Joey Beltdrives’ Bumpy Backspins: Give Out But Don’t Give Up – Primal Scream – 1994

Give Out But Don’t Give Up – Primal Scream – Released March 28^th March 1999, Creation/Sire

Give Out But Don’t Give Up is the fourth studio album by Scottish rockers Primal Scream.  While their previous album, 1991’s Screamadelica, borrowed heavily from the era’s acid house scene, this 12 track album sees the band go back to its roots by celebrating their rock and roll, soul and blues influences.

These influences were already proudly displayed on Screamadelica, albeit refracted through a psychedelic, MDMA-drenched prism, creating what Bobby Gillespie called “ecstatic blues”. While the follow-up is more straight-up blues, less spangled Madchester and more of a starry-eyed homage to Americana. 

In that sense it’s more akin to U2’s Rattle and Hum, a musical road trip that picks up various genres like hitch hikers along the dusty highways. Every track feels like a backseat that’s crammed full of varied styles all chattering away while Bobby Gillespie puts the hammer down and keeps things driving forward.

It’s at once both raw and finely polished, densely layered with influences inside influences revealing themselves with each successive listen.

Screamadelica was the album which, by chance, saved the band from obscurity so they weren’t going to ditch that sound completely. Instead we get a new fusion of influences, with boxcar blues and Southern fried harmonicas forming over hiphop beats.

And did I mention The Memphis Horns?  As in THE Memphis Horns. Andrew Love and Wayne Jackson of Stax Records fame who worked with everyone from Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Rufus Thomas, Al Green and Isaac Hayes to US on the aforementioned album Rattle and Hum. (Seriously, there’s a whole article on these guys alone.)

Finally, the fact that George Clinton appears on two songs, including the title track should tell you that this ain’t your dad’s rock and roll.

Clinton also serves as one of the producers on the album, alongside David Bianco, George Drakoulias, Mike Clark and recording legend Tom Dowd, whose extensive career and multitrack recording innovations helped secure his place in the rock and roll hall of fame.

Dowd was a true renaissance man who worked on the Manhattan Project before he had even graduated from college. After the war he couldn’t get any credit for his work, since it was all top secret.

So instead of atomic engineering he accidentally fell into sound engineering, inventing many, if not most, of the studio techniques we take for granted today. A true polymath, Dowd had the musical skills to match, working with everyone from Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and all the way back to the jazz greats like Coltraine and Dizzy Gillespie.

(Seriously, I could do a whole article on this guy but the documentary Tom Dowd & the Language of Music serves the same purpose. Can’t find in on YouTube but if I come across a copy I’ll add it here. It’s fascinating.)

Notably absent this time around is Andrew Weatherall but his legacy lives throughout the album and the Guv does lend his talents to two remixes of Jailbird, including a Weatherall remix on the Jailbird single plus a somewhat rarer Sabres of Paradise version.

The cover of the album, consisting of a photo of a large neon confederate flag, would probably send the wrong message in this day and age, rather than being seen as an innocent evocation Americana with its road house blues, trucker caps and whiskey.

I mean, they’re a band from Scotland for fucks sake. Sure, both flags horizontal crosses I suppose and like the Southern US states, the Scots do have a tendency to deep fry the shit out of pretty much everything but, beyond that, it’s fair to say there’s nothing to it really except the music, so let’s cut the crap and get into it…

Ecstatic Roadhouse Blues

The album bursts forth with Jailbird, an infectious fusion of hiphop boom bap and shrill juke joint guitar. It’s the perfect intro to the album and its overall concept and also served as the album’s second single.

Jailbird – Primal Scream

Considering that the album itself tends to be largely forgotten compared to both its predecessor and successor, the album’s first single Rocks, remains the band’s best known and most successful. And with good reason.

It’s got more of a glam rock strut this one and no shortage of tambourine-tapping Mick Jagger swagger. As for the chorus… an earworm.

In fact, I’m laying odds is already playing in your head without you even realising.

…Yep, there it goes… told you. Might as well click below to listen to it eh?

Rocks – Primal Scream

(I’m Gonna) Cry Myself Blind is another classic Primal lament in the vein of Screamadelica’s damaged, but with even more gospel overtones and 60s soul.

Then we have Funky Jam, which delivers exactly what it promises, helped in no small part by the inclusion of the great George Clinton.

Funky Jam is an almost impenetrably thick soup of influences ranging from Funkadelic to the Fatback Band to BB King to Booker T and the MGs, it’s all in here – and it’s all funky.

Funky Jam – Primal Scream

Big Jet Plane is another wasted ballad, the kind only Bobby Gillespie can deliver. Incredible song writing talents on show, as always, plus plenty of Southern honkytonk flavour.

