Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam is the second studio album by English musician Bill Nelson. The album was released in May 1981[1] and was produced by Nelson and John Leckie.
It is the first in a trilogy of albums with Mercury Records, including The Love That Whirls... (1982) and Chimera (1983), and is his first solo album since Northern Dream in 1971. It reached no. 7 in the UK albums chart.[6]
Background and recording
Recording for Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam commenced on February 1979, the same month of release as Sound-on-Sound, with the intention of being Red Noise's second album.[7] EMI had shown signs of dissatifaction with the band's material,[8] and with the added element of change in the corporate structure, the label decided to drop multiple artists from their roster, Red Noise[9] and Wire[10] among them.
In a November 1981 interview for the Trouser Press, Nelson describes the difficulties he faced:
EMI was being taken over, nobody was secure, and my management said, 'Hit singles; ignore that arty stuff.' I wrote 'Living in My Limousine' but I didn't like it; I thought it too much of a compromise. I took it to them and said, 'Here's the only commercial song you'll get.' They said it wasn't obvious enough, that it should be more banal. So I wrote 'Banal,' which is about using all these musical cliches and hating them. They were delighted: it sounded so commercial, but it had a subversive message. Unfortunately, when it came to being played on the radio... we were told programmers didn't like its air of cynicism.[9]
It would be roughly two years until the album would be released, with Nelson dropping the Red Noise moniker, making the record his first solo album since 1971's Northern Dream. In the interim, the single "Do You Dream in Colour?" was released on his personal label Cocteau Records,[3] which required him to buy the master tapes from EMI, who owned the material recorded while he was still signed to them.[9] Originally intended as a standalone single, Mercury would later include it on the album.[9]
Promotion and release
Quit Dreaming... peaked at no. 7 in the UK, while the singles "Do You Dream in Colour?" and "Youth of Nation on Fire" peaked at no. 52 and 73 in the UK, respectively.[6]
The first ten thousand copies included, at no extra cost,[11] an additional instumental album entitled Sounding the Ritual Echo (Atmospheres for Dreaming).[12]
In a contemporary review for Smash Hits, music journalist and occassional presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test[16]David Hepworth wrote "Although this album was recorded two years ago, it's not remotely dated; the man's mating of guitar-based powerglide rock and unfussy disco-tinged rhythm has rarely been heard to better effect."[15] Mark Total of Record Mirror believed that, when comparing Nelson's work to the transition from Be-Bop Deluxe to Nelson's Red Noise, his solo efforts showed a more "distinct progression"; they also felt that, despite praise towards the instrumentation, the vocal delivery contributed to an overall "coldness" in the record, concluding "that it takes a great deal of time to get familiar with it."[14]
David Peschek of the Guardian felt that in retrospect, Quit Dreaming... is the best of the Mercury trilogy, describing the album as "an extremely odd record,... a kind of manic, Eno-esque meta-pop."[13]
Legacy
Since its release, Quit Dreaming... remains Bill Nelson's highest charting album in his native UK,[6] also higher than any album by Be-Bop Deluxe[17] or Red Noise.[18]
Various reissues insert an additional track "White Noise" (originally on the B-side of the 12" single "Living in My Limousine")[21] between "Decline and Fall" and "Life Runs Out Like Sand".[2]
Sounding the Ritual Echo (Atmospheres for Dreaming) track listing
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Annunciation"
2:10
2.
"The Ritual Echo"
1:30
3.
"Sleep"
3:22
4.
"Near East"
2:19
5.
"Emak Bakia"
3:29
6.
"My Intricate Image"
3:24
7.
"Endless Orchids"
3:21
8.
"The Heat in the Room"
1:02
9.
"Another Willingly Opened Window"
3:50
10.
"Vanishing Parades"
3:26
11.
"Glass Fish (for the Final Aquariam)"
2:57
12.
"Cubical Domes"
2:37
13.
"Ashes of Roses"
3:06
14.
"The Shadow Garden"
4:11
15.
"Opium"
1:48
Total length:
42:32
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the CD Cocteau release of Quit Dreaming....[2]
