"That is a song about and dedicated to my friend Pete Brown" (yes, that Pete Brown) "who had a lot of model aeroplanes in his room when I went to see him the other day, hoping he would help us get a gig or two, but he said we needed a bass player. I staggered away apalled," he drawls, Kenneth Williams Style, "and wrote this in the woods near my home."
"And the other side, the B-side, "he overemphasises (we get it) "is called "My Mother Was A Friend Of An Enemy Of The People" and it goes: "My mother was a friend of an enemy of the people! translate my tears! with this saxophone I thee shed! ln the land of the living dead, where it's better to be red! Cher-rey red! on a double bed! Yeah! Because we're! Yeah! Because Blurt! Means! Blurt! Means Bleururght! Means Bleeuurrught! !De pig run over de liddle bode! Squea! De peeg run over de liddle bode!Tthere go ma meal! l used to be a plonky! A Foyer freak! You could see me on the Oval when I made my streak! Humpty Dumpty sat on the walI and little Alice ran up and called: Fall Humpty! Fall! Fall! The suspense is unbeara-bull! My mother was a friend of an enemy of the people!"
Ragged and rudimentary though it is, Blurt's music is still more exotic and funkier than the more rational, skinny output of NY parodist James Chance, a suitable comparison.
And there's more purpose to what Milton's doing. Even so, it'd be nice to hear what he's screaming maybe.
"But if you see someone jump out, about to step under a bus, you don't go (plummily pronouncing)"watch out", you go "warrout!!!". And though it's blurted out, the sound will nevertheless stop someone from jumping under a bus. On the other hand," he laughs, "if it's the nazi midget you could scream "go on!" and still hope to be understood."
Why the grotesque parody of soul shouters/blues ranters though?
"I don't think I had any choice really. You assemble the ingredients of the saxophone, and eh, a voice, and lyrics, percussion and guitar, and you jump up onstage, and spell out quite loud and you find yourself in a frenzy quite quickly, blurting madly in her hair...
The effect is engagingly absurd. No, he had said earlier, it was more an exaggeration of the banal.