Idolizing golden ages is dangerous, an exercise in musical nostalgia that’s often as inaccurate as it is monotonous. But with the right mindset, looking back in order to move forward can be insightful. Such is the case with Love Tractor, one of the foundational Athens bands on Danny Beard’s DB Recs. The art rock group’s 1982 debut is finally getting a multi-format reissue on Athens’ HHBTM (Happy Happy Birthday to Me) Records, and this re-release is all the more relevant now with news of the impending closure of Caledonia Lounge, and mixed-use monstrosities continually popping up around the Classic City.
In the face of encroaching development, it’s easy to claim that the soul of Athens is under attack from big money and a university that doesn’t appreciate the culture of the town it resides in. However, a look back at the history of Love Tractor demonstrates the tension between the college and the local scene has always existed, and in some ways has fostered growth in a unique musical culture. Guitarist and songwriter Mark Cline remembers the very beginning in 1980.
“Before ‘us,’ there were no bands in Athens,” says Cline. “Athens was a complete ghost town. There was Athens and UGA, and then there was us. ‘Us’ being the misfits in the art school; we were about 150 students out of 35,000.” This vacuum set in motion Athens’ college rock bonanza, and with a simple desire to be signed to DB Recs and play New York City, Love Tractor was one of the groups leading the way.
Originally a trio, the group mined a vein of instrumental art rock more refined than the B-52s’ kooky sensibilities and less frantic than Pylon’s punk energy. Their self-titled debut is an ambitious mix of rock, pop, and jazz that plays out as an imaginary film score, moving the audience between moods, sometimes with unnoticeable sleight of hand. Hearing it now, the fizzy riffs still buzz with passion. Each angular puzzle piece—from the slow burn of “Festival” to the insistent jangle of “Wheel of Pleasure”—fit together as smoothly as they did 40 years ago.
Despite their formative status in the Athens scene, one could be forgiven for never having heard their 1982 debut. The record was only released on CD in 1997, although it’s not difficult to find in the streaming age. Part of what makes this reissue so enticing is the band’s hands-on approach. They tapped David Barbe and Bill Berry to remix the record while taking charge of the album design and cover art. More than a time capsule, Love Tractor is an example of a band telling their own story, filling in the hazy holes of history, and providing a reminder that influence and inspiration aren’t linear. The sounds forged by Love Tractor will persist in basement studios and house shows long after Athens’ next evolution takes hold.
Love Tractor
The remixed and expanded edition of Love Tractor was preceded by an exclusive Record Store Day 7″ single consisting of two reimagined songs originally recorded during the Love Tractor sessions, “60 Degrees and Sunny” and its B-side, “FESTI-vals.” In honor of the reissue, the founding trio of Love Tractor—guitarists Mark Cline, Mike Richmond, and bassist Armistead Wellford—reached back into 1982 to dissect and commemorate the making of the album track-by-track.
“Buy Me a Million Dollars”
Mark Cline: Geez, this was the very first song Mike and I wrote—it took all of five minutes. I was living at “Pylon Park,” a house shared with our art school buddies Michael Lachowski and Curtis Crowe from Pylon. I really loved how Kevin Dunn from The Fans attacked the guitar and I was trying to emulate his very intense, direct style. When we recorded the song, I borrowed Randy Bewley from Pylon’s amp—it had a great tone. There was a lot of sharing of gear, labels, engineers, and talent in the early Athens scene. We shared a practice space with the Side Effects and R.E.M. on Jackson Street between Broad and Clayton.
Armistead Wellford: When Bill Berry joined Love Tractor, we didn’t have a name for “Buy Me a Million Dollars” and he called it ‘the Hit.’ Mike and I were riding in Mark’s VW beetle, Mark was driving, and Mike jokingly said, “Mark Cline, buy me a million dollars.” Laughing, we all agreed that’s what we should call the hit!
Mike Richmond: This was the first song we wrote in the old house on Barber street known as Pylon Park. Mark’s Hagstrom guitar had a real abrasive tone to it and it was perfect for the rhythm guitar on this song. This is one of 4 or 5 songs of ours that features Armistead on the clarinet! The clarinet is used almost exclusively in classical music and makes an occasional appearance in jazz and even rock music. One of my favorite records, King Crimson’s Lizard, uses the clarinet and other woodwinds. I like to think of the clarinet as Love Tractor’s secret weapon! Used sparingly, it makes a powerful impact when employed! We wanted to see how abrasive—even ugly—the clarinet could get and there is a hilarious live recording of us playing Slum Dungeon in the ’80s where the clarinet sounds somewhat like a duck being stabbed repeatedly with a knife!
