He's best known as the affable lead singer of Squeeze, handling the musical part of the songwriting chores for the new wave/pop band (I know, I don't agree either, but that was the era in which they burst on the scene out of the United Kingdom). He can be in his element in any scenario -- in reunion shows with that act, in band shows with his own Fluffers, and particularly, in solo performances. It was the latter in which we veteran Tilbrookians -- myself, Mark and Liam -- saw our hero at City Winery on Sept. 25.
At this time, it's only right to talk about Mark's substantive man crush on Glenn. Now Mark really gets on board for artists that I guess I can say I gave him his first serious introduction to (Rick Springfield and Lindsey Buckingham spring to mind), but it's a whole different level when it's Glenn. Something about the unusual way in which he crafts a song and then brings that to fruition -- the first video on this blog, "Take Me I'm on Yours," being a really strong example of that.
Anyway, the dreamlike state Mark gets into while watching Glenn seemed to be aided at this show by the oscillating fan blowing straight into the artist's face and sending his wild mane in all directions -- sometimes at once. Here's an example of that in one of the most fun songs to help Mr. Tilbrook sing.
Even when Glenn is seemingly putting together a show off the cuff by calling for requests and that sort of thing, he still stays perfectly in command of it all. He laid down 27 songs for us, from an Irish chestnut called "Ice Cream" that he sang as a childhood to fan favorites such as "Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)" and "Goodbye Girl." He included a good bunch of his post-band work too, including my favorite, "Untouchable," and Mark's, "Still."
Glenn's solo version of Squeeze standard "Slap and Tickle" might go a long way to explaining my original premise. You're sitting there, listening and watching and just marveling that one man can handle all these chores at the same time. It's like Michael Jordan taking a free throw for the championship while doing his substantial (no doubt) taxes and fielding phone calls from his agent at the same time. The master of the multitask, no chore of which he is anything less than spectacular at.
He's also a musical sponge, taking from probably the most wide-ranging array of influences that anyone can possibly have. On that day, he pulled the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday" out of his arsenal. Of course, that widespread range is ever-evident in the Squeeze catalog as well, and when he offered up tunes that might be lesser-known to the assembled like "Dennis" and "Black Sheep," he'd book-end them with Squeeze classics such as "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Labelled with Love."
After a break and as the show started to unfortunately wind down, he pelted us with back-to-back Squeeze classics -- "Slap and Tickle" gave way to "Pulling Mussels" and then "Another Nail from the Heart" into "Tempted," "Cold Shoulder" and the finale "Goodbye Girl."
The only time I zoned out of the show was after reading on Liam's phone that, in his final Yankee Stadium appearance, Derek Jeter smacked the game-winning hit. It was just so Jeets, so Captain, so him. And I didn't mind so much because the song being performed at that moment was "Tempted," which was not originally performed by Glenn when released by Squeeze. I get sadly puritannical at moments about things like that. Although thinking on it now, one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs to experience live is "Oh Well," and it's not Peter Green up there performing it.
So for everyone, and even me, since I paid no attention through my tears of joy, here's Glenn performing "Tempted" that night.
So the man crush is seriously understood, and I'd be if didn't admit to having a wee bit of one myself. Now is that ... is that love? It's the cupid, cupid, cupid disguise. That more or less survived ... now that is love. Yeah, I know, I'm not giving you anything original, just swept up in the magic of the Tilbrook.
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