Audio Autopsy, 1985: Prefab Sprout, Paddy McAloon: Steve McQueen UK/Two Wheels Good US Album + 2023 Acoustic Vinyl

Paddy Unplugged! What the EU got in 2019, the States finally got in April! Holy Record Store Day, Batman!

Prefab pilot, Paddy McAloon, newly 66, above. In 2010, Paddy told AVClub.com, “I started to write songs in ’71, aged 14. By ’72, the idea of having a band was in place. I started to play with my brother Martin, and our best friend Michael Salmon round about then. You’ll probably think I’m joking, but really, we were a ’70s band.”

“A lot of what goes on in a studio is on a sub–molecular level,” Paddy McAloon told SoundOnSound in 2014.

“The sound bashing off the walls, the same old instruments that everyone uses, but being played in a real live atmosphere. I still think things from the ’50s and ’60s are the best–sounding records:

“If recording is done well, it will have that unique stamp. You listen to a Peggy Lee or a Frank Sinatra or a Beach Boys record, where they’re done in what I assume to be rooms with well–designed acoustics, they have a sound.”

A Little Context

Steve McQueen was the second studio album by British pop band, Prefab Sprout. It was released in June 1985 on Kitchenware/CBS Records in the UK, and CBS affiliate, Epic Records, in the States. Fellow pop star, Thomas Dolby, produced (except for Track 4, produced by Phil Thornalley).

In a fit of apparent corporate cowardice, CBS Records named Steve McQueen, Two Wheels Good for stateside consumption (pictured above), fearing the actor might retaliate with copyright/likeness infringement or some such. The company’s UK office had no such fears, despite McQueen’s worldwide fame.

The U.S. company’s paranoia reached Olympian levels when they re-titled the album’s lead track from “Faron Young” to simply, “Faron,” again apparently sensing a litigious backlash. How they rationalized that all the world’s Bonnys (Track 2) and Lucilles (Track 5) would band together to somehow eschew class action suits is beyond me.

Prefab Sprout’s debut, Swoon, was released in March 1984, while their McQueen/TWG follow-up, From Langley Park to Memphis, saw the light of day in March 1988.

So, clearly (and unfortunately, it might seem), this quiet, little idiosyncratic band was buried smack dab in the heart of the ‘80s…under a heaping pile of “M” rubble: MTV’s emergence, chart dominance by Madge and Michael, as well as the rock radio preponderance of the ubiquitous hits of Duran Bon Journey….it was relentless.

Noel Murray of The A.V. Club wrote that Steve McQueen and its predecessor, Swoon, “are considered classics of the mid-’80s post-punk/new-wave era, even though they don’t sound like they belong to any particular movement.”

Prefab Sprout (from Witton Gilbert, County Durham, England), for McQueen/TWG, were:

• Neil Conti – drums, percussion

• Martin McAloon – bass

• Martin’s brother, Paddy McAloon – guitar, keyboards, vocals

• Wendy Smith – keyboards, backing vocals

Even a record like Swoon would be as big as Thriller-Paddy McAloon

Paul Lester of The Guardian, in 2013, called Sprout’s mid-’80s output “some of the most beautiful and intelligent records of their era.” More Lester: “They were, arguably, rivalled in the sophisticated pop stakes only by the output of Scritti Politti and the Blue Nile, although Paddy McAloon [the band’s leader, mastermind, and main songwriter] had more vaulting ambitions than that:

“We thought that for all the intricate twists and turns of the music, even a record like Swoon would be as big as Thriller,” he says, toying with his beard and smiling: “The ‘80s, right?”

Allmusic’s Jason Ankeny, weighed in with his assessment: “Smart, sophisticated, and timelessly stylish, Steve McQueen (titled Two Wheels Good in the U.S. after threats of a lawsuit from the actor’s estate) is a minor classic, a shimmering jazz-pop masterpiece sparked by Paddy McAloon’s witty and inventive songwriting.

“McAloon is a wickedly cavalier composer, his songs exploring human weaknesses like regret (‘Bonny’), lust (‘Appetite’), and infidelity (‘Horsin’ Around’) with cynical insight and sarcastic flair; he’s also remarkably adaptable, easily switching gears from the faux country of ‘Faron Young’ to the stately pop grace of ‘Moving the River.’

“At times, perhaps, his pretensions get the better of him (as on ‘Desire As’), while at other times his lyrics are perhaps too trenchant for their own good; at those moments, however, what keeps Steve McQueen afloat is Thomas Dolby’s lush production, which makes even the loftiest and most biting moments as easily palatable as the airiest adult contemporary confection.”

A commenter named Mark Copeland left a review of Steve McQueen on Allmusic: “I’d heard this song called ‘When Love Breaks Down’ on WDTX in Detroit. I liked the song, so I thought why not give the full album a try. It’s my favorite album of all time. I wish I could have seen them live.

“I actually spoke to Ben Folds and we were talking about favorite albums, and I told him this one, that I had 3 copies of it in 3 locations in case anything ever happened like a fire. He said that he played the song ‘Goodbye Lucille (Johnny Johnny)’ so much that the track on his vinyl album had turned white.”

Sprout standing in their field: Prefab 4, mid'-’80s.

The Rare, Buried Gems Worth Unearthing

It’s key (and no less coincidental…not that he could possibly know it) that The Guardian’s Paul Lester brought up Scritti Politti: They also travelled in the similarly rarified Prefab air of gentle, melodic pop songcraft that didn’t rely upon (because it didn’t need to) the sonic bombast of two-barre-chord songs, and the foot-stompin’ stadium chants of the “Don’t Stop Be-Livin’ on a Prayer” ilk.

For Scritti and the delicate pop of 1985’s Cupid and Psyche 85 album, Robert Hilburn of The L.A. Times, called Green Gartside’s music, “precious.” One album bought solely because of that one word. It was the same year I discovered Prefab and their Two Wheels Good, as well. Needless to say, it was an aurally rich 1985, despite the boorish bombast of the far more popular cable TV and aural radio assault.

It makes one wonder that, as singularly unique as Scritti and Prefab were/are (while sounding nothing whatsoever alike, I hasten to add), and as thunderous, insipid, and repetitive as hit video/radio was in the ‘80s: How the hell did these two ever get signed…and, to major labels, yet?

While Prefab was ensconced at CBS worldwide, Scritti Politti found a corporate home at the equally large and influential Warner Bros. Records. Michael Jackson (Epic/CBS) and Madonna (Sire/Warner Bros.) should be thanked for (if nothing else), essentially, “bankrolling” these labels’ ability to roll prospective dice on such varied (and valued, Green and Paddy should know) treasure.

Record Store Day ‘23 Brings Acoustic McQueen to US

In the summer of 2006, Paddy McAloon recorded new versions of tracks from Prefab Sprout’s critically-acclaimed 1985 album, Steve McQueen (Two Wheels Good in U.S.) - rebuilding them from scratch with acoustic guitars, sequencers and samples, with producer Calum Malcolm (and released as part of CBS’s Legacy series).

UK got theirs on 180-gram vinyl in 2019; the U.S. was gifted with theirs on Record Store Day, April 2023.

Always looking to move forward and reimagine work, Paddy said of the release: “Like many people, I’m always curious to hear another take on a song.” We put Paddy’s assertion to the test with a couple covers of Prefab/McQueen songs after the Acoustic album:

More Prefab? Matt Berenson’s got you covered:

A Panegyric for Prefab Sprout

Recent photo of Paddy, radiating just the right amount of cool that, frankly, demands a bitchin’ cane accessory. You wear it well, Master McAloon…and, thanks!