The Delete BinTalk Talk Play “Such a Shame”
Listen to this track by ever-evolving synthpop meets art rock concern Talk Talk. It’s “Such a Shame” a single from their 1984 record It’s My Life, their second. That album put the band into the international mainstream, with this song being only slightly less high-profile than its title track. “Such a Shame” represented the band’s third number one single in the European charts and a top 20 hit in the U.S. As popular as it was, this song reveals a progression from where the band began on their first album that had found them on a decidedly more straightforward commercial pop trajectory.
A part of the shift by 1984 was a change in lineup. Talk Talk were a trio by this time, after their synth player, Simon Brenner, left the band. Their core sound is still in place by It’s My Life. Mark Hollis’ distinctive lead vocals are right up front. Paul Webb’s fretless bass is still a prominent texture as is Lee Harris’ drums. But they supplement that sound with more varied textures including piano and acoustic guitar to give the songs greater dimension and with a lusher overall effect.
This shift toward greater sonic depth is also in large part thanks to producer Tim Friese-Greene’s spacious and cinematic approach. The decision to bring in session musicians to fatten up the arrangements also made a significant impact on how the album came out. With that, creative head Hollis and producer Friese-Greene launched a new era for Talk Talk as a recording entity working within a highly disciplined and incrementally experimental creative framework. They dedicated themselves to making albums defined by fine details rather than as the products of a standard pop group set on topping the charts.
“Such a Shame” reflects some of their best results that came out of this sonic auteur methodology. Before they journeyed away from radio-friendly pop singles entirely later in the decade, this song lives in a middle ground between finely crafted art rock and accessible pop. It made the numbers as a charting single. Yet it also hinted at much deeper and darker themes that go beyond standard pop music subject matter.
This shift in approach aligns perfectly to Hollis’ impressionistic lyrics and mournful, soulful lead voice on this song. He sings an internal monologue of conflict and compulsion based on his reading of the 1971 cult novel Dice Man by George Cockcroft. The author writes under the pen name Luke Rhinehart who is also the main character.
The novel is the story of a man who hands over his life entirely to chance at the roll of the dice to determine his decisions. Initially, the gambit is a method to help get the man out of the rut of his boring and predictable life. But it takes a dark turn as the practice of rolling the dice becomes a repeating pattern of its own that demands obedience to the result, no matter how destructive it is. This helps to explain the sleeve art for the single that depicts a scorpion rearing up on a set of dice.
Talk Talk singer and creative principal Mark Hollis. image: Dr. SpaceThe themes in the novel and in the song touch on the nature of free will, morality, social obligations, and the nature of identity itself as it’s defined by the choices we make. “Such a Shame” isn’t an essay on these subjects. As with most of Hollis’ songwriting, his lyrics are sparse and deal in emotional impressions rather than in absolutes. What “Such a Shame” does do is capture a sense of detachment and resignation. But there is also a another force in this song that works against the premise of compliance with what is coldly random: doubt.
The dice decide my fate
That’s a shame
In these trembling hands, my faith
Tells me to react, I don’t care
Maybe it’s unkind that I should change
A feeling that we share
It’s a shame …
~ “Such a Shame” by Talk Talk
This song finds the narrator questioning why they feel so compelled to give up their will to chance, or why they seek to fool themselves into thinking that this is not simply an abdication of moral responsibility. It also hints at a vital truth: not all decisions represented on the faces of a die should be considered as being of equal moral weight. Like all decisions, either immediate or predetermined, we can’t escape our own biases, our ulterior motives, or the darker sides of our natures.
In “Such a Shame”, it’s only hesitation and doubt about the narrator’s own motivations that gives them pause to be aware of this eagerness to change; rolling the dice again and possibly departing from the feeling that we share to stay connected to others. It’s the doubt that exists outside of that self-imposed and rigid system that serves as the spark of hope to counteract how destructive unexamined obedience to anything can be. It’s not a shame if it can be avoided by doing the right thing. Faith in a bad system is undone when a healthy dose of contemplation and doubt circumvents it.
Released in the significant literary year of 1984, the nature of will, obedience, authority, and moral responsibility was top of mind for many. This single from Talk Talk doesn’t serve as a primary text to unpack the ramifications of that. But on closer inspection, it hinted at conversations that individuals and societies must continue to have in our own era, ignoring them at our peril; what is our relationship to the decisions we make and those made by those in authority over us by extension? Who is responsible for the outcomes and who pays the costs incurred further down the road?
These questions remain to be all too pertinent today in an era when obedience is considered a virtue and mandatory requirement even over clear thinking and morality that stand in opposition to it. In these times, we need to doubt what the powers that be demand. As it was in 1984, we can’t trust the outcome to a passionless and resigned roll of the dice.
For more on how the It’s My Life album represented the beginnings of a stylistic shift for Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, check out this article on classicpopmag.com
For more on George Cockcroft and The Dice Man, check out Who is the Real Dice Man? from The Guardian. The piece outlines the plot of the novel and the real-world phenomenon of dice culture that it helped inspire. But it’s also an exploration by journalist Emmanuel Carrère as he visits the novel’s author to determine how close Cockcroft is to the character he created.
Enjoy!
#80sMusic #artRock #MarkHollis #progressivePop #Synthpop #TalkTalk
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