#5: "Touch" by the Outsiders, covered by the Thanes
After an extended absence fueled by a rather hectic September (I am beginning to doubt my ability to reach 150!), today’s song is “Touch” by the Outsiders, a Dutch product of the garage/freakbeat boom of the 1960s (not to be confused with the American band of the same name). I actually first heard the song as a cover version by the Thanes of Edinburgh, Scotland, released on their Hey Girl + 3 EP in 1987. I am usually rather snobbish about covers and will often migrate to the original after getting into a cover, but I think this faster, harsher-sounding cover is as good as the original and deserves equal attention.
I became obsessed with this song at roughly 1:30-2:00 a.m. one day following a lengthy Nardwuar binge, having seen his interview with the Thanes’ Glaswegian contemporaries, the Vaselines. He presents them with a Thanes LP, and they mention sharing a studio with the Thanes during the recording of Dum-Dum. I did a quick YouTube search and found this treasure of a song, listening to it probably about 10 times that night, and I probably listened to it a few hundred more times since then (I wrote earlier about my addictive personality) before listening to the original probably a few dozen times. This song is particularly illustrative of why I enjoy garage rock so much.
We are first introduced to the riff, a basic I-IV-bvii-biii. The chords are embellished with little bits before each chord that are a step lower. (customary napkin disclaimer: I am hopelessly musically illiterate and if you could tell me what this device is called that would be nice). The riff becomes more syncopated as the thumping percussion joins it, based on a pattern that I found out is called a habanera. I have heard variations in several 1960s psych/garage drumbeats, usually involving the interspersing of a habanera in the middle of something else (e.g. the Monks’ “Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy” [boom-habanera-sixteenths] and that part 1:37 into Captain Beefheart’s “Autumn’s Child” [boom-boom-habanera]; both songs will have their own entry at some point I DIGRESS). The Outsiders have a gentler, cymbal-heavy approach, while The Thanes have a more snare-heavy approach (or perhaps better mixing.) A wailing harmonica joins in, never to be seen again in the song. This reminds me of the harmonica solo near the end of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ iconic “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, which also happens to boast a catchy four-chord riff taking up the entire song (except for the bridge).
Before the vocals, we hear a V and then a IV, echoing the tail end of a twelve-bar blues, and the central topic is established:
I didn't understand to touch you
These are the lyrics of the original – the Thanes seem to have somewhat adapted the Outsiders’ clunky English to that of a native speaker. While Wally Tax’s sly, mercurial vocal gives the sense of a happy accident, Lenny Helsing’s even more impassioned delivery brings the sexual frustration of the protagonist who cannot move beyond touching his girl’s hand to the fore.
The verse is ended with the same V-IV pattern as he mentions that she “looked at me/Oh I could see her eyes” and we return to the main riff, where she may be giving in after all – “Were just as I hoped/Just as I hoped they would be”, before the conflict is established again: “I said touch baby/I didn't mean to touch you/But I didn't stop your hand.” Again, that V-IV as the protagonist does not lose hope: “Well she looks so understanding/Try to look so recommanding and” where the Outsiders seem to have confused “recommending” with its Dutch equivalent, recommanderen, and the Thanes retain this malapropism for the rhyme’s sake.
This is followed by the song’s highlight, the “chorus” where the harsh chords break down, the percussion is reduced to a soft patter that gradually fades out, and a rock and roll song about sex becomes a wistful folk air. As eBay seller freakbeatfuzz puts it: “Essential Dutch beat! This is the epitome of Nederbeat! Switches from folky to freakbeatbeat [sic] over and over again!” This part I believe the Outsiders carry off better; the percussion is subtler and the vocal is either superior or just mixed better. The lyrics concurrently romanticize the conflict a bit more:
She held my hand so tight
And I stayed right by her side
That's how we spend the night
A quiet bass drum on the first and last beats of each measure signals the buildup to the freakbeat/garage phase again, and here the original lyrics and the Thanes’ adaptation amusingly diverge from each other.
Made me feel so fine down there [Thanes: “inside”]
While poring over an original Outsiders 45 at In Your Ear in Boston recently, I asked the clerk, who was a huge fan of the Outsiders and Nederbeat in general, whether Messrs. Splinter and Tax had actually meant “down there” or whether they simply had a poor grasp of English. The clerk contended that Wally Tax had a pretty decent grasp of English and was probably just being crude. I hadn’t thought to ask him why, then, the Thanes felt the need to change the lyric. Whether the Outsiders did indeed write a precursor to Next’s “Too Close” is a question that is probably best left to a native Dutch speaker who would be able to identify an unfortunately imported idiom.
We then go right back to a repetition of the first verse, sung with more urgency in both versions. As if to add to this renewed intensity, the bit after the twelve-bar tail end is changed to the second person, directly addressing the companion: “Yeah you look at me/That I could see your eyes/Were just as I hoped/As I hoped they would be”. After this rehashing of the main conflict, we re-enter the folky phase:
I've been with her all night long
Sharing a feeling that grew strong
We found ourselves a love
That couldn't possibly go wrong
I still hold her hand in mine
And it still makes me feel so fine
These lines suggest that the relationship has been fully consummated – after the feeling “grew strong”, a love was found. I am inclined to think that the phrase “couldn’t possibly go wrong” is somewhat ironic and well-suited to this pensive, quiet part. The song ends with an assurance that holding her hand is just as exciting as it was at the beginning of the song, while the phrase “as it was” is suggestive of a transition of sorts having occurred. Interestingly, The Thanes have truncated this line, perhaps in the interest of a suitable final chord for their more guitar-heavy version.
I had said earlier that “Touch” illustrates why I love garage rock so much, and this is because it is sophisticated in its simplicity; while taking us through various emotions (lust, frustration, nostalgia, charming glimmers of romantic love) we never leave the same basic hook for the entire duration of the song. I suspect that this is much of what rock and roll is about.
