Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love

The Buzzcocks – Ever fallen in love (with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with) Performed at Union Transfer in Philadelphia 9/5/2014.

Again a song (and band) that go way back to my youth.  I can’t remember where or when I first heard it – but I know it was a long long time ago.  According to music critic Mark Deming, “the lyrics owe less to adolescent self-pity than the more adult realization of how much being in love can hurt – and how little one can really do about it.”

Sometime during November 1977, the band watched the musical Guys and Dolls in the TV lounge of a guesthouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was the dialogue “Have you ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have” from the film which inspired the song. The following day Shelley wrote the lyrics of the song, in a van outside a post office, with the music following soon after. In an interview, Shelley said that the song was about a man named Francis that he lived with for about seven years.

The Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band, formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They are regarded as an important influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, and indie rock. They achieved commercial success with singles that fused pop craftsmanship with rapid-fire punk energy. These singles were collected on Singles Going Steady, described by critic Ned Raggett as a “punk masterpiece”.

Devoto and Shelley chose the name “Buzzcocks” after reading the headline, “It’s the Buzz, Cock!”, in a review of the TV series Rock Follies in Time Out magazine. The “buzz” is the excitement of playing on stage; “cock” is Manchester slang meaning “mate” (as in friend/buddy). They thought it captured the excitement of the Sex Pistols and nascent punk scene. Devoto left the band in 1977, after which Pete Shelley became the principal singer-songwriter.

See some photographs of this show.