Free, is another ballad, this time sung by the late Denise Johnson, who had previously provided vocals on Screamdelica’s Don’t Fight It Feel It. The saxophone on this one also gives me strong Pink Floyd vibes.

Free – Primal Scream

Call On Me is another bubbling gumbo of influences, everything from T Rex to the piano-heavy gospel vibes we also heard on Screamadelica.

Next, Struttin’ channels Steppenwolf among with psychedelic rock, cowboy blues, Apache bongos and a hefty side order of deep fried dub to create an eclectic and upbeat instrumental track that’s perfect for, well, struttin.

Struttin’ – Primal Scream

Sad and Blue – another ballad which starts off sparce with some acoustic and slide guitar before adding in a gospel choir and some raw blues harmonica.

Next we get to the title track, Give Out But Don’t Give Up. Denise Johnson returns on this one joined by none other than George Clinton. It’s a slow jangling track full with a languid trip-hop beat, scratch effects, deep sub bass and reverse Sergeant Pepper’s style psychedelic guitar.

In that respect, this one’s perhaps the most similar in spirit to Screamadelica while at the same time manages to do its own thing.

The organ sound, for example, instantly reminds me of Together but hearing George Clinton singing over it completely alters the effect. There’s also some phat horns, wah claviers and blues guitar snippets.

Overall it’s a slow but extremely  busy track that’s every bit as discombobulatingly funky as anything George Clinton has ever done, but it’s also very much a Primal Scream track, especially when Denise rejoins the fray…

Give Out But Don’t Give Up – Primal Scream

I’ll Be There For You is another classic Gillespie ballad. It’s a gorgeous song this one I gotta say, really love the lyrical sentiment on this one.

And then there’s those Memphis Horns… icing on the cake.

I’ll Be There For You – Primal Scream

And so, that’s it then is it?

Of course not. It’s the mid 90s and everybody needs somebody, just as much as every CD needs a hidden track.

And so we get Everybody Needs Somebody, another sweet uplifting ballad which further helps to elevate the album, ending things on a positive note.

Everybody Needs Somebody – Primal Scream

Southern Charms

I’d kinda forgotten about this one until I listened back.

Then later I felt guilty.

Give Out But Don’t Give Up doesn’t get the same fan love or media attention that Screamadelica still enjoys, (the confederate flag is also far less visible on tshirts at dance music festivals than Paul Cannel’s iconic doodle) but it’s a worthy successor none the less.   

For some reason we all remember Rocks and suffered collective amnesia about the rest. I’d forgotten George Clinton’s involvement until it popped up on my radar again when writing the Screamadelica review. Ah there’s that Primal Scream album that came out 30 years ago, I should do an article on it too…

Shit why haven’t I listened to this one more!?

As I mentioned I didn’t really dig Primal Scream until later on.  They were always there in the background at parties and so on but I only really listened to Screamadelica – as in properly listened – relatively late in life.

The first album of theirs I listened to in any detail was 1997’s Vanishing Point and that’s mainly because I loved the Kowalski single so much.  

Give Out But Don’t Give Up sits perfectly between the jittery loved-up blues of Screamadelica and the high-octane big beat blues of Vanishing Point.

Both of those albums sound more closely related due to the presence of Weatherall, which makes Give Out But Don’t Give Up almost feel like its release was out of sequence.

I mean with Screamadelica, I have some amusing stories tied to it and will forever associate it with a friend of mine. Vanishing Point is named for one of my favourite movies, a stone-cold classic of 70s cult cinema, so that tends to draw my attention… this one… aaah…

For whatever reason, this one slipped by me at the time and spent three decades in the forgotten hinterlands of my ever-deteriorating memory, oh yeah this one, forgot about this one!

And it’s a shame. Listening back again I realise this one’s a forgotten masterpiece. I mean, it’s got George Clinton on it ffs! What’s wrong with us? Why do we keep forgetting about this album?

Seriously, I almost feel guilty for ignoring it for so long and, if I’m honest, it might have a lot to do with the fact that as the 90s drew to a close and I found myself moving around a lot more, albums gave way to far more portable MP3 folders, so instead of Vanishing Point on a CD, we’d just drag and drop the Primal Scream folder into good ole Winamp and get our rocks off that way.

So normally I’d end up this by going, yeah this is a great album and I have it on vinyl cuz I’m so cool and musical or am I just pretending and I’m secretly fishing for your approval. Well, this time around I can’t feign coolness since I don’t have this bad boy on vinyl and not only do I feel guilty for not giving this one the attention it deserves, I feel like I can’t rest until I get myself a copy of this on vinyl and blast it out nice and loud.

So I’m off to look on Discogs, even though I’m currently broke.