“60 Degrees Below”
Mark Cline: This was the second song we wrote. Mike had the melody prior to a chord change. Which is basically D, A, G. I love the minimalist approach to the song, it feels constructivist. Mike and I were big fans of English art rock; one of the outliers was a band fronted by David Sylvian called Japan. If you’ve never heard their timeless and fascinating album Talking Drum, DOWNLOAD IT NOW! Anyway, the melody of this song was actually influenced by a buried backing track on one of their albums. Mike took the backing track, paraphrased it, and amplified it into an extremely strong melody. I always enjoy playing this song as it is super simple and gives me a bit of a break. I would actually love to record another version of the song—after years of touring it, certain nuances come to the fore.
Mike Richmond: I was trying to remember why we called this “60 Degrees Below.” I can imagine us sitting round during the summer sweating from all the heat and dreaming of colder climes or maybe we just thought it was so cool it needed a temperature!
“Motorcade”
Mike Richmond: “Motorcade!” I guess the odd thing about “Motorcade” is that I play bass on this song! Bill Berry was with us during this period and he came up with the ‘whistling’ melody line. We used to not play this much because it involved Armistead and I switching instruments. When we play it nowadays he just plays my bass part and I play guitar! I like the ‘walkdown’ section of this tune, which is also something that we did on the song “And the Ship Sails On.”
Mark Cline: This song was written when Bill Berry was a member of Love Tractor. In fact, he wrote the melody. On our first two albums, we swapped instruments a number of times. Mike laid down the bass, which had a monster Jah Wobble feel. We went to Smyrna to demo the song, along with two other songs that didn’t make this first album. The studio was called Bombay Studios. I guess it was on Atlanta Road somewhere. I just remember a crummy strip mall. Bill had discovered the studio via REM, I think they had been there the week before.
Armistead Wellford: When we were practicing at the Side Effects and R.E.M.’s practice space on Jackson sometime in early October 1980, I brought my Bundy clarinet in from junior high school. I had played it in 8th and 9th grade and for some reason had it in Athens. Both Mike and Mark said break it out and let’s try it on a new song we were writing: “Motorcade,” the first incarnation. Bill Berry’s whistle part hadn’t been written yet and not in that section but on the other section I tried some clarinet. The more I squealed and squeaked the more Mark and Mike got into it. I was working on a melody and the clarinet just misbehaved like an uncooperative mule. We recorded that at practice one night with a drum machine and had so much fun that we took the tape straight up to WUOG where Carol Levy was doing her radio show. She played it over the air announcing a new song from Love Tractor. A friend of mine from Atlanta was up there, he was telling me about his band that was playing Tyrone’s with a bluegrass lineup and how good the musicians were. As he was telling me, “Motorcade” with the squealing clarinet was on the airwaves. He gave me this look that I had lost my mind playing this kind of music. I didn’t ‘care cause Mike, Mark, and Carol were so excited and smiling and laughing.
“Cowboy Songs”
Mark Cline: Armistead and I traded instruments for this song, I believe the bass was the foundation of the song, at least under the main melody.
Mike Richmond: Mark plays bass on “Cowboy Songs” and Armistead plays guitar in a sneaky Love Tractor switcharoo! But sweet merciful Jesus, don’t call it surf music! Armistead does a weird clarinet solo on this song and it’s got a good disco beat and prominent bass line for dance floor fun. The mood and melody of “Cowboy Songs” are the most Spaghetti Western-like of all the songs on our first album. Once Upon a Time in the South!
Armistead Wellford: Shortly after Bill started playing with us, we refined “Motorcade”‘s arrangement and didn’t bring back the clarinet. Instead, it was reassigned to “Cowboy Songs,” [on] the middle section that needed something. I think Mike requested the clarinet. When we recorded it for the first album, I had mapped out a melody line and played it with perfection, I thought. Mike, Mark, and Kit Swartz were in the control room. (Kit was writing and playing with us at this point because R.E.M. had hit the road and required Bill’s full attention). So after my flawless clarinet pass, Mike says through the callback, “It’s ok, but I think it could be more interesting.” So I try it again, but this time the clarinet is acting up with squeaks. For some reason, I played through the 12 measures knowing [i would] have to do it again. After that take, I immediately gave the signal to roll back the tape and start again. As I did that, I see Mike, Kit, and Mark with huge gleeful smiles on their face, all three giving me the thumbs up. It was a take! I had no idea! Since then I have relied on Mike, Kit, and Mark for clarinet production and approval.
