Gavin Friday: Thief of My Heart

Posted in Kiss Me I'm Irish, Music, Retrovirus |

By Ann Clarke

I remember it like it was yesterday. It had to have been the end of 1991 as I was still in tenth grade, and I remember there being snow on the ground. It was probably shortly after Christmas, because I can’t recall having enough money to buy more than one album at a time; even if they were used & in the bargain bin, I still rarely had over $10 on me at any given time. I usually starved myself in high school by not spending at least some of my lunch money just so I could buy whatever music I could, because I had priorities.

There was this small record store in my shitty small hometown called Music Plus (and then changed its name to Listen Up for reasons I do not know), but it was the most accessible record store in town, and they sold used stuff, which cut down the cost burden on my very limited budget. I spent more time than money in that place! It is obviously now defunct. . . god rest its ass!

Anyhow, back to my initial train of thought. . . at this one particular time I scoured the bargain bin, and came up with more than one item. I also was able to acquire Gene Loves Jezebel’s Immigrant, The Orb’s Little White Fluffy Clouds 12″, Front 242′s Rhythm of Time 12″, (all on vinyl), and Elvis Hitler’s Supersadomasochisticexpialidocious on cassette tape (which ended up stolen later on). Yes, sounds like an out-of-print gold mine (and I spent probably seven bucks total)!

However, those items weren’t the thief of my heart. . . it was the one extra item I picked up randomly, solely because I liked the imagery on the cover and the song titles. . . and that item was Gavin Friday’s Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves on vinyl for one dollar! It was probably one of the best spent dollars in history!

I had no idea who Gavin was, as I had never heard of him. I asked a few friends when I chit-chatted on the phone later that evening if they knew who he was. . . no dice! So this was going to be a journey on my own. In retrospect, if I had never bought that album, I don’t know if I would’ve ever come across Gavin’s work since he’s pretty fucking obscure! He’s not a household name, nor is he well-known even amongst music snobs (which is something I guess I became over time). Back then, I didn’t own enough music to be particularly nerdy about, but I certainly had those tendencies in the works!

I finally got around to listening to the album when we had a “snow day” off from school, and I’m not sure if it was the isolation of being in a small town in the dead of winter or possibly being a teenager that daydreamed of foreign lands & ideas. . . but this album burrowed under my skin like scabies! Now that doesn’t sound like a nice metaphor, but it’s a hyperbolic example of my sincerity.

From the first vocal inflection on Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves, it felt like everything was in slow motion! I remember listening to the record at least four times in a row, lying in my bed, occasionally glancing out of my window to gauge how deep the snow was piling up. This album was just so comforting, and pure exquisite beauty to my ears.

The photo of Gavin on the cover isn’t too clear (grainy black & white Anton Corbijn fare), and you can’t really tell what he looks like, but you can see enough to fall in love with his ghostly image (although his voice alone made me fall in love; I didn’t need to know what he looked like). His voice was soft & smoky one moment, harsh & sarcastic the next, plus it had the ability to croon in these falsetto octaves that were almost angelic! It reminded me of a cross between Bono and Peter Gabriel, but the lyrical content and personality were much more emotional, enigmatic, and expressive. Not to mention the voice didn’t shy away from profanities, in fact, it used them poetically! It was perfect!

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