John Foxx – Dancing Like A Gun

"Dancing like a gun" is one of my favourite singles from JF. It's a great synth-infused rocker with catchy riff, powerful singing and a very interesting imagery of lyrics. Pity there was no extended version - the song lends itself to such treatment. As it is, it practically flies by, leaving the listener wanting more, more, more! Musically it's quite reminiscent of what Ultravox were doing, at the same time you can hear the difference straight away - JF's music is more airy, brittle, not quite as "together" and fully rounded and accomplished. Still, a shame it wasn't at least a minor hit, Virgin dropped the ball here in spectacular fashion.

Concerning the B-sides, they're named after the great US surreal movie from 1968, though I'm not quite sure if the inspiration went much further than the title. "Swimmer I" is a noisy rocker with strained/shouted vocals and a squealing saxophone (!), not among John's best or especially interesting moments. "Swimmer II", on the contrary, is a fantastic up-tempo synth instrumental that share the rhythmic foundation with the 1st part, in which John: a) duels with Billy Currie (in absentia) for the most expressive solo on ARP Odyssey - a fine attempt!; b) offers a more lyrical variation/extension of the "Underpass" riff. So much is packed into one composition and so rich is the arrangement you discover new things with practically each listen!

This composition exists in two versions - edited one for 7" (fade out before the final synth showdown) and full one for 12". The latter is on most of CD reissues of "The garden" while the former somehow found its way onto the first CD release of "Metamatic" from 1993 (though mistitled "Swimmer I"). It's the only place where it can be found digitally.

Interestingly, 2008 reissue of "The garden" features tracks called "Swimmer III" and "Swimmer IV". I don't know what got into John's mind here - those have nothing to do with the I and II both musically and, let's say, ideologically. They're cool ambient instrumentals, very soothing, and were released way after the album era, in 1983 on obscure cassette compilations "Touch - Meridians" as "The quiet man III" and "The quiet man IV". I have to say they fit the sad mood of the aforementioned movie much better than the rocky I and II, but are of different origin, mood etc. Sadly, such revisionism is quite rampant when it comes to John's "Virgin years", with songs retitled, substituted, track listings tampered with...

Anyway, it's an outstanding 7" and a very good 12", so both are recommended.

One of the post-metamatic singles, it ends up sounding like a mix between "Quiet Men" and contemporary Ultravox, which is expected.

Swimmer I and II is a multi-part piece, with part I centering around a guitar-based synth piece and Part II being based off of an electronic incidental piece.