"A Little Respect" by Erasure

At this time, in the space of days that separate Canada Day from Independence Day, it is the mandate of the Pop Culture Institute to encourage men of all nations to come together in brotherly love - and not just in a gay porn way, either, although it scarcely needs to be said we're totally cool with however you choose to do it - so long as you'd be so good as to send us a video file of your raunchier efforts.

A Little Respect earned itself and its performers - Vince Clarke and Andy Bell of Erasure - considerable respect; the band's tenth single, the song was actually the third European (and second American) release from the band's 1988 album The Innocents, which was itself their third studio recording. It's shown here in a live version from the Prince's Trust concert in 1989.


Whereas I once found this track's synth-driven opening sterile and lacking in the atmosphere I normally look for in pop music, over the years I have come to give it a lot of respect; in 1990 I attended a concert by Erasure in Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum as a reviewer for the now-defunct publication Angles, and the fact that they nearly brought down that gloomy old concrete monstrosity with their high energy live show and particularly spirited rendition of this very song did much to encourage my appreciation of it - an appreciation which now borders on reverence.
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Happy Birthday Vince Clarke

What straight man has given more to gay music than Vince Clarke?

As part of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and finally Erasure, Vince Clarke is responsible for much of the world's cardio; my Body Mass Index* and I will be forever grateful to you, sir.

(True Story: When I once asked for this haircut - way back in those halcyon days of circa 1984 - my mother almost died. Alas, she lived, and I never got the haircut. Now I haven't got enough hair to complete this look, but if I ever do get hair plugs it'll be so that I can, and this time the old bag can just suffer...)**

*Or at least the Body Mass Index I had when I was 20...
**Kidding...
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