Heart of Darkness by Pere Ubu: Great B-Sides

Cleveland, Ohio, has a rich musical history. It has a celebrated orchestra and it hosts the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It also birthed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, the Raspberries, and Joe Walsh’s James Gang. It still seems an unlikely birthplace for Pere Ubu, one of the most experimental bands to emerge in the mid-1970s.

Pere Ubu came from an earlier band, Rocket From The Tombs. Other members formed The Dead Boys, while vocalist David Thomas and guitarist Peter Laughner formed Pere Ubu.

Pere Ubu’s first release was the single ’30 Seconds Over Tokyo’. It tells of the Doolittle Raids, bombing attacks on mainland Japan from aircraft carriers in 1942. The raids helped boost morale of America, but also resulted in Japanese retribution against China, where the American planes landed. In the ensuing Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign, 250,000 Chinese lives were lost.

The b-side of ’30 Seconds Over Tokyo’ is ‘Heart of Darkness’. It takes its name from the Joseph Conrad novel, which also inspired the 1979 war movie Apocalypse Now.

David Thomas is one of the most unusual singers in rock music. Emerson Dameron described him as “James Stewart trapped in an oboe”. On ‘Heart of Darkness’, his vocal is less idiosyncratic than usual.

With its dark feel, ‘Heart of Darkness’ sounds like proto-Joy Division. Like Joy Division, the bass carries the melody while the guitar throws out shards of noise. Peter Laughner left Pere Ubu after their first two singles. He was an important creative force, helping to write their early songs. He died of acute pancreatitis at the age of 24, shortly after leaving Pere Ubu.

‘Heart of Darkness’, along with other non-album Pere Ubu material, is collected on the compilation Terminal Tower. It’s one of the band’s most beloved records – it feels like an album since it was recorded in a brief period of time.

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