Erasure – A Little Respect

Sorry but need to say something regarding 12inch-al your the only one that's rated this release 1 star..that speaks for itself...

Plus, I think it's a very moving track...Erasure have always been a bit too camp for my taste (and this is coming from a major PSB nut), but I think "A Little Respect" transcends the typical whiny unrequited-love theme and comes up with something a bit more adult...the song means more and more to me as years go by...but that's just me! :p

This track (A Little Respect) is one of those paradoxes of the 1980s. Back before the real advent of consolidated corporate radio in the still-holding-on 1980s, radio DJs had the ability and the go-ahead to play whatever they wanted from time to time as long as they recycled those other hits just enough to satisfy the guys whose payola was paid to the station. They could bust out say - the other mixes of songs (not just the "radio edit") if they wanted to. In my hometown of Madison, WI., Z104 was the top 40 station and still is - and I hated it! But riding the bus to and from school, it was hard to convince all those sheep that Iron Maiden was a better, more talented group than all the top 40 fluff they liked. Which led me to this song. Every now and again top 40 churned out something that caught my ear - like this one. But back to the DJ's ability to play alternate mixes at their discretion, they played this rather cooler sounding mix of this track, not the boring(ish) "radio edit" that I had otherwise heard. The synth bass of the 12" mixes made it enjoyable while the radio edit was boring. In time (about 16 years later) I found the 12" at a store in Green Bay, WI and when I bought a pile of jazz at marked prices, the store owner/proprietor would throw in otherwise blandish '80s 12"s for free. So basically I scored this one for free! Now, do you like the song? I don't know. But I do think it is pretty cool and the 12" mix and the "house" mix are both very cool, though remarkably similar. I can't say how great it is - I just like it - but it does have solid production and the synth bass is worth its weight in gold. Vocally, well, it's OK, it's always been the synth bass that really appealed to me. Great for a vintage house set, this track will raise memories for all those who those pre-mega-corporate 1980s. They were just corporate then, now we're in the mega-corporate new millenium. We still had a fighting chance back then. Now they silence us with Prozac music and very bland so-called "techno" (now "electronica"). Ah to the days.....