In a song catalogue made up of tunes that feel like outliers, rarities and sidesteps, perhaps the greatest rarity of all is Another Word. Not because it is a particularly unusual piece of music or because it is a deep cut but because it is the only song in the entire Talk Talk catalogue not credited to a Hollis. Mark Hollis does sing it, of course, but they’re not his lyrics – they’re Paul Webb’s. With hindsight we can see how lucky – if not downright flukey – it was for Paul to get his tune, with its sole writing credit, onto the first album. I bet that, at the time, he was stoked but figured it would set the tone for contributions to following Talk Talk albums.
The Party’s Over was not any sort of template for what was to come.
Another Word may have remained just an album track, barely if ever in the live set, were it not for it being picked up (in 1984) to be used as the theme for the German TV show ‘Derrick’. Another Word was duly released as a single – just in Germany and, weirdly, the Philippines – with the also under-represented-on-stage Candy on the B-side.
The gift that Germany gave the world by choosing to release Another Word as a single are the pop show promotion performances, two of them surviving on You Tube for us to enjoy 40 odd years later
The WWF Club playback features not only a fan stage invasion – with flowers! – but also Mark Hollis deadpanning the lyrics direct to camera, slowly hitting a huge tambourine. I say deadpanning but there’s a lot of smirking, especially when he sees Paul giving it beans on a – what is it, a xylophone? Lee is hiding behind his kit. For Formal Eins, no such luck – he and Paul share the xylophone this time, Paul singing and dancing – it’s his song! – Lee seems flummoxed: Mark can’t look at his bandmates without losing it, eventually giving into hysterics and failing to hide giggles behind his hand. Paul is all energy, working hard, resolutely not looking at Mark, who is the naughty kid in the back row, trying to put you off your game by laughing during Morning Talk.
Despite Mark Hollis’s best efforts to undermine the promotion, Another Word made it to 25 in the German singles charts. Congratulations Paul!
Another Word (Formel Eins)https://youtu.be/n_pPQMxmnmU?si=8NJaWkHpTRmzGWG9
Another Word (Cologne)https://youtu.be/lqQSqXjETz0?si=JUt1xuYqx88n1IOr