charts. Allmusic says about “The Cutter” – “Echo and The Bunnymen successfully wed the Eastern influenced psychedelic sounds made famous by The Beatles. The Eastern strings re-enter at strategic points, filling in space between verses and Ian McCulloch’s esoteric pleas to ‘spare us the cutter!’. The track never loses steam, cruising through each section with power and grace.” The B-side “Way Out and Up We Go” has the signature Bunnymen swirling spacious guitars that teeter on high edges and McCulloch’s pained plaintive vocals.

We have tickets to see Echo & The Bunnymen this fall and I’m pretty excited as I never got the chance to see them live before. However I’m also a bit apprehensive because a friend of mine saw them a few years ago and reported they phoned the whole show in, just stood there and mumbled, basically acting like they hated being onstage. So I guess I won’t anticipate fireworks and hilarious stage antics (well, guessing that wasn’t happening back in the day anyway) but fingers crossed for good sound and a solid set list.