A SONG with a title like “The Story Of The Blues” demands ambition, and Pete Wylie was just the man to provide it. The bullish Liverpudlian songwriter had come through the Eric’s scene as part of the short-lived Crucial Three with Julian Cope and Ian McCulloch, but his own band – initially named Wah! Heat – failed to match the success of the Teardrops and Bunnymen. By the time Wylie wrote “The Story Of The Blues” in 1982, Wah! Heat consisted of just Wylie and bassist Carl Washington. “The Story Of The Blues”, which appears on the upcoming Pete Wyle & Wah! compilation Teach Yself Wah!, started life as a “drinking song” but soon developed into something more, inspired by Wylie’s reading of Toffler’s Future Shock and The Third Wave, and a desire to move beyond a guitar-bass-drums format.
Wylie developed the song with producer Mike Hedges at Playground, the Camden studio where Hedges had worked with the Associates and Siouxsie & The Banshees. “Mike spoils you,” says Wylie. “He does things that make you think all producers are like that. He had the knowledge, training and experience to get the right sounds.” They used the studio to its full effect, introducing strings and backing vocalists – including future voice artist Kate Robbins – and doing whatever was required to match the song’s over-the-top emotions with a suitably epic sound. Over a few frantic days, the song developed into a hope-filled anthem with huge chorus and