“Hairy Beat”
Mike Richmond: Mark started playing the weird opening part to this song and I was tuning my guitar up manually; it sounded so good we made it into a song. Instead of calling it “Tuning a Guitar,” Sam Seawright heard a practice tape we had recently made and commented, “Sounds like Love Tractor, it’s got that hairy beat,” so that’s how it got named.
Armistead Wellford: On the “Hairy Beat,” Mike was tuning up his guitar just like in the song—sweeping from the high E to the low E over and over. I started playing a bass line to it and Mark started playing the angular guitar part, each one paying attention to their part and fine-tuning it like pieces in a puzzle.
“Tropical”
Mark Cline: The band New Order ‘borrowed’ some melodies from this song on “Leave Me Alone” off of Power Corruption and Lies. When we were on tour with them they gave a shout-out to this song.
“Wheel of Pleasure”
Mark Cline: My favorite song on our first album. I believe this song was written in the studio we shared with R.E.M. and the Side Effects on Jackson Street. I remember we were playing a show with R.E.M. at the Danceteria in NYC—this must have been 1981, we’d all skip school and drive up for a long weekend. Anyway, when we arrived at the venue for load-in, R.E.M. was already there and Peter was playing my riff from the song. We all teased each other that way. Fun was had between the Athens bands; it’s very much like an extended family.
“Chilly Damn Willy”
Mike Richmond: Love Tractor has a few songs influenced by cartoons. “Cartoon Kiddies” is of course an obvious one. When we were in college and trying to do Love Tractor at the same time we would spend a lot of downtime hanging out and relaxing by watching cartoons. At some point, the cartoon character Chilly Willy became known as Chilly Damn Willy! Every time he/she would come on the screen someone would announce it! Chilly Damn Willy! And so it came to be the title of one of the songs on our first record. “Chilly” is the last song on the record before the dynamic duo of “17 Days” and “Fun to be Happy.” This was intentional, and the first album can be seen as one long piece of music divided into 11 sections with everything building to the climax of “17 Days” and “Fun to be Happy!”
Mark Cline: “Chilly Damn Willy” is musically a complex rock song, I love the dynamics. We had a practice space over what is now an Athens landmark restaurant, The Grit. I think at the time it was the fastest and most complicated song we had written. I remember quite clearly working on that song in that space. In fact, every Love Tractor song is colored by the space in which it was written.
“17 Days”
Mark Cline: Every time we have performed this song, it tells a different story. Sometimes sunny, other times simply ethereal… sometimes it talks about rock. I love performing it.
Mike Richmond: One of, if not my favorite, of the early Love Tractor instrumentals. It feels strange to actually write about it, but something quite strange used to happen to me in the earliest performances of this song. I remember a show at the old Tyrone’s Club in Athens before it burned down on a night when we debuted this song. We were playing it and when we came to the middle section of the song I felt transported out of my body! I felt like I was no longer inside myself but had left my body and was out there somewhere above the whole thing. It didn’t seem weird at the time; it was actually incredibly wonderful and it was not drug-induced since I never do any drugs during a performance. I don’t know exactly what the experience would be called and it no longer happens, but I’ll never forget it. And Although Love Tractor was not a punk band or even a new wave band (depending on your definition of what new wave music is/was), we did begin in the punk [and] new wave era and I recall audiences slam dancing to “17 Days” if you can imagine that!
“Fun to Be Happy”
Mike Richmond: Since we are spilling the beans on the early days of Love Tractor, it seems appropriate to talk about “Fun to Be Happy” and the song that was a huge influence on its construction. In 1974, Ry Cooder released a record called Paradise and Lunch. It’s a funny old album in a lot of ways and I loved it then and still do to this day. The second track on the record, “Tattler,” was my favorite song on the record and I used to listen to it obsessively. At some point, I decided that I had to transfer the sort of emotional impact it had on me into a Love Tractor song or die trying! It was the kind of obsession that drives you mad and I listened to it 100 times a day for months and finally figured out what the chord structure was and how it was able to move me and send chills all over my body! At this point, I presented it to the rest of the band. Bill Berry was playing with us at this point and we messed around with it a lot at our downtown studio that is now a topless bar! Anyway, it became “Fun to Be Happy,” and if you listen closely to Ry Cooder’s song “Tattler,” I bet you can see how it gave birth to our song.
Love Tractor is out tomorrow on vinyl, CD, and digital via HHBTM Records.